"Hopefully the commando brigade's capabilities won't have to be tested in battle, but if they are tested, it will play a pivotal role on the future battlefield," Col. Avi Blot, commander of the IDF's Oz Brigade, told Israel Hayom Sunday, in his first interview since he assumed the post last August.
Blot declined to discuss the covert operations of Oz, the ground forces' commando brigade, but stressed that his troops are ready for battle.
"Our primary objective is to create a new offensive tool for the IDF. We are preparing for battle. My wish is that they won't need us, but if they do, the sword had better be in our hands and we will make it as sharp as possible," he said.
"The enemy is always learning and evolving and the IDF needs to update itself. We are everywhere. There is no front in Israel, from the north, to Judea and Samaria, and to the south, where we don't have a commando team. This is what the commando brigade was created for, to be the first on the lines."
Analysts consider the current month the "tensest since the 1967 Six-Day War," with the Palestinians marking Nakba ("Catastrophe") Day in commemoration of their displacement during Israel's War of Independence, the planned relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Blot was calm about the potentially volatile events.
"I leave the fretting to the media. The fighters' default mode needs to be 'war tomorrow.' We have to be the public's protective vest," he said.
This week, hundreds of soldiers from the Oz Brigade, which includes the elite Maglan, Duvdevan, Egoz and Rimon units, toured the Lod area in central Israel with veterans of the 1948 War of Independence. The veterans described how they fought in the Arab cities and made significant gains despite their small numbers.
Maglan specializes in operations deep behind enemy line, Duvdevan in undercover urban warfare operations, the Egoz reconnaissance unit in counter-guerrilla warfare and Rimon in desert warfare.
Also this week, Egoz soldiers ceremoniously exchanged their traditional brown Golani Brigade berets for red paratrooper berets.
Today's fighters "are much better than we were," said Arik Nehamkin, who took part in the capture of Lod in 1948 and went on to become an agriculture minister.
Veteran Naftali Arbel said, "We fought because we had no choice. We had three water canteens per squad."
Another 1948 veteran, Haim Shvavo, pointed out his great-grandson, a soldier in Rimon, and said proudly: "I got to see my great-grandson serving in the unit."
