VC Speaks Out: Unhealthy Israel

As I was sitting in the Haifa train station (having just made the flop joke about how I was the only civilian), I started to think about the setting before and what it said about the healthy Israel I was borderline-enchanted with.

Now, I don't think I need to blog about what lies beneath when it comes to Israel's health and how it's bound-up in the occupation of Palestinian territory. When you're talking about water, for example, and the health of Israeli agriculture, and related health of the Israeli economy (that subsidized health care...the chain reaction continues), and the sources of that water (to use but one example of resource theft), then I think it's clear that the health of Israel is built upon some pretty unhealthy behaviour.

That's not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about Israeli people -- parents, and children. When these kids go home, in their army fatigues and with their rifles, and their parents welcome them home for passover, what do they say? What do they think? I'm sure that there are a range of opinions, ranging from uneasy resignation to a mandatory-enlistment system in a country that does need to be deterringly-strong in the face of hostility from regional neighbours, to pride and encouragement of the youth's brave defense of an expansive Jewish state. Personally, I have a hard time thinking that my mother would be proud when she saw me in the fatigues and with that rifle. I'm sure she'd be thankful that we could live safely and worship freely, and would be proud of my attempts at responsible decision-making in a context that is posing really difficult challenges to young soldiers, but would she think: "I am proud to see every son and daughter of Israel be trained in the use of automatic weaponry" -- I don't think so.

I have made jokes in emails (if not on this blog) about how mandatory military service has done a body good in Israel. I think that it changes the whole character of the society, though. The Israeli's that I've talked to surprised me with their fear and orienalization of Palestinians. I was expecting, amongst upper middle class youth, a kind of international, progressive understanding of the situation, and have been instead repeatedly treated to "you can't trust them" and "they all want to kill us" and "there can never be peace" warnings from most of the people I've spoken to.

You'll notice, in Israel, that everyone has really good posture. I mean it's striking. I imagine your average, undisciplined, whiny, chubby boy going off to the army in Egypt and what he comes back as -- a more angered, slightly less-chubby, still-undisciplined, still-whiny boy. In Israel, the same boy comes back a fit, tall-standing, disciplined soldier. It didn't occur to me until I was walking home from the train station a few days ago that the mandatory military service in Israel is unlike any other because of the nature of Israel and the Israeli army. There is mandatory military service in Switzerland, Egypt, and a host of countries across the globe, but Israel is totally different.

Every Israeli youth can guarantee that he or she NOT ONLY enlist in one of the most powerful, sophisticated, and historically-successful armies in the world (on par with, or exceeding -- when scaled for size, history, resources etc. -- even the US army), and that person can also guarantee that his enlistment will take place during a time of war (or occupation, or whatever you want to call this).

Israel is a place with happy dogs and fit people, a thriving art scene and amazing food, but it's also a place where all of its citizens take a physical stake in the defense of their way of life, and, I might add, in 60 years have not managed to secure that way of life to a degree that slouchy fat people can sleep easy knowing they are safe.

Maybe my point isn't making sense, but what I mean to say is that a lot of the health that I see in Israel comes from what I consider to be the unhealthy (or in the very least: concerning) militarization of the society. It's eerie to me when I see all these gorgeous 25yos to think, first: "Wow she is REALLY fit! He has GREAT posture! I bet their parents were, like, escaped Jewish Soviet Olympic swimmers, lol" and then I think: "No, wait. These are not inherited bodies. These are TRAINED bodies, and they are trained to fight."

I know it sounds a bit severe, but that's what's so odd about being here...even crossing through the checkpionts...the violence here, even the oppression of Palestinians, is somehow muted...subtle...and therefore able to survive decade after decade. It's organic to the society, now, in a way that I don't know if it can be disincorporated as holistically as it was incorporated in the first place. That's what worries me about this situation -- this is how things in Israel WORK.

VC