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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=258645
Why We Fight
(Jerusalem Post) Michael Dickson - I spent last week with several Israeli soldiers. University students, in their mid-20s and all active reservists, they recalled their battle experiences prior to a major speaking tour of campuses around the world. Yair told me about being in a battle with Hizbullah terrorists during the Second Lebanon War of 2006. A truck arrived in the middle of the battle. Ten boys, about eight years of age, got out of the truck, armed with guns. In the middle of battle, Yair saw the moral depravity of the enemy and knew in that moment why he fights. Adam told about receiving a call to his mobile phone from the anguished leader of a Palestinian village at the height of the violent Palestinian intifada. His job was to be a liaison between humanitarian NGOs, Palestinian leaders and the IDF. A Palestinian boy had got his arm stuck in the blades of an olive press in a hostile Palestinian village. While entering the village, the locals stoned their vehicles but after saving the boy's life, they left to Palestinian cheers. Lital asked me to consider the case of a pregnant Palestinian woman who was brought to a checkpoint in an ambulance which, once inspected, was found to be carrying concealed explosive devices. "Take a second," she asked me, "to understand what kind of dilemma an 18-year-old soldier is presented with when on the one hand she sees a heavily pregnant woman, apparently desperate to go to hospital, but at the same time fears it is a hoax that will cost others' lives." Knowing she faces an enemy that would use a pregnant woman about to deliver as a decoy, and the clear and present danger that Israeli citizens face from this threat, Lital was clear why she fights. These young IDF army officers will be visiting communities and campuses across the U.S. and the world over the next couple of months. They are not politicians. They are representatives of a citizens' army of a people who wish to live in peace and freedom, a freedom that must be fought for. And that is why they fight. The writer is Israel director of StandWithUs.