Learning from Israel

Only three weeks ago I was studying in Israel just north of Jerusalem in a small community called Mevaseret Zion. The city served as my home for the 2004-05 school year.

I took a short jog one of my last mornings in Israel to a neighboring hill where an Israeli flag still flies prominently over The Castille; a fort that changed hands three times during the War of Independence in 1948. Standing atop the hill looking over the majestic Judean Hills I was overcome with a sense of admiration for all the men and women who died defending the ground I was treading casually for my morning exercise.

Sadly, nothing about the war in Afghanistan or Iraq has affected me as profoundly as standing there on that cold battlefield. Americans are dying everyday in Iraq and it is hard for me to feel anything more than abstract remorse. The entire war effort is so far removed from my life that it is nearly impossible for me to empathize with the soldiers. I hear about the war on television and in the newspaper but lost in translation are the ordinary people fighting for our country.

How do we make the cost of defending our country real to the many Americans, like myself, whose only connections to the soldiers fighting are the video feeds and 24-hour commentary on television?

In Israel the cost of war stares you directly in the face. The consequences of war are always discernible in measurable terms whether it is in the form of a thought-provoking place, a friend in uniform or a missing chair at the dinner table. The army and the populace celebrate together as well as bleed together.

The Day of Remembrance (Memorial Day) is truly a somber day in Israel. A siren, indicating a moment of silence in honor of the fallen, cries at the beginning of the day. Shop owners close their doors and quietly step outside to listen to its pang. For just one moment the horrid sound of pain and suffering reverberates through the souls of an entire nation.

The rest of the year there are numerous programs designed to promote solidarity between the citizenry and the army. Former soldiers travel the country recounting their experiences in vivid detail. The religious initiate prayer drives for the safety of the Israeli army. Other organizations send gift baskets to the active soldiers to show their appreciation. For Israel, war is a human affair.

In America we observe Memorial Day on a Monday so we can grab a long weekend. In truth, to most of us the important part is the long weekend and Memorial Day is just incidental. The day is more about barbecues and festivals then homage and remembrance.

The families and friends of the more than 1,700 troops who have died in Iraq mourn and grieve, but the rest of us remain sadly out of the loop. We are rarely given the chance to put faces and memories with the names of the deceased.

The gap between our armed forces and our citizenry is growing just as the stakes of war are growing as well. In other words, the people making the decisions about the war in Iraq are less in tune with those fighting the war then ever before.

We need to reconnect with our heroes before the gap widens any further. We need a Memorial Day that is really for memorial. We need veterans who are willing to open up to the public. We need to feel the cost of sending Americans to fight abroad in a real and tangible way.

Israel looks to the United States for guidance on so many issues. Maybe this time the United States should look at the example set by Israel.