#god bless people abroad I hope their life stays so easy and safe from organized violence

[zorciarkrildrush]

I really get and support conscientious objection to military service, but I think it's also worth reminding mainly Americans but definitely not only Americans that Israel's wars are not comparable to things like Vietnam (where dodging the draft was, obviously, the thing people like me would be supporting), and definitely not Iraq and Afghanistan or any other damn overseas conflict they grew up with. I get that you did not, and will likely never experience actual frequent attempts to invade and destroy your country and your people. That's good! I get why for you, military service seems morally indefensible. You wouldn't catch me calling you wrong, or a weak hearted liberal, or any other damn thing. You think the service itself is wrong, that serving an armed force in any capacity is wrong, and I really get that!

But Israeli troops - conscripts in compulsory service (which of course, they would go to jail for dodging) and reservists and NCOs and so on, aren't opting for overseas operations done purely for funsies and capitalism and fear of the USSR. You must recognize this false equivalency is very prevalent, even when your criticisms of the Israeli government and the IDF are very true and important. God knows I have a lot of criticism for both, jesus fucking christ do I. In the mind of every 18-year old dumbass kid, getting their first letter of conscription (which is again, compulsory and will be enforced with jailtime) - and also their parents, and their grandparents, is actual and real danger to their lives. Our neighbours invading with the real, publicly expressed intent of killing us, of demolishing our homes and driving us to the sea as a whole. This isn't a proxy war overseas, where they can just not go and be fine with it - there are actual people with guns and they're firing actual rockets aimed at your mom and everybody else you know. People with guns are breaching the fence with the express purpose of murdering you and your family. Not random Palestinians or other Arabs just trying to live their life - actual governments with actual armed forces, who use those armed forces to kill you. Hell, you probably know someone, either directly or one step removed, who violently died because of it. This was true since Israel's inception, and the staggering amount of times it happened is not something you can just solve with "well they shouldn't have done so and so!". Because yes, certainly, the Israeli government shouldn't have done a lot of things, and maybe you'll say those dastardly Zionists should have never wanted to come here, seeing how nice and safe and wanted they felt back home. But discussing what people shouldn't have done is very nice, especially when it doesn't personally affect you, especially when you never lived with the frequent and real danger of violent death - but I'd also suggest it doesn't really help anyone. Certainly the person currently launching a rocket aimed at my house shouldn't have opted to do that, and certainly the person who chose to pick up a gun and fire at me shouldn't have done so either, but I'd really prefer to talk about what we should do now - what the actual solution is for both Palestinian and Israeli parents to stop losing sons and daughters to violence every fucking year of their lives. Is that okay? Is that allowed? Or is it more effective to just say an 18 year old kid, commanded to pick up a gun and watch for someone coming over to kill their mom, which is a constant and real threat and has been for decades, is a mindless murder monster? That he's doing it for funsies and due to brainwashing only? My answer might surprise you.