Ammunition Hill Tiyul - Half Day
Ammunition Hill Tiyul
Ethan Mundell
Kitat Maayan
This past week Kitat Maayan visited Ammunition Hill and Hebrew University: Mount Scopus where decisive battles took place during the Six Day War. The cause of the war was the election of Gamal Abdel Nasser as the Egyptian President in 1956. He incited a hatred for the Israeli occupation of Palestine by all of the Arab Nations surrounding Israel. He closed the Strait of Tiran and the Suez Canal to all incoming and outgoing ships to and from Israel. This was an act of war against Israel since they could not trade with any nations east of them. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula as an attempt to open the waterways. This was called the Sinai Campaign. The UN tried to avoid conflict by commandeering the peninsula. From then they installed UN troops to be a buffer between Egypt and Israel. While this was happening the Syrians in the Golan Heights were redirecting Israel's water supply via the Jordan river, cutting off water to all of Israel. The Israeli Air Force bombed the attempts to cut off the water supply and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol establishes the National Water Carrier that is a pipeline that transfers water from the Kinerret to the Negev Desert This was very successful project which helped the Negev with farming and supplied them with the water that the inhabitants lived on.
In May of 1967 Nasser easily took back Sinai from the UN and makes another call for the destruction of Israel. This call is heard from Syria and Jordan to whom Nasser makes agreements with as allies to destroy Israel. Meanwhile, Israel tried to talk with the three nations on how to work the conflict out peacefully. But this was to no avail since the talks finally hit a dead end.
In Jerusalem, which was split in half by Israeli and Jordanian rule was a civilian-occupied war zone. The people who were unfortunate enough to live on the border were constantly shot at by Jordanian snipers as a sick past-time of the men on the Old City Walls. They would even shoot at children who chased stray soccer balls into their line of sight. Living in Jerusalem was a nightmare. We watched a great movie during the tiyul that had a physical map of Jerusalem that showed the battles going on as they were explained on a projected screen. It showed how the IDF took Jerusalem in just 2.5 days from the Jordanians. One of the key battles that they mentioned was Ammunition Hill. After the movie we moved on to a memorial which played a story of Eitan. He was a Kibbutznik who was the go to guy for field work. He was drafted for the IDF and fought during the battle of Ammunition Hill. He was commanded to take fire from the trenches so he left the trenches and ran above his unit taking heavy fire. He was hit 28 times and killed, but saved the lives of many in his unit therefore commended as a hero.
During the war Levi Eshkol, being greatly modest and humble invited Menachem Begin as a government figure in order to try to unite Israel. Levi Eshkol was said to have been a man of compromise. A 'mishna' of the epithet is that when he was offered tea or coffee, he would ask for half tea half coffee.
After the Six Day War Yitzhak Rabin, the Chief of Staff gave a speech called the "Hero of the Six Day War." He commended his soldiers for upholding the values of the IDF. Some of these values include saving a life at any cost and keeping humanity even during the heat of war.
Through this war Israel incorporated into its territory, Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza tripling in size.
My question for Kitat Maayan is: Being in Eitan's position, would you lay down your life to save the lives of fellow soldiers. PLEASE RESPOND WITH TRUTH!!!
(P.S. I tried to make this as unbiased as possible, but we learned mostly about the Israeli side so its probably biased.)
Ammunition Hill
Kitat Maayan in the trench
Eitan's memorial with personal belongings and a picture of him and his son
The memorial with pictures of all the fallen Trench
Picture of Nina in front of the memorial for the soldiers
Intricate path of Trenches at Ammunition hill
I don't know for sure if I'd lay down my life like Eitan, but if I were in his position I probably would since I would have known that as a soldier I'd risk my life for Israel and my friends. Also knowing that I always put my friends first, I think I would.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that I would have given my life to save others and for my county, however I don't think that anyone could know unless they are in the situation and in need of making the life or death decision.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nina. I want to think of myself that I would from my prospective now because to me the people I love come first and I would do anything for them. However, it is impossible for me to say that I would or wouldn't unless I experience it which I hope no one else would have to in the future.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a long response but the website deleted in when I hit publish... In short, no, but I think if I were given an order where I were risking my life for others I would end up carrying it out.
ReplyDeleteI would love to say that i would give my life for my fellow soilders but it really depends on the moment. With the adrenaline and such I'm assuming that this choice was thought out a little and he realized he'd be saving his mates.
ReplyDeleteWell it's really hard to answer this because I've never been in this position and I hope I don't ever have to be. I think what Eitan did was very heroic and I hope that I would do the same thing but it's really hard to imagine myself in any position having to do with war and death.
ReplyDeleteI think that I would probably risk my life like Eitan. If I was in a war situation and I truly believed in the cause and had friends that were in danger, I would try my hardest to save them. I also think that sometimes, I make bad decisions without truly believing anything bad will actually happen, so I probably would minimize the threat in my head. If my friends were in danger, I think I might be more reckless than brave, but I'd still ultimately risk my life.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, if I were in Eitan's position, I would probably tell my commander to go do it himself. I'd be willing to risk my life in a mission, but that's just suicide. I wouldn't be able to do that.
ReplyDeleteWhat Eitan did was extremely brave. I would love to say that I am that brave, but if I am speaking honestly I dont even know if I would be able to move in his position. I think I would be too scared. I think I’d probably be in some state of shock already. I can’t even begin to comprehend that kind of sacrafice and the dedication and bravery it took for him to do that.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say that I would give away my life like Eitan, but I don't think I would. I am not passionate enough for my country to die for it. Perhaps there are other causes I would die for... more on the side of social justice versus nationalism. I wouldn't be in the position to begin with, I believe. I cannot comprehend war, let alone decide to fight combat in one (talking about American army).
ReplyDeleteI hope that I would lay down my life for my fellow soldiers in this situation but I don't believe I will be. I think that if I were to join the idf, that would be a different story. I know that if I was a soldier I would lay down my life for the people I'm closest to and if it would help for the greater good.
ReplyDelete