Real Israelis
| February 16th, 2008 | Crossposted from The Blog and the BulletConnie writes on Sabbah Blog about a recent ad campaign in Israel:
An aggressive public relations campaign against military draft evaders is currently being waged on billboards, television sets and computer screens throughout Israel. Entitled “Real Israelis Don’t Shirk the Draft,” the low point of this campaign is a brief video clip featuring secular, European Jewish Israelis in their early twenties, sitting around drinking chai during their post-military trip abroad.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
There is also the related video, “Real Israelis Don’t Shrink from the Truth”, also on YouTube, which I think should come up if you do a Hebrew-language search on “Real Israelis.” Tales of army abuse, societal neglect, etc. Military refusal’s role in questioning the occupation is real (www.seruv.org.il, also the organization Breaking the Silence) and I think Israelis (as opposed to the State) can be cut a little slack as they are staying away from the army in droves.
I think it’s rather cute, but could add that it would be VERY trippy if one of the Israelis in the original commercial were a Druze from the North, maybe even a Druze WOMAN from Pikud Ha’Oref (Civil Defence command). “I joined because of the Lebanese rockets landing on my village.” Can’t happen because only male non-Jews are ever asked to volunteer for the IDF, but there are isolated stories of non-Jewish women doing national service as schoolteachers and hospital volunteers and that would be revolutionary. Indiscriminate terror is one of the few things that could consolidate Israeli society behind the army in an age in which the army is always being questioned as an institution.
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