From Israeli Refusenik to Organizer

[bluesoul]

By ASAF SHTULL-TRAURING

"A car approached the checkpoint. Probably out of boredom, one of the soldiers on duty ordered the person in the car to start driving around in circles. The Palestinian driver played along with the armed soldier's game and laughed anxiously, unsuccessfully trying to hide his humiliation. What amazed me most about this event wasn't what the soldier did but what I didn't do: I didn't stop him from humiliating the helpless driver." My philosophy teacher, an extraordinary, poetic and gentle man, told me this story a few years ago. This event motivated him to declare his refusal to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Two weeks before my eighteenth birthday, and two weeks and two days before my draft date, I was on a plane leaving Israel to New York, running from what was supposed to be the next step in the natural pattern of my life, predetermined by law before I was born. Israel has a mandatory army service of three years for most eighteen-year-old Israeli citizens; I was defying it by leaving the country. When I was fifteen years old I had decided to refuse to take part in the army's violence, war crimes, self-destruction, hatred and stupidity. And so I did, and three years later I was on my way out.

Israel is a hard place to live these days. I vividly remember studying for an exam with a friend last year on the rooftop of his building, one of the highest in the city. Suddenly, we heard a great explosion. "Was that thunder?" I asked my friend, but the sky was almost cloudless. Looking down at the city below us, we saw a plume of smoke rising from the central mall. For a short moment we heard nothing, and immediately following we heard screams. Five minutes later the news reports were of another suicide attack. Two people were murdered, among them a sixteen-year-old boy.

This was not the first or last terrorist attack in my town. Weeks later, a militant started shooting in the street, killing a girl my age. A few months earlier a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus in our city, and a bomb was uncovered just a few hundred meters from my house. Recently a girl from my grade was murdered in a suicide attack somewhere in the north of Israel.

<snip>

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/asaf03152004.html

[Resistance]

1. very good article

best line: "One might wonder why Israel automatically reacts to Palestinian terrorism with its own terrorism. Do they not know that this makes Israel an even less secure place to live by empowering groups such as Hamas?"

hit the nail on the head right there. Thanks bluesoul!

[bemildred]

2. Nice piece.

Driving people nuts is a lousy way to get them to stop
blowing themselves up in your pizza parlors.

[Resistance]

3. Is the goal

really to stop suicide attacks? One has to wonder, in my opinion.

[bemildred]

5. It is hard to be sure out here in TV land.

I am usually reluctant to get into conspiratorial thoughts
without fairly strong evidence. This is not because I do not
believe in conspiracies as such, but is an application of
Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation that covers the
facts is to be preferred; the default attitude is that things
are what they appear to be. If that does not work for some
reason, then by all means let us look for subterfuge.

In this case, aside from the moral issues, the consequences of
the intifada have been so severe for Israel that I don't really
believe they could have been incurred voluntarily and with
intent. This does not mean that at one time or another some
spook may not have done something stupid.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. I'll go for the simplest explanation...

Massive stupidity and lack of foresight on the part of the Israeli government. Throw a bit of shonky prioritising where dreams of territorial expansion weigh in far above the security of Israel and its population, and that about covers most of it for me...

Violet...

[bemildred]

8. Ah, Napoleon's rule.

:thumbsup:

[_Jumper_]

7. "I hope the peace process takes a thousand years"-Ariel Sharon

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more "excessive" IDF actions weren't part of a right-wing strategy designed to incite more terrorism, which justifies not negotiating peace, building settlements, and land grabs.

[redqueen]

4. God bless this man and any other with the courage to do what's right

"The pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service."
Albert Einstein

[Gimel]

12. An option to leave

The "refusnick" chose to leave Israel, because he had that option. Not every Israeli is also an American citizen. Those few who are (relatively and percentage wise few) may not have reasonable prospects abroad.

For this youngster, the army was avoidable. I might also advise such, for fear of the young person coming to harm, more than not wanting to support the state. However, it is honorable to fight in a just war. Israel did not chose the conflict. To not respond to attacks would increase the attacks. Responding increases death on the opponents side, failing to respond increases deaths of one's own citizens.

[Herschel]

9. From Israeli Refusenik to Prison Inmate

Would be a more gratifying headline.

[rdfi-defi]

10. selfishly, you look only for gratification

while people, both israeli and palistinian, continue to die in the never ending cycle of tribal violence

[Herschel]

11. I object

to the treasonous actions of these Refuseniks. I suggest they be refused their freedom.

[BEZARK]

13. I applaud the bravery and moral principles

. . . of the outspoken Refususniks and the protesting Israeli pilots, who do not want to be part of a thuggish aggressive and colonializing army. These fine Israelis give me some hope of eventual peace, and help eclipse the army of Israel gladhandlers that hawk the aggressive policies.

[debsianben]

16. I'm Confused

You (1) attack conscientious objectors who, while willing to serve in any capacity within Israeli borders, refuse to participate in the colonial occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as "traitors," and you (2)have a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in your signature....a socialist-pacifist who described the Vietnam-era U.S. indignantly as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and advocated systematic, peaceful law-breaking ("civil disobedience") as a weapon against racism, war and injustice.

On a really basic logical level, am I missing something here?

Oh yeah, I know that Dr. King thought that Israel had a right to exist and opposed the "Zionism is racism" equation, so don't bring that quote up. I agree with him on both counts, but they're utterly irrelevant to this context.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. If he's also an American citizen...

...he seems to be off the hook as long as he doesn't go back to Israel. Sorry (not actually).

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Good for him. eom