Hello from Jerusalem - Update 28

These days, when many pieces you read about Israel are negative in content and scope, I thought the following story, recently made public, would encourage you that the State of Israel still stands on strong pillars of heroism and collective responsibility; the kind of loyalty and perseverance conveyed, though uncommon in the world today, typifies the dedicated youth and soldiers of Israel. This story is a reminder that the State of Israel truly has the potential to shine "a light unto the nations," and thus, why the State of Israel will – and must – continue to exist, forever and ever.

This message is a bit longer than my usual ones but it is really worth reading.

Even a full eight months later, Vladimir Nvoishchikov, Amir Polonski, Itai Baniel and Officer Hanoch Dauba haven't forgotten a single detail: the scene and the smells are fresh within their memories. They were a lone tank on the main road of Bint Jabil (Lebanon), on the way to rescue a soldier from an elite paratroopers unite, Sergeant Moran Cohen (z"l). They were alone in the middle of enemy territory, under fire, without communications devices and without maps.

It was at the beginning of August when Captain Dauba's tank was sent to rescue Cohen. But even after Cohen was placed in the rescue helicopter and flown back to Israeli soil, the tank remained stuck on foreign soil for several hours. Four anti-tank missiles were fired at them; two pierced the tank. Baniel was badly injured in the neck and head; Nvoishchikov suffered burns on his eyes, and Dauba, after losing his hearing and vision temporarily, continued to command the tank. Its electrical systems failed, and the tank began to burn, but the team continued to push forward.

"It didn't shake me up," says Dauba, "All I could think at the time was: live, live, live. You become like an animal, operating by instinct alone. But I told my staff from the moment we set out that we would return from this war alive; we did not go off to war to die."

"He's got nerves of steel," says the Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, who following Dauba's team from the Northern command war room during the operation. Sneh has respectable combat experience, having served in Operation Entebbe and in the Battle of Chinese Farm during the Yom Kipput War. Still, watching Dauba and his team, his heart skipped a beat.

Dauba and his staff have been nominated for a Medal of Honor for their performance in the Second Lebanon War. Captain Dauba, Captain of his company and of the tank, has been nominated for a Medal of Bravery. But Dauba and his staff insist that they don't feel like heroes; the concept of heroism feels alien to them. After they returned to Israel, they were informed that Sergeant Moran Cohen died from his wounds, only shortly after he was placed in the helicopter on the way to the hospital. >From their perspective, they say, they failed. "It's a very difficult feeling," says Baniel, who is still in rehabilitation for his injuries today. "We did everything we could, but in the end, the bottom line is that Moran didn't make it. So it feels like everything we did was in vain."

Says Dauba, "As long as I knew that Moran had a chance of survival – even the slightest chance – we had to try to save him, and I would do it again if I had to today, even when the price we have to pay and the risk we have to take to is so great."

The war, they agree, changed their lives. "You look at everything differently," says Dauba. "Colors are sharper now; it put things in perspective I guess." Baniel: "Suddenly, I understand the meaning of the saying, 'Someone who saves a single life, it is as if he has saved the entire world and everything in it.'"

Dauba's younger brother is also an officer in the IDF, and serves in the Paratroopers Brigade. As Dauba's tank was driving through the streets of Bint Jabil, alone and under fire, his younger brother was in the war room of Northern Command. But he recognized his older brother's tank immediately from the radio communications, and he saw and heard everything: the fire, the rockets, and the dangerous threat from the enemy. Only when the relief helicopter landed carrying Dauba and his team landed back in Haifa was he able to begin breathing again, and he immediately called their parents. Dauba's father answered the phone. "Dad," said the younger brother,"

I wanted you to know that Hanoch is okay. He's here with us, in Israel."

Happy 59th Anniversary to our beloved State of Israel;

Happy Birthday to our one and only Jewish Homeland.

Yossi