Jan. 3, 2009. At my Bar Mitzvah I made a pledge to do whatever I could to defend the Jewish people, and, if possible, with the IDF Paratroopers.

Eleven years later here I am.

We all have dreams. Only a small few of us are privileged to realize them.

So if I survive this, I will have lived my dream. If I don't, then I will die next to my best friends doing what I have always wanted to do.

I am privileged to take part in a legacy that began with Simeon and Levi rescuing their sister, Dinah: taking great risks to defend the Jewish people.

For me there are no more politics. I am not a hero. I am a 24 year-old Jewish pharmacy technician, banker, and aspiring writer that dislikes missiles falling on his apartment and his friends sitting in bomb shelters.

I have only one prayer. That, live or die, I do not fail the Jewish people. And even more importantly, that I do not fail my friends.

--YCB