These are people who work in factories and kibbutzim, who serve in the army, who feel they have no other home but Israel. For them, serving in the army is the act which represents their greatest commitment to Israel Also the army, along with the intelligence agencies, is the institution which has saved Israel from defeat. Their technological precision and martial skill put the Israeli Defense Forces among the highest-ranked military forces in the world.
Yet the skill of the army and the important role it plays in Israeli society has created another, some would argue, pernicious affect on the country. By all accounts, the army has helped to forge a country where militarism and military subjects play a prominent role.
Young women wearing Levi's jeans and sweaters--like students in Harvard Square--can be seen carrying Uzis with groups of friends. It is customary in Israel for one member in a group of off-duty soldiers to be armed. Some of the best military historians in the world reside in Israel--at Hebrew and at Tel Aviv Universities. Indeed many of the worlds experts on blitzkrieg, tank warfare and the Wermacht, live there. And Karl Von Clauswitz's military treatise is displayed prominently at Tel Aviv University bookstore.
Perhaps the man who best exemplified this strand of Israeli culture during my trip was a Brooklyn-born man named Mike Ginsberg. Ginsberg had come to Israel just before the Yom Kippur War in 1973. He served in the army and eventually settled at Kibbutz Misguv Am, on the Lebanese border.
Ginsberg's large size, in a country where most are more wiry than burly, and strong Brooklyn accent are anomalies in Israel. This American who emigrated to Israel and brought his mother along with him is in charge of kibbutz security. Armed with a large handgun and a walkie-talkie with which he can communicate with military authorities, Ginsberg is on the constant lookout for armed men crossing the border from Lebanon into Israel.
Ginsberg lives in a kibbutz that has faced frequent terrorist attack. Once terrorists held several children hostage in the kibbutz's children's house. One child lost his life. But now Ginsberg claims that he is confident about his, and the army's ability to prevent trouble.
"I am the happiest guy in the whole world," said Ginsberg, standing before the Lebanese border where the signs of a battle between two Shiite Muslim factions--flares and white billowy puffs of smoke--are just beginning to show themselves. "As long as I'm on top of things, I'm in control of my own destiny here."
And for Ginsberg, who recalls being thrown out of a third floor classroom and being called a "Jewboy," and who has lived with constant violence since he moved to the kibbutz adjacent to the war-torn Lebanese border, "the rest of the world can go fuck itself."
Ginsberg's attitude is unfortunate, but understandable, considering the circumstances under which he lives. But, on a broader level, Israelis face a time of troubles before the current troubles are over.
Security analyst Joseph Alper, the last person to talk to my group, cited several potential outcomes of the current situation. If war breaks out between the U.S. and Iraq, Israel could be dragged in. And if it doesn't, Israel still faces the threat of Saddam Hussein and his bag of chemical tricks, and the more menacing possibility that he could soon develop the atomic bomb.
Even if nothing happens with Iraq, the prospects for peace in Israel are now precarious. Attitudes, such as Faoud's, have shamed and tragically disappointed members of the Israeli left wing. Proponents of talk with Palestinians now feel they have no one to talk to. The right wing has one attitude about this: we told you so.
For now, Israel faces many changes, however the current difficulties work themselves out. Beyond the troubles with Iraq, Israel faces the challenge of assimilating hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews. And beyond that, the future of Israel will be left only to events, and time.