No, not the US variety from the hippie-dippie 60’s. We now rely on poverty, patriotism, fake promises and economic hopelessness to fill out the ranks of our military. But in Israel, they still have a draft, and a movement is afoot by some young people there to skip out on their military service. Why? Let’s find out:
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – To many she is a traitor, a coward and a parasite. But 17-year-old Israeli “draft dodger” Saar Vardi says if more people thought like her, the Middle East would be a more peaceful place.
Vardi is part of a growing group of young Israelis who are refusing to sign up for mandatory military service, often in protest over the Jewish state’s occupation of Palestinian territory or because of last year’s unpopular war in Lebanon.
Army statistics show the number of young people who do not enlist for military service has crept up in recent years to more than 1 in 4 men in 2007 and more than 43 percent of women. […]
The trend to avoid the draft — which has been joined by some entertainers — has sparked heated media debate and government pledges to act. […]
Ultra Orthodox Jews have been exempt from military service for years, and their ranks are growing. But more secular Israelis are also finding ways around joining up, sometimes by saying they are conscientious objectors or unfit.
Some say they are loath to fight for an occupying force and are willing to go to jail for their beliefs.
Others say they do not trust Ehud Olmert’s government with their lives after a report said the prime minister acted impulsively in going to war against Lebanon last year.
I guess according to AIPAC’s lights they are “self-hating Jews.” Or maybe they are smarter than the right wing zealots among AIPAC and its supporters among neoconservatives and in the Christian right who love to support Israeli militarism — from the safe distance of the Washington, DC think tank offices, that is. I don’t know, but maybe, just maybe these young Israelis might have a better idea. Certainly they believe that the continued military occupation of the Palestinian territories, and continuous and intermittent invasions of Lebanon are not sound strategies for peace in the Middle East. Who knows, they just might be right.
