There's Hope Yet

Gabe Pransky was so kind as to share this post on 'The New Face of the IDF' with me on Google Reader (btw, anyone with a Gmail account can sign up for the Common Sensorium's rss feed and get off my email list ;-). It tells the story (briefly) of an Arab girl from the Galilee, Elinor Jozef, who become the first female Arab combat soldier in the IDF. Despite objections from her friends, who remind Elinor the IDF kills Arabs, Elinor replies:

There was a Katyusha that fell near my house [during the 2nd Lebanon War] and also hurt Arabs. If someone would tell me that serving in the IDF means killing Arabs, I remind them that Arabs also kill Arabs... I believe in what I am doing…[a]t the end of the day, this will always be my home too.

So thank you Elinor Jozef for breaking down boundaries and bringing together people of differing backgrounds who share in common that they live in Israel, in a single country on a single piece of land.

As the article concludes:

Tellingly, Jozef does not distinguish between Jew, Arab, Muslim or Christian – in as much as the katyusha rockets from across the border do not make the same distinction either. For her they are all equal; they are all Israelis. And so too is she.

As someone who disavows ideological identities, the Common Sensorium salutes you! At the end of the day, people can't really be boiled down merely to the sum total of their beliefs. There is so much more color and complexity than that. Elinor Jozef realizes this at the young age of 20. Anti-Israel ideologues everywhere, take note.