Were IDF Troops Moved to Hawara Prior to Oct. 7?

A staple claim of Israel's Left is that a day or so prior to October 7th, significant enough numbers of soldiers were moved from the Southern Front Command to the area of Samaria and, specifically, to Hawara to protect the succah that MK Tzvi Succot had set up in the town 

as a protest against repeated terror attacks against Jews traveling through the town. That move of soldiers supposedly affected the ability of the IDF to defend the Gaza Envelope area from the Hamas-led invasion and slaughter. It wasn't clear exactly how many but the rumor made its rounds. The assertion was the "settlers" had "blood on their hands". One tweet claimed 25 battalions were moved over (that's thousands of soldiers).

Here's from a news report quoting Roy Sharon of Kan News, Channel 11:

Over 100 soldiers diverted from Gaza to Judea and Samaria just days before massacre. Two troop companies were relocated from the Gaza Division to Judea and Samaria two days before the Hamas massacre.

It went on:

"Two companies from the Commando Brigade that were reinforcing the Gaza Division during the holidays (as part of a General Staff standby, not as a routine security force) were called from the Gaza envelope to the Huwara region two days before the massacre. Over one hundred soldiers were indeed diverted from the jurisdiction of the Gaza Division to that of the Samaria Brigade," Sharon wrote.

He noted that "to the best of my inquiries, these companies (that left the Gaza Division) were not replaced with other forces; the IDF Spokesperson did respond to this question as well." Sharon also mentions the fact that just a day ago, he reported that the IDF did not move forces from Gaza to Judea and Samaria.

Now Sharon claims: "Unfortunately, the information that IDF officers gave me was erroneous (yesterday they explained that they did not remember/know that two companies came from the Gaza envelope)."

Some of the stories that appeared (in Hebrew) are here; and here. The IDF Spokesman denied the facts but they belief in their supposed truth persisted. Already on Oct. 6, Naor Narkis tweeted that soldiers had been transferred to guard the MK's succah and he was endangering them unnecessarily.

We now have the actual internal IDF document that established, prior to Oct. 6, the manpower order to move troops over:

and it proves that troops were set to be moved from the South to Huwara already in August as part of a quarterly program arrangementand moreover, the military document proves that on the day before Oct. 7, forces from the area surrounding Gaza had not been sent to protect MK Zvi Sukkot's protest tent in Huwara.

As explained,

...the transfer of the forces to reinforcement positions throughout Samaria was part of a quarterly IDF plan from as early as August last year, and therefore is not connected to MK Zvi Sukkot's protest tent.  According to the quarterly plan from August, which was disclosed by the head of the Samaria Council, no battalions were brought there from Gaza, but according to the same pre-planned reinforcement program, a force of [dozens of] soldiers from the Egoz unit – as defined in the document as "General Staff Reserve" (meaning soldiers not belonging to the Gaza area) - replaced a group of soldiers..."

In fact, those soldiers arrived a half-day prior to the terrorist incident which led to the protest succh being erected. 

Sometimes, one just cannot trust the news. Especially when Jews resident in Judea and Samaria are involved.

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Kochavi and Gidi - Who 'Developed'?

Relating the military history of the new IDF Chief-in-Command Aviv Kochavi, this was included here:

While on the battlefield, Kochavi developed the use of a 5 kg hammer to break down walls and cross through homes in the terror-infested refugee camps in order to prevent his soldiers from being shot by snipers. This ingenious tactic, as well as other urban warfare methods he developed, were later copied by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan

I wish to point out that in April 1948 Jaffa came under attack of the Irgun after months of sniping against Tel Aviv south-west neighborhoods which caused over thousands to flee. commanded by Gidi Paglin, the Irgun force, after earlier failures to advance through Jaffa, adopted his suggestion to move through the building rather than on the streets.  

Holes were blown in the walls and the fighters proceeded from house to house down the streets on the inside.  Later, when British forces confronted the Irgun with tanks and armored cars, they blew up house fronts to bring them down on those vehicles.

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Victory is in the Brainpower

Here's is the great historian Barbara Tuchman in an article she published, "Israel's Swift Sword" in November 1967:

“A people considered for centuries nonfighters carried out in June against long odds the most nearly perfect military operation in modern history. Surrounded on three sides, facing vast superiority in numbers and amount of armament, fighting alone against enemies supported and equipped by a major power, and having lost the advantage of surprise, they accomplished the rarest of military feats, the attainment of exact objectives – in this case the shattering of the enemy’s forces and the securing of defensible lines – within a given time and with absence of blunder. The war, which taken as a whole was the greatest battle ever fought in this area, shook the world, leaving local and international balances in new focus, incidentally rescuing the United States from a critical position, and, not the least of effects, exposing a profound failure of Russian calculations and presumably of military intelligence.”
“What furnished capacity primarily was that the brain power with which this people was endowed was channeled for the first time since the Exile into the military art in defense of their own homeland,”

And now consider this parallel, excerpted from the speech Menachem Begin broadcast on Saturday night, May 15, 1948, having not been invited to sign Israel's Proclamation of Independence the previous Friday afternoon:

...even after emerging victorious from this campaign — and victorious we shall be — we shall still have to exert superhuman efforts in order to remain independent, in order to free our country. First of all, it will be necessary to increase and strengthen the fighting arm of Israel, without which there can be no freedom and no survival for our Homeland. Our Jewish army should be, and must be, one of the best trained and equipped of the world’s military forces. In modern warfare, it is not quantity that counts but brainpower and spirit are the determining factors. All of our youth proved that they possess this spirit – those of the Hagana, the Lehi, the Irgun, youth that no other nation has merited. Indeed, no generation since Bar-Kochba and until the Bilu pioneers has seen such spirit.

As for brainpower, after 120 generations, the creativity of the Hebrew mind is one of the most developed and unlimited. Our military science will be built up on the Jewish mind and will be the world’s best. We will yet achieve strength for we possess the power of the brain. In order to free our country and maintain our state, we shall need a wise foreign policy. We must turn our declaration of independence into a reality.  Secondly, we must establish and maintain the principle of reciprocity in our relations with the nations of the world. There must be no self-denigration.

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Slithering Silverstein

In a new post, Richard Silverstein serves as a leaker spout for an article at NTG which, he claims

IDF Killed Three of Its Own Soldiers After Declaring Hannibal Directive

He quotes, in translation, this section:

"As a result of activation of the Hannibal Directive, three IDF soldiers were killed and 120 [ed., the actual number was 160] Palestinian civilians were killed from cannon fire [as a result of IDF fire that destroyed the surrounding neighborhood]."

The original Hebrew is so:

כתוצאה מהפעלת "נוהל חניבעל" נהרגו שלושת הלוחמים, וככל הנראה כ-120 אזרחים פלסטינים מירי פגזים. 

However, later down the piece, it reads:

"הכוח נתקל בחוליה כשהיה בשטח פתוח צמוד לבתים וזיהו פיר לא רחוק משם. לשם הכניסו את הנעדר...
לאחר שנפתחה לעבר הכוח אש משמעותית ממנה נפגעו ככל הנראה כלל הלוחמים
הכוחות זיהו שמדובר בחטיפה ועל פי דיווחים הפעילו "נוהל חניבעל", במסגרתו צה"ל מפעיל אש לכיוון החוטפים. 

which, in English, is

The forces [Sayeret Givati, commanded by Benaya Sarel] encountered a group of terrorists in the open, close by some houses not far from there [where the snatch took place] and identified a tunnel opening.  There was where they dragged down the missing soldier [Hadar Goldin].  After significant fire was opened at them [the IDF], from which most of the soldiers were hit, they realized that a kidnapping was occurring and, in accordance with the "Hannibal Directive", whereby the IDF shoots in the direction of the kidnappers...

Since the other two soldiers killed, Sarel and Lial Gidoni, were not kidnapped, it seems illogical that the "Hannibal" fire was responsible for their deaths.

In any case, this conclusion of Silverstein:

It’s important to note that nowhere in this report does it say that the Hamas fighters killed the three IDF soldiers who died during this skirmish (though it does say the cell may’ve fled into the tunnel with Goldin’s body).  The entire premise is that the IDF killed them as a result of the massive amount of fire it used after the Hannibal Directive was declared.  This fact has never been reported in the Israeli media.  

is wrong as (a) it does say that the soldiers were hit with Hamas fire;  and (b) he does not deal with the very apparent contradiction or, at the least, seemingly incorrect order of events in the NRG story. 

A comment there, from 'Black Canary', notes the inconsistency of another point, that Haaretz reported the story at the time differently.

In any case, when will Silverstein learn Hebrew?
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The Haaretz 'Right Wing' Mix-up

From the paper's editorial: Stop right-wing indoctrination in IDF officers' training and its message is:

Diary by legendary soldier Meir Har Zion, which casts mud at 'anti-Zionist left,' is given to every new officer upon completion of training. This must be stopped immediately, and the goings-on in officers' training investigated.

It echoes Yossi Sarid last March:

We should find better heroes than Meir Har-Zion

Excerpts:

Har Zion was regarded as a brave fighter and was known for developing the IDF’s commando tactics...Har Zion’s diary entries include a large number of descriptions of indiscriminate retaliatory operations, systematic harm to innocent people and even the execution of individuals who happened to have been taken prisoner en route to raids or in the course of the operations.

...and also includes Har Zion’s commentary on current events:...“The right only appears to be in power. In practice, it is the left that is in control. Everything is in their hands — the media, the prosecutor’s office, the top echelons of the police and even the Supreme Court. When it comes to every issue involving the justice of the Zionist enterprise, we are going from bad to worse. [Religious settlers’ movement] Gush Emunim is a ray of light in the darkness. And [when it comes to those] wearing religious skullcaps … without them, we would have already closed up shop.”

...The IDF must not only put a stop to the distribution of the book, it should also thoroughly look into what is going on at Bahad 1 and at the judgment of those in charge there. The base is an officers’ school and not an ideological incubator for the extreme right wing.

Har Zion was brought up within the Labour Zionist movement, including Kibbutz Ein Harod.

Maybe the terms "right" and "left" are not being properly used?

In any case the real object of Harretz is the denuding the IDF of its esprit de corps and will to win.

The moral issues from "purity of arms" on are always discussed and deliberated.  The officers know well how to judge a book, and not only by its cover or a Haaretz editorial.

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Thanks to Simon's Father, Grandmother and ... Girlfriend

While a Jewish grandmother and a Jewish father can help instill values such as charity,

Simon Cowell Makes Major Pledge to IDF at Haim Saban’s $20 Million LA Fundraiser

British music and television producer Simon Cowell has reconnected with his Jewish roots, pledging a large donation to the IDF...media executive Haim Saban, creator of television’s Power Rangers, who pledged to donate $1 million if Cowell would accompany him in singing the show’s theme song, “Go, Go Power Rangers,” the Jewish Chronicle reported. Cowell began to sing, but then said he would make a donation if Saban allowed him to stop.

Last year Cowell told an audience at a similar Jewish non-profit fundraising dinner, in Britain, “My dad is Jewish. He never told me or my brother or his wife. It’s in my blood and drew me to the charity.”

Cowell’s paternal grandmother was Jewish and immigrated to the UK from Poland.

a nice Jewish girlfriend helps:

Special Pre-IDF Induction Women's Torah Program

The "Midreisheet" preparatory program for religious girls intending to serve in the IDF who wish to strengthen their Torah knowledge and commitment is a new program developed in conjunction with Midreshet Lindenbaum.

It is short and intended to assist the girls to "fill their batteries".

It will take place between August 18 until October 11, 2013.

Courses include Halacha, Talmud, Faith, Jewish Thinking and Bible - all geared to the challenges a religious woman faces in the IDF - Toranic, mental and professional preparation for the army service, High Holy Days preparation and becoming acquainted with army bureaucracy, meeting IDF chaplains and a visit to the Intelligence Corps base.

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Bar Refaeli Marches ... to a Different Tune

Bar Refaeli marching to a different tune (the clip)*:

The other tune:

2010:

The Israel Defense Forces human resources chief Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir yesterday called for a boycott of products advertised by Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.
Speaking at a lecture at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Zamir was asked why the army did not act against Refaeli, who married under false pretenses so she could evade military service. Zamir said that, according to law, he could not act against Refaeli. "She went and married a 37-year-old guy, so what can I do?" he said.
"At the end of the day," according to Zamir, "she is the one who has to look at herself in the mirror. We are a society that has an army, and Bar Refaeli doesn't have to participate in ads for Fox [clothing] - and if she advertises Fox then you shouldn't buy their products."

2013

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai is upset with the Foreign Ministry's decision to feature Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli as the presenter of an international pro-Israel informational campaign – because Refaeli did not serve in the IDF.
In a letter to the Foreign Ministry Director, Brig. Gen. Mordechai asked that the campaign be canceled. "The choice of a representative who did not serve in the military as an official presenter on behalf of Israel, conveys the message that we ignore and forgive evasion of enlistment, and encourages identification, among youths of both sexes, with the success of those who did not enlist."

*
snaps from the clip:

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Talking About Failures

News:

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz decides to remove Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, who hit Danish protester in the face, from his post • Army top brass calls Eisner's actions a moral failure •

The official version:

Following consultations between GOC Central Command, Major General Nitzan Alon, and the Chief of the Ground Forces Command, Major General Sami Turgeman, it has been determined by the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, to dismiss Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner from his post as Deputy Division Commander on moral grounds, while dealing with the incident.

IDF Spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai spoke of the video documenting Lt. Col. Eisner hitting a protestor with his M-16, "the incident that took place in the Jordan River Valley is extremely serious and in absolute contradiction with IDF ethics…There are different bodies, some of them anarchists and belligerent war instigators, disparaging our soldiers to create a buzz in the media, but we must maintain IDF ethics and avoid getting dragged into a provocation."

Lt. Gen. Gantz concluded in the investigation of the incident that there were professional and command failure as well.

Lt. Col. Eisner was dismissed from his position and will not serve as the Deputy Commander of the IDF Officer School, and will not be eligible to serve in commanding positions in the next two years.

Back on October 1, 2000, Madhat Yousuf bled to death at Joseph's Tomb while the Commander of the IDF Forces in Judea and Samaria did not send reinforcement.  He failed to save him.  His name?

Benny Gantz.

Yes, the same.

More:

It was claimed [Gantz] did not exhaust all options to save Yusuf, who was badly injured in clashes in the Joseph's Tomb compound, despite the fact that there was a force ready to enter and rescue the soldier.

Madhat's brother Mehdi told Ynet that the family opposes Gantz's appointment. "Gantz didn’t do anything during and after the event despite the fact he was 600 meters away from Madhat," he said.

Moral failure?


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My Daughter on the Tal Law Annulment

Here:

Opponents of the Service Deferral Law, on the other hand, could not hide their glee.

"An historic decision," said [Tzruya] Medad-Luzon, of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. She told DPA that she hoped parliament would now "really invest effort and thought" into a more balanced law.

^

Our new media comment is up

Here, at the Jerusalem Post.

On Galatz, the IDF radio station.

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IDF Soldiers - In Uniform - Tour the Temple Mount

Look at these pics:

Well, here's the story, via Google Translate, and thanks to Yehuda Glick:-

A group of Israeli army suspiciously storm Al-Aqsa Mosque
08/01/2012 by Mahmoud Abu Atta / "Al-Aqsa Foundation"

Reported by the "Stop the Al-Aqsa Foundation and Heritage" in a press release circulated today, Sunday 8 / 1 / 2012 that a group of Israeli army broke this morning into the Al Aqsa Mosque in military clothing in an organized suspicious tour suspicious in different parts of it, accompanied by a secret police agents in full alert and heavily guarded by Israeli occupation forces.

The "Al-Aqsa Foundation" warned in its statement that these raids of this group of army of occupation in military dress is a dangerous precedent, an assault on the al-Aqsa mosque, additonal to a series of continuous attacks on the al-Aqsa mosque and a violation of its sanctity...and a future threat to the Al Aqsa Mosque...a group of ten Israeli army soldiers this morning broke into the Al Aqsa Mosque, through the Dung Gate, amid a state of alert around the Al Aqsa by the occupation forces, distributing a number of special forces around the mosque. and led the band of soldiers around, guided by one of the members of the intelligence services, to various parts of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from the Dung Gate, and then off to the Dome of the Rock, and then next to the chapel Marwani and the eastern side of the al-Aqsa mosque, and then the North, and then sat down against the door Alqtanin, on the western side of the al-Aqsa mosque, then returned to the Mughrabi Gate and went out of it.

More pics:

Ain't that just great?

__________

P.S. Troops on the Temple Mount were sometimes welcomed, like German Imperial troops:

UPDATE

And also this from Makor Rishon:

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Samaria Residents in the IDF

IMRA reports (Source: Makor Rishon 6 January 2011):-

The following is a comparison of data for the IDF draft of December 2011 for
Samaria (“settlers”) to the national average:

Percentage of males drafted into IDF:
Samaria 81.2% National 74.8%

Of those males drafted in December 2011, percentage drafted into combat roles:
Samaria 67.1% National 39.5%

Percentage of males serving in IDF who become officers:
Samaria 15.9% National 8.3%

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Lighting Chanukah Lights With IDF Soldiers

A picture from the joint Chanukah lighting ceremony with the IDF soldiers in our area at the junction on Highway 60:

The rest, taken by Miriam-Feyga Bunimovich, are here.

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All Quiet on the West....

Review these stats:-

Palestinian casualties by Israeli forces

Killed this week: 0
Killed in 2011 vs. same period in 2010: 9 vs. 13

Injured this week: 21; 10 in a demonstration
Of whom were children: 1
Injured in 2011 vs. same period in 2010: 1,223 vs. 995

All quiet on the western bank?

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The Looming Pain

I published Frimet Roth's thoughts on the Schalit deal.

I'll ignore Esther Wachsman's comments although they do indicate why Israel failed itself in this instance.

Here is Sherri Mandell:

Why are so many of us against the exchange that allows murderers and their accomplices to go free? Because we know the suffering that these murderers leave in their wake.

Yes, I want Gilad Schalit released. But not at any price. Not at the price we have experienced.

My son Koby Mandell and his friend Yosef Ish Ran were murdered by terrorists 10 years ago when they were 13 and 14 years old. They had been hiking in the wadi near our home when they were set upon by a Palestinian mob and stoned to death. It was a brutal, vicious murder.

...MOST PEOPLE don’t understand the continuing devastation of grief: fathers who die of heart attacks, mothers who get sick with cancer, children who leave school, families whose only child was murdered. We see depression, suicide, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. You wouldn’t believe how many victims’ families are still on sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. We see the pain that doesn’t diminish with time. We literally see people die of grief.

Bereaved families face acute psychological isolation.

...nobody understands the duration or the severity of their pain and longing. In the aftermath of a prisoner exchange, this isolation will only be exacerbated.

So will the feeling that our children’s deaths don’t matter.

When people tell me that my son Koby died for nothing, I always used to say: No, it is our job to make his death mean something.

But now I am not sure. It seems that the government is conspiring to ensure that our loved ones’ deaths were for nothing.

Cheapening our loved ones’ deaths only enhances the pain...

And note, one of the most prominent buzzwords in the media is "hug" as in 'hug Gilad'.

And kudos to Marc Goldberg (who has echoed what my own son told me) who writes if he is captured, don't save him through a "prisonaer exchange".
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The IDF - A Singing or Fighting Army?

Culture and entertainment is nice.

Female talent empowerment is nice.

But at the expense of losing a potential officer who can lead men (and women) into battle?

Read on:

An observant solider serving in the Nahal Haredi infantry brigade, who was dismissed from an officers' training course for insubordination (*), has appealed to Israel's High Court of Justice over his punishment. The cadet was removed from the course after an incident on Monday, Sept. 5, in which a group of nine soldiers walked out of an official IDF event when female soldiers began singing solo.

During the event, which focused on Operation Cast Lead, the nine religious soldiers chose to walk out during the performance since, according to religious law, men are not allowed to hear women singing...The cadet has since appealed to the High Court of Justice over the IDF's decision to remove him from the training course, calling it unlawful....Chairman of the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva Center, Rabbi Haim Drukman, called the soldier's removal from the training course outrageous and said it constituted an immoral decision. Rabbi Drukman added that the "obligation to listen to women singing appears nowhere in the General Staff command, and listening to women singing cannot testify to the cadet's abilities as an officer and commander in the IDF."...

Do you think the IDF should be a fighting army or a singing army?

To me, this effort to punish is so ridiculous.

____________

(*)

Ten religious IDF officers' course cadets left in the middle of a military activity after a female soldier began singing solo on the stage...The incident took place on Monday evening during an event focusing on Operation Cast Lead, which was attended by hundreds of cadets slated to receive an officer's rank in about a month, many of whom are affiliated with the Religious Zionism movement.

At some point during the evening, two female soldiers got up to sing. When one of them began singing solo, dozens of religious soldiers got up and turned to leave the auditorium. "It was spontaneous. We know it's forbidden, but we left quietly without coordinating it,"...But Regiment Commander Uzi Klieger tried to stop them from leaving, threatening to punish anyone who walked out.

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A Sort of Amazon

Just heard over Channel One TV that in the bus attacked there were a large numbers of soldiers wounded from glass shards as well as bullets.

A female officer, SZ, a 1st Lieutenant, took out her tweezers and crawled along from soldier to soldier removing the glass.

Then she came upon the most seriously wounded soldier who was bleeding heavily.

Lacking a proper torniquet, she removed her brassiere and tightly wound it around his bleeding limb, thus saving his life.

Her father was the one who relayed the details:

Not quite but definitely a sort of Amazon.


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IDF Preparing for the Incoming Hordes

Mining sensitive areas near border crossing on Golan Heights:

More pictures here.

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May Our IDF Soldiers Be Blessed

A new song by Dov Hoschander and David Ross:-



When I get the lyrics, I'll put them up.


UPDATED

HU YIVARECH – A SONG FOR THE IDF SOLDIERS


• Lyrics by DOV
• Hebrew text from prayer recited on Shabbat Mornings


A mother sitting by the phone, she’s scared and tired, she feels alone. Her only son is serving on the line. And as she waits, she cries out loud. She prays that he’s o.k., her child. The world joins in this prayer for him in time.

Oh Hashem, protect our men in arms. As they defend our land, shield them from harm. Hu yivarech et chayalei tzavah hagana l’Yisroel, Hu Yivarech.

A boy looks out at his front yard – a passing jeep filled with guards. And he knows he’s not much younger than these men. Some day soon he will be called to defend his country that he loves. And the world joins him in prayer again for them.

Oh Hashem, protect our men in arms. As they defend our land, shield them from harm. Hu yivarech et chayalei tzavah hagana l’Yisroel, Hu yivarech.

Ha’omdim al mishmar artzeinu, al mishmar artzeinu v’arei elokeinu, Hu Yivarech et Chalei tzavah.

Oh Hashem, protect our men in arms. As they defend our land, shield them from harm. Hu yivarech et chayalei tzavah hagana l’Yisroel, Hu yivarech.
^