I think [about] the ordinary things from serving in the Judea and Samaria Area, [about] initiated [operations] that have no purpose. You simply take soldiers from the platoon, sometimes a sergeant, platoon commander, squad commanders, take them out on an initiated [operation]. We would do a lot of [initiated operations] in Einabus, there’s no stone-throwing there. Just because there’s a village in the area, so you do initiated [operations] because the regional brigade stipulates that every company has to have one initiated [operation] per day. So you put on a [military] raincoat, a [bulletproof] vest, grab a weapon and start walking around in the village, for no reason.

What’s the objective of the initiated [operation]?The objective as defined in the battalion is to make our presence felt.

Is this something you tell your soldiers in the briefings?Yes, yes, yes. Our objective is to make our presence felt, so they see that the IDF is here. In all seriousness, there’s no purpose to it. You just walk around asking for an ID, then go on your way. It’s completely different from a 'fishing net' (the deployment of temporary checkpoints on roads in order to apprehend a specific person), in that with a fishing net you know there’s someone, you know his ID [number], you know what he looks like, his ID [number], and then everyone deploys checkposts at once and the person is found, which makes sense. A person about whom you have intelligence information that [he] wants to carry out a terrorist attack, then you open a checkpost, find the person, and fish him. But in initiated [operations], you’re walking around, you’re good, you’re like having fun.