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From yahoo:
Israel hastily musters its citizen army
link
JERUSALEM - Roy Bass emerged from the Mediterranean waves at noon Friday for a Popsicle break when, surfboard in hand, he heard his cell phone ringing on the beach. It was a recorded message: "An emergency draft has been activated."
Four hours later, the 27-year-old computer programmer was at an army base, in full uniform, preparing to head to Israel's northern border, where troops were massing to take on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israel's mighty military is comprised of thousands like Bass — ordinary civilians who, at a moment's notice, respond to the call to arms.
On Friday, several thousand reservists were drafted for immediate, emergency duty. By Friday night, the army chief of staff announced the response was full, plus thousands who volunteered on their own initiative.
"The reserves have proven themselves once again," said Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the army chief of staff.
The enthusiastic response highlights the intimate relationship Israel has with its army. Nearly every Jewish Israeli has served in the army, and opinion polls consistently show the army to be the country's most trusted institution.
Since Israel became independent in 1948, reserves have been the backbone of its military, conditioned to drop everything and be mobilized within a day or two to back up the far smaller core of active duty soldiers. Men from all walks of life — and increasingly women with special skills — instantly become soldiers again.
Israel's standing army of about 186,500 troops can jump to 631,500 with rapid mobilization, according to figures from the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
The system has proven effective in all of Israel's wars. In 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked en masse on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, thousands of reservists were summoned from their homes and synagogues and rushed to the front lines to push back the offensive.
Despite Israel's increasing reliance on technological superiority, military service remains a rite of passage. All 18-year-old men are drafted for three years and will continue to do reserves for about a month a year into their 40s, by which time many will have sons in the army or reserves. Women are drafted for two years.
As Israel's military dominance has grown, it has become less reliant on its reserves. The retirement age has been gradually lowered from 51 to 40 in some cases, and the number of reserves called up has steadily dropped, with the army focusing more on those with specialized skills, such as air force pilots and intelligence officers.
Some view the task the way Americans view jury duty — boring and disruptive, especially for college students and the self-employed. Most, however, welcome it as a break from the rigors of daily life, a chance to bond with old comrades in a setting where a backgammon board is often a more important accessory than a rifle.
In peacetime, a reserve stint is something to be haggled over with a commanding officer with all sorts of excuses — a college exam, an overseas vacation, a spell of dental surgery.
But when the call-up is an "Order 8," military parlance for an emergency summons, the response is visceral.
"All of a sudden it becomes a real war, it changes everything," Bass said by cell phone from his base in northern Israel.
Bass serves annually in his armored battalion, but this is his first Order 8.
Where once Israelis were drafted to war by air raid sirens, passwords over the radio and recruiters going door to door, today they are summoned by computerized calls to their cell phones.
When Bass got his call-up, he sped home and swapped his bathing suit for an army uniform.
"There was no dilemma, no doubt in my mind because it is something you grow up with, that this is the most important thing there is," he said. "It's ingrained deep inside you — if they call you, you go."
also, a friend of mine sent me this:
link
i haven't watched it yet but it seems relevant.
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07/24/06
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tylth
yeah, like me over a dead, raped female body in early rigor mortis
07/24/06
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tylth
test: rape
07/24/06
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tylth
aha. not banned.
07/24/06
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Doron
In Israel, for instance, you cannot vote unless you are a jew.
That is not true, arab israelis and chrstians are allowed to vote as well. Israel has the largest population of atheists in the world per capita. i will address the rest of this a little later.
07/24/06
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djugel
There is no Palestine
There might not be an Israel ...
There is only ZEWL!
07/24/06
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jdg
zuul, u mean.
07/24/06
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bleen
jdg said: "zuul, u mean."
quoth Captain Creative Spelling....
07/24/06
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jdg
bleen said: " jdg said: "zuul, u mean."
quoth Captain Creative Spelling...."
its all in the wrist
07/24/06
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Doron
don't think Israel should have ever been created, and I agree that it has no right to exist.
Israel creation was ratified by in 1947 by the UN and rejected by the arab league, it was created largely post 1939-1945 in which the jewish nation has come to an understanding that if they will not claim a stake and defend themselves as a nation they will be anhiliated, so as for a motivation for its existense, the european death camps are a preety good reason for it to be there. Note that at the times the territory of what is now palestine and israel was occupied by the british. Jews who tried to sneak into the country fleeing europe ware sent back by the british forces when cought, mostly to their death.
Israel came to being under the assumption that 1. the world has deep rooted antisemite traits and will go to great length to kill jews when possible. 2. no one will adi the jews in their time of need. so they better build a place for themselves, preferablly in their historical home.
The reasons for what is actually going on right now are complex, and i will get into it from what ik now if asked. i have a very intimate knowledge i regret to say with southeren lebanon and the hizballah
07/24/06
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Doron
was in a hurry. sorry for spelling
07/24/06
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ignatius
doron.. please go on. i'd like to hear more.
the issues certainly are complex.. but it almost seems they could be boiled down basic hatred.. hate begets hate etc.. after so many years you'd think people would just learn to move on. everyone could have their place and all that.
there's lots of really really shitty things going on. thigns that might effect one or two families on each side but that are just outright bonehead moves by the authorities that make no sense. in general i'm just annoyed by all of it entirely. i can't imagine what it's like to live there. i think i'd split.
07/24/06
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djugel
deltasleep said: " I don't think Israel should have ever been created, and I agree that it has no right to exist. ."
???????????? ... wtf?
07/24/06
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djugel
Once again .. I'm just not "edgie" when it comes to politics and world issues. I must use that energy with music?
07/25/06
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Doron
Of course the issue may well boil to hatred and its ill results. that is however not much to work with in our sad world.
The issues at hand, even ignoring the much longer historical issues that are presnt in this sorry ass patch of dry land for the past 3500 years or so, and focusing on only the most recent issues, will find a country that has no pragmatic leadership at present (iran) that is striving to gain dominance by developing nuclear arms that can reach central europe with already tested ballistic missles. they are the suppliers for weapons to the hizbullah and the timing of their unlawful incursion and act of war across undisputed international border to israel in its proximity to the G8 summit should not go unnoticed. Iran is providing a case study to the US and israel what should happen should they intesify their pressure to stop irans nuclear ambitions. But lets be clear here. Iran would not be able to even think of these stated goals without Russian money, Russian technology, and Russian directives.
We are seeing a battle right now that has tragic results to the people involved, they are playing a mnor skirmish in a larger battle that is brewing of epic proportions, but not a war that we have seen before. in the past we had wider contexts by which we applied conflicts and understood them. from the 50 to the mid 80 it was the cold war. It colored almost every cnflict on the planet. Todays context is globalization, and all wars we see today are fought in that context. if we examine the wider implications of them.
I will not get into justification about israel existense. cause its theortical and most of all it ignores the reality thats it is here, and if the people that live there have any say about it, it is there to stay. The atrocities that the israeli regime commits on palestine etc.. are real, but lets not kid our selves . this is war, and that is how war looks, and israel is at war since 1948, and in constant state of alert.. i should make it very very clear. You would not want hizbullah as a neighbour. they are not a revoultionaty force fighting for freedom. they are a cynical suicidal terrorist group (yes terrorist, i feel justified using this word in thier context) that are commited to their stated idea of destroying the jewish state. and by proxy western values, in the time and means of their choosing.
Wars are the most tragic events in human creation. to witness its horror is to learn something of human nature. but it also leads to a very awful truth. wars are sometimes events that cant be overcome or bypassed. once the causes and conditions ar e there, its almost impossible to stop. From a political point of view the current israeli government was elected to power based on their verey promise to slowly disengage from palestinian territories and return in a gradual pace to the borders pre 1967. In view of their disengagment from gaza, and that basic premise, the government of israel could not afford to look weak to the public, and was forced to engage in war. so they could actually stay in power and promote an idea that might in the future bring peace. not in 1 year or 20 years but maybe in 50.
Modern talk of war has weird language connected to it. perhaps the most tragic of all modern terms sn the term - collateral damage. in my mind its in not some side effect of warfare it is THE effect of war. sometimes we forget that.
The second term that is entirly fictional, is proportionality in warefare- to ask an army to restrain itself from using its force to attempt to utterly defeat its enemy is a redicolus idea. you cannot engage in comat like that, and anybody who tells you differntly is a fucking liar.
I am not trying to tell you israel is justified in what it does. personally i think it does have much of a choice right now. but i might be wrong. i am not very wise in this things. but i will wager we have a complex issue involving the wills of many nations large and small in one of the key regions of the 20 and 21 century. i will also caution against the idea, that it is an issue simple hatred or karma, or whatever. while i completly agree with the general premise. it is hubling to understand how incerdibly complex this region is.. and how simple answers are not helpful at all, especially to the people there. it is very importnat to try and educate yourself as much as you can if you really care. the history that is a relevant reading material is long.
I hated lebanon. i hated being there, i hated being a solider there. I now have friends, dear friends who are called into duty, for a war that completly disrupts their lives. from which they might never return. they do this, as melodramitc as it may seem, for their children and families, and future they are promising to them. So does the enemy, with the same motives and the same promise. The tragedy is compounded. Bit despite my understanding toward the enemy here, of which i have seen acts of bravery one cant simply imagine. i maintain they will be defeated. and here is why.
Israel, despite its many problems, and horrible acts at times. is striving to be a nation among nations, that creates technology and culture, that participates in the discourse of the liberal world. as a struggling Civil secular (yes... secular) society they maintain the long view. that interconection and common values will prevail. This view stronger than the other side. that maintains that the world is made solely for their version of their god. that women should know their place. and that the rule of law is just a human convention. Im not claiming israel is not sharing the guilt of the same sins, but at least its not trying to make them set in stone. People tend to color israel as this mono culture evil. There are not many countries in world where political debate and active citizenship are more alive then in israel. it is THE main subhject of every meal. every family gathering, and most coffee breaks. no other part in the world i have been too is so keen and passionate about fnidning a solution to its regional problems. i know i have been around.
Sorry if this sounds to much. and maybe argumentive. i am trying to maintain a natural view. and my heart goes to the lebanese people that are being raped from the skies as we speak. at the same time i am thinking about friends of mine, more dear to me then family that are going towards the shit right now. doing what their country demands of them so they can maintain a civil society. I miss them much, and i dont sleep at night. for all of them. I left that place. i carry with me a personal burden that i felt i could no longer stay there. at least for now. But there isnt a day i dont think about it. or the people that go through this unimaginable horror.
Sorry. i am a little drunk. and very very tired.
07/25/06
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ignatius
thanks for sharing Doron.
in general i feel like the middle east is bart simpson... i want to be homer and just grab little bart by his neck "why you little..."
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