US Servas - My Call to Serve

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My Call to Serve

September 28, 2024 6:00 PM | Bill Magargal (Administrator)

Volunteering at an IDF Emergency Medical Supplies Distribution Center in Israel

by Josi McIntire, former US Servas Peace Secretary

I have never thought of myself as a Zionist. I am not even a practicing Jew. But since I do believe that Israel has the right to exist, perhaps I am at least a “political” Zionist insomuch as I am Jewish, and I accept Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. At the same time, I acknowledge that the Palestinian people have legitimate aspirations for statehood and self-determination.

The attack of October 7, 2023, on the Nova Music Festival by Hamas, was a declaration of Jihad challenging the future existence of Israel. Consequently, this summer I felt compelled to fly to Israel and serve as a volunteer working in an IDF Emergency Medical Supplies Distribution Center.

There were other volunteering options, but, considering the horror of the October 7 attack and a deep concern for the future of Israel, I felt a calling to contribute to a people with whom I share an affinity. I chose to travel to Israel and serve in direct support of the IDF. It was an emotionally stirring two-week experience. I learned a great deal.

Outside of my small circle of Jewish friends, few people have had questions about my recent experience. Most seem to have answers: the broad condemnation of Israel. That has made me aware of how deep many historic prejudices still lie.

I do not know the answers. But I do know that any lasting solution will require a nuanced approach that recognizes that the confluence of historical, religious, and social factors, makes the issues multifaceted and extremely complicated. Simplistic, one-sided, uninformed biases may nurture some level of intellectual/humanitarian self-esteem and righteousness, but do not help.

I hope that this contribution will encourage readers to pursue a search for truth, and perhaps even voluntarism. It is my hope that some form of lasting peace for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people will someday be found.

I know that the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a very emotional subject for many, but if you want to read more about my experiences in Israel and my take on what is happening there you can read it HERE.

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Comments

September 30, 2024 2:50 PM | Anonymous member

Thank you Yosi for sharing your perspective. I look forward to reading about your experiences in Israel.

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September 30, 2024 2:56 PM | Anonymous member

I read the detailed report from Josi and thank him for his perspective. As he points out, the on-going war is difficult for all involved and no easy solutions exist.

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September 30, 2024 4:55 PM | Anonymous member

Josi, What a thoughtful and heartfelt note. I too volunteered with Sar-el in 2011 and packed medical supplies for IDF soldiers. In a wonderful turn of events, our supplies went to Japan, at the Japanese government's request, in support of the tsunami relief effort. It was an unforgettable, immensely rewarding experience for me.
It is not easy these days to openly support Israel and I commend you for your bravery. On the eve of this New Year, let us hope and work for peace for all the people who call this beautiful land home.

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September 30, 2024 5:58 PM | Anonymous member

I can't understand why my good buddy Yosi and the commenters here can't acknowledge that Israel is a project of land theft, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing. All this violence is a result of that imperial interference in the region. As al Qaeda was produced by US meddling in the region, and the Taliban in Afghanistan a result of foreign intervention, and as South Africa was a white settler colony fomented by imperial states, so Palestine has been stolen and renamed. How difficult is that to understand? I'm Jewish, and I hate Zionism for what it does to Jews and of course Palestinians. C'mon, people, this is not that hard.

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October 01, 2024 3:21 AM | Anonymous member

Hi Yossi I look forward to reading your other comments as well. I am ending my visit to Spain for the servas 75th anniversary meeting.
I have been following this as many of us have through this year and agree with you about the complexity of the point of view and the necessity to contribute to the conversation in one way or another. thank you for posting

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October 06, 2024 6:48 AM | Anonymous member

I was surprised and so very disturbed to read Yossi's report about his time volunteering for the IDF. I did grow up a zionist and an observant Jew. But that does not mean I am going to support bombardment and starvation of an entire population in Gaza. Judaism has been around for thousands of years, Zionism, on the other hand has been around for less than 150 years and the State of Israel for only 76 years. Opposing zionism (https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/zionism) is not antisemitic.

This situation did not begin on October 7. Resistance to oppression began when the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began, (https://imeu.org/article/explainer-plan-dalet-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine ) before the State of Israel was declared. Now, a year after the Hamas attack, almost all of the 2.3 million people in Gaza have been displaced over and over and over again, 16,891 children have been killed and there is now a horrible new acronym, WCNSF - wounded child no surviving family. Nearly 1,000 health workers have been killed, (https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nearly-1000-palestinian-health-workers-killed-israeli-forces-gaza-named). 128 journalists have been killed (https://cpj.org/2024/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/) - Israel does not want the world to see what they are really doing. This is NOT self-defense.

I was told that Servas was about peace between people around the world. But peace without justice is not peace. Where is the justice when 12 out of 12 universities in Gaza are attacked, (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/03/07/all-12-universities-in-gaza-have-been-the-target-of-israeli-attacks-it-s-a-war-against-education_6592965_4.html), when half the hospitals are not functioning at all and the other half just barely, when the majority of food aid waiting to get to the people in Gaza is blocked by the Israelis, when Israel bombs bakeries and ambulances, mosques and churches, when polio cases are found for the first time in 25 years, (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/23/baby-in-gaza-partly-paralysed-from-polio-in-territorys-first-case-for-25-years ) when hundreds of thousands of people are just barely existing in tents with no access to clean water or sanitation facilities or adequate food.

And then there’s the dispossession of Palestinian families in the West Bank. And now, in less than 2 weeks, 2,000 have been killed in Lebanon, village after village is targeted, many thousands have fled their homes, not knowing where, if anywhere, in Lebanon is safe.

What Israel is doing will not make anyone safer. I do not believe that slaughtering masses of civilians, men and women and children exploded into fragments collected into empty rice bags will lead to anything positive for anyone in the world? Do you?

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- October 10, 2024 4:41 PM | Anonymous member
  
  Have a look at "Israel's Reel Extremism" on Zeteo. Footage shot by Israeli soldiers glorifying in their inhumane crusade to destroy Palestine. The bulk of Israelis could not care less about non-Jewish lives, and that includes my cousins there. It is a fascist nation, and pretty dialogue solves nothing without the US stopping the arms and stopping the defense of Israeli marauding at the UN. Peace is not achieved without stripping power from genocidaires. Read your history, it was always the design of the Zionist plan from way before 1948 to drive out the natives and seize the land. If it were South Africa or anywhere else in the world, no one would argue with this.
  
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