His family, friends and even commanding officer all thought Yonatan Zvi was crazy when he left the safety and comfort of Milwaukee last April to rejoin his reserve Israel Defense Force unit and spend a month in the West Bank hunting terrorists in Palestinian towns.
Legally, he did not have to do this when his unit was activated for service in the territories. But morally, he felt he did.
“I knew exactly where I was coming from” and “was at peace with myself,” Zvi, 37, told an audience of about 100 at Memorial Lutheran Church in Glendale on Aug. 15. “I knew I was doing something that had to be done.”
Not that this was easy or pleasant. “We didn’t enjoy what we were doing,” Zvi said. “I can’t say it enough.”
To begin with, Zvi was no longer as young and in condition as he was when he first joined the IDF after high school. It was difficult to carry 60 lbs. of gear over the rough terrain of the southern West Bank (Judea) area around Hebron, he said.
His unit would travel by vehicles or helicopters at night to a point about six miles outside the towns, then move toward them on foot. They would set up an ambush and wait there until dawn, then enter the towns with the support of armored vehicles.
They would base themselves in a strategically-located house, moving the residents into one room, or, preferably, sending them to stay with relatives. Zvi said the IDF soldiers had strict orders not to touch or take anything in the houses, including food and water. He added that some soldiers would leave money behind as a “rent” payment.
Sometimes, if the people in the homes asked the soldiers why this was being done, the soldiers would try to explain. But if the people just gave looks of hatred, the soldiers would avoid eye-contact so as not to provoke confrontations, Zvi said.
Constant discussions
From the base houses, the soldiers would range through the town, house-to-house, seeking information and arms caches during the day, hunting wanted terrorists at night. After two or three days, the unit would move to another town.
“Luckily, we didn’t meet a lot of resistance,” said Zvi. Terrorist activity primarily originates from refugee camps, which his unit didn’t enter. Nevertheless, one officer in a near-by unit was killed, Zvi said.
“All the time” he and his comrades were talking about whether they were doing the right thing or whether what they were doing was going to help, Zvi said. They also were very aware that going house-to-house exposed them to danger and that it would have been simpler and safer “to bomb the whole city.”
But they took seriously the orders they were given “not to harm anyone that was not armed” and to “respect rights and property.” In one instance, Zvi said, a unit saw six armed Palestinians run into a house; but a helicopter pilot argued for almost two hours with a ground officer, insisting on confirmation that no innocent civilians were in that house before the pilot would obey an order to attack and destroy it.
When he finished the month, Zvi said, coming back to his family in Milwaukee was “hard, but easier. I felt I did something … I hope it helps.” He added that he would “go back in a second” if it was deemed necessary. And he insisted that “peace can only come if the Palestinian Authority stops terrorism.”
That Zvi ended up speaking about his experiences to a predominantly Christian audience is a story in itself. He works as a real estate broker for The Polacheck Company, Inc., and has been “friends for many years” with the company’s chairman and CEO Mark Brickman, according to Brickman, who also spoke at the event.
Also working at Polacheck is Judy Lynne Knie, who is vice president of information technology. She is also one of the 12 council members of Memorial Lutheran Church and invited Zvi and Brickman, who is also a board member and past president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, to speak.
Knie had personal sympathy for Zvi’s story — her father was injured in World War II and a brother “never came back” from Vietnam. In addition, she is the church’s liaison to the Milwaukee synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has a policy of promoting Lutheran-Jewish dialogue. Inviting Zvi and Brickman to speak at the church, Knie said, “is in line” with what the ELCA is doing nationally.
Zvi was born in Tel Aviv to parents descended from immigrants from Yemen and Morocco. After finishing his tour of active duty in the IDF, he came to the United States and lived in Los Angeles for several years.
He then moved to Milwaukee, where he met and married Julie (nee Suvalsky). They moved to Israel in 1995 and returned to Milwaukee five years later. They have two children.
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