This is the heading that Steven Plaut gives the article I came across today on the elder of ziyon blog, where the elder had linked to an article in Yehdiot Ahronot, and in English to Steven Plaut. I know that the elder is one of the links provided by Snoopy et al, but that doesn't mean that you all do link to it, let alone most days. So here's one worth reading today.
It seems that Monalisa Abdo (yes, that really is her first name), an Israeli Arab of 19, has not only enlisted in the IDF, she has volunteered for an elite counter-terrorism unit. This entitles her to wear the famed red boots of such units. This marks them out (for the non-Israelis here) as "don't mess with me" types. As Steven Plaut notes (and this goes for me too) "no one would ever think of letting me even get near a pair of red combat boots." She is, according to the article, stationed in the Negev on anti-terrorist duty. Presumably, units like hers also look out for Sudanese Darfuris desperately trying to get into Israel to escape discrimination and appalling treatment further south. The news for us gets better (for anti-Zionists it gets worse), her older sister, Michelin, aged 21, is also joining up, and will serve in the same unit. Scary for self-same anti-Zionists. In Yehdiot Ahronot, Monalisa says ""Israeli Arabs need to serve in the Israeli military," she insists in the interview, "to give to the country and not just take." Israel is our country and we need to serve it, she believes." When asked why she has the first name she does, she says that her father gave it to her, so she would have have a name that made her walk tall and proud.
Can't get taller and prouder than an elite counter-terror unit in the IDF! Read the rest here (the elder also links to the original Hebrew article in Yehdiot Ahronot).
By Brian Goldfarb.
5 comments:
Good for Monalisa.I would be interested to know how many Arabs serve in the IDF, members from the Druze community aside.
Quite a lot of Bedouin citizens serve in various units as guides and trackers. There is a separate battalion (585) as well, you can read about it here:
http://www.defensestudies.org/cds/idf%E2%80%99s-bedouin-unit-installs-first-commander-from-negev-tribes/
And more in Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Defense_Forces#Bedouins_and_Israeli_Arabs
Having personally experienced the red boot types, I know what you mean. They weren't exactly unfriendly but they didn't go out of their way to be personable, either. Very similar, I decided, to the American Airborne-Rangers of my day (1967-71).
Well, boys be boys as they say.
As far as Bedouin are concerned, as Snoopy says below, quite a few. One of them was Ishmael Khaldi (as well as at least one of his brothers), as he relates in his book "A Shepherd's Journey", before he went on to become the first Bedouin to serve in the Israeli Diplomatic Corps, and at the time of writing his book, had become Consul in Los angeles.
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