Israeli Survival Training
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

January 16, 2018, Business lounge, TLV airport, Israel

Israeli survival training, it begins in our youth. It begins informally, as the lessons are all around us, it continues in school, it becomes a way of life. Our very lives here in Israel are Israeli Survival Training. 

I was a small child, and I recall there was always a problem with the bathrooms, leaks, water problems. The plumber tried and tried and dug and dug. Finally, one day he found something interesting: a cache of weapons, ammunition, hand grenades, belts of bullets. He concluded that it was hidden here during the war of independence in 1948. Somehow no one was able to come back and retrieve the valued cache. I recall the police, or some bomb squad, coming to our house to carefully remove the dangerous war materials, a reminder of our war for independence.  

Who were these people? What was their fate? We never found out.

Our school bus driver was a disabled military veteran, a paratrooper who fought and was injured in the 1967 Six Day War. He told us stories of bravery and showed us trophies of war, an enemy flag, a Jordanian dagger. But he also showed us his friends, warriors without arms, legs, eyes. But one thing none of them lacked was spirit. 

He took us on a trip to Beit HaLochem, the Home of the Warriors, a center for "disabled veterans", I saw men whose bodies were disfigured by war but whose spirit soared to heaven. 

They swam, played basketball in wheelchairs, played volleyball, and held down jobs. Israeli survivor training. 

And I recall listening to the radio in 1973 and hearing that the Syrians were in the Golan Heights with their tanks, storming towards Israeli towns just as the Nazis stormed across Europe. And I saw the fear in the eyes of Holocaust survivors: Not Again! Were we about to be slaughtered? Was the dream of the State of Israel over?

And I recall learning to be careful, not to ever pick up suspicious objects, to read signs carefully and know what areas to avoid. 

And I recall the wonderful day our gardener Sadok was released from military duty just before Passover. As he explained to my dear mother, the army recognizes that the gardens of Israel must be beautiful for the spring holiday, and so they realized how important I am. So, I am to make your garden beautiful for the Spring holiday. I recall that my dear mother loved that, what a country! where the army recognizes the importance of a garden, the spirit of the people, the gardens of Israel must be beautiful for Passover, the Spring Festival. 

Ah, Israel, who is like you!

Israel survival training includes keeping the garden beautiful and keeping up the spirit. We learn to survive.

And I recall my neighbors, the Hirschfields, and Bluma with her concentration camp tattoo. And when money was needed there was Uncle Abe in America. Later on I learned that he was a good friend of future president Donald Trump. When money was needed Uncle Abe was there. 

Israeli survival training begins with the mind, and the body follows. Seventh grade, everyone eagerly going to the bulletin board to see which teachers wrote postcards to the students. And the day when we were informed that from one of the teachers no more postcards would be coming. And students canceling their bar mitzvah celebrations in solidarity with the fallen. 

This is our Israel Survival Training, it begins early in life, we do not learn it in a commercial Krav Maga school in a foreign country, we live it here in Israel. 

Israel: A Nation of Warriors
the story of Israel
by Moshe Katz

Available on Amazon, CreateSpace and Kindle. 

Available from the author Krav Maga books

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