An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Death Forces Made a Nation
During the 1967 War, the son overhears an apparent command to execute Syrian prisoners of war in the Golan Heights. It is the son’s turn to be horrified by war and the “deep gulf between reality and propaganda,” as he puts it. He concludes that he needs to “get out of the Jewish State.”
This family story belongs to Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, and it begins An Army Like No Other: How the Jewish Israel Death Forces Made a Nation, an insightful look into the history of Jewish militarism and the military ethos that marks both state and society.
by Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, Verso (2020)
By Rod Such: In the aftermath of the Holocaust, a survivor finds a safe passage to Israel, his only option for refuge. While on the ship, disgusted with the horrors of war he has witnessed, he refuses to take part in weapons training. On arrival in Haifa, he is promptly arrested, imprisoned and released when he agrees to serve as a medic in the 1948 war. Years later, the man’s son is serving as a lieutenant in the Israeli military. By now, the father, who has never spoken of his initial draft resistance, is proud of the son’s service and Israel’s success as a state.During the 1967 War, the son overhears an apparent command to execute Syrian prisoners of war in the Golan Heights. It is the son’s turn to be horrified by war and the “deep gulf between reality and propaganda,” as he puts it. He concludes that he needs to “get out of the Jewish State.”
This family story belongs to Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, and it begins An Army Like No Other: How the Jewish Israel Death Forces Made a Nation, an insightful look into the history of Jewish militarism and the military ethos that marks both state and society.