In November of 2002, the government of Israel decided to uproot IDF camps from populated
areas in the center of Israel and to relocate them to the Negev desert, which will soon
prosper as the area becomes a hub for career army personnel and their families.
Ben Gurion himself said that we didn't finish yet our job. We started to build, we didn't
complete. I think it's one of the most important moves in our history.
The new national military training center integrates seven training schools. Approximately
90,000 soldiers will train every year in the new training center, which is named after
the late prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
Upon completion, the Sharon Base will have a capacity of 10,000 trainees at any given
time.
The military training campus is no less than revolutionary. For the first time, IDF military
schools will share ideas, instruction methods, facilities, and activities.
Moving to the South, this is part of making Ben Gurion's vision come true. This is probably
the most significant change in the Israeli infrastructure for the next decade. It's about
modernizing the IDF. It's about training differently, doing it in an effective way. In our time,
to be a pioneer... well, this is to be in the IDF and moving to the South.
It's actual to build a city here in the Negev, bringing 7 bases into the training center
from different disciplines, we make a huge change in the way they work together in the
field. We bring to the field soldiers that are much more qualified.
The Sharon Training Base is a trigger for so many circles of a new vision for the Negev.
More employment, more schools, the traffic system is going to be changed. Call it "making
aliyah" to the Negev.
As a former soldier, officer, a Chief of the General Staff, I have great appreciation and
admiration for the Friends of the IDF. It's very moving. You know that you, as a Paratrooper,
as a soldier, in the Suez Canal in the Attrition War, in Lebanon during the First Lebanon or
Second Lebanon War, knowing there's someone somewhere, or far away, in a place that you
might not know, does care about you: it's more than material support. It's about the
moral support, which is so appreciated by each of us.
Never hesitate to dream. Always have a vision. Always have a dream. And the larger the dream
is, it's more realistic.
I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, the people of the FIDF. Without
you, it could be much more difficult to make this vision come true. Bring your friends,
bring your families to see this miracle in the Negev and to help us more and more to
make the Zionist vision come true.