Malkiya - a kibbutz protecting Israel's northern border

After leaving Safed, our trip on Wednesday continued at Malkiya.   It is an agricultural kibbutz on Israel's northern border.  We spent several hours seeing two very different and equally vital functions for this community.

Our introduction to Malkiya took us past a playground, with a yard full of children nearby.

It is an agricultural community, growing kiwis, apples, and numerous other crops.   Most of its crops are sold in Israeli cities.  It uses the most modern techniques to grow these crops, including drip irrigation with carefully controlled fertilizers being applied.  Only a few dozen feet away we could see the Lebanese community.   Their farms, such as they were, grew mostly opium poppies and similar products.

Debbie plans a kiwi, replacing one that died of old age.

And that is the other vital function of the Malkiya community - protecting Israel's border.  Until less than 20 years ago, the border was relatively peaceful and the Israeli farms were able to exchange ideas with their Lebanese neighbors.  However, history interfered, and the takeover of most of Lebanon by Hezbollah and it's Iranian patrons turned the border into a heavily-fortified zone.  A border road with a barbed-wire fence on each side separated us from the Lebanese fields.  Our guide from Malkiya, a security officer named Eitan, told us that wherever we drove, we were probably being watched by remote cameras by Israeli security, by Hezbollah, and by United Nations observers in Lebanon.

The border has been fairly quiet for about ten years - and it is kept that way by Israeli soldiers, tanks, and fortifications.  We were able to meet some of these young men (and a few young women).  For the most part, the men are in the direct combat operations in the tanks and other border patrol vehicles and fortifications.  The women are a few hundred yards further back, keeping sharp eyes on the numerous cameras which keep watch on the entire area.  When anything suspicious is spotted on the cameras, they notify the local security people such as Eitan and, if necessary, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
  
We met four young men manning an armored vehicle.  They expected our visit and came out to talk to us.  Two of the four were 19 and 20 years old - that is younger than my youngest son!   The commander was in his early 20s, and the other man was a few years older.   The latter was not Jewish, but Druze - a community that traces itself to Jethro (the father-in-law of Moses).  Druze soldiers have served with great distinction in the Israeli Defense Force almost since the early days of the State of Israel.


We also met a larger group in a fortification that served as a base for tanks and other weaponry.  A young man from New Jersey greeted us.   He has volunteered to serve in the Israeli army for several years, and was undecided whether he would stay in Israel afterwards or not.   The others (a half dozen or so men an two young women) were mostly born in Israel, but had parents or grandparents from Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, France, Poland, Russia, and the United States.   Perhaps I've missed a few other countries.  There was also a Druze soldier in this group.  Our guide Asaf took pride in the diversity of the backgrounds of these soldiers, which is representative of units throughout the IDF.  Israel is one of very few places that can approach the United States in the diversity of its population.