Secret Soldier by Betser Muki

Author:Betser, Muki [Betser, Muki]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2011-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

RULES OF COMBAT

Ehud Barak left the Unit in June 1973 for studies in the United States, choosing a very special person to replace him as commander of Sayeret Matkal—Giora Zorea. Strong-willed and principled, Giora came from Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, rising from soldier through squad commander in Sayeret Matkal. He came from a tradition of iron-willed fighters—his father, Meir, had enlisted in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army to fight the Nazis in World War II, and eventually rose to become a general in the IDF. Giora made a name for himself as honest, an extraordinary soldier, and an independent thinker.

But Giora was only a reserve captain. So, to give him some experience, six months before the handover, Ehud sent Giora to Egoz to do my old job—commander of the reconnaissance company. A forty-day course for armored infantry company commanders would follow before he took the handover from Ehud. But after the stint with Egoz, Ehud signed him up for a three-month course. It didn’t take long for Giora to decide that he could live without being commander of Sayeret Matkal if it meant more courses. Like me, he wanted targets and action, not theory and routines.

He packed his bags and went back to Ehud. “Thanks, but no thanks,” Giora said. “I really don’t need this, you know. I’m going back to the kibbutz.”

“I still want you to replace me,” Ehud insisted.

“I don’t have the patience for another course,” said Giora, a stubborn kibbutznik. Within a few weeks, Ehud convinced Dado that Giora was right for the job.

Promoted to major without any formal training as a company commander, Giora took over Sayeret Matkal. For his deputy he chose Amiram Levine, a career officer who would become a general in 1992, and in 1994 head of the Northern Command. Yonni went to the national staff college, an advanced-studies academy run by the army, Defense Ministry, and Foreign Ministry.

That left Amitai Nahmani and me as the two most veteran regulars on the officers’ staff, the two senior captains in the Unit. And I began looking ahead to mustering out and going home to Nahalal.

Interested only in special operations, in “the little army,” which I loved for its position at the very tip of the spear, eighteen months of service in Sayeret Matkal seemed to be enough for me. Back at home, Nurit had ailed ever since our return from Africa, and though our families helped, I wanted to be with her and Shaul.

But that spring, just before Giora took command, he came to me with the request that I stay in the job for a few more months. “You know the Unit better than anyone,” he said. “Please stick around. At least as long as it takes for me to come to grips with the job,” he said. I did not expect Giora’s acclimatization to take very long. Instead of leaving the Unit in September 1973, to begin civilian life in Nahalal, I agreed to stay through October. Little did I know that once again, just as I readied to muster out of the army, war was going to change my life.

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