Is the IDF Accepting Army Gear Donations by Americans?
This century the phrase “fake news” has become the substitute for the more refined word, misinformation. For protection from political enemies the United States poses on equal footing with two opposing sides of a conflict. Many years ago, during the Yom Kippur war, when Israel was attacked on its holiest day of the year, Prime Minister Golda Meir made a desperate trip to the United States to beg on her hands and knees for the sorely needed arms to turn the tide of the war in their favor. Then, President Nixon made a secret deal with her. “Go out to the press and cry. Tell them that I will not agree to give you the arms you asked for”. This public outcry satisfied the Arabs showing them that the United States will not help the state of Israel win the war. But clandestinely, the United States equipped Israel with the necessary arms to help the Israelis turn the tide and ultimately win the war.
Today, in the year 2024 we hope that President Biden is using a similar tactic and that he keeps helping Israel till the war is over. Likewise, it's hard to know what’s really going on in the controversy between generous American donors and the commanders of the IDF when it comes to donations of gear, clothing and food for the Israeli army.
The Jewish religion encourages charity of all types including the highest caliber of giving an unemployed person a job. Other forms of charity are food donations to families in distress, money for basics, clothing for the needy, donations to Jewish schools and synagogues and this past year donations of army equipment to the IDF. Our government has finally admitted that starvation reports from Gaza were falsely reported even after the United States government set up a port using millions of taxpayers’ dollars to feed the enemy, the supplies were being blocked from being distributed to the citizens of Gaza and the port was removed.
As soon as the war began for Israel, on October 7, 2023, cries went out that there was not enough army gear and supplies for the thousands of soldiers that were called up or volunteered. 350,000 reservists were called up in addition to volunteers. Because the war came on suddenly the IDF was not prepared to equip the soldiers with the gear that was needed.
Claims that soldiers were using dented helmets and old army boots sent out an alarm to the citizens of the United States to replenish the army with badly needed gear of all types. From long underwear for the winter to new boots in requested sizes, folks were contributing duffel bags and duffel bags of armory to the “needy” soldiers. Lone soldiers’ parents who were worried that their sons would not be adequately armed and protected sent helmets, boots and other essentials with people who were traveling to Israel.
Even airlines were cooperating by agreeing to take duffel bags at no charge so that soldiers would be more than ready to defeat the enemy. Army Charity centers were set up in different neighborhoods so that people could bring their donations to one location and from there sent to Israel via concerned and generous travelers accepting heavy duffel bags with pleasure.
It did seem odd that reports at the beginning of Operation Swords of Iron claimed that soldiers were without proper gear and were using the old helmets, boots and other essentials that were from the 1970’s. You would think that an advanced and innovative country as Israel would have the latest equipment for their soldiers to fight with and in. Was it because the country was caught by surprise by the vicious attack of Hamas who murdered and kidnapped thousands of innocents including women, children, senior citizens, and sick people? That is what seemed to be the general opinion at the start of the war in late 2023.
Now, however, the IDF is painting an entirely different portrait of their supplies and army essentials. The military of Israel is now clamping down to stop the stream of unsanctioned donations thus shutting down the whole assembly donation policy that was so generously contributed by concerned Americans. Those American donation centers were manned by citizens of all types from the elderly to the young. In fact, parents of IDF soldiers will no longer be allowed to ship equipment to their own sons.
The main reason given for this curtailment of supplies from donors is that they may not be up to the standards of the Israeli military potentially endangering the lives of the soldiers. The donors insist that they only sent ballistically tested gear. The Israeli military claims that the shortages of army gear were not true even though the donors assert that they were specifically asked by army commanders for supplies.
The term “smuggling” regarding the Israeli military harkens back to 1948 when indeed the country of Israel was brand new when their Arab enemies attacked. The IDF (not sure if that’s what they were called at that time) needed all types of supplies including airplanes and bombers. Retired Jewish American veterans risked their lives to fly old airplanes to Israel and at that time no one rejected any help from allies.
Today, in our time, the Israeli army is a professional one and their leaders want to keep it that way. It could be that a few of the supplies that were sent did not meet the army’s standards and some soldiers were not prepared properly for combat. But today’s men, women and children who are still volunteering to send supplies to Israel are calling their participation a “smuggling operation". In fact, several months ago someone I know personally brought a whole large duffel bag of green colored army winter underwear to Israel for the soldiers. At the airport, this person noticed several young men bringing duffel bags to the airport and entering a specific entrance to ship them which was not the usual baggage counter. This person called his relative on the phone to ask if he should add his duffel bag to the pile.
“Absolutely not!”, he answered.” I will give you a phone number of someone I know and trust for you to call when you get to Israel. Give the duffel bag only to him.” Now this person understood that not all the supplies that were being sent were getting into the right hands. Donators are also blaming red tape at ports and the fact that people are not identifying the gear as army supplies but as civilian supplies. Small drones have been smuggled by donors such as Jonathan Greenwald from Miami to Israel for their military operations.
The donations must be sent through passengers traveling to Israel rather than by cargo. There would be a problem with the gear clearing customs and would likely be seized by custom officials. That is why these operations are called smuggling operations. Greenwald asserts that the people and organizations would never send inferior supplies and that their safety is checked thoroughly before sending it to Israeli military bases.
Folks just could not do enough to help those soldiers, many who were in their homes enjoying the holiday and the next thing they knew they were in combat. Thus began the barbeques, sandwich making and beef jerky operations. The barbeques were amazing for the soldiers who were on a limited break and could cross back over to Israel from Gaza. The soldiers who were stuck in Gaza needed some tasty food other than beans and tuna which they kept in their pockets.
The beef jerky production began in private homes and synagogues. Volunteers signed up for duty and specific time frames since it takes several hours to dry beef jerky properly. When dried properly the bag of dried beef can last a while but if not dried properly can spoil and make a soldier sick. The bag is sized exactly to fit into a soldier's pocket and can be shared easily since the beef is cut into convenient bite size pieces. These beef jerky packets and other types of foodstuffs are life-saving protein and carbohydrates to hungry soldiers.
Donations come in all sizes and shapes. Soaps and peppermint smelling deodorant sprays especially designed for soldier’s gear make great additions to a soldier's equipment especially in warm climates such as Gaza. With no place to shower or wash their uniforms tactical sprays are a great way to freshen up smelly uniforms and bulletproof vests.
Final Words
Good intentions sometimes are not appreciated by the recipients when it is a national army, and we don't know the truth about the actual needs of the IDF when it comes to army gear. Desperate calls for all types of gear from helmets to warm underwear were heard loud and clear from soldiers themselves to their relatives in America. Donors were so relieved when hundreds of duffel bags were sent or taken by private citizens to Israel to answer the call of the desperate troops who were supposedly using outdated equipment. Now the IDF claims that some of the gear did not meet their high standards of quality and were officially not allowed to be distributed.
So much goes on behind the scenes and we do know which gear was allowed and which was not. Volunteers who were packing and sending the gear to Israel began calling their operation “smuggling” since it was not officially approved by the higher ups in the IDF.
Let’s hope and pray that the Israeli army has what it needs and that there will be peace, and the gear will no longer be necessary.
