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From yahoo:
Israel hastily musters its citizen army
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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:
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i haven't watched it yet but it seems relevant.
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07/25/06
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djugel
hehe
I feel like the Iraq situation is like a Simpsons episode in Season 8 ... the one with "Bad Babysitting" ..
07/25/06
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djugel
Doron said: " People tend to color israel as this mono culture evil."
It's really scary that a lot of civilized people around the world think that way ... I can't really fathom it.
Where are the jews supposed to go if they can't have Israel? ... Poland? .. Germany? ... Hell?
07/25/06
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djugel
ignatius said: "religious states are bad news. religion... in the end.. is bad news. there's so much hatred, ignorance, pride piled on top of more of the same.. it's a giant fucking toxic toilet bowl."
I personally like most religions that are B.A. "Before Abraham".
I just think it'd be really funny if all these religions are actually true. Like Ghostbusters.
07/25/06
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ignatius
djugel said: " Doron said: " People tend to color israel as this mono culture evil."
It's really scary that a lot of civilized people around the world think that way ... I can't really fathom it.
Where are the jews supposed to go if they can't have Israel? ... Poland? .. Germany? ... Hell?"
wherever moses leads them? seriously.. wouldn't it be less painful to just abandon your religion? j/k seriously though.. just to play devils advocate here... where's the font for sarcasm?
who was living in israel before it was created? where did those people go? honestly.. i dont know this part of history. if anyone can suggest a good comprehensive book i'd like to read about it. please dont suggest the torah/bible etc..
does every persecuted religion/race whatever get to have their own country? obviously WWII meant something different for jews and having a place where jews all over the world could go and feel safe was important but was it perhaps a radical solution? of course a radical solution is a rational response to deathcamps and genocide but i wonder what other options were considered? carving up a chunk of germany and calling it israel? you know.. making a new nation in europe would have seemed easier to accomplish to me.. the boundaries of various empires, nations etc had been carved up constantly throughout history.
i guess there was no easy way though. too bad all these old books make everyone crazy.
let's hope good ol' condi rice can whip up some peace right quick so we can all get back to er.. iraq or er... something
07/25/06
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djugel
ignatius said: " you know.. making a new nation in europe would have seemed easier to accomplish to me.. the boundaries of various empires, nations etc had been carved up constantly throughout history."
I think you have the same problem I have .. you take for granted that throughout most of history ... the world hates jews.
07/25/06
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ignatius
djugel said: " ignatius said: " you know.. making a new nation in europe would have seemed easier to accomplish to me.. the boundaries of various empires, nations etc had been carved up constantly throughout history."
I think you have the same problem I have .. you take for granted that throughout most of history ... the world hates jews."
it's fukt.
i try not to take anything for granted or make assumptions. sometimes my satire and sarcasm run away on me.
it's crazy. human beings dont seem to evolve emotionally or intellectually. it's like we walk down the same path in the forest everyday on the way to the lake and every day we trip over the same tree root and are completely surprised.
07/25/06
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Doron
`The founder of the modern jewish state is theodore herzel. he came to the conclusion, (after the draifus affair in france) that jews needed a state of their own. he then founded the Zionist movement. In 1896, he published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in which he called for the establishment of a national Jewish state. The following year he helped convene the first World Zionist Congress.
The establishment of Zionism led to the Second Aliyah (migration) (1904–1914) with the influx of around 40,000 Jews. In 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration that "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1920, Palestine became a League of Nations mandate administered by Britain. and started pleading various political powers of the time
The solution of the histrorical home of the jews made sense because political appeal, and since at that time you had to negotiate with the empires for everything. it made sense to discuss with the british empire, because at least there some one would listen.
Its improtant to remember that jews have been defined as a nation not just as a religion. people have been pursecuted as jews because their grandmother was one. there was nothing about religion there. the zionist movment was orignially a socialist inclined movment with a rejection of religion.
07/25/06
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Doron
and ignatius i would recommend a couple of books to read.but one is "what went wrong" western impact and middle eastern response by bernard lewis. about Islam mainly. the history of israel, well it depends how far you want to go.
07/25/06
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Doron
oh yeah, and one point more to add. Herzel also contemplated Uganda as a possiblity for the jewish state.
07/25/06
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djugel
ignatius said: "it's crazy. human beings dont seem to evolve emotionally or intellectually. it's like we walk down the same path in the forest everyday on the way to the lake and every day we trip over the same tree root and are completely surprised."
haha .. .. I have to admit I really dig the Greeks intellectually. I think they pushed things foward in terms of artistic expression. Pathos, Ethos, Logos .... I find that to be neato.
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