3 ms·

Even at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission, given all the turmoil in the Middle East(mentioned in the article),

by mym1990 5y ago

Even at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission, given all the turmoil in the Middle East(mentioned in the article), they have much more experience in this situation. I can't imagine all the horror that those volunteers may have seen through their lifetimes, and they find a way to use that experience to help others thousands of miles away. I can imagine that for a typical volunteer, pulling body parts out of rubble would be a fairly life changing event, and the number of people in the world with the experience and grit to tackle this gracefully can't be a long list.

tguvot 5y ago
>Even at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission, given all the turmoil in the Middle East(mentioned in the article), they have much more experience in this situation. Actually they don't really have similar "field experience" from Israel (fortunately). They do have a bunch of training with artificially made piles of rubbles and whenever something happens somewhere in the world (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc) they usually among first to arrive.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  Watching and reading about the teams arriving in Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake that happened there was really impressive and inspiring. Countries that seemed far away and uninvolved had teams touching down at staggered intervals and brought resources and skill that really helped. International search and rescue seems to be a little world of its own that operates away from the noise and bickering of ‘normal’ international relations.
  - abraae 5y ago
    These are amongst the few bonding experiences in today's world, like the Thai cave rescues.
  - andreskytt 5y ago
    Because everyone benefits. The helpers get first hand experience, the helped get rapid scaleup of capabilities. Nobody’s interested in messing this up as everybody knows they might be next. This is the sort of positive feedback that keeps the world turning.
  - EdwardDiego 5y ago
    NZ's SAR teams (primarily urban SAR) have repeatedly deployed overseas to assist after a natural disaster, same with our Police DVI (disaster victim identification) teams - most prominently after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. There's a lot of solidarity between countries on the Ring of Fire when it comes to natural disasters. We even had the Californians turn up alongside the other countries. Likewise, rural firefighters from NZ, Australia and California routinely travel to each other's countries when backup is needed. It's the implicit reciprocity, and real life training opportunities that drive it. Otherwise your training is all stimulated, like covering a bunch of mannequins in sheep offal... https://www.police.govt.nz/news/ten-one-magazine/dvi-training-realistic-mess https://www.police.govt.nz/news/ten-one-magazine/dvi-trainin...
  - mellow-lake-day 5y ago
    Reminds me of flight MH 370 although unfortunately the plane was ultimately not found.
cik 5y ago
It's more than that. Part of it is army training, but a giant part of it is organizations like ZAKA (https://zakaworld.org/ https://zakaworld.org/) whose mission comes from our core religious beliefs. As Jews, we're ideally buried fully - meaning as many body parts, blood, whatever intact, or at least with the body. In situations where disasters occur, ZAKA helps triage, recover, identify, and even do DNA analysis as needed, to help make this happen. This is in addition to training our security services. In Israel, regardless of political affiliation, religious beliefs or anything else, they're understood to be the true heroes that they are. No one else exhaustively pursues these events to conclusion. There's a reason that their mantra is חסד של אמת, which is best translated as true lovingkindness. Yes, in Hebrew lovingkindess is a concept that is different than "loving kindness".
- tguvot 5y ago
  With all respect to ZAKA, and I have a lot, they don't really have much to do with this unit. This unit is search and rescue (if possible). Zaka is "body (parts) collection"
  - cik 5y ago
    Since when has ZAKA not trained with, and trained search and rescue? After basic, and initials there's are courses with ZAKA. ZAKA wasn't the provider of service, just of training.
    - tguvot 5y ago
      Maybe they occasionally do operation training together in order to know how to work together at crisis, but it's first time that I hear that zaka trains IDF search&rescue. I googled for it, and the only thing that I found is that IDF trained zaka people.
      - cik 5y ago
        גם וגם
- 5y ago
aaron695 5y ago
> at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission It almost always takes a nation (Like IDF) to collapse a building. Second thought would be they have no direct experience. They are however prepared. And like most altruistic.
deviledeggs 5y ago
This was partially a PR move. Surfside is over 1/3 Jewish and a large number of Israelis lived in the building. Not saying it's "bad" at all for Israel to send in experts. But it's important to realize that governments selectively help people in other countries for political reasons sometimes. Would they have sent in their experts if the building was full of Palestinians?

tguvot 5y ago

>Even at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission, given all the turmoil in the Middle East(mentioned in the article), they have much more experience in this situation. Actually they don't really have similar "field experience" from Israel (fortunately). They do have a bunch of training with artificially made piles of rubbles and whenever something happens somewhere in the world (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc) they usually among first to arrive.

lostlogin 5y ago
Watching and reading about the teams arriving in Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake that happened there was really impressive and inspiring. Countries that seemed far away and uninvolved had teams touching down at staggered intervals and brought resources and skill that really helped. International search and rescue seems to be a little world of its own that operates away from the noise and bickering of ‘normal’ international relations.
- abraae 5y ago
  These are amongst the few bonding experiences in today's world, like the Thai cave rescues.
- andreskytt 5y ago
  Because everyone benefits. The helpers get first hand experience, the helped get rapid scaleup of capabilities. Nobody’s interested in messing this up as everybody knows they might be next. This is the sort of positive feedback that keeps the world turning.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  NZ's SAR teams (primarily urban SAR) have repeatedly deployed overseas to assist after a natural disaster, same with our Police DVI (disaster victim identification) teams - most prominently after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. There's a lot of solidarity between countries on the Ring of Fire when it comes to natural disasters. We even had the Californians turn up alongside the other countries. Likewise, rural firefighters from NZ, Australia and California routinely travel to each other's countries when backup is needed. It's the implicit reciprocity, and real life training opportunities that drive it. Otherwise your training is all stimulated, like covering a bunch of mannequins in sheep offal... https://www.police.govt.nz/news/ten-one-magazine/dvi-training-realistic-mess https://www.police.govt.nz/news/ten-one-magazine/dvi-trainin...
- mellow-lake-day 5y ago
  Reminds me of flight MH 370 although unfortunately the plane was ultimately not found.

cik 5y ago

It's more than that. Part of it is army training, but a giant part of it is organizations like ZAKA (https://zakaworld.org/ https://zakaworld.org/) whose mission comes from our core religious beliefs. As Jews, we're ideally buried fully - meaning as many body parts, blood, whatever intact, or at least with the body. In situations where disasters occur, ZAKA helps triage, recover, identify, and even do DNA analysis as needed, to help make this happen. This is in addition to training our security services. In Israel, regardless of political affiliation, religious beliefs or anything else, they're understood to be the true heroes that they are. No one else exhaustively pursues these events to conclusion. There's a reason that their mantra is חסד של אמת, which is best translated as true lovingkindness. Yes, in Hebrew lovingkindess is a concept that is different than "loving kindness".

tguvot 5y ago
With all respect to ZAKA, and I have a lot, they don't really have much to do with this unit. This unit is search and rescue (if possible). Zaka is "body (parts) collection"
- cik 5y ago
  Since when has ZAKA not trained with, and trained search and rescue? After basic, and initials there's are courses with ZAKA. ZAKA wasn't the provider of service, just of training.
  - tguvot 5y ago
    Maybe they occasionally do operation training together in order to know how to work together at crisis, but it's first time that I hear that zaka trains IDF search&rescue. I googled for it, and the only thing that I found is that IDF trained zaka people.
    - cik 5y ago
      גם וגם
5y ago

aaron695 5y ago

> at first thought, it makes sense why the IDF would be well equipped for such a mission It almost always takes a nation (Like IDF) to collapse a building. Second thought would be they have no direct experience. They are however prepared. And like most altruistic.

deviledeggs 5y ago

This was partially a PR move. Surfside is over 1/3 Jewish and a large number of Israelis lived in the building. Not saying it's "bad" at all for Israel to send in experts. But it's important to realize that governments selectively help people in other countries for political reasons sometimes. Would they have sent in their experts if the building was full of Palestinians?