There is occasionally a bit of a disparity between the IDF’s motto of not abandoning a soldier in the field and how it actually works out in practice.

There are two ways this disparity comes about.

On one hand, we have Ehud Barak’s willful abandonment of soldiers in the field on more than one occasion (Tze’elim and Kever Yosef)– leaving them to die. This is what gave him the nickname “Ehud Barach” (Ehud Ran Away) –even before he ran away from Lebanon.

On the other hand, we have occasional negligence, human error, and plain stupidity. It looks like the third (stupidity) caused today’s mishap with the Golanchik who got left behind in Gaza.

As someone who got left behind in Lebanon many years ago after being sent out to do a very sensitive (and secret) mission – I can attest that the truth is, is that despite all the safeguards, mistakes happen.

Of course, that my immediate officers didn’t notice I was missing for a few days while I was wandering around the streets and roads of Lebanon until I hiked back into Israel was negligence (after I had completed my mission, I finally realized they weren’t coming back to retrieve me).

Though now that I think about it, I wonder who got kitchen duty while I was gone – they must have noticed the dishes piling up. :)

That I didn’t get shot on the border was luck, that I wasn’t shot in Lebanon was skill, and both times with the grace of God.

Anyway, mistakes happen, but I’ve met on another occasion another person with a similar story, so it is apparently not an unknown phenomena under battle conditions.

My point is though, sometimes soldiers get left behind by accident, and sometimes their superiors (usually a Prime Minister) abandon them in the field for political expedience.

It’s a shame the politically motivated abandoners get to keep their jobs.