Fun and Games and Shooting

Down Enemy Planes

In Israel, the new trend in summertime fun
is military-themed summer camps and
courses, with activities ranging from
recreating famous air battles in an F16
simulator to countering military cyber
attacks
Diana Bahur-Nir | 09:59, 02.08.19

In a room located inside a central Israeli movie

theater complex, kids in flight suits are attending
a briefing. Their mission today includes flying
south, over the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and
Kiryat Gat, a course they will have to chart
themselves. Their vessel is a state-of-the-art F16
fighter jet simulator developed by American
aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Brigadier General (res.) Ilan Boger is giving the

brief. As an Israeli Air Force (IAF) pilot and former
squadron and airbase commander, he has given
countless such briefs and debriefs to professional
combat pilots. Now, he commends a group of
summer campers at the Squadron, an air force-
themed activity center operated by a group of
former and current air force personnel.

The Squadron. Photo: Tomi Herpaz

The Squadron is designed to look like a real-life

F16 fighter jet squadron, complete with briefing
rooms and 10 flight simulators. As part of its
summer activity agenda, kids recreate the 1981
Israeli air strike that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear
reactor near Baghdad. Dubbed Operation
Babylon, the surprise attack has since been
inducted into the Israeli military hall of fame.

In another part of Israel, school-age kids on their

summer vacation are training in Krav Maga, the
martial art form developed by the Israeli security
forces. Activities bear names such as “preparation
for operational fire” and “counterterrorism 101.” A
local paintball company offers daily activities
designed based on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
enlistment process and basic training, moving
participants through a military-style obstacle
course and teaching them how to fire semi-
automatic (paintball) weapons.

But not all army-inspired summer fun is about

combat and fending off pretend attacks. Like the
real Israeli army, which is mandatory for most
Israeli citizens, military-inspired summer camps
offer something for everyone. One of the most
sought-after military units is the infamous Unit
8200, the Israeli army’s NSA equivalent known to
secure its veterans lucrative careers in the Israeli
tech sector. Tech-leaning kids can now use their
summer vacations to train in thwarting
cyberattacks and other skills that could help them
secure a place at Unit 8200 and other top
cyberwarfare units when they reach enlistment
age.

“These summer camps are an expression of the

cultural militarism that characterizes Israeli
society,” Kobi Michael, a senior research fellow at
Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security
Studies (INSS), told Calcalist in a recent interview.
In Israel, the military enjoys great prestige and
appreciation, coming up at the top of the list of
trusted national institutions, he said, which is why
it is so present in Israel’s collective culture.

During the summer months, the Squadron offers

a three-week youth leadership workshop, which
includes 15 four-hour sessions. Week one starts
off with basic aviation lessons: how to take off,
control the plane, navigate, land, and perform
maneuvers. By the end of the week, the kids have
“qualified for solo,” meaning they are ready to
operate the flight simulation independently.
During week two, participants will learn how to fly
in formation and have their first taste of air
battles and air strikes. The final week will see
them take on advanced tasks: planning and
executing a flight, briefing and debriefing.

The Squadron, simulation. Photo: Tomi Herpaz

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“The ethos of the fighter pilot is strong in Israeli

society, and many kids want to experience it,”
Colonel (res.) Ariel Brikman, IAF flight instructor
and former airbase and squadron commander,
told Calcalist in a recent interview. “It is a really
cool experience to fly a real F16 simulator and
meet real pilots,” he said. “But it is just a platform
through which we get to talk about values and
work on skills that would serve them outside the
simulator.”

Twelve-year-old Lihi Blitzblau is one of the

participants in the Squadron’s program. “I’m the
kid who really, really, loves the military,” she told
Calcalist. “My dad was in the army for 20 years,
and when I heard about the Squadron I was
immediately excited,” she said.

“I went to so many regular summer camps, and

they are all the same, one day you go to the
amusement park, the next day to the pool. There’s
never this moment when you say: this is
something I haven't seen yet. Here, everything is
new,” she said. Plus, she added, it feels really
authentic.

“This is not flight school,” Boger told Calcalist. “We

are not trying to produce pilots, just to give kids
life skills. To know how to look at something you
did and say whether it was good or not. To be
prepared. That is how they trained us in the air
force.” According to Boger, among the values
bestowed during the program are how to work as
a team, how to ask for help, and paying attention
to others. “Working with the simulators just helps
shed light on things. We treat the kids at eye level.
They are not here to pass the time, they are here
to receive values,” he said.

“When I dreamt about this type of place, I thought

about teenagers,” Colonel (ret.) Kobi Regev,
founder of the Squadron, told Calcalist. “I wanted
to teach them about precision, about
professionalism, why it is important to work as a
team, how to bounce back from failure. Even
great pilots experience painful falls, and you need
to get over it quickly,” he said.

Colonel (ret.) Kobi Regev. Photo: Orel Cohen

"Stop the attack or I'll remove you from this class,”

guide Shahar Ofek warned one of the kids at a
cyber summer course in the greater Tel Aviv
metropolitan area. The kid had successfully cut off
Ofek’s internet connection. More than a sign of
youthful misbehavior, this is an indication that the
lesson had sunk in. In this course, the objective is
to teach kids how to fend off real live hackers.

Harari Computer Studies offers coding and

cybersecurity summer courses to children as
young as 11. On its website, the company waxes
poetic on the importance of cyber studies with
phrases like “growing threats” and “security
intelligence.”

“Most people think that cyber is like in the movies,

you push a few buttons and intercept a missile,”
Ofek said. “It isn’t like that at all, it’s a sisyphic
process,” he said. “We teach the kids python
programming language, which hackers use, and
we teach them how to write code and how to use
hacking tools. If you know how to hack you know
how to protect, and vice versa.”

According to Ofek, each one of the kids

participating in the summer program already
knows how to block someone from getting online.
One of them pulls this trick on him on a daily
basis, he said. Another kid broke into his
neighbors’ printer and then informed them of its
vulnerability. In class, Ofek said he tries to teach
them the fine line between a bit of cyber fun and
criminal activity. “I teach them how to be white
hats, not black hats,” he said.

Across 10 two-hour classes, kids learn web

protocols, how to conduct and counter a phishing
attack, what are malware, how to use them, and
how to write them. They also learn how to
carefully trade on the darknet and deep web.
Later, they will learn python, with lessons such as
writing a network scanner, games, and a machine-
learning algorithm for pattern recognition. Kids
who want to enhance their studies can add a daily
three-hour Java course.

“The content here is at an academic level,” Nurit

Harari, a computer science teacher and the owner
of Harari Computer School, told Calcalist. For over
a decade, she has been teaching courses and
summer activities to kids. “Our courses demand
strong ability and motivation. You don’t come to
play, there’s no pool. We deep-dive into coding,
and all the kids here are very goal-oriented, with a
desire to serve in a prestigious technological unit
in the army or secure a future career in tech.”

Ten-year-old Oded Birenbaum told Calcalist he

first became interested in coding a year and a half
ago. Teaching himself Python through YouTube
videos, he then moved on to Java. For a while, he
has been seeking a more organized frame for
learning.

“My dream is to be a high-ranking software

engineer for Microsoft or Amdocs, and I want to
serve in Unit 8200,” he said. “I want to be a white
hat, the one who stops the hackers with the black
hats. White hats hack, say, for the Mossad, to find
out things needed to protect the country, unlike
black hats that are interested in criminal things
like money or world domination.”

Oded Birenbaum. Photo: Tomi Herpaz

A paintball field near central Israeli town Kfar

Saba looks a lot like a typical IDF training camp,
complete with camouflage nets. On a recent
summer day, 150 summer camp kids arrived here
for bootcamp training.

“Get in line, nobody talks, listen up,” shouts a

stern paintball guide, likely recalling her days as
an IDF squad commander. “Who can list the
Israeli security forces?” Finding the kids’ answers
—army, police, ambulance—to be incomplete, she
tells them about Yasam (Israel Police Special
Patrol Unit) and Yamam (Israeli counter-terrorism
unit).

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“When I ask you a question, you will answer ‘yes

ma’am’ or ‘no ma’am,’ is that clear?” she shouts.
This newly formed kiddy squad’s first order of
business is to go down for five push ups.

Yadin Elbaz is the manager of the paintball field.

In a recent interview with Calcalist, he explained
that the activity is designed to make kids feel as if
they are part of a “special forces” unit. They move
throughout the day as if completing various
stages of enlistment, are shown order drills, and
face a military-style obstacle course.

Older teens come for daily activities in a special

set designed for urban warfare: densely-built
houses, burned vehicles, and sniper posts.

“Kids who play Fortnight all day look for real life
activities that resemble the onscreen experience,”
Elbaz said.

Paintball. Photo: Abigail Uzi

While they offer activities designed after real

military tasks, like shooting down enemy planes
and thwarting a cyber attack, most of these
summer programs try to keep military connection
as inconspicuous as possible, billing the activities
as “youth leadership workshops” or “professional
summer classes” for kids, and not as a type of
pre-military venture.

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Ami Niv’s summer camp in the Israeli town of

Hadera is the exception. It offers, according to the
ads, Krav Maga training and other combat
preparation to kids as young as seventh graders.
Among the activities taught are self defense
against cold and hot weapons, counterterrorism
101, and something called “aggression training.”

Krav Maga training. Photo: Abigail Uzi

Ami Niv said he developed an educational

program that starts early and leads all they way to
enlistment age. “Our content represents
knowledge that’s necessary to life here. Living in
this country means you must be prepared for a
terror attack,” he said. “We call our programs
‘training camps’ and kids as young as 12 train in
simulations of attack. Our bodies are weapons of
self defense, and when necessary—of attack as
well.”

“Today kids as young as 13 and 14 become

interested in the different military units,” Moshe
Yalovich, a Krav Maga instructor at the Ami Niv
summer camp, told Calcalist. “It is linked to the
gaming world they spend most of their time in,
like Fortnight,” he said. “We take it from the
screen to the real world, and the parents are
happy that their kids get some time off screen.”

TAGS

Israeli Culture The Squadron

Israeli Air Force Israel Defense Forces

IDF Military Culture Summer Camp

Krav Maga

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