So said Captain Ori Lavie of the Israeli Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion addressing his company before jumping off into Lebanon.
Shortly before midnight, the soldiers of the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion, Company A gathered a few meters from the Lebanese border. In a few minutes, they were due to cross the border and join the battle, like their comrades in 51st Battalion, who fought in Bint Jbail on Wednesday and sustained fatalities.
"It's our turn now," said Captain Ori Lavie. "It's our turn to protect the border. And we'll carry out any mission we need to, against any force, in the best way possible. If we don't, we have no right to exist."
Excited and armed from head to toe, the young soldiers listened, hanging onto every word he uttered.
"We will not lose this war," said Lavie. "We did not start it, but it's our duty to protect the Jewish nation and see to it that the residents of Metula and Haifa can live in peace. If we don't do it, no one will. We waited 2,000 years for our own state, and we won't fold because a group of terrorists think that they can scare us."
"Someone who cannot protect his freedom does not deserve it," he continued. "When missiles and rockets land on all the northern cities and reach Haifa, and when two of our soldiers have been kidnapped and ten have been killed and dozens have been wounded – this is no time to talk, it's time to fight. From the moment we cross the border, you must be super alert, super sharp. We are threatened from every side. Each of you is responsible for his comrades."
Read the whole thing. It's a good portrait of a company going into combat. Including the weird anomaly of the troops breaking formation to use their cellphones to talk to parents and loved ones.
