Wednesday, November 23. 2005
More on the humble hesder yeshiva student-soldier hero:
IDF paratrooper David Markowitz, a student of the Hesder yeshiva in Mitzpeh Ramon, became a national hero for a day on Tuesday when he killed four Hizbullah terrorists with one gun burst. Markowitz, who will be 21 next week, has been in the army for only eight months. On Monday night, during the furious Hizbullah attack against northern Israeli targets, he and the soldiers in his unit prevented a planned abduction of an Israeli soldier.
He was the first to notice a band of Hizbullah terrorists that had crossed Israel's Lebanese border on jeeps and motorbikes - and shot them to death.
In a similar attack five years ago, Hizbullah terrorists abducted three soldiers - and never notified Israel that they killed them almost immediately afterwards.
This week's incident accompanied a multi-pronged Hizbullah rocket and mortar shell attack against Israeli military and civilian targets....In summarizing the incident, the Northern Commander said that had Markowitz not noticed the approaching danger, the incident would have ended with many casualties and "in an extremely grave manner." "With his first shots, he determined the fate of the battle," Northern Command sources said.
A resident of the small town of Gimzo in central Israel, Markowitz serves in the army in the framework of Hesder, which literally means "arrangement." It provides for five years of alternating periods of yeshiva study and combat army service.
The Hesder yeshivot, which are widely known for their highly-motivated and skilled soldiers, have come under fire of late from army officials for their stance vis-a-vis the Disengagement plan. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz has even gone so far as to demand that the yeshiva in Elon Moreh no longer be granted Hesder status because its Dean, Rabbi Yaakov Levanon, called upon students to refuse expulsion-related orders....
The Commander of the IDF Personnel Corps, Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern, announced plans a few months ago to disband, to some degree, the Hesder yeshiva units. Relations between the yeshivot and the army are thus not at their zenith.
In the meanwhile, the fact that David Markowitz is a Hesder yeshiva student was all but buried in the press reports - despite the prominent role that Hesder yeshivot have played in recent news. Paratrooper Sniper Becomes Hero:
Sarah and Ya'akov Markovitch, the parents of paratrooper Cpl. David Markovitch, 20, who shot and killed four Hizbullah terrorists in Ghajar on Monday, believe it was divine intervention that played a key role in the successful outcome of their son's actions that thwarted the attack.
With the telephone at their home in Moshav Gimzo constantly ringing, Ya'akov said his son felt uneasy with all the media attention and believes that he would not have succeeded if he had not received the help of his fellow soldiers. "David was educated to be humble, he did what is expected," he said.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Markovitch said "David was granted the right to participate in the campaign, we have no reason to praise him. We are proud, but we believe it was the Almighty's intervention that created the miracle, and place our faith in the Almighty"....On Monday night rumors of their son's accomplishment circulated, but they opted to ignore them....
David's battalion commander, Lt.-Col. Yaniv Alalouf, said he tried to reach the paratrooper on the phone to congratulate him on Monday night but the phone constantly went dead. Recalling Monday's attack, Alalouf said the soldiers deployed in Ghajar spotted a group of Hizbullah terrorists dressed in black approaching the IDF checkpoint. Behind them there were motorcycles and terrain vehicles they apparently intended to use to abduct soldiers he said. Aside from other weapons, the gunmen carried a rocket propelled grenade. Markovitch, the unit's marksman, shot in a precise and accurate manner, causing the RPG to explode and killing three gunmen instantly. He then shot and killed the fourth shortly after, Alalouf said.
Despite his actions, Markovitch insisted that the successful outcome was because all the soldiers worked as a team. "We were four soldiers working together, everyone did his job. We wanted to duck and hide, but our commander, Natan, gave the orders. We're a team," he said. " I'm Not the Hero of the Day"
Corporal David Markovich stood at the entrance to the village of Ghajar yesterday, surrounded by photographers and reporters trying to extract a few words about the battle that he won almost single-handedly on Monday....Markovich killed four Hezbollah gunmen. But he insisted on sharing the credit with his comrades. "I'm not the hero of the day," he said. "There were four of us there. One spotted and I shot. It's a team, with a commander. We simply ended up at the center of things ... This is what we train for."
But an officer standing nearby said that Markovich was being too modest. "This was excellent soldiering," he said. "If you had checked his magazine after the firing, you would have found that only perhaps eight bullets were missing."
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