TEL AVIV (Press Release) — Kinneret is back home, but no less than a week ago, she was in San Diego recounting her personal experiences and sharing insights about her service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and life in Israel. Kinneret was part of StandWithUs’ 5th annual “Israeli Soldiers Stories” (ISS) tour which had twelve reservists-students on a speaking tour throughout the United States. The international Israel education organization StandWithUs created ISS to educate, inform and delve into conversations about the conflict, and to relate stories rarely heard in the media – stories from the front lines and not the headlines.
Kinneret and Adam – whose last names are withheld for security purposes – toured the West Coast of the United States. They spoke in synagogues, churches, universities, high schools in Arizona, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and for Kinneret, close to her heart is San Diego.
Kinneret was born and raised on Kfar Haruv, a kibbutz situated on a cliff of the Golan Heights, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It was envisioned by her father as a student at UC San Diego. She relayed his story to a rapt audience at the university. It was there that “my father realized the dream of living in Israel and it was a time when the commune way of life was very appealing,” Kinneret explains. He left to form this now thriving kibbutz “with 300 people and 3000 cows. We live by the motto ‘all for one and one for all'” she muses, but admits that they “no longer share a telephone, everyone has an I phone.”
Tritons for Israel co-sponsored the UCSD talk. The soldiers also spoke at SDSU, co-sponsored by Aztecs for Israel. They also addressed audiences at San Diego Jewish Academy, La Jolla Country Day High School and SCY High and in just two days.
IDF service is compulsory and Kinneret’s was in 2006 during the Second Lebanon war against the terror organization Hezbollah. She was dispatched to a northern Israeli city, which was under siege with rockets constantly falling and people hiding in bomb shelters, afraid to leave. The army improvised a crisis center. She told the story of “Sarah,” a hungry widow with children in a bomb shelter that she promised she would take care of. Her dedication saved Kinneret, because as she carried supplies to their shelter, a Katyusha rocket hit where she had stood just a few seconds earlier. She is finishing a B.A. in political communications in Tel Aviv.
Adam has a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Tel Aviv Academic College. He was drafted in 2000 and has pursued an Army career. Adam was an officer in COGAT (an IDF coordination and liaison unit responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs and humanitarian needs.) Fluent in Arabic, he served as a liaison officer between Israelis, Palestinians and international reps.
Adam spoke of a Palestinian baby in Gaza born with a hole in its heart. Gaza hospitals were not equipped to save the child. The IDF values all human life and his unit was willing to put IDF lives in jeopardy to bring the child to a Tel Aviv hospital. They approached the terminal on the border, which was under a rocket attack of the terror organization Hamas which controls the Gaza strip, in an armored ambulance (some are specifically built this way for protection.) The soldiers found the home and saved the child’s life in Israel.
During Israel’s battles against the terror group Hamas in Gaza in 2009 and 2012, Adam explained that COGAT ensured that border crossings were kept open and humanitarian and other aid continued to flow to lessen the impact on civilians. He stressed that many Israelis do not view the Palestinian people as their enemy. They recognize that it is their leaders who are responsible for the lack of progress on peace. The reservist shared this report from COGAT about their activities during Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012: http://media.wix.com/ugd//faeac9_a3cfedc017dc261a926da6543392801b.pdf
*
Preceding provided by Stand With Us