What the war does to us

[Classical_Liberal]

What the war does to us

In all the argument surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we've rarely heard the voices of the conscripts, many of them teenagers, who make up the occupying army. Linda Grant spends five days with an IDF paratroop company, hearing their defiance and their misgivings

Part II: What the war does to us

Saturday November 29, 2003
The Guardian

From the roof of the house on the edge of the village, the great bowl of the valley shows a biblical landscape, a rocky hilltop and, in the distance, the white towers of Nablus. Along the dusty road, Palestinian men, women and children are toiling under a hot sun, barred from driving by an army roadblock: an old woman in a blue velvet dress, her face white and sweating; a woman holding a sick child in her arms, its eyes rolling; a water engineer trying to get to a meeting in Nablus to sign a contract. A Red Crescent ambulance with a doctor and a driver. On the roof are sandbags, camouflage netting, an Israeli flag; beyond the walls, in the garden, garbage, pizza boxes, a cardboard target of a soldier with chest sections marked. At the beginning of this year, the army occupied the top floor and roof of the Turabi family's house. It was their bad luck that its position on the edge of the village of Tsara, overlooking all the roads from Nablus, made it an ideal watchtower for soldiers charged with stopping suicide bombers entering the cities of Israel. They arrived a week or so before one of the Turabi sons was due to get married and move into the new apartment his parents had built on the top floor for him and his bride. Nine months later, there is still no wedding. Concrete slabs have been raised in front of the gate, anyone who passes before their door is subject to a checkpoint and the ones the army doesn't like the look of have to put their identity documents into a slit in the

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1094637,00.html

[seventhson]

1. Thanks for this link. I have traveled all over Israel

and as an American who is not Jewish (I went there when I did a historical exhibit (on the Underground Resistance in Europe) at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and I was given an all expense paid tour as a VIP) I spent a lot of time asking questions and getting off the beaten track to talk to Palestinians, Arabs, and the young Israelis.

I think that this piece is pretty balanced -- and yet it misses a key factor for some reason: many of the young soldiers and those who had finished their duty were toitally fed up with "the war". This was before the latest intifada. many were pissed off at the situation and dreamed of emigrating to the US or Europe. I heard a number of young soldiers say they were sick of the "holocaust" mentality and that the situation in Israel was unlivable.

I also spent time with those on the right -- the elders --- who were die hard anti-Arabs and hardcore Zionists -- but not so much religious as culturally. Some, however, were profoundly religious.

The best experience I found was in a "mixed" community in the Old City of Jaffa where Jews, Arabs (Christians), and Palestinians mix and even operate businesses and restaurants together. They are like old hippies smoking hash in hookahs and drinking Turkish Coffee by the Mediterranean port where Jonah went seabound for his encounter with the whale.

I also saw some minor violence. \Our bus was stoned by one young boy (8-12) in Jericho -- my military commander tour guide laughed it off after the sling I saw the boy holding let fly a rock which ricocheted off the side of the bus banging shockingly loudly - and the guide and our Protector said: Now you can say you got stoned on the West Bank.


I became convinced that peace is possible there between these cousins who are descendants of Abraham fighting over the inheritance promised them in "the books".

But as long as we fuel the flames of hatred, especially we Americans with our self-righteous bullshit which serves neither side there, as long as we do not take a stand for peace and justice and security for both sides -- the killing will continue.

Like it or not, this is a US war in Israel. WE pay for the tanks. WE support Sharon. WE support Arafat (just as we supported and support the Bin Ladens and supported Saddam).

It is OUR money paying for the occupation and OUR money paying for the suicide bombers too.

But Bush and his cronies control those funds for THEIR profit and gain.

2004 will be decisive and this is why Bush must be defeated and I believe Dean must win for their to be a renewed hope for peace.

When Bush and Sharon and Arafat are gone, then peace can come to both the Palestinians and the young people of Israel.

[bemildred]

2. Thank you for your testimony. nt

[Violet_Crumble]

3. I couldn't agree more...

There won't be any peace with Bush, Sharon and Arafat around, and while there's so much vitriol and near-hysterical coming from segments of the US population. I guess it's a matter of waiting till leaders who are interested in peace gain power and hoping that in the meantime there'll be something left for the Palestinian people to have as a state. I don't hold out much hope of there being anything there for them in even a decade if things keep on going as they are...

Violet...

[seventhson]

4. more comments on MY comments?

Please

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Were you asking me for more comments?

Or was that a request for others to comment?

Violet...

[Resistance]

6. great post, seventhson

I, too, am absolutely convinced that peace is possible between the "cousins who are descendants of Abraham" as you aptly put it. Frankly, it is a fact which I have never questioned.