Best Face Forward

“What do we do if Boaz Porat’s head flies on this one?”

It was May of 2000, and the IDF was preparing to dismantle its garrisons and withdraw from the security zone in Southern Lebanon created 15 years before, as a buffer against attacks after the Lebanon War. For Engineering Corps officer Boaz Porat, that meant leaving his home in Karmiel and crossing the northern border for a slew of operations that would secure the border before the anticipated Hezbollah takeover of the area: closing down routes and bridges, building embankments, and enacting protective barriers. His commanding officer knew that he was sending Boaz into the danger zone — but had no idea how prophetic that question of his would eventually turn out to be.

Still, it wasn’t really a new challenge for Boaz Porat. He’d been making dangerous trips over the border for the last ten years, in his capacity as supervisor of the IDF’s engineering unit in the north of the country that maintains heavy machinery, clears roads, and neutralizes mines and explosives. He’d be there somewhere in the darkness of enemy territory, driving in a vehicle that can’t muster more than 10 kph, working with his trademark calculated thoughtfulness and patience. Sometimes he’d have to extract a tank that had gotten stuck or repair a caterpillar track that came apart in a hostile village. Other times there were more complex operations — like dismantling minefields and incendiary devices — occasionally performed while bullets whistled around his head.

“When we were called up to secure the area during the pullout, I’m not going to say it wasn’t a bit frightening,” Boaz Porat tells Mishpacha more than 20 years later. He had a three-year-old daughter and an expectant wife at home, and while every mission into the Security Zone was nerve-wracking, this one was especially complex.