Serving In The Israeli Defense Force

The author, 2003. (Courtesy of the author)

Trying In An IDF Uniform -- Adam Chandler, The Tablet

While my friends interned on Capitol Hill, I learned to shoot an M-16 and ate kosher Spam in the Israeli army

In June of 2003, the summer before my junior year of college, I entered Marva, a two-month program that simulates military service for young diaspora Jews who are curious about their mettle for life in the Israeli army. For eight blistering weeks, while my friends were scampering around Capitol Hill or staying overnight in newsrooms, I camped, crawled, and ran around the countless topographies of the land of Israel with an unloaded M-16 that I named Eve.

Despite our weapons, the musty uniforms, the boots, the tents, the bases, the food, and the unforgiving commanders, Marva still wasn’t the real army. Some had come as a masochistic form of tourism, while others, like me, felt it was the first step toward fulfilling an important duty. After all, we were cadets in the first Jewish army in 2,000 years; we were part of the body that answered for the Jewish people after centuries of silence.

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My Comment: Not surprising .... but Hamas also has their own army training program for their young.