The Hummer H2 and H3 are big SUVs that are mainly driven by the wealthy in different parts of the world. These cars however, have very little in common with their tough brother, the H1. In fact, the H2 is based on a smaller SUV, the Chevrolet Tahoe. The H1 is a civilian model, derived from it's military cousin, which are the various versions of the AM General HMMWV, a name that was converted into "Humvee". Soon, the name 'Hummer' was also derived from Humvee, which sounds a bit tougher than 'Humvee'. We have welcomed many copies of The AM General HMMWV on Autogespot, all of which have been in military specification. A group of these military spec vehicles, have been spotted in the village of Malkiya, Israel, by spotter DragonDriver, who was recently on holiday in the country. He tells us about his experiences with Israel and the Israeli Army vehicles below.
"Because of the wedding, me and my family travelled to Israel, a country that is mostly known for it's continuous unrest due to ongoing wars. If you walk around in Israel, the atmosphere is one that is very serious. During the nine days I was here, I did not feel agitated or felt unsafe. This is due to the continuous presence of weaponry, more so than in the Netherlands, mainly due to the military service. Boys have to do three years service and girls have to do two years. During this period of service, they have to leave their weapon equipped with them at all times. At one point, there were two young girls, around the age of 20, who passed us by in a tourist's shop. They both had M16 machine guns equipped on them. This is not an unusual sight in Israel.
In the nine days I was in this beautiful country, we visited both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, we drove passed camels in the desert, we slept in the desert, swam in the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. An educational component of the holiday program was a visit to a group of soldiers who guarded the north border with Lebanon. They are there to keep troops of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, out of Isreal. There was a provocative copy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque placed to make it clear to Israel, on the other side of the border "as we strive for." The Lebanese main goal is to both conquer Israel and the famous city of Jerusalem. This mosque is funded by everyone's friend Iran. On top of the mosque was an Iranian flag, not Lebanese.
To the young soldiers, their task is to protect Isreal. Part of their military arsenal is the AM Generals, which they mainly patrol the border with. These AM Generals are different than the AM Generals we already have on Autogespot. They are specially built for the Israeli army and therefore bear their own name, Hammer Memugan rather than HMMWV. The type designation, M1114, is equal to the American name. The last part of the name, ve katlanit, is used because of what weaponry is fitted to the car. These cars were equipped with a 12.7 mm machine gun on the roof, which I managed to operate. This is done through a HD rear display and two joysticks. We were not allowed to take photos of the interior, due to security and safety issues. A nice detail is the name 'katlanit': this is a term from ancient Jewish law books. It literally means 'fatal woman', and this is a woman who has been widowed twice. To prevent more deaths, the woman may not marry again. "
