I just finished watching Waltz With Bashir. What a powerful account of the Shatila and Sabra massacres of Palestinians during the Lebanese civil war. It was easy to appreciate the truth behind the distortion of memory caused by trauma; an unwillingness to believe it ever happened.
And these young kids, traumatized at the ages of 19 and 20, able to pursue their lives later but constantly – unconsciously – bound up in these memories. This is like Israel today: I met several young Israelis who had just finished their military service when traveling in Eastern Africa. While they had not participated in the civil war or lived a similar atrocious experience, they were scarred by the flyovers of Hezbollah areas, going in to shoot at targets during the day; partying in Tel Aviv in the evenings.
For a country which calls itself righteous in its beliefs, this is particularly disturbing: the trend of corrupting and forcefully engaging young Israelis into their mentality. If this is what’s necessary for its survival – as many argue – is it worth it? Is it worth having thousands of young men and women inculcated into this mentality of “emergency state” and engaged in violent behavior and thoughts from such a young age? How can you expect to produce sane leaders, whose goals are not affected by this deep and disturbing socialization process?
“Inculcating” young Israelis into a perpetual state of emergency seems to be a side-effect of the “no looking back” attitude adopted by many Israelis after the fateful decision to annex territories occupied after the 1967 war.