The Cavalier daily :: Friday, October 17, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

(Beersheba) - "All military
things are inherently evil . . . the
United States involvement in Vietnam
is one of the most colossal
blunders of the past 100 years."

Pretty boring talk from your
basic student. What makes it
noteworthy is that it is coming
from a general, one of the three
most important generals in the
entire Israeli army. If this seems
impossible, it is only because you
don't understand the structure and
philosophy of the Israeli army,
General Levy is in no way atypical;

I have been trying to meet some
Israel military figures since arriving
here; I had shared most Americans'
view of Israel as a thinly disguised
military state, with everyone walking
around saluting everybody else
and saying "Yes Sir" all the time,
and occasionally shooting someone
in the street just for the hell of it. I
wanted to meet part of the
hierarchy to confront them with
this.

When informed that I could
have dinner with General Asher
Levy, I prepared for a confrontation
with a short-haired, short
minded mlilitary who would talk
in terms like "Kill ratio" and bomb
coverage and those other marvelous
terms we have come to expect from
the Six o'clock News, while sitting
in an immaculate uniform with
about a million medals hanging
from it.

General Levy, in fact, has longer
hair than I do, a terrific Edwardian
mustache, an unpressed, unadorned
uniform, and a better vocabulary
than mine. We spent most of the
evening talking about things like TS
Eliot and archeology; instead of my
interviewing him, he is interviewing
me, asking question after question
about American students and the
new left structures. He tells me he
is concerned about the miserable
image Israel has on most campuses,
and wants to know why.

I explain about the militarism
thing; every morning's paper has a
story of some sort about Israeli
planes bombing somewhere. People
wonder how a country that keeps
claiming it seeks peace keeps wiping
out innocent people, I tell him, and
the vast resentment to the American
military machine and imperialism
has in part been transferred to
Israel.

"You don't understand our
Army," he tells me. "We can't
stand military rigmarole like uniforms
and all that other nonsense.
But you can't pursue peace very
well if you're dead."

"Look," he continues, as if
explaining something important but
basic to a five year old, "If we
wanted to, we could occupy Damascus,
Hammad, and Cairo by
tomorrow afternoon. If we were
really imperialistic, wouldn't we be
there now? The air force literally
owns the skies yesterday, 4
planes spent 30 minutes buzzing
Damascus (without firing) before
the Syrian air force even got into
the air. We could have removed
Damascus from the map by then if
we wanted. But we never bomb
population centers of any sort - all
our action is taken against military
positions, usually ones that are
shelling kibbutzim or harboring
infiltrators." (Nearly everyday, a
terrorist bomb goes off somewhere
or another in Israel, injuring some
people; Fatah have taken to planting
small grenades in packages that
look like candy, and dropping them
in school yards. Picking them up
removes ones' hand, and annoys
Israelis).

Even in the Beruit airport attack,
he tells me, commandos made sure
everyone was off the airplanes
before they were blown up. One of
the more popular anecdotes in
Israel is about the commando who
reminded one of the passengers he
had told to leave a plane that he
had forgotten his briefcase, and
gotten it for the passenger before
destroying the plane.

The thing is, I find out, that the
Israeli army is a very important
nonmilitary social force in the
country. Everyone in Israel goes
into the army at 18; there are no
deferments. As such, it replaces
college as the major social structure
for youth; in many ways, it is like
college, with mixers and other
social activities filling odd hours.
The women used to fight - nothing
was better for morale, it was
thought, than fighting next to the
girl next door. Unfortunately, it
turned out that nothing was worse
for morale than when the girl next
door got shot, so they were quickly
removed from the front, and given
desk jobs. The army is thus a
common social force that everyone
goes through; it is one reason why
there is very little discrimination in
Israel, although there are people of
all colors and origins there.

Jews Welcomed

One of the first laws passed by
the new state in 1948 was that any
Jew would always be welcome in
Israel; if there had been a place for
Jews to go in World War II, a lot of
lives would have been saved. It was
a courageous law to pass since that
time, the population has tripled.
Most of those who come arrive
without any money, education or
skill. Imagine the United States
absorbing 600,000,000 new settlers
in he next 21 years who speak no
English have no education,
backgrounds, and no experience in
a modern society. This is, proportionately,
what Israel has done in the
past 21 years.

Planeloads of immigrants, mostly
from eastern European countries,
arrive every week. They are made
full citizens of the country within
15 minutes after landing, are given
apartments, a 5 month course in
language and civics, and are trained
for a trade. All are completely
assimilated within a generation,
something the United States, Great
Melting Pot that it is supposed to
be, was never able to do. Most of
the reason for is that the army
gives everyone a basis of common
experience that makes assimilation
possible.

Dinner over, the General and I
go into a bar for a couple of drinks.
A couple of privates are there; the
General invited them over to join
us. The privates call him Asher,
which really blows my mind, since
they have just met. What would
happen if some raw recruit called
General Westmoreland "Bill?"

Join Here

Again, everyone is curious about
American students. One, a nineteen
year old who has travelled in
America, asks "if you are o
disillusioned with American
society, why don't you come here:
it is idealistic, honest, un materialistic,
and every contribution means
a great deal more here than a
comparable contribution in America."
It's a difficult question to
answer.

The General gets a phone call,
and leaves briefly. He is in charge of
the entire Suez command, which
has been particularly hot the past
few weeks. The Egyptians have an
average of a 180 millimeter gun
every 250 yards down the entire
length of the Suez, which makes for
continual shelling on a front over
100 miles long. The Israelis have
perhaps a sixth as many in the same
area. "We still think it's unfair,"
one of the soldiers points out
". . . for them!"

We talk about peace for a while.
There have been 3 wars in the past
21 years, and almost continual
incidents; these kids have never
really known peace. "I don't
understand it," one of the soldiers
tells me, "we win all the wars, all
the battles, have complete superiority
in every way, yet they (the
Arabs) act like the victors, and we
the vanquished, having to come up
with new proposals for peace that
they reject out of hand." It is one
of many paradoxes no one seems to
understand.

The General returns to the table.
A major battle is in progress, and he
must return to headquarters. It is
important to remember that Israel
is a country at war for survival. We
wish each other luck and "shalom"
the Hebrew word for peace and
greetings. "You know," he says
reflectively, "sometimes I think it
very strange. I spend my life
working like a dog.

"And all I'm trying to do is
work myself out of a job."