Why

'An army without an education knows how to run. An army with an education knows where it's running to'

This sentance is posted on one of the info boards in our barracks. This week we spent in Latrun -where they have the museum and memorial for the armored corps. The week was spent learning about why we do what we do. Why its important to be a combat soldier in the IDF. The week involved learning about the holocaust through a tour of Yad Vashem - the holocaust museum in Jerusalem. We also had a tour of a prison that was run by the British and liberated upon the declaration of the State of Israel, and the archeological dig site right next to the kotel.

The rest of the week was spent in the classroom talking about topics that covered the history of the Jewish people, the land of Israel, and the IDF, and its enemies. Through these topics and discussions we learned more about the importance of our job as combat soldiers in the IDF.

We also spent time talking about morals and values in combat. One of the interesting scenarios we talked about was what do you do if your in combat and you get to a supermarket that you are about to demolish for tactical reasons and your really thirsty for a can of coke. Do you take the can because you know its going to get demolished as part of the operation or do you not because it would be theft. The answer to that was given through another example of what happened during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. A company of soldiers were unable to get their shipment of battle rations from the IDF and needed to eat. An order came down to the soldiers to go to the abandoned supermarket and eat. The order included that they were only to take the bare minimum - water, bread, and basic proteins - tuna. On the way out of the supermarket the soldiers left money at the cash register for what they BOUGHT!

The best part of the week was that we got off on Thursday at noon from the old city in Jerusalem. This was fantastic because I was planning on meeting up with friends that were travelling and touring in the old city that afternoon. This means that I didn't have a 6 hour drive to get where I needed to be, unlike every other week when I'm on base in the south. The problem was that I got a punishment along with 1/4 of the entire company for having a phone in my pocket when I wasn't supposed to. Long story short, the rules were unclear yet they decided to screw everyone and give us a punishement of having to stay one extra hour after everyone was released for the weekend. The big deal about this was that they drove us back to latrun to do our punishement. So instead of being 5 minutes away from where I wanted to go it took me 2.5 hours just to get back to the central bus station in Jerusalem. From there it was another half hour bus ride to where I was 3 hours earlier. Just dying to get where I wanted to be 3 hours earlier to finally start my weekend I find myself shortly after at the police station as a witness to an incident and all I can think of is when is my weekend going to start!?!!!?!??!?! While on the bus, a worker from the bus company came on the bus and asked to see everyone's tickets to prove that they paid the bus fare. Three punk ass teenagers hadn't paid the fare and they starter yelling and swearing at the guy and one other lady. The ticket checker took out his phone to take a picture of the kids so he could report it. One of the kids tried to knock the phone outof the guy's hand and at this time the lady who was getting sworn at decided to call the cops. Now the kids tried to run off the bus. One kid forced the door open and jumped out of the bus as the bus was coming to a stop. I managed to get the second kid in a bear hug so he couldn't run out of the bus as well. Out of pure coincidence the first kid that jumped out of the bus didn't get 10 meters away before he was tackled by cops that just happened to be right there. I then let go of the other kid and then he was also handled by the cops. An hour and a half later after reporting the incident at the police station I finally started my weekend - at 430 instead of 1230. I ended up in the city center where I bumped into my friends from Toronto that I was hoping to meet up with 4 hours earlier in the old city.