Here in Israel, all Jewish citizens are required to serve in the IDF. Currently Men serve a minimum of 3 years. Women serve 2. After that all are required to serve in the IDF reserve until deactivation.
On any given day, as you walk down the street in Israel, you can see IDF Servicemen and IDF Women in uniform, many carrying rifles. Some are regular troops. Others are reservists. In Israel, all serve. All are veterans.
Unlike other countries where military service is voluntary, in Israel, it would be impossible to have a special day for veterans. How would you organize it? If all of the veterans were marching down the street, no one would be cheering on the sidewalk!
Israel Independence Day IDF Parade 1965
Israel Independence Day IDF Parade 1950 in color
July 17, 1949 - Israel celebrates the Army Day with an IDF parade in Tel Aviv.
"Army Day" July 17, 1949, (three days before the last cease of fire agreement of the War of Independence was signed), a military parade was held in Tel Aviv and "Hero of Israel" decorations were presented by the president of Israel Chaim Weizman, the Prime minister Ben Gurion and Chief of Staff Yakov Dori to awarded to a selection of 12 IDF servicemen representative of the different IDF units. 4 were presented posthumously.
Search for related posts
Posts
4 comments:
Stay for all times ! Like the ancient warriors from the past - brave, strong, fighting for freedom against the barbarians ! Greetings from Silesia, POland !
Everybody has to serve, well, sounds fair.
Here in germany we are about to end the general conscription, guess we feel pretty safe here and gouvernment wants to save money. But they dont paid a fortune to the drafted ones^^
How much a recruit in isreal get paid?
Veterans Day (while we do remember our Veterans) was primarily started to observe the end of WWI. It was called "Armistice Day" prior to the Korean war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day
I'm just guessing, since I've never been there, but I suspect that, even in Isreal, you could distinguish between those who sign up for active duty as a career defending their nation for 20 or 30 years and those who are in for their 2 or 3 and spend those years assigned to mop-and-bucket duty. My guess is based on my assumption that human nature is the same all over. Am I even close on this?
Post a Comment