Image shameless stolen from Rachel Papo’s gallery
Sometimes diving around in the polluted ocean of Digg nets you a rare surviving coral or two. The frequency of this rare occurrence is inversely proportional to Digg’s user base. And so the dance between culture and counter-culture continues on for eternity.
But anyway, someone recently posted a picture from a photo album of female Israeli military conscripts by Israeli photographer Rachel Papo. Little things on the net like this really help to expand one’s global outlook. This reminds me of an interesting experience I once had in Osaka.
I visited Osaka and Kyoto last December with my Japanese language classmates. We stayed at J-Hoppers Osaka, a budget hotel for cheapskates, hippies and students.
On our last night there, we stayed up late to play cards in the common room. After my companions went upstairs to rest, I struck up a conversation with the only other person left in the room. He was reading an old copy of Weekly Young Jump he found on the coffee table and he couldn’t understand a word of it. I translated the chapter for him, which turned out to be a recent chapter of Gantz. (Something about a girl who has a crush on a classmate who looks just like Kei who is supposed to be dead. My Gantz knowledge stopped with the anime…)
He was rather grateful for my translation and we ended up chatting. Apparently, he was a Jewish-Australian traveling alone in Osaka to meet up with some friends, his final vacation before he enlists in the Israeli Defense Force in a few weeks’ time. As he was not an Israeli citizen, he was not actually obliged to serve. He volunteered for military service so as to become an Israeli citizen (via the Law of Return), because only citizens can travel in and out of the country without restrictions and he wished to visit his relatives in Israel more frequently.
Image shameless stolen from Rachel Papo’s gallery
It is hard for people like myself who grew up in peacefully boring places like Singapore to comprehend just how much emotional turmoils such a decision entails, but nevertheless I felt something in me ineffably changed that night. At the time of that conversation, close to Christmas 2008, a fragile six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was coming to an end. In fact, it was not another two weeks before conflict resumed with Israel launching Operation Cast Lead. Not to mention that it had been just over one year ago when Israel had fought and won (militarily but not politically) the 2006 Lebanon War against Hezbollah.
This guy who grew up in Australia was volunteering to serve in the IDF in Israel, a country that’s pretty much fighting a low-intensity war 365 days a year and was in fact fighting Hamas militants at the time of his enlistment. He was not gungho about it, and in fact he came across as a thoughtful individual with his own hopes and aspirations that were put on hold for this undertaking. If I were in his shoes, I’d be contented with just an Australian citizenship. I don’t know if that makes me more practical or less human.
As much as I hate the ethnic tensions, nationalism and violence that drive the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I can’t help but feel that there is something admirable in his decision. There is a sense of honour in there that has nothing to do with mongered fear, vengeance or hatred. I certainly find it difficult to imagine many people doing the same thing for Singapore if the shit ever hits the fan.
It’s quite sad that I forgot to ask the guy for his contact information. I gave him my name card, but he never did drop me an email. My friends and I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo the next day and I never saw him again after that night. Hopefully he is doing fine in the IDF.
On a side note, Singapore should extend its national service to girls too. D;
“I certainly find it difficult to imagine many people doing the same thing for Singapore if the shit ever hits the fan.”
I’d be the first to run if that happens. On a side note, I thought the reason why girls are not conscripted is because of our huge man pride.
Here in germany women can join the military but unlike men, they dont have to. Also meaning they dont have to o alternative civil service in case they dont want to (like i had to -.-).
The Excuse for that is pregnancy. Yes. Pregnancy.
I demand that all women of age 18 or older get to make a decision: military or pregnancy! would solve declining birthrates too.
meh.
But Yeah, i don’t really think many would make that kinda decision here. There are many people in germany who freely join the military but those are mostly idiots or leftover nazis and most of them rethink their decision after the first 9 months…
Since I didn’t join the military to begin with and worked in a hospital for 9 months instead its not much of question which one i’d chose.
Australia is such a nice country…
Well it would be nice if our Singapore extended our National Service to girls too. Then we would have a bigger army , and NS will not be that much compulsory by then
But having women in the service would give chance for the “betting games on who can sleep with the most female officers or lesbians” that happens all the time, and had a case of it reported by the BBC not too long ago.
Sorry, I’m not seeing the drawback there.
Sorry for double post.
Ah, the military days, I had a great service for 4 years in the IDF, eventhough only 3 are mandatory for guys, (thanks to a nice office job as a computer technician), thank god the ratio of hot/not hot female sure was good (Because I only came back home on weekends).
Its nice to hear about people who are volunteering to join the army although 70% of the people I met during the service only complained about how much time they had left, crybabies.
@AppleofDeath: Yeah it happens :)
It seems like you are doing fine in the SAF.
On a side note, are you in A, B or C? You should know what I mean =D
ã¨ã«ã‹ãã€ã¾ãŸé ‘å¼µã£ã¦ãã ã•ã„。
To quote a line from Spielberg’s film Munich – “Home is everything.” – Israel is the only predominantly Jewish State in the world, and something inside the person you met must have felt the compelling conscious to serve his country, no matter he was only half Jewish.
WTF is a country? An imaginary line made to divide us from them, to separate and discriminate against others.
“If I were in his shoes, I’d be contented with just an Australian citizenship. I don’t know if that makes me more practical or less human.”
No it makes you MORE human. Why is it seem admirable to want to go out and kill people because you are told to? Shouldn’t he be pissed that the Israeli government forces people to join the army for citizenship? To move freely like a friggin human you must be a citizen? WTF?
Conscription is evil. Plain and simple.
maybe, he just wanna change something by joining the military. and i admire his decision too. To go thru shit just for some unknown reason, either protecting his Jewish half, or some other thing.
LOL I actually remember the guy…there was another Israeli guy too if I’m not wrong.
Most of SG is formed out of people with migrant ancestors, and indifference and complacence w.r.t national security is prevalent nationwide…
Having served in the military also gives guys something to lord over girls especially when all other things are potentially equal :P Male ego lol. It’s actually extremely irritating.
And the government probably wants to make girls finish their education and all that faster so they can marry and reproduce before they become too old to do so or something; 2 years may make a lot of difference…
Personally I wouldn’t choose to serve in the military. There are things much more important to me than my country. Then again someone with XX chromosomes will probably never understand how it feels.
It’s funny how some people equate childbirth with military service.
@Encodia: Isn’t that something like Malaysia’s lottery system for NS?
Out of curiosity, was he half Australian and half Jewish, or simply Jewish who was born/grew up in Australia?
Actually, the law is worded ambiguously, meaning girls are not exempted from national service. Its just that the policy makers decided not to include them for now.
Though there are quite a few women in the service as well, it all depends on where your vocation is…
RedWing:
Fundamentally, I agree with you. Nationalism is a terrible concept when viewed from a larger perspective.
But that’s not the point here. The point is that in such an imperfect reality where the government forces people to join the army to become a citizen, this guy weighed three years of his hopes and aspirations against his wish to visit his family in his homeland and made a very difficult decision. That’s what I am talking about.
His decision was not about politics or nationalism. It was just a human decision that resulted from unfortunate realities. I too wish that he didn’t have to make such a choice in the first place, but that’s a whole different issue.
KayDat
I think he was full Jewish. Can’t be sure though.
abao
Yes but it’s not in the NS policy. Also, volunteers are very different from conscripts…
Wow (sorry for the bad english, too tired from work) but I’m from Israel, and was really touched by your post. Hope the guy’s okay.
I just want to point out that only non-Israeli Jewish people (as in, YOUNG people) need to serve in the army in order to get a citizenship, without actually being born in the country or have lived in it (and thus received citizenship by law). People born in Israel get their citizenship automatically, with no relation to them doing, or not doing the mandatory army service thingy later on in life.
There are a few right-wing demagogues who think that citizenship SHOULD be tied to either a mandatory army service or a mandatory civil service, by they (thankfully) are a moronic minority.
Hm, such is the choice of free will: “you can force a horse to the drinking shed, but you can never force a horse to drink.”
Let’s forget the talk of conscription. It’s all about the choices we make: incidentally, some of your contemporaries, DM, are going through the same period of restlessness. (This is also known as “quarter-life crisis.”)
Some things should not be equated through rational thought alone.
If the guy really wanted to join the army he should have enlisted in the Australian Army! They are the only army in the world that provide free breast implants for female conscripts. This is because it raises the moral of the troops :)
Pingback: בלעדי: בלוגרי ×”×¢×•×œ× ×ž×“×‘×¨×™× ×¢×œ ישר×ל והסיכסוך הישר×לי-×¤×œ×¡×˜×™× ×™ – Yarbua
While nationalism has its downsides as mentioned, it’s also important to remember the neighborhood that Israel exists in. When your country is as small as Israel is and your neighbors as hostile as many of the surrounding groups are, it helps to cultivate a certain degree of love-of-country in the population. Israel exists in part as a refuge against the anti-semitism that’s existed in much of the rest of the world (culminating in places like Auschwitz), and while you can argue how successful it is in that respect given the neighborhood that it exists in, there’s no denying that there’s a definite argument for its existance if you happen to be Jewish.
In any event, I hope that the individual that you met is able to serve his time honorably and leave none the worse for wear when his time in the service comes to an end.
Junior must be a Jew!
I do not see how in the modern world of ours a group of people could come to a populated civilized land and take it for their own. Before the zionists came to palestine it was peaceful and the most liberal islamic state.
only one more thing. WARS ARE EVIL!
@bigplayalman
“I do not see how in the modern world of ours a group of people could come to a populated civilized land and take it for their own. Before the zionists came to palestine it was peaceful and the most liberal islamic state.”
You must be kidding me. Look at how America took over Iraq, in this “modern world of ours” no less.
@bigplayalman
“I do not see how in the modern world of ours a group of people could come to a populated civilized land and take it for their own. Before the zionists came to palestine it was peaceful and the most liberal islamic state.”
Also it still stands that these countries DO want to wipe Israel off the face of the plant, many people see Israel as their home. So what do you expect them to do? It would be kind of hyprocritical if we expect them to adopt pacifism.
Pingback: בלעדי: בלוגרי ×”×¢×•×œ× ×ž×“×‘×¨×™× ×¢×œ ישר×ל והסיכסוך הישר×לי-×¤×œ×¡×˜×™× ×™ | Yarbua
Pingback: black skinny jeans women long
Pingback: redemania.com
Pingback: online flower delivery in toms river new jersey