A Nation Builds an Army Which Builds a Nation

So part of Dorot, my fellowship, is to plan seminars on topics voted by the group.  Two people are assigned to plan and execute each seminar, and I was assigned with Louisa to create one about the Military in Israel.

This is an extremely broad topic. Extremely extremely.  Military service is mandatory here, at least if you're able-bodied, Jewish, and not extremely religious. And Israeli culture really can't be extracted from that shared experience. So where do you begin to plan a seminar?  Louisa and I met with tons of people trying to decide where to take it... activists, soldiers, refuseniks (people who resist conscription even if they don't fall into one of the above categories), war heroes, female soldiers, psychologists, military advisors, and everything in between. And of course we talked to our friends a lot, just hearing about their experiences and what they would say to a bunch of Americans if they had just one day to say it.  Thanks to anyone reading this who helped me!

At the end of the day, we planned what I think was a really successful day! Our goal in brief was to give a sense of what life in the army is like, how Israelis end up in the jobs they do, and the lasting impact the military has on an Israeli's life thereafter.

The first thing we did was head to an airforce base! My friend Reuel from ROI was a huge help.  He's a blackhawk pilot and an incredible person and invited us to his base for a tour and a discussion.

The Israeli Airforce is, pretty much unarguably, the most prestigious branch of the Israeli military, and it's also one of the strongest (you could argue THE strongest) air forces in the world. Every year, about 50,000 people enter the initial recruitment stage to be a pilot, and only 50 make it through to the end of academy. That's one in 1,000 people! Go Reuel!

Reuel told us a lot of interesting perspectives on life in the airforce. On the one hand, if you're a pilot, you're set for life. It's the ultimate social cache. It's like having a degree from an Ivy League school x60. (I actually did the math on this one... Harvard currently accepts 6% of applicants, vs the airforce which accepts .1% of applicants...). So yeah, the upside is that everybody goes "a pilot! Wow!"  Later on, we met with an army psychologist, who said "You met with a pilot earlier? Well I can't top that. Pilots are the Israeli equivalent of a demigod."

Anyway, so having the IAF (Israeli Air Force) on your resume is very advantageous. But on the other hand, Reuel told us about how pilots are basically removed from society at 18, they serve 8-12 years mandatory service, and then they get out around 30 with no other experience than being a pilot. And because they don't want to have to start from the beginning with the 20 and 21 year olds who get out of the other units after 2-3 years service, they accept the shortcuts society offers them to good jobs. But those jobs are all in the military, or weapons industries, or high-tech, or things like that, usually with other former air force members. So what happens if you enter the air force at 18, and at 18 you think someday you'd like to be a teacher, or a writer, or aaaaanything other than the above mentioned type jobs? Reuel actually started an organization to help airforce personnel who want to do something "different" after their service is over.

We had to check our phones for most of the base visit, but here are a few pictures I was allowed to take out in the airfield!

Helicopter Take Off!

A lot of buttons. Mati said, "Do you know what they all do?" and Reuel said, "I know what each and every one does, of course... no, don't touch that one, that's not a good idea.."

Cockpit!

Woot!

Louisa and Me in a helicopter!

I took some good pictures of Reuel, but our security escort asked me to delete them afterward, because apparently you're not allowed to take pictures of pilots on base. Reuel said it was because our enemies might see them and know who the pilots are in order to kidnap them or do something especially bad to them if they fall behind enemy lines.  But he said he thinks it's a pretty dated rule, since via the internet these days you can find pictures of anybody, and he said "If a man falls from the sky behind enemy lines, it's pretty reasonable to guess he's a pilot."  Still, it's a rule, so no pics of him!

After our visit to the squadron, we went back to Tel Aviv where we met with a psychologist who helps formulate the draft. As you can imagine, the draft is extremely complicated. Every year an entire graduating high school class of the nation joins the military, basically. The army has to figure out how to make the best use of them.  They have to balance the needs of the IDF, the interests of the soldier, and the capabilities of the solider... and those things often don't match up very well. Michael, the psychologist, went over the different tests they issue, what the scores mean, the types of people who end up different places, how the different branches fight over candidates, what takes priority, what some of the biggest flaws in the system are, and what its biggest successes are.

The things I found most interesting were the anecdotes he shared. When they're considering candidates for combat units, which is where most Israelis want to serve because of the social capital it earns them, one of the major factors is the soldier's assessed "adaptive ability," that is, the likelihood they'll remain stable under intense stress.  For example, in selection for submarine units, the stress test is putting the candidates in a very low room in which they need to crouch and then pumping water into the room and making them answer word problems like "If water enters a room at a rate of x kilos per minute, how many minutes would it take for a room of y volume to completely flood?" Yikes.

Or regarding the airforce, Michael said "Most pilots really like themselves." And when we all laughed, he said, "No, it's important. They need to, in order to do what they do. They need to make very quick decisions and they need to be extremely sure of those decisions. To drop a bomb here? To land and deploy soldiers there? They need to be sure. That's something we test for the air force."  And on that note, Reuel frequently talked about how the people chosen for the air force are the "fittest" not the "best" like others might say. He talked about how pilots need to be like machines. They're operating a device that is extremely devastating. Even without weaponry, a jet or a helicopter, the amount of speed and force involved, is pretty extreme.  Add in a combat or rescue scenario, and you have a need for the kind of person who can detach themselves from the situation enough to operate under that kind of stress. So are the 50 people each year fittest for that kind of work really the "best?"  It's an important question when it comes to Israeli values.

We finished the day hearing from Yaron, who was a combat soldier in the second Lebanon war, and now runs an organization dedicated to helping combat soldiers and their loved ones to talk about their experiences. I thought it was a pretty intense (and valuable) session.

First, Yaron showed us a short movie about his unit in the war:

Then he told us the story from his perspective, and he was really raw and honest and open about it.

If you want, you can see him speak about a different operation in this video... it's intense, but worth it (there are english subtitles).

And then he talked about how little support their is for soldiers and their families who have gone through things like this... which is a great swathe of this country. He said in the average unit, there is 1 psychologist for every 1500 soldiers! And that he was never approached once by a psychologist to see how he was doing.

He talked about how after the war he couldn't sleep through the night, not at all, and how angry and tense and agitated he was. And he talked about how in some ways, it's even worse for people in the reserves, who show up, face combat, and then are immediately expected to reenter their jobs and civilian life, with no transition, no help adjusting to what they'd just been through and what they were expected to return to.

I have to say, I've met a lot of people who seem, on the surface or underneath, to share this kind of pain here.  Back in August I dated a bunch of dudes with various combat experiences and it was pretty disturbing, the kinds of conversations we had.  

Sometimes they were kind of wry and sardonic about it...

Ariane: What did you do in the army?
Dude: I was a commander in Golani... do you know Golani?
Ariane: Of course.
Dude: Yeah, because we die a lot.
(Golani suffered intense causalities this past summer in Gaza).

Sometimes their need to talk about it would come up in the oddest ways.  Like once I was playing "never have I ever", the drinking game, with a guy who'd been in combat. And in his version of the game, you can say something you HAVE done, but then you drink.  I was doing all the usual stupid shit...

Ariane: Never have I ever... been skinny dipping!
Dude: Really? *drinks*
Ariane: Really! Okay, now your turn.
Dude: Never have I ever... killed anyone. *drinks*
Ariane: O_O
Dude:...
Ariane: Do you... uh... want to talk about that?

And I thought for sure he'd say no, but he DID. In a big way. Well it all come out, all the details, and after I said...

Ariane: Wow, that's intense. That's really heavy.
Dude: No, it's not. I did what I had to do.
Ariane: I know you did, but that must be hard to carry with you.
Dude: It's not. I didn't do anything wrong.
Ariane: I'm not saying that you did, but either way, that's a really heavy thing.
Dude: NO IT'S NOT.
Ariane: Okaaaaaay, let's put the vodka away now...

I mean dude, if you mention killing someone in a drinking game then you've got some thinking to do about what you're carrying.

Or this other guy I dated briefly, he was commander in some intense combat unit. Anyway, this Guy was a very impressive guy. The upside is that I would say "demigod" is an accurate way to describe him. The downside was that he couldn't sleep through a night, he'd wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares.  One night I found him in the kitchen kinda staring off into space and eating dates.

And he said he couldn't sleep.  And since he usually dodged questions about his experiences, I tried to lighten the mood by talking about jet lag, and how it was hard for me to sleep too, and how I'd been sick a lot when I first moved here, and all out of sorts. And he said, "Ariane, of course you aren't adjusting easily, you're on the other side of the world. Your body is not supposed to be picked up and put on the other side of the world. In the army, they used to wake us up to march every few hours, we didn't ever sleep a full night in the desert. Do you see these?" and he gestured to the ever-present bags under his eyes. "I didn't have these before the army. And they've never gone away, though I've been out for a year. They'll never go away." And I tried to comfort him, and he got all rigid and withdrawn, and he said, "Don't be sad for me. I'm not sad about it. I'm not sad. So don't be sad. It's not sad. It's not sad."

It was sad.

Maybe this seems like a lot of criticism about the IDF. But that's not really what I mean for this to be. I found this quote in my notebook but I can't remember who said it to me:

Dude: In the world media... it looks like Israelis love fighting. But we hate it. We hate it. We all wish we could go to college when we are eighteen, too. But we can't. We don't live in a place that will ever know peace, there will never be a time when we won't have to defend ourselves.

So it's not that I mean to criticize the military here. The IDF does a lot of amazing things. It defends and preserves and makes possible the only Jewish state in the entire world, the only place where Jews have full agency of their destiny.

The Spirit of the IDF, the code of ethics, states the main objectives of the IDF as follows...

"Main Doctrine

Basic Points
- Israel cannot afford to lose a single war
- Defensive on the strategic level, no territorial ambitions
- Desire to avoid war by political means and a credible deterrent posture
- Preventing escalation
- Determine the outcome of war quickly and decisively
- Combating terrorism
- Very low casualty ratio

Prepare for Defense

- A small standing army with an early warning capability, regular air force and navy
- An efficient reserve mobilization and transportation system

Move to Counter-Attack

- Multi-arm coordination
- Transferring the battle to enemy’s territory quickly
- Quick attainment of war objectives"

So think about this... you have this tiny country, the only one of its kind, protecting the largest Jewish population in the world and founded just on the tail end of a time when Jews were killed by the millions. And if this country loses one war, it would likely be destroyed. And so you have to have every single person do their part to protect it, and keep the battle off of its tiny territory (the size of New Jersey), and try to lose as few people as possible because there just aren't that many people. And this all falls on the shoulders of 18-21 year olds.

I have a lot of respect for the IDF. I sometimes regret that I didn't become interested in Israel sooner so that I could have served, too. And as I've written about, especially in times of crisis here, I'm so grateful for the intense sacrifice that Israelis make to preserve this country.

But it's like "Yaron said: What the IDF is is defending our home. And for that, there is a price. It's not political, it's just objective fact. When you lose an arm, you just paid a price. There's no political statement there, it's just true. And everything we do in the army: there is a price."

In our debrief, Mati marveled about something I think about a lot. Wow! How Jews left the ghettos! Left our victimhood behind and took up arms and learned to defend ourselves. I've written before about my fascination with the transformation of Jews who took our noses out of books and started to stand up for ourselves.

But when I met with Reuel a few weeks ago, he was emphatic about his desire for this not to be true. To remember our older traditions as a people. "Jews are not warriors!" he said. "We're scholars!!"

And here's something I think about.  The title of this entry, "A Nation Builds and Army Which Builds a Nation" is a saying that was quoted a few times today, about the foundations of Israel.  But when I went to google this saying, I kept find it the opposite way: "An Army Builds a Nation Which Builds an Army."  And I think there's a big difference, and I wonder which is true.  Which is the real saying? And either way, what's the truth?  Is the nation the beginning and the end, or is the army?