We are in the month of Tammuz and from the yud-zayin day they are days of penitence and fasting. Napoleon said that armies move on their stomach, that is, they have to be fed. Not so the tankists, who are mostly yeshive-bochers that take very seriously their fast days. Worse than having an empty stomach, it is the heat of July. Were not for the fast, one could fry eggs on the akhzariyot - the cruel - panzers. The Israeli Army just finished its hardest exercise ever. The Lebanon campaign was carefully studied (armies are always preparing for the last war) and answers to the Russian hand-held rockets were implemented. The white cloud seen in the pic is bound to blind or disorientate heat seaking self propelled death, I presume. In Lebanon, except for older officers, the soldiery (which changes every three years) had never participated in large scale realistic exercises. Fighting the Hizballah was their first experience of operating as a brigade. Therefore, the exercise was designed to be extreme - physically and psychologically. Those who finished it, have a fair idea how the thing works and what is expected from them. War will be a cakewalk compared to the sleepless, foodless, endless inferno they just went through. Been there, done it.
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