Twelve hours! 12 hours! It is difficult to explain how long 12 hours are. In 12 hours, you can drive from Tel Aviv to Eilat, back to Tel Aviv, and return to Eilat once again. In 12 hours, you can get from Israel to New York, including waiting time at Ben Gurion and La Guardia Airports. In 12 hours, you can watch eight (8!) football games in a row – but even the most passionate fan can't do that.
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So, to be on guard duty? To stay in a wretched security tower, in terrible heat, for 12 hours? No one can put up with that. Put senior military officers with a heavy vest and a gun for 12 hours in such a position and see if they will not decide to change the security procedures that are doomed to fail from the outset.
The tragedy that occurred between Friday and Saturday at the Egyptian border, in which three combat soldiers were killed, should set off loud bells in the face of the chief of staff and GOC Southern Command. Twelve hours of guard duty – whether in an outlook post or an indoor security position – is an impossible responsibility that will never have a good purpose. No person can stay awake, vigilant, alert, and certainly not sharp for this length of time. Add to that the extreme terrain conditions, the heat of the desert between Mount Harif and Mount Sagi, which on a hot day reaches 40 degrees centigrade (104 Fahrenheit) in the shade, and bone-chilling cold at night. Add to that a sandy wind that enters every pore of one's body, a silence that splits the dark of the night and a desert blackness – and you say if this is human.
What was the border defense commander, who planned this mission, thinking? Where was the brigade commander, the division commander, where was the commanding general? Did they forget David Ben-Gurion's statement that: "Every Jewish mother will know that she entrusted the fate of her sons and daughters to commanders who deserve this trust"? After all, which of the high-ranking staff of the IDF would believe that this is a task that any soldier can uphold, whether on a one-time basis or over time? After all, those commanders themselves were not given the long and exhausting task imposed by the air-conditioned headquarters and did not contact the combat soldiers at least once every half an hour to make sure they are safe and sound and ready for any threat.
I also served in the Israeli Air Force and not as a fighter, and every few months I was required to perform guard duty. This was at an army base near the coast, and shifts were 4 to 6 hours. Like clockwork, every hour, a patrol jeep passed by to check what was happening with us, if we needed anything, and just to give us a few minutes break from the never-ending guard duty.
The men and women of the mixed IDF battalions, deployed along Israel's borders, are on a holy mission. Each soldier is an insurance policy of the Israeli public, in whose hands we entrust our daily routine and our nights' rest. They are our human wall of protection, deployed from the sea to the river, and from south to north, and east to west.
The chief of staff now has the obligation to thoroughly investigate the failures of his commanders at all levels, from the top brass of the IDF to the lowest level of command. I have no doubt that the commanders failed in the most important task, to safeguard the lives of those soldiers. The serious incident that occurred between Friday and Saturday near the canvas canopy that the IDF call a guard station, must not be repeated.
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