This was not your ordinary American request. Visits to Israel by high-ranking US officials, from the president on down, are generally extremely well-planned. Every second is measured, every minute planned, and the timetable scheduled months in advance; huge preparatory delegations survey the area and prepare a special dossier for the president, secretary of defense or secretary of state on everyone whose hand they'll shake during the visit. And yet, during US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s visit to Israel, the Americans threw a curveball: Hagel, they said, would very much like to meet Israeli soldiers — to talk to them, to look into their eyes, to learn about the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) first hand, to reach out and touch it.

Hagel's schedule was already packed from start to finish. The Americans proposed shoehorning this visit on Tuesday morning, April 23, in between a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hagel's trip to the airport for his flight to his next stop. The office of Defense Minister Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon delegated this task to the IDF, which came up with an improvised, though brilliant, solution. The Oketz Unit, the Israeli canine special-forces unit, considered the best of its kind in the world, is right on the route. There was one problem: the route is Highway 443, the convenient and quick alternative to Highway 1, the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But Hagel did not go to the Oketz Unit via Highway 443, because the eastern part of the road passes through territory that was captured in 1967. The US-Israeli entourage traveled down Highway 1 as usual, and then cut across to Ben Shemen Forest, within the Green Line, where Oketz soldiers and their dogs were waiting.

Hagel and his colleague Ya'alon appeared at ease, happy, enjoying every minute. At one point, they asked if there was a dog named Bogie in the unit; when the laughing died down, the Israeli minister of defense retorted by asking whether there was a dog named Chuckie in the unit. The immediate mission of the Hagel visit, establishing a rapport between him and Ya'alon, was deemed a success. People who participated in some of the meetings reported real chemistry between the two. Among other things, the two of them met alone for close to an hour. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israeli chief of staff, joined them for 15 minutes. Hagel is not said to be enamored of some of Ya'alon’s opinions, particularly when it comes to the Palestinian issue, but he apparently realizes that he is dealing with a serious, realistic, fair Israeli — one who won’t try to pull a fast one on him, who won’t try to get him entangled in the impossible and who will tell him the truth.

The visit covered all the immediate issues on the agenda: Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, the Palestinians. The crowning glory of the visit was the major arms deal the Americans put on the table to the Israeli military high command — including cutting-edge radar, air refueling tankers and the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The Americans seemed eager to sell the package to the Israelis, who were equally enthusiastic. An Israeli defense official told Al-Monitor this week that if it had been possible, Hagel would have happily come to Israel in an Osprey and left it here as a gift.