Understanding conflict

Reservists in the Israel Defense Forces spoke to journalist Yuval Avivi about war, politics and their personal response to being called up for the recent conflict with Hamas.  Their point of view is not the same as the younger, regular soldiers in the IDF.

“You see the soldiers in the regular army and they look like kids to you,” says one, only 29 years old himself. “They are not really adults who can cope with the emotional state brought on by the war. Most if not all of them don’t understand anything about the trauma and emotional fallout that this causes them.”

Another speaks in more personal terms, “Today, I live for three people; I have a family. I’m not a young soldier who only worries about himself and is only responsible for himself. I have to be an adult, responsible for myself and my environs. You have to take care of yourself also for the sake of your family.”

Another says this: "In the reserves, you hear a lot more people saying that the conflict won’t be resolved without a diplomatic process. In other words, I waged the war that the state sent me to wage, now it’s the turn of the politicians to fight for a diplomatic process.”

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