The Wild West Bank

There's a surplus of IDF videos on YouTube. Most dedicated to Israeli female soldiers, in a way to show their "support" for the "cause". The rest are a myriad of uploads by supporters, and soldiers themselves too. More often than not showing clips of Golani soldiers or Tzanhanim shooting at targets or trudging their gear on an exercise while backed up by some over the top techno music. 

The other day, I happened to stumble on this find, which I thought to be a little more interesting and unique than the standard IDF videos you'd find. Kfir, even in its short history as an infantry brigade in the army has already developed a reputation as being a heavily Russian unit. A lot of the guys being new immigrants as well. It's also generally one of the more under looked brigades in the army. Recruiting to Kfir hasn't been as easy as some other similar ground forces units. For the majority of their service the soldiers serving in Kfir are stationed exclusively in the West Bank, and tend to not see home very often. They've been involved in a lot of things you may have heard about on the news also. So it's not as if their role is not a crucial one. Given the date of the video, it's likely this specific battalion saw some significant action during the tail end of The Second Intifada. As someone who was in the same place at one point as a new immigrant in the army, albeit coming from half way around the world, this type of glimpse into the lives of those who served on the line is always intriguing to me. I would bet that a lot of these guys passed through Michve Alon.