Chapter 23 19 Tanks, attack!

Give me an armored division and I can take Arish in a day. — Ariel Sharon From the moment I set foot on the land of Israel, a Miss Ben-Aba, whom I only heard but never met, cared about me all the time and everywhere.According to reports, Miss Abba is the person in charge of the China Department of the Department of Asia of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On February 1, as soon as I checked into the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel, her phone caught up with my "field command post", suggesting that I live in Jerusalem, because Tel Aviv "is too dangerous to be attacked by 'scuds' every day." .I just declined politely, telling her that I was a photographer and that my sole purpose in coming here was to photograph the human suffering caused by war.As long as there's a guy in Tel Aviv, I'll stick with it.

Every night after that, I would receive a call from Ben-Aba, until I persisted until the eleventh day in Tel Aviv, and received her invitation to go to Jerusalem for the Spring Festival, but I still politely declined. I emotionally admire the wisdom, politeness, hard work and national consciousness of the Jews, but bloody incidents such as the surprise attack on Beirut and the "Babylonian attack" make me always associate Israel with Buchenwald and Auschwitz .In the Middle East, the Arab world's deep-rooted hatred of Israel can be seen everywhere.I could not help being on the side of the unarmed and the underdog, so I never wanted to get too close to the Jews.

Given that I am alone in this mysterious land here and now, as a young reporter, the safest way is to read less and follow the traditional policy of "glorious isolation" of the British Empire.A moment of carelessness, sending my life to hell is a trivial matter, and causing trouble for my "Xinhua" is an unforgivable crime.My mentor, Professor Zhao Baoxu, director of the Department of International Politics at Peking University, once said: "Foreign affairs are no small matter." The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed several times that it would like to arrange an official interview, but I have always declined because "I am a photojournalist, busy photographing the suffering caused by war, and have no time for others."

On February 7, my good friend Yuan Guoqiang, a reporter from Hong Kong's "Ming Pao", came again and told me that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem wanted to be interviewed by a Chinese reporter, and asked me to go with him.I told Yuan that I still can't go because I plan to go to the Gaza Strip and other occupied territories that are under martial law.Yuan Guoqiang said, if you don't go, I'm afraid it won't make much sense for me to go.I said, isn't Hong Kong also China?Just go.Just lend me your notes after the interview. Yuan Guoqiang is really quite a buddy.

The next day, I sent a report to Beijing via the Paris branch of Xinhua News Agency based on his interview notes: Xinhua News Agency, Tel Aviv, February 8 (Reporter Tang Shizeng) Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Moshiyaga said in an interview with Hong Kong "Ming Pao" special correspondent Yuan Guoqiang in Jerusalem yesterday: Israel very much hopes to establish diplomatic relations with China.The differences between the two countries on the Palestine issue should not be an obstacle to the establishment of diplomatic relations. Moshiyaga told Ming Pao in Jerusalem that diplomatic relations and political opinions should not be mixed together. Even if political opinions differ, good diplomatic relations can still be established. "Diplomacy is a communication tool. Both sides can maintain different opinions, but if political Confused with diplomacy, you actually deprive yourself of the medium of communication. France and Israel have different political views on the Palestinian issue, but the two countries have good relations.”

He said that he very much hopes to establish diplomatic relations with China, "but when to establish diplomatic relations depends on China, and we are ready."On the issue of Taiwan, Moshiyega said that Israel recognized the People's Republic of China in 1950, but Israel still hopes to maintain business contacts with Taiwan. "Trade activities have increased by two or three times, and the more the better." Currently, Israel has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and only maintains non-governmental, academic, and commercial exchanges.Israel has an academic exchange institution in Beijing.With a consulate in Hong Kong, Moshiyega hopes to continue to maintain his consulate in Hong Kong after 1997.

... After returning to Beijing, my old friend Liu Shangyu, the dean of the Police Academy, told me that during the war he had read the news I wrote on the big reference and was very excited.Perhaps the Chinese police have always paid special attention to the efficient and authoritative Israeli police! On the evening of February 11, as usual, I went to "my restaurant" to have dinner with Japanese reporter Shinichi Murata.This is a small restaurant in Tel Aviv that can't be cheaper.I spend $20 here every evening for a green salad with chicken nuggets called shishilik and a can of Coca-Cola.This meal of Jewish fried chicken, the size of seven or eight pieces of strawberries, was the only animal protein I supplemented every 24 hours, until I swallowed even the parsley and peppers dipped in chicken fat.After that, I picked up the remaining two "pita" cakes for supper and breakfast the next day, and bought flatbread on the street at noon.In this way, 20 days can be spent on the funds allocated to me for 10 days.Boss Lin, who directed me, ordered me to save every penny as much as possible, and strive to persist until the last day in Israel.Like Patton in liberating Europe in World War II: "Attack! Attack! #####! Don't go until you run out of gas. 1 The prices in Israel are so expensive that the hotels I live in are only for lodging The fee is $180 a day.

After the meal, Murata and I went to the IDF (Israel Defense Force, Israel Defense Forces) office on the first floor of the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel as usual to see if there was any news.An Israeli second lieutenant told us that there might be an armor exercise.Murata and I immediately signed up at the registration desk. But until the night of February 12, my application to cover the armored drills of the Israel Defense Forces had not yet been approved.At this time, Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Jiefei also entered Israel by land from Cairo.After negotiating with him, he went to the university to conduct an exclusive interview, and I tried to interview armored soldiers exercises.

Israel has been inseparable from its armored soldiers since its founding.Since the Battle of Cambrai-Amiens in the First World War, the tank force has become a decisive force on the ground battlefield because of its combination of artillery fire, mobility, and communication capabilities.In the history of war, all soldiers who mastered the essence of tank warfare have achieved unexpected success: Guderian and Rommel in Germany; Patton in the United States, Malinovsky in the Soviet Union and Sharon in Israel.The Israeli-made "Merkava" tank is said to be as excellent and mysterious as the American M-1 Abrams, the British Chifutan, and the German Leopard-II. I am thrilled.

As early as World War II, Guderian ordered the Stuka pilots to sit on the leading vehicle of the charging tank unit to achieve the purpose of air-ground coordinated operations. Once the German tanks encountered the enemy's anti-war weapons during the charge, The Stuka pilots sitting in the tanks called the Stuka planes to suppress the air, so as to cooperate to break through the enemy's defense lines.The Wehrmacht was invincible. In the four Middle East wars, the Israel Defense Forces played air-ground coordination and infantry-tank coordination to a perfect and invincible level.It developed until 1982 when Ariel Sharon led the Israeli army into Beirut and drove the PLO headquarters to Tunisia in North Africa.

In order to see the true face of the Israeli armored group, I finally had to turn to Miss Ben-Aba, who only heard her voice but didn't see her face. In the early morning of February 13, I rented a car with Japanese journalists Shinichi Murata and Takashi Matsukawa to join a convoy of the Israel Defense Forces.The trip, which may have depended on the intervention of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, made me the 18th out of 20 journalists. In front of our convoy was a big Chevrolet jeep, with two four-meter-high whip antennas at the rear of the car slanted backwards by nylon ropes.Immediately behind it on the right was an open jeep, with guards carrying Galil rifles, helmets and Kevlar vests. After entering the Negev desert, we drove along a simple road guided by the Israeli flag and red and white, green and black, red and black, green and white, and yellow and black flags. The samba road chassis we rented kept touching the ground, and with the convoy, we climbed to a high ground.Look around and there are Chevrolet Jeeps all around you.We were arranged on the sunny side of the hillside, with a nylon air defense net overhead.Not far away, several towed kitchen vehicles were preparing breakfast.I walked over, took a picture of a cooking truck, and asked the cooking soldiers where they could pee.An Israeli soldier politely took me into a hut built with white iron in the desert. This is the field toilet. Surprisingly, green toilet paper is also prepared in the toilet.All garbage should be packed in black plastic garbage bags.Only an army that loves its environment so much can be invincible and win every battle.It's hard to imagine what a spitting army can take and what it can defend. The Israeli army prepared a free breakfast for the visiting reporters. Drinks ranging from orange juice, hot milk to coffee were all available, steaming hot, all conjured up by the cooking truck.After breakfast, Israeli soldiers put the discarded garbage into black plastic garbage bags and carried away, and the highland was restored to tidiness.I've only seen such neat units in WW2 depictions of Rommel's Afrika Korps, Guderian's "G" tank corps.When I was a child, I saw a line from Zongze Kaoyue Fei that I can recite to this day: Order to shake the mountains outside the treachery, the team is strictly rewarded and punished Will focus on strategy and not on bravery, high defense and low defense Take the lead and always show love Received a gift from the Yuan army to return to the land, pointing to the day and singing to determine the prosperity The essence of its military management coincides with that of the Israeli army, but it is a pity that such a well-organized army is rare today. I spotted a colonel with a beret pinned under his left epaulet, leaning on a Chevrolet Jeep and dispatching troops in Hebrew.I walked over and a guard told me not to photograph the officer. An officer who called himself "Colonel Shimon" briefly introduced the subjects of today's exercise in English.On the simple road in the distance, the flatbed trailer carried the 155mm G-5 cannon made in South Africa and quickly rushed along the road, disappearing behind the mountain in the distance. Five minutes later, the group of G-5 cannons began to bombard the distance.The artillery fire lasted for about 10 minutes. The sandbags in front of us suddenly started to move, and the camouflage cloth was suddenly removed. It turned out that dozens of M-60 tanks and M-113 armored vehicles had been lurking under our noses. The M-60 with active armor sprayed white smoke and rushed forward, making use of the terrain to leap forward and cover each other for shooting. The M-113 armored vehicle followed closely behind, and the tanks and motorized infantry covered each other. We followed closely behind in three ten-wheeled heavy trucks, watching tanks and motorized infantry charge alternately.During the fierce battle in the desert, my Nikon FM-2 suddenly stopped working.At first I thought it was because the battery was dead, so I removed the MD-12 motor, and I could roll it by hand, but it still couldn't be moved.I knew I was going to be in bad luck.The camera fax machine is a precious piece of equipment that I depend on for a living, and if it breaks, I'm completely doomed.Because in 1989 alone, I took 700 films, which is equivalent to opening and closing the shutter 25,200 times.My poor Nikons have been doing this for over four years, starting in 1987.I carefully unscrewed the lens, and painfully found that the reflector had been turned up, the screws connecting the titanium alloy steel shutter had been worn out, and the shutter was broken into several pieces... The director of the photography department of the Associated Press declared: "I must give those who sacrificed their lives Good lads who make bets with top-notch equipment, and they'll break the bank." But my cameras are all old stuff, and the FM-2 was never a professional model. Fortunately, I still carried a Leica given to me by Lin Chuansai, the former deputy director of the photography department in Beijing.But this Leica only has a 35mm wide angle.In order to get a larger image, I jumped out of the ten-wheel truck and ran forward through the quicksand.I don't want to annoy a guy behind him who claims to work for AFP: "Yamamoto, (YAMAMOTO), if you go any further, I'll burn your passport!" I don't know if this white guy is calling me, just crawl The last M-60 tank, unexpectedly this kid chased me straight up and pointed my nose with his index finger: "Hey, take the Lycra, if you go ahead, we'll have to beat you together." I guess this kid His father or grandfather must have died in Pearl Harbor, or his mother was ravaged by the Taijun and made him a bastard, otherwise he would not call all yellow people Yamamoto.Seeing how dissatisfied I was, the kid turned around and said to a big white girl dressed like a mushroom with big flowers: "Where there are Japanese, there must be bad things!" Two AH-1 "Cobra" anti-tank helicopters roared over our heads and fired rockets at the tanks on the ground, but my interest was greatly dampened by the broken camera.When I jumped down from the M-60 tank, I didn’t know where I was hanging, and a half-foot-long hole was torn off the leg of my jeans. I fell headfirst to the ground like a rabbit shot by an arrow. I sat on a bare sandbag, my mouth was full of sand, looking around, the Israel Defense Forces in the M-113 armored vehicle had jumped out of the armored vehicle and began to charge. Hovering on the ridge, the propeller rolled up the yellow sand that covered the sky and the sun, and the tiger watched the infantry sweep away the remnants of the enemy, and the engine was deafening. The tanks that made their debut in Cambrai-Amiens in World War I do not show any traces of their past today.The "Stuka" attack aircraft that suppressed enemy firepower and covered tank attacks in World War II also disappeared.Since the U.S. military equipped UH-1 helicopters to the 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, military helicopters have become an indispensable carrier for army operations.Armed helicopters with stronger firepower, communication, and mobility have directly participated in tank attacks. The unit in front of me is at best an armored brigade, but in a short one-hour military operation, the participating arms involved scouts, artillery, tank troops, motorized infantry, electronic jamming troops, communications troops, engineers, transport troops and Army Aviation. Among contemporary armies, the Israel Defense Forces is the only army that has won and never lost a battle.This point was confirmed by the expert General Xu Yanbin after I was hired as a researcher at the Armored Forces Academy half a year later.No wonder Sharon Kuang of Israel said: "Give me an armored division, and I can take Arish in a day." So far, I am the only Chinese who has acted with this proud unit known as the world's largest army. I don't see tanks like the Israeli Merkava or the American M-1 Abrams, not even the M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, let alone the AH-64 APA Odd anti-tank helicopter.It can be seen that this exercise is nothing more than a political response to the bluff of the Iraqi "Scud" attack, but this has strengthened my estimate that it is impossible for the Israeli army to attack Iraq from land.Because even the road raid speed of the M-1 Abrams tank is only 70 kilometers per hour. It is impossible for Israeli tanks to attack Iraq after crossing the Arab territory of thousands of kilometers at a speed higher than 60 kilometers per hour. .Because the main engine of the tank that needs to be overhauled for 500 motorcycle hours, the fuel consumption of a single tank of 1,000 horsepower, and the field supply line of thousands of kilometers are all insurmountable obstacles.From a military point of view, this kind of raid will lose the effect and initiative of the Israeli army's mysterious desert raid, and from a political point of view, it will lose even more. Three days later, I finally had my Nikon repaired and it cost me close to $300 to replace the damn shutter!I just hate that this Nikon abandoned me when I needed it most.