The role of the IDF in Israeli life cannot be overstated, past and present. But the country, and the army, are changing. So are the missions Israel undertakes and the nature of warfare. Why is the famous people’s army seeing fewer and fewer Israelis turn up for the draft?
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We discuss 1) the clashes at the Gaza Border, in which IDF soldiers killed 61 Palestinians, while the new American Embassy was being dedicated in Jerusalem, 2) Jerusalem’s decision to ban a right-wing billboard for incitement, even as Tel Aviv-Jaffa allowed the billboards to dapple the city, and 3) why so many leftists responded to Netta Barzilai’s Eurovision song contest victory with mirthless bah-humbug-itude.
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We discuss: 1) whether seeing IDF soldiers as “our kids” cloud our moral judgment? 2) a new exhibit of painting portray Sefardi men as oppressors of Russian immigrants. Is it racist? 3) on the occasion of our 70th anniversary, a round-robin of the top 70 reasons we love this place!
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Israel’s got a machine-learning AI system for identifying lone terrorists before they act. Should this bit of real-scifi-Minority Report-ism make it easier for us to sleep at night, or cause us to toss-and-turn in Orwellian angst?
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What drives Israel’s lone soldiers
Foreigners have volunteered in the IDF for as long as it has existed, but what drives high school graduates from abroad to enlist in the Israeli Army today?
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