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Source: http://www.elon.edu/pendulum/Story.aspx?id=4852
Soldier Shares Experiences, Defends Israel's Military Actions
(Elon [NC] University Pendulum) Nicholas Zanetti - Benjamin Anthony, a reserve sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces, has been touring college campuses nationwide, hoping to dispel what he views as inaccuracies in the mass media portrayal of the Israeli army. Anthony founded an organization called "Our Soldiers Speak," which "works to separate fact from sensationalism." Anthony described the Israeli motivation for armed interventions as strictly defensive. "We fight not out of a desire to wage war....We have no other choice." Soldiers in the IDF are not motivated by religious ideology, political fervor or political identification, but merely by a basic human desire to survive. He said the Israeli army is one of the most humane fighting forces in the world, protecting the lives and well-being of Palestinian and Arab civilians in war zones. Israel has a strong desire for peace, but a peace that is meaningful and lasting will take time, he said.