British volunteers answer army's call
By Stephen Farrell
The Times, 7 August 2006
AT FIRST sight Ben and his mates could be at a wedding party on the lawns of an hotel in his native West Yorkshire (Stephen Farrell writes).
Except that this hotel is a short drive from the Israel-Lebanon border and, despite his Leeds accent, Ben is an Israeli soldier. He is also cradling an Israeli army issue Colt AR15 semi-automatic rifle stamped "Property of US Govt".
Ben, 26, who arrived in Israel last year, is one of thousands of those serving in the Israeli military, either as newly arrived citizens or on army programmes for Zionists who want to defend Israel while deciding whether to emigrate.
Earlier in the day he was ducking Hezbollah mortars in the Lebanese village of Adessa, just across the border. Now he sits chatting in two languages about his two lives -as a would-be medical student in Britain and as an Israeli soldier known among his colleagues for his stamina and ability to carry a heavy machinegun over long distances.
"My father is very supportive. He is a very serious Zionist," he tells The Times.
"My mum is a bit anxious."
Ben arrived in Israel 15 months ago and serves in the Nahal Brigade, an infantry unit with a tradition of absorbing new immigrants.
He did not have to join -compulsory military service would not have come for a few years -but volunteered because he sees the Army as Israel's "melting pot" without which integration is harder.
He knows that the Israeli Army is being excoriated around the world but robustly defends the country.
"Can you imagine if the Isle of Wight started bombing London? How long would it be left standing? There's no other country that is asked to show as much restraint as Israel," he declares, as the bus arrives to take his unit back to the border. "I feel we absolutely have the right to defend ourselves because there is nobody else who seems willing to do it."
He says he feels more relaxed as a devout, skull cap-wearing Jew walking around Israel than in Leeds, where he has been "spat at and called a dirty Jew" by Muslim youths. "Here I can walk around at 2am without looking over my shoulder."
However, he has not yet decided to emigrate, and concedes that it may take time to process experiences beyond the imagination of his British peers. "I don't know how I will feel in the long term. In the near term, everyone has a task. The time for dilemmas will come later.
"It's not an attitude of shoot first, ask questions later. It's an attitude of 'rockets are falling on our citizens and country and it's our job to defend them'."
Ben's is by no means the only British accent amid the Hebrew and American-accented chatter of off-duty soldiers meeting parents and girlfriends.
Strolling past chairs set up for a concert that she helped to organise, Neta, 19, wears an Arsenal shirt emblazoned 'Henry'. She emigrated to Israel a year ago and serves in the Nahal's educational and recreational unit.
She teaches soldiers about "values, morals, civilian suffering and the importance of human life", and -like Ben -bridles at the idea that Israel is bringing unwarranted destruction on Lebanon. "I do understand why people are angry. But why is everybody concentrating so much anger at us?" she asks.
"OK, Israel is not perfect. I'm not a right-wing Zionist fanatic. But there are loads of other conflicts going on that the world doesn't seem to care as much about. Why is there less outrage about a dictator or a warlord killing thousands of people, or about what is happening in Darfur?"