Thirty-seven years ago, a slightly skinnier version of myself entered the Israeli Security Zone in South Lebanon with my Givati platoon. As the platoon’s combat medic, I carried my weapon, helmet, flak jacket, tactical vest, ammunition, grenades, medical equipment, anti-mine boots and a portable stretcher. Before every patrol or nightly ambush across the international border, our mission briefing always ended with the same mantra:

Our mission is to defend the northern settlements (from Hezbollah terrorists).

Our mission is to defend the northern settlements (from Hezbollah terrorists).

My twenty-year-old self would have been incredulous to learn that I am back in the same place, with the same mission statement, nearly four decades on. Despite the intervening years, nothing seems to have changed. It is a depressing situation. I see young men and women in my PALMAR medical extraction unit who are not much older than I was the first time I was in Lebanon. The thought that they may find themselves here in another four decades is a grim one.

I also would not have imagined, when I pushed hard to re-enlist in the IDF after the October 7 massacre, thus becoming the oldest combat medic in the IDF, that I would still be serving on an........

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