The IDF has released a video that gives a rare look into training of elite soldiers in the Counter Terrorism Unit who have to deal terrorists who take hostages.

One of the most important and difficult tasks is to approach the terrorists in absolute quiet.

I was returning to my home in Israel after being in the States for a month.

Near the end of the ride, the airline attendants gave the 15 minute warning, after which everyone would have to stay seated, buckled-up in preparation for landing.

I was near the front of the line, waiting.  A heavy-set man, perhaps in his early sixties, began speaking to me in Hebrew. I turned and smiled, and explained my Hebrew was not very good. He then continued speaking, this time in a broad mid-western American English.

I asked the man how it was that his Hebrew was so good, and he explained he had served in the IDF in the 1970′s. I was a little surprised, as he was not very rugged looking (or sounding), but I thanked him for serving.

He asked me whether I had been to Israel before, and I explained to him that I have been many times before and was living in the country for this whole year.

So far so good. An easy, smile-filled patter continued briefly, although I sensed a small dip of disappointment, perhaps realizing he would not be able to play the role of informed insider to a wide-eyed new visitor.

And then everything changed.

It changed when I told him where I was living this year.

Once I told him I was living in Gush Etzion, in the community of Efrat, a prickly shell began forming.

“Oh, one of my relatives lives there. He’s very right-wing,” he said to me.

“Really?” I replied, “What does that mean?” Perhaps my gaze became a little more focused at this point, perhaps a shell began coating my soft outer flesh.

“Oh, well, I know many settlers, I met them when I was serving in the West Bank, actually many are very nice.”

“But?” I prompted, still gazing intently at him.

“Well, like my friends, and as all of the major military figures agree, I know that the only hope for Israel is the new party with Herzog and Livni*,” he said, assuming that because there are former members of the Israeli military championing his dream ticket, he would win this round.

“What do you mean, the only hope for Israel?” I asked.

“Well, the only hope for peace,” he explained.

“So, you think Israel is the obstacle to peace?” I asked. That was the end of the conversation. He looked away, found a teenage girl who had come up behind us, and began querying her about her future plans. I heard him encouraging her to consider applying to the midwestern state university where he teaches.

It took a few minutes for my blood to cool.

I am sure my airplane bathroom line partner really believes he knows what’s best for Israel. He has to believe he loves Israel. And yet, he actually believes that Israel is the obstacle to peace. He firmly believes that unless a less “hardline” regime is voted in, Israel is doomed.

Never mind that Ehud Olmert tried to hand over control of Israel’s security to the moderate terrorist sitting in the driver’s seat over at the Palestinian Authority. Never mind that from before the time Israel was reborn she has never had true peace no matter who was sitting in the Prime Minister’s office, left, right or center.

On whom can we blame this man’s misguided thinking? And how can we hope to counter the message he so quickly shares on bathroom lines and, no doubt, in his classroom and synagogue listserv and possibly at public speaking events in his midwestern community?

Here at Standing Together we have one goal and one goal only; Support IDF soldiers wherever they are and with whatever they need.

IDF soldiers are giving their lives to protect the Land of Israel and we strongly believe that if they are putting themselves on the line, we certainly can help them out with warm winter gear and support.

Over the past two weeks the Standing Together trailer has reached thousands of IDF soldiers, some of which are stationed no where near a base, and offered them everything from a hot cup of fresh coffee to operational winter gear packs that were sponsored by people like yourself.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will stop typing and let the pictures do all the talking. I have been on the receiving end of the equation as Standing Together has supplied my Paratroopers unit with gear, but as I listened to the combat medic below, I can say without a doubt that giving to others is so much more satisfying.

Here are some of the pictures from the past couple of weeks as we delivered thousands of winter gear packs to soldiers from every IDF unit possible.

Volunteers delivering waterproof jackets right before the storm

Trying On The Standing Together Winter Gear

The Storm Covered Everything In White. The Tanks Did Not Need Jackets

Getting Good Use Out Of The Standing Together Winter Gear packs

IDF Paratroopers Taking A Selfie With The Standing Together Winter Gear That Was Donated by People Around The World

Showing Off The Standing Together Winter Swag, IDF Style

Saying Thank You To IDF Soldiers, Best Feeling In The World

Trying On The New Standing Together Winter Gear

Sending Them Off With Their Standing Together Winter Gear

We have given out gear to thousands of IDF soldiers but have been getting calls from many units who have specifically asked for winter gear as they are on duty in the freezing north of Israel.

We have over 2,000 soldiers that we still need to get to and we need your support.

A winter gear pack cost only $100 and a unit is usually 120-140 soldiers.

You can sponsor a single soldier or a complete unit but every donation helps us keep these guys warm.

Support The IDF Wherever They Are With Whatever They Need!

A military court Tuesday handed down a sentence of three life terms in prison for the Hamas mastermind terrorist who planned and helped carry out the kidnapping and murders of three yeshiva students last summer.

Three life sentences make it less likely that the terrorist, Hussam Hassan Kawasame, will be eligible for parole, but that does not mean Israelis can feel safe that he will be behind bars for life.

A life sentence in Israel does not really mean spending one’s life in prison, unless you are Yigal Amir, who is in jail, where he should stay forever, for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Most “lifers” win parole or, if they are terrorists, like Samir Kuntar, usually are freed.

Kuntar is from Lebanon and  is considered of having carried out one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in 1979 when he murdered a father in front if his 4-year-old daughter and then killer by smashing her skull against  beach rocks.

He was sentenced to life but released in 2008 as part of a deal for the Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in return of the bodies of two Israel reservists, who were kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah terrorists in 2006.

Kawasame, the Hamas terrorist sentenced on Tuesday, was behind the kidnap-murders of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah in June. He pocketed $75,000 given to him by his superiors in Gaza to buy weapons for his co-terrorists.

The death sentenced in legal in Israel but never has been carried out, except in the case of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

Kawasame did not testify at the sentencing, but the IDF prosecutor told the court that the terrorist had said that the yeshiva boys were not human beings and could be killed because they were Jews.

The other two terrorists who participated in the kidnap-murders were killed in a clash with the IDF last September.

The mastermind, who is considered to be human, is alive.

The IDF senior manpower division officer, General Toplonsky visited the family of fallen IDF soldier Oron Shaul yesterday. On board the fateful Golani APC which ran over an anti-tank mine this past summer in Gaza during the IDF Protective Edge operation, Oron’s body was not recovered.

From Wikipedia: “The claim that an Israeli soldier had been captured, “touched off celebrations among Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, according to The Independent, which ran photos of Palestinians cheering in the streets of Ramallah. According to the New York Times, “Celebrations immediately broke out in Gaza and the West Bank.”

“Hamas television celebrated the purported kidnapping with a victory mocking the grief of Shaul’s family and celebrating the alleged hostage-taking in song: “We’ve taken a second Shalit, a young, blond-haired boy.”

Channel 1 and Maariv reported that the IDF wanted to curtail a public protest from the family that their son’s body has not been returned (which would raise the price that Hamas is demanding for the body)…so the IDF yesterday presented Oron’s helmet and combat vest to the family which were used by the IDF Chief Rabbi to determine that Oron was in fact killed and not taken hostage alive, as Hamas claimed.

May the family of Oron Shaul know no more pain, and may the fallen IDF soldier’s memory be a blessing.

Israeli security personnel captured a three-man Islamic State terrorist cell in Hebron two months ago before it could carry out an imminent plot to murder an Israeli soldier and steel his weapon., the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) reported Sunday after lifting a gag order.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) identified the terrorists, all in their 20s, as Ahmed Shahada, Mohammed Zaro, and Qassai Div Masawada, all of them resident of Hebron.

Shahada confessed to the plot, which included a shooting attack on Jews in Hebron, and admitted to trying to detonate bomb to kill IDF soldiers and to assembling other bombs.

There is no indication that the cell was under direct command of the Islamic State. The terrorist trio began meeting this past summer and adopted the ISIS flag and ideology.

They almost carried out an attempt to disguise themselves as Israeli soldiers with stolen uniforms and then murder soldiers, but they backed off at the last moment.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that their citizenship might be revoked, but if they get the punishment they deserve, it won’t matter.

Israeli intelligence has been the silent hero – and silent is the way it is supposed to be – in the war on terror.

Shin Bet and IDF intelligence units work 24/7, have informants throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza and  sort through thousands of Arabic-language documents and social material sources to put together the dots that track down terrorist cells.

Israeli soldiers Thursday night entered Ramallah and arrested a Jerusalem Arab youth who stabbed two Border Police at the Old City of Jerusalem last week and then fled to the seat of power of the Palestinian Authority.

The IDF found the attacker, Mohammed al-Ajiluni, hiding in a home in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to clean out the terrorist infrastructure and show Israel how it is so responsible that Israel can count on its army, called “police” under the Oslo Accords, to protect Israel.

Israel Radio reported Friday morning that the two Border Policemen suffered light wounds in the stabbing attack near the Lions Gate.