Israel

This is naturally a subjective question, so it will receive numerous different answers.

Answer 1

Yes. There are several reasons.

Hard Work and Perseverance: The Creation of the State of Israel was not a gift in the sense that the Jewish people just stood there and hoped for the United Nations to intervene. They bought land in the British Mandate of Palestine, they worked the land, they assembled militias for their own protection, they built roads and stimulated an economy in what was a regional backwater for nearly 1500 years.

Necessity of a Jewish State: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.

Necessity of the Specific Land Chosen: Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).

Answer 1

There are the typical ideas that a person could use to dissuade an individual from joining any military, such as the physical strain, possibility of his own death, the requirement to kill other individuals, corrupt national military policy, and the failure of war as a means to achieve a permanent solution to problems.

As for the Gaza situation vis-à-vis Israel, there are a few other reasons worth considering as to why a person should not fight against Israel:

Armies currently fighting Israel: All of the militaries currently involved in fighting Israel are the militant wings of radical Islamist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. They have a mentality that promotes suffering, a love of violence, and a hatred towards multiplicity. Ask your friend, why he would wish to advocate these views. When you fight against something that you may not like, you are also fighting for something. Is Israel really the greater of two evils in this situation?

Arab-Palestinian Conflict: If we count all of the Palestinians who have died in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the death toll comes to 13,500-14,000 Palestinian individuals killed. While that is a high number, note that it also includes the suicide bombers who died for the express purpose of killing others. However, Israel is not the worst offender against the Palestinians. Black September in Jordan alone (1970) was rumored to have killed as many as 20,000 Palestinians. The invasions of Refugee Camps in Lebanon such as Sabra, Shatila, and Nahr el-Bared killed untold thousands of unarmed Palestinians at Arab hands. Palestinians in Syria are not even allowed to have jobs or to leave the refugee camps, leaving them in abject squalor. If you seriously wish to fight for Palestinian Rights, start in the Arab countries which have made much more concerted moves to eliminate and harm them.

Kurdistan, Balochistan, Darfur, et al: While there is certainly a serious crisis going on in Gaza, why are the Muslims who die in Gaza somehow more important than Muslims who are fighting for independent states that die at the hands of other Muslims? Why do Muslims deserve the right to repress their fellow brethren, when the Israelis (mostly Jews) do not? These three conflicts: Kurdistan, Balochistan, and Darfur were each more extensive than the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, resulted in more deaths of the repressed people (40,000 Kurds, 15,000 Balochs, 10,000 Darfurians dead from the violence and an additional 40,000 from starvation and disease from being on the run from violent pursuers). If you wish to address great pain and suffering, do these people not merit your attention first since their situation is more serious?

Answer 2

Your friend is not going to join any Army, stay calm. He is playing hero to impress the girls. So, just remind him of two things:

1. Israeli Army is unbeatable when it's fighting on its own land;

2. There is not any State that would be ready now to start a war against Israel, knowing that the chances of winning a war against Israel are very slim. So, there is not any Army your friend could join.

If this does not cool him, just shrug- and tell him go and join the Army. You will see that he will stay at home.

Answer 1

Palestine is still Palestine. People just think it is israel. But it is NOT!!

Answer 2

Israel was a historical term for the land before the Romans created the term Palestine. This original term became the name of the Modern State of Israel in 1948 when Jewish groups were able to establish a State.