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.
When one adds depleted uranium to the mix “service” to one’s country takes on a whole new dimension.
Too many ways to respond – here’s one. If this is an attack on AIPAC and its inluence in this country, then I applaud you. If, however, this is a straw man , then you are missing a key difference StevenD and its a big one. The structure of the Israeli country is that everyone shares in the responsibility for the safety and continued survival of their country.The military functions under the concept of a universal draft! And thats the difference.Please keep in mind that I am not in favor of any form of indescriminate killing of anyhuman being. Having said that, Everyone in israel is invested. If our country were to reinstitute a draft the solution suddenly is there. Our philosophy changes.
Once again, we are examining a foreign culture using “our” needs as the basis for our position. We claim that we want a solution yet we are not, as a country, willing to use our strengths and good offices to face up to honestly publish our true goals.
This is only one of many aspects to discuss this regarding your post.
I think they are realizing that there is no military solution to the Palestinian problem.
“examining a foreign culture using “our” needs as the basis”?
If it were not for the carte blanc American support of Israel’s quest to gain the remainder of old King David’s Empire (West Bank), it is possible that we might have peace in the region before now. But the Israeli right wing, not America, is calling the shots over there. Therefore, when we see innocent civilians blown up in their homes by American F16s or by Made in USA howitzer shells, or kids being killed or maimed in Lebanon by our cluster bombs intentionally dropped by the Israeli airforce, it becomes our responsibility to stop it.
But the point goes beyond the proposition of dragging the US down through guilt by association. We are associated; we provide the support for it all. Lebanon was not invaded in 2006 without Bush approval, nor was Gaza. According to Bush (if I may interpret), sometimes you have to do a lot of killing to make a point.
But draft dodging, I believe, has more deep lying motives, which has to do with the perceived rights of the Palestinian people, which continued to be trampled on as Israel continues its 40 year military occupation of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, whose sole purpose is its obvious colonization of the land through continuing ethnic cleansing, house demolitions, destruction of farmlands and orchards, and so forth. What decent Israeli soldier would want to be part of a settler-IDF team out to destroy Palestinian homes and expropriate lands belonging to a defenseless Palestinian farmers or a village. It is just a calculated if slow ethnic cleansing that has continued since 1948.
And there is no reason, given the many historical accounts of 1948, for any Israeli not to know that Israel was created on stolen Palestinian land.
I therefore salute these young people, who refuse to be part of this ongoing injustice by avoiding the draft, and who join the Refusniks and the Soldiers of Conscience, who have bravely come forward to tell the truth about the war against the Palestinians. It is not a war; it is military occupation pure and simple.
And it reminds one of the Vietnam era in the US, when ordinary people spoke up about a carnage that had no point.
One thing we knew in the ’60’s – you can’t fight a war without foot soldiers.
When an Army is made of only Generals & other officers, it is impotent. Convincing the ground troops – the enlistees – not to fight, is key.
In this war, the enlistees are coming around, slowly, and at terrible cost to themselves. When they refuse to fight, this war will be over.
Hey StevenD- Off topic but anyhooo- Bob Herbert- today.
He used that dirty word– MARCH!
Its coming! More than a million.
That’s some op-ed. Good for him. Nice of the NYT to finally abandon their NYT Select strategy.
I’m surprised the media are apparently presenting this as something new. This is not a new movement at all.
New to Americans, perhaps.
“I think they are realizing that there is no military solution to the Palestinian problem.“
They need to realize that Israel is the “Palestinian problem”. If Israel would clean up their act the problem would go away.
You must have read Jeff Halper’s, The Problem With Israel. Truth telling by an Israeli peace activist, whose sons are all conscientious refuseniks.