Thomas Wictor

I love being the bearer of good news. This very important story has been buried by nonsense, fear-mongering, propaganda, and agenda-driven lies. I don’t know how Israelis and Jewish people will react, but however you feel is the proper response. It’s perfectly legitimate for you to be conflicted. The tempo of these dramatic changes is speeding up; it’s disorienting. At any rate, allow me to rock your world.

The Israeli and German armies have conducted joint exercises in urban combat in recent weeks — the largest joint training ever between the two countries. Over a hundred German soldiers arrived in Israel three weeks ago to train at the Tze’elim army base in the south. In addition to infantry and logistics troops, Germany sent five heavy military vehicles.

The German defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said during a visit to Israel in May that her country’s closest security operations were with Israel. Israel has received five submarines from Germany, with a sixth expected soon.

The 110 German soldiers from the 1st Panzer Division were joined by the deputy divisional commander, Brig. Gen. Ernst-Peter Horn. During his stay he visited Yad Vashem; he said he felt a duty to visit the Holocaust research center and memorial on his first visit to the country.

The exercise, meanwhile, was designed to share experience in infantry. “We’ve had experience in that over the past 10 years — in Afghanistan and Kosovo,” Horn said. “The Israeli army also has experience.”

The two sides demonstrated their modes of operation in urban areas and appraised the other’s methods. “This doesn’t mean we’ve changed anything, but it’s always good to evaluate things and see something different,” Horn said.

Poor Haaretz. They’ve been had. Journalists have become obtuse stenographers. Here’s the real story, which is much more exciting.

The German armed forces are called the Bundeswehr, the combat arms of which are the Streitkräfte. It just so happens that the 1st Panzer Division is Germany’s premier fighting unit, designated the Intervention Force Division (Division Eingreifkräfte). These men and women are specifically trained for high-intensity combat. They’ve very physically fit and wield massive firepower. The infantry are mechanized, called Panzergrenadiers.

Haaretz said that the Germans went to Tze’elim army base. Well, it’s actually Tze’elim Training Base, and it includes the Tactical Training Center, also called the Urban Warfare Training Center. What’s so special about the Urban Warfare Training Center, you ask?

Baladia.

It’s a 7.4-square mile (19 kilometer-squared) fake municipality. “Balad” means “village” in Arabic.

This is where the IDF and most of the world’s armies train in MOUT (military operations on urban terrain). Haaretz was right that the German Panzergrenadiers were training in urban combat. But why did they go to Baladia? The Bundeswehr has Schnöggersburg, its own MOUT training center.

This is why the Germans went to Baladia.

The Urban Warfare Training Center is a mock city located in Israel’s Tze’elim military base in the Negev desert. Built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and funded largely through U.S. military aid, the 7.4-square-mile generic city consists of modules that can be reconfigured by mission planners to represent specific towns. Known as Baladia City—the Arabic word balad means village—it is used by the Israel Defense Forces as well as by the U.S. Army to prepare soldiers for urban warfare.

The simulated city includes shops, a grand mosque, a hospital, a Kasbah quarter, and a cemetery that doubles as a soccer field, depending on the scenario. The facility is equipped with an audio system that simulates helicopters, mortar rounds, and prayer calls. During training exercises, Arabic music is played in the background.

Germany’s premier combat division is training to fight in Middle Eastern cities.

According to Haaretz, the Germans and Israelis trained together, comparing techniques. That’s not true. Before I tell you what really happened, here’s a word on what the Germans say and what they actually do.

In 2003 the Germans were stridently opposed to the invasion of Iraq.

But guess what? Not really. They were just pretending.

BERLIN — Three years after Germany shook up the transatlantic alliance with a firm “no” to involvement in the Iraq war, a German parliamentary committee is looking to find out how solid that stand really was.

Revelations over the past week that two German intelligence agents stayed in Iraq during the war and helped American forces assess targets has shaken political Berlin.

Two members of the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) marked targets for American bombs. And there’s this, a shoulder patch I bought. It’s the only military shoulder patch I own.

The lettering stands for ABC-Abwehrbataillon 7, or Nuclear Biological Chemical Defense Battalion 7. The Germans sent this unit to Kuwait to protect the country against WMD that Iraq might use.

Didn’t know either of those two things, did you? The Germans will cross their hearts and swear to you that they’re now pacifists, but is this the weapon of peace lovers?

It’s called the Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard, or Flakpanzer Gepard. Is it or is it not totally horrifying, a super-fast zombie with too many spinning appendages and a kind of ice-cold, smug hostility.

German infantrymen are trained to do this.

They’re firing from the hip, hitting targets at 765 yards (700 meters). That’s unbelievable.

And here’s the insignia that their paratroopers wore in Afghanistan.

Back to the German-Israeli “joint exercises.”

Several nations use the Urban Warfare Training Center at Tze’elim to hone the skills they’ve developed. That’s not what the German Panzergrenadiers were doing.

The German Defence Ministry announced on Sunday that 100 of its soldiers are going to receive training from the Israeli army. A spokesman for the ministry said that the exercises will last three weeks and come within the framework of Germany-Israel military cooperation.

According to Welt am Sonntag newspaper, the German troops will develop their urban warfare tactics at a special training centre in Israel. This will include fighting against terrorists sheltering behind civilians in populated areas and fighting an enemy which uses tunnels in combat.

The Panzergrenadiers were being trained by Israel, to fight an enemy that uses human shields and digs tunnels.

Do the Russians use human shields or tunnels? Call me crazy, but I think that this has nothing to do with Europe.

Haaretz said that the Panzergrenadiers brought “five heavy military vehicles.” The Germans were careful to not identify these conveyances. Therefore I’m guessing that they were two infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and a platoon of three main battle tanks (MBT). If so, the IFVs would the Puma SPz (Schützenpanzer), and the MBTs were the Leopard 2 PSO (Peace Support Operations).

This is the Puma.

It has a crew of three, carries six Panzergrenadiers, and is fitted with reactive armor that explodes when hit. This renders enemy projectiles harmless. For mowing down opponents, the Puma has a 30mm autocannon, a light machine gun, an antitank guided missile launcher, and a grenade launcher.

Here’s the Leopard 2 PSO.

To make peace, the tank has additional armor, a bulldozer blade, a remote-weapons station that allows a machine gun or grenade launcher on the turret to be fired from inside, surveillance cameras, less-lethal crowd-control measures, upgraded communications and guidance systems, and a shorter main-gun barrel for narrow alleys.

Guess who’s going to join Israel and the Arab League in mopping the earth with every bad actor in the Middle East?