From Generation to Generation– Israeli Society and the Presence of the Conflict

My son is named after my brother who fell in the War of Independence. This was exactly twenty years ago when the almonds of 1948 were in full bloom. I am named after my father’s brother, who fell in the ranks of the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw. This happened in 1920.

My father was named after the brother of his father who was murdered in the Ukraine during a pogrom by rampaging peasants. This was in 1891. . .

Are we now still at the beginning of the road? At the middle? At the end? I only know this:

In this half century in which I live and breathe, fear of death has never left our homes.

Moshe Shamir(Amos Elon. The Israelis: Founders and Sons, 224-5)

http://www.geocities.com/jelbaum/Central/shkediafields2.JPG

When I returned, they told me that

There was no house. Nothing.

It’s nothing

And I need

To again go out to my wars

Where my own personal blood will be spilt

And I was but one and now many

Soon again

but one.

Yehuda Amichaihttp://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=981296419&size=o

In 1982 I was again mobilized. The war in Lebanon was my fourth war. This time my elder son joined me. We came to bid my parents farewell. Around the coffee table we counted the wars we share among us. My father fought for the liberation of Palestine from the Turks in 1917-1918 under a British flag. He fought the Arabs in 1920, 1929, and 1936, and was wounded in his last war, in 1948. Then I took over: 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982. Now came my son's turn, and very soon my second son will be drafted. Almost a century of warfare was discussed and shared around a coffee table by three generations of an ordinary peace loving family. . .

Defend your homeland –

Enlisthttp://www.cet.ac.il/history/posters/

When the hundred years war enters its second century, questions raised cannot be dismissed as mere battle fatigue: What is our share in that endless cycle of bloodshed? Is it really predetermined by the Zionist program and is it still necessary to realize its objectives? Is it preprogrammed in our genes as Jews to be forever a nation apart? If our lives are bound to revolve around the next call up, how can w possible strive to attain other cherished goals, such as the creation of a better society? Are we entitled to make a choice – are we not compelled to formulate a new national agenda to replace the century old Zionist program?

Meron Benvenisti, Conflicts and Contradictions. ix.

for the sake of peace – prepare for war

http://www.cet.ac.il/history/posters/

I know that one's got to be strong. That one's got to know how to get over it. But no one shows me how to do all this . . .Be strong!!! . . .

I saw a boy, the only soldier left in his platoon. All dazed, his eyes red and empty. He didn't smile. Just asked and hoped that someone else might have been saved. No, no . . . there wasn't anyone else left.Your throat chokes, your eyes cloud over and you run outside, to get over it. But the wind that's usually so good, so refreshing, only brings in great gusts of stench from the dead and clouds of heavy black flies. . .

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2006/07/24/lebanon-israel-topper.jpg

Someone passed by and said "Shalom"! He smiled and asked, "How're things?" I got out a dry choked "shalom" and walked on. I am not strong. I can't smile today . . . maybe tomorrow

Rivka Niedt on El Arish 7 June 1967

(Avraham Shapira, ed. The Seventh Day. 96)

I never wanted to be in the army but after three years you want to puke of the army. It gives a lot to the soldiers but enough is enough. I'm going home and I'm going to have a hot shower and sleep in my own bed. Then I'll get up and play soccer, see my girlfriend and start to live. . .

http://web.birthrightisrael.com/general/winner1.htm

I don't think that there is one of us who doesn't know someone who was killed or injured. We're in a very bad cycle. There are many who think that this chain of events is leading us nowhere and we have to stop it, and someone else will say, no, we should hit them harder, in their neighborhoods and houses . . . But I am not a politician, I am only the one who is saying you can pass, you can't.

Udi, at the end of his three year IDF service.

(Linda Grant, The People on the Street. 128-9.(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1025000/images/_1026804_roadblock300.jpg

They asked Eli to write the eulogy. . . "I was numb. I forgot how to write. There are no words to say goodbye to a brother. Hours later, Eli and his unit were back at the front. "No psychologist. No counseling. They expect us to be tough even though we're falling apart. . ."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/640000/images/_643196_funeral300.jpg

"My parents say I went in a boy and came out a man. That being a soldier made me serious, mature. We'll I'd rather be immature and happy. I've lost three years of my life. I envy the eighteen year olds in America who are worrying about college instead of remaining alive”.

Eli, towards the end of his three year IDF service.

(Donna Rosenthal, The Israelis. 61).http://www.pbase.com/xnir/image/45368724/medium

We know that without the army, there wouldn't be an Israel. We can't afford to lose even one war or we'd lose the country," avows Tamir. "For me, being an Israeli means defending the country. But how many more call-ups can we have?"

Tamir, Liron's older brother, an infantry reservist.

(Donna Rosenthal, The Israelis. 49.)

Isn't it a relief to be on a two-day leave? Liron pauses before answering. "It's not like I'm going home to another world. You can't get away from this war. . . . "Sometimes the front is minutes from

home".

Liron, an IDF soldier.(Donna Rosenthal, The Israelis. 48).

1992 - the rate of recruiting to the IDF was 83.7 % of the boys and 67.4 % of the girls.

2005 - 77.6 % of Israeli boys and 59.7 % of Israeli girls enlisted to the Israeli Defense Force.

YNET (27.12.06) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3345286,00.html

A total of 22,305 men and women have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860, the year that the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods.

In the past year, since Remembrance Day 2006, 233 members of the security forces - police, IDF, Border Police, Israel Security Agency and other organizations - have been killed in the service of the state - 119 in the Second Lebanon War.

66 civilians were killed in hostile actions since last Independence Day, mostly during the Second Lebanon War, bringing the number of civilians killed in terror attacks since the establishment of Israel to 1,635.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2007/Remembrance%20Day%20and%20Israel%20Independence%20Day%202007

Yitzhak, it is said ,was not offered as a sacrifice.He lived a very long time,Seeing the good ,until the light of his eyes dimmed.

But he bequeathed that hour to his descendants.They were bornWith a knife in their heart.

Haim Guri, Heritage.

Are we now still at the beginning of the road? At the middle? At the end?

Moshe Shamir(Amos Elon. The Israelis: Founders and Sons, 224-5)

http://www.geocities.com/jelbaum/Central/shkediafields2.JPG

For educational use only

Scott Copeland

- תשרי תשס"ח07אוקטובר