Great book by my friend David Ranan, which I am very much enjoying reading right now.
Israeli governments have for many years maintained a consensus
concerning the need for the nation’s citizens to serve in the army. This
consensus was based on the ethos of a Jewish state surrounded by Arabs
who want to destroy it. The Iranian nuclear program is the most recent
of the many threats to the Israeli state. But for some time Israel’s
black and white view of itself has been eroding. Conscientious objection
to conscription and ‘draft dodging’ as well as the rights and wrongs of
occupation and settlements have become explosive issues for all shades
of Israel’s political spectrum. Can we expect young Israelis, who are
called to serve their country at eighteen, to have the maturity to weigh
such complex issues? Does Israeli society really want them to? For
this stimulating book, David Ranan held interviews with Israelis aged
between eighteen and thirty. The twenty-seven monologues presented here
reveal some of the difficult moral questions that concern this
generation. First published in German in 2011, this English-language
edition contains a comprehensive introduction to Israel’s history that
has been revised and updated to maintain its relevance.
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