Daniel’s First Encounter with the Israeli Army -1
July 22nd, 2010 by Daniel“Ohi Wa Wo.”
Yesterday was my first step towards becoming a proud soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, and there is no better way to sum up my experience than the Hebrew phrase for “Oh No.”
First off, my recruitment office is in Jerusalem because 30 years ago my parents lived there for two years. Despite the fact that I have lived in Herzliya for three years, I had to make the three hour journey to go see a bunch of 18 year old punks that are responsible for determining my military profile.
The Tzav Reshon is the recruitment process is a full day event where they test each future soldier’s level of Hebrew, physical condition, and IQ. It is mostly 16 and 17 year olds, and here I was as a 23 year old that barely speaks a word of Hebrew.
When I walk into the gate there is an old man who is yelling at everyone in Hebrew to show their ID and state their purpose for entering the building. I show him my ID and tell him that I am there for my Tzav Reshon, and he seems shocked and than just lets me go in because asking any more questions would require additional effort on his part.
Finally going to my Tzav Reshon has been a long process because I have wanted to make sure that when I officially start the process that I am 100% sure of my decision. I had been in contact with a 19 year old kid that is a jobnik.
Jobnik is a term for soldiers that have desk jobs and do not see any combat. This “soldier” has given me information about the recruitment office and he told me that I could just show up and that they would take care of me.
Once I walk into the office I meet him to make sure that everything is alright and he looks at my Israeli ID and sees that I live in Herzliya and he says “You are in the wrong office. You can’t do it here. You can’t just pick your recruitment office.”
This dreg of society was the one that told me that I can just show up without any problems, and once I am there he completely rejects me. He has the audacity to tell me that it will take three months for them to transfer my files to the Tel Aviv office and that I only have three options at this point which were either wait the three months, find a Jerusalem address or just move back to the US. I demand to see his officer, but this lowly human being tells me that he is the highest authority that I will be able to speak with and that everyone will just tell me the same thing.
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