Changing Plans

Although Elie still doesn’t know where he will go when his unit separates, he told me recently that they expected to return north briefly for a “major exercise.”

According to Israel National News:

IDF Changes Exercise to Calm Syria

(IsraelNN.com) Senior IDF officers said Thursday that a major exercise planned for next week will be changed in order to avoid escalating tensions with Syria. Parts of the exercise that were to take place in the Golan have been canceled, and the entire exercise will take place in the Galilee.

IDF commanders explained that a major exercise in the Golan could raise fears of an IDF invasion among Syrian leaders. “We wanted to remove any shadow of a doubt… and to make it clear that this is only an exercise,” one officer explained. The exercise will be unusually large, and will include the air force and naval corps in addition to group troops.

Of course, we don’t yet know if that means Elie’s part has been canceled or moved and I’m not even sure Elie has been told of the change of plans. For now, we only know that he won’t be home for the Sabbath, but may get off some time next week. If so, we will hopefully go back to the hospital to visit his friend, Re’em. We’ve been hearing miraculous news – that Re’em is breathing on his own for many hours of they day, eating solid foods, and most important sitting in a chair and telling doctors that he can feel his legs. I’ve been receiving updates from Re’em’s sister on a regular basis and then forwarding them to Elie, hoping that he is getting the chance to read them.

The lesson I learned in recent months was not to expect, not to anticipate, not to schedule because the army works on its own clock and its own needs. So, we wait until Elie tells us that he’ll be coming soon and we will wait until Elie tells us where he will be stationed after he finishes at the checkpoint patrol.

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