Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know just less than a year ago I made the biggest decision of my life to serve for the Israeli Defense Force. My unit is responsible for the protection of the West Bank, where its primary mission is to keep Israel safe from the inside.

Being a lone soldier is difficult, especially not being able to go back on the weekends to my own bed and my mums delicious cooking. During my training as a combat soldier I have been through basic training, as well as advanced training. I’ve learnt to use many different weapons and how to defend myself and others using Krav Maga. Some less exciting days have been spent scrubbing pots and pans and washing floors. One of the things I’ve learnt from this experience so far is that all tasks in the army are important in creating an effective system so the army can be successful.

My service so far has had many highs and lows. The aim of basic training is to break down the soldiers and mould them into shape so they are disciplined and willing to do any mission without thinking twice. Our training has been hard and intense mentally, physically and emotionally. We’ve gone from a group of boys to “lochamim” (warriors). We've walked hundreds of kilometres in terrible heat and in awful cold. We've crawled on mud, sand, rocks and thorns. We've held each other at night so we wouldn't freeze and we've smiled at each other all the time so we wouldn't lose our minds.

One of my favourite parts of the army has been getting to know incredible people from all over Israel and the world that I would never have met otherwise. I’m proud to say that the last six months have been the hardest but also most meaningful of my life.

During this time I have learnt many things. One thing I have learnt from the army so far is that we have the power through our intentions and positive thinking to change our experience. Another valuable lesson I’ve learnt is that happiness is much easier to acquire if we can learn to go outside of ourselves and focus on bringing goodness into the lives of others.

With tremendous fulfilment and also relief, I’m happy to say that this week, I together with my platoon have finally finished our training. We spent the whole week in the field culminating with a 35km march with 40 percent of body weight on our back. This Thursday we will receive the camouflage beret and a large ceremony will take place. My family and friends will hopefully attend.

In less than 2 weeks we will be guarding a Yishuv called Bet El by Ramallah and I wanted to make sure that every boy in my platoon has the equipment necessary whether they can afford it or not. The army gives us what they can but often soldiers raise money for needed equipment, in this case I want to raise money to buy warm, quality jackets with an embroidered emblem for my entire platoon. They have a price of NIS 550 (£115). For 40 soldiers this will cost approximately £5000. The jackets we are given are not warm. I really want to give back to my fellow soldiers in return for their constant protection.

My parents are going to match the highest donation.

Thank you so much for your generous support. It makes a difference to boys who really deserve it.

Thank you 🙏

Natanel