CBS’s 60 minutes ran an informative piece on the Israeli Airforce, the IAF.

Unlike other nations where the airforce fighter pilots are selected from a group of volunteers,the IAF get first dibs from the entire pool of Israeli draftees. Only 1 in 40 who are selected make it through fighter training. In Israel these selectees are rock stars.

Israel responds to $50 home made rockets fired from Gaza with $50,000 rockets that are precision guided to avoid civilian casualties. Even under these conditions the pilots spoke of the moral dilemmma of having to kill civilians to hit their targets. I doubt that any moral dilemma is faced by the Hamas who willingly fires on civilian targets.

But the IAF pilots are ordinary citizens who if not for their situation would be school teachers, postmen, truck drivers, shop keepers and doctors or nurses: true citizen soldiers. They remind me of what our WWII forces must have been like: ordinary citizens who if needed would become efficient trained killers.

The broadcast noted a framed picture given to pilots of IAF jets flying over Auschwitz. The message is clear; that Israel can not and will not entrust its security to anyone but themselves. All Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tour Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, as the final step in their training. The message is clear: this is what happens if you lose. They are a motivated fighting force.

During my two recent trips to Israel I still observed that the Israelis are very American in their culture and in their lives. Americans, Jewish or not, would feel at home there.

tips to Deborah Adler for alerting me to the broadcast

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