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soldier

Army Chief Doubts Survival of Israel

It\’s not every day that Israel\’s No. 1 soldier expresses doubts about the country\’s long-term survival. But that was part of a bleak message from Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya\’alon that has shaken the country\’s political establishment.

In a wide-reaching, early June interview in the daily newspaper, Ha\’aretz, the retiring Israeli army chief of staff pulled no punches. He put key existential issues on the table, questioned the wisdom of Israel\’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, debunked the notion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said it could lead to a \”situation in which there will be no Israel here in the end.\”

MY IRAQ

When a Marine finds himself in a ditch or an abandoned house, suddenly under fire, having to decide where to shoot and who to kill, it may not much matter if the Marine is Jewish. It was before and after the firefights in Iraq that Marine Corps Sgt. Kayitz Finley remembered and confronted his belief.\n\nThe war in Iraq cost Finley his faith for awhile. It also took away 11 buddies — including a close friend — men on whom he\’d depended to get home in one piece. Still, for Finley, the conflict was never the wrong war, the wrong place or the wrong time. For him, the Iraq War was as advertised — a war of liberation, a war keeping faith with the American principle of bringing freedom to those lacking it.\n\n\”Every Marine out there was for the cause,\” said Finley, who served two combat tours in Iraq. \”I believe in the cause, and I wanted to continue what I was doing.\”

Our Soft Underbelly

However, one truth does exist. Eleven dead soldiers in Gaza, literally torn into pieces, buried today on Mount Herzl. Eleven kids who are all between the ages of 19-23; 11 kids who could have been my best friends. My heart is breaking as I am writing these words. I served in the army for two years, and I am writing you as a soldier. These guys could have been my best friends, and they died in a way in which they did not deserve.

Finding Father in ‘Souvenir’

While Louise Steinman was growing up Reform in Culver City, her father seemed unknowable. A taciturn, workaholic pharmacist, he never spoke of his combat experiences in the Pacific. But Asian food was banned from the house and his four children weren\’t allowed to cry in front of him. \”Reminds him of the war,\” his wife said.

Ethics and Warfare

This week\’s Torah portion opens with a fascinating topic: the psyche of a soldier at war, and the ethical boundaries that even a soldier must observe.

Soldiers and Students

Noam Zissman, 21, a convoy commander from Ra\’anana, and Moran Kalinsky, 20, a deputy company commander from Holon, sit in their Israeli officers\’ uniforms at Johnny Rockets on Melrose. They have just arrived in Los Angeles after more than a week of nonstop travel across the U.S., and they won\’t even have time to order a plate of fries before they have to rush across town.

Courage Under Fire

Mort Wolk hadn\’t slept a wink in two days. The invasion had been called off the day before due to bad weather, but Wolk had been on edge and too busy to rest. It was 4 a.m., and his plane was over Nazi-held Normandy. The only Jew and the only enlisted man on board, Wolk was part of Task Force A, a group of 40 paratroopers that had four hours to establish and secure a command post for the D-Day invasion.

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More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.