This summer a film about the Six Days War became very popular in Tel Aviv. Entitled Every Bastard A King, the show included scenes of tank battles in Sinai. A young Israeli soldier who had actually fought in the battles was commenting on how realistic the battle scenes in the movie were

If peacee ever conmes to Israel... The governmeent will have to offr the Israelis more than a tough stance toward the Arabs and a strong army, and some means will have to be found to integrate the North African and East European cultures that exist independently, side by side in the country.

"I took my mother to see it with me. When she saw the war scenes, she became hysterical." After a brief silence he concluded, "If I had known about the scenes, I would not have taken her to it."

This soldier would never have questioned the belief that each Israeli should sense strongly and personally the delicate equilibrium that characterizes life in Israel. Yet he also sincerely felt that his mother should not be required to suffer. He preferred that she be ignorant of the dangers her son faced.

The soldier should have posed some questions which simply did not occur to him. Must every Israeli feel his situation so strongly? Must this tension between fear and security, despair and hope, this constant viewing of life in terms of black and white, be so pervasive?

It is difficult to argue that it should not be so widespread without feeling that somehow you are being dishonest. After all, the Arab threat is real, both within and outside the country. But if the threat is a fact of life, must it engulf you wherever you go in the country? Must it dominate the silver screen, walk in the streets with you, and be dropped on the beaches of Tel Aviv? Won't a people fight for and believe in their country without this?

The challenge to the belief that the fears and hopes must be omnipresent can come only in unanswered questions. The current situation in the Middle East allows little room for experimentation. The sense of security cannot be risked.

If peace ever does come to Israel, the people will have to answer the questions they now ignore. Responses to the demands of kibbutz youth will be harder to find. The government willhave to offer the Israelis more than a tough stance toward the Arabs and a strong army, and some means will have to be found to integrate the North African and East European cultures that exist independently, side by side in the country.

The biggest adjustment, though, will be on the level of the individual. Now when the doctor practices his medicine, he does it for Israel. The bus driver drives his bus and the street vendor sells his oranges, for Israel. Israeli life requires that the first commitment be to the state. Yet one must ask what type of nation Israelis will produce when they begin to act for themselves.

You cannot leave their country without faith in the ability of these people to accomplish the goals they set for themselves. But in a nation growing as rapidly as this one, flexibility must be as highly valued as self-discipline and sacrifice; if the Arabs ever make peace, the task of pulling together and building this nation might not be easier, it may become more difficult