To army or not to army?

    With a mandatory draft here in Israel, many Israelis debate whether or not they should be required to go to the army. Not like these arguments do much good, because the law still stands that every Israeli must serve in the army. Being born in Israel, I am one of those Israelis who is actually looking forward to the army. Although I live in America, I know that I want the chance to go through this experience and grow more than I can even imagine right now. 

    However, many Israelis would disagree with me tremendously. A large amount of the population believes that it should not be mandatory for them to complete army service, for one reason or another. I, on the other hand, think it's crucial. Our army is what allowed the Jewish people to maintain this homeland that we cherish so deeply. If our army was based solely off volunteers I do not believe that we would be successful in fighting all of our neighbors who don't like us so very much. Overall, I do understand people's arguments about being set behind a few years in education and pursuing careers, but I think the things one can learn from army service are irriplacable. 

College Campus Protests

    Recently, on the Unicersity of California, Berkeley there were a series of massive protests led by a Palestinian organization of students called Students for Justice in Palestine. These individuals spoke up in favor of BDS, the movement meant to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel. Supporters of this ideology are sadly, despite their denial, performing a sort of antisemitism. In return, a group thankfully supporting Israel rose up to defend our country's name. This group is "Tikvah:Students For Israel", and placed full responsibility on the Palestinian Leadership. It gets harder and harder to hear about these horrid acts of antisemitism going on in a country as modern as America, which is said to be free. Personally, I would not feel any sense of freedom of I saw a protest such as this out the window of my dorm room. This article especially reminded me of what we've been talking about in class the last couple of days. In our final stretch leading up to independence, we were told not to stand up for ourselves in order to prevent a second holocaust. Is this what we're expected to do now? Sit idly by as Palestinians pin Israel as the source of their problems, like what had been done to us in years past? That isn't an option, and these groups, such as Tikvah, are essential to show that we are not backing down and that our Jewish state isn't going anywhere. We are here to stay!!

article: https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/04/05/pro-israel-berkeley-students-stage-counter-demonstration-to-blame-incitement-for-palestinian-malaise/

Graffiti!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    This past Friday we embarked on a trip which differed from our usual historic site seeing. We toured the city of Tel Aviv, looking at all of the graffiti scattered around town. There are plenty of well known graffiti artists, which have slowly formed a sort of society with certain understandings within it. One very popular artist is Kislev. He has a unique style including often renting a crane in order to place his art up higher. It's part of his mark and  his designs can be recognized often due to their location. Another artist that we focused on is Dede, who regularly includes a band-aid in his art. When left to the viewer to interpret, as graffiti should be, it left me thinking that he's attempting to cover up a wound. Not in order to heal it, but so that it won't be seen.
    During the entire trip, we walked a lot (and I mean a lot), saw amazing works of art, ate some incredibly good burekas, and got the chance to experience a Friday morning in real, human, Israel life. Normally, we're "that" group of tourists with our matching hats, insane volume, and desire to learn. However, this time around, I'd like to think that we blended in pretty well and truly did get  taste of a normal Israeli day, in normal Israeli neighborhood, with normal Israeli people (exciting, I know). I think that now i can safely say that I agree with and understand the statement, "Jerusalem, if I ever forget you, it'll be because of Tel Aviv" which is seen all over the city.