A Nation's

You nges

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

STAFF WRITER

Israeli teen-agers
grow up on the
front lines
unless they opt out
of army service for
religious reasons.

• I-4it*.klE,"

Leaders

k

here are wars
taking place in
Israel today.
Most are wars of
words — be-
tween Jew and
Arab, Jew and
Jew, soldiers'
families and reli-
gious "conscien-
tious objectors."
But the IDF's
youngest com-
batants — 18-19-
22-year-old Jew-
-
ish boys and girls
— say there is a war happenihg
in Lebanon, which the news me-
dia do not mention. Every day,
they say, they fend off Katyusha
rockets fired by Hezbollah ter-
rorists. The Israelis on the
Lebanese border fire back — 50-
200 rockets a day —just to make
sure the fighting does not cross
into Israel.
And still, life goes on.
As I lay on a thin army-issue
bottom bunk, with a strong-
smelling kerosene heater piping

hot in the corner of the room, I Volunteers for Israel program
can hear air force jets streak into that is run by the army. In late
the sky, heading north to appar- 11th or early 12th grade, Israeli
teens receive a letter asking them
ently bomb Lebanese targets.
It's a strange reality: rap mu- to come to the Bakum, the army's
sic pumping from compact Euro- induction center. A series of med-
pean cars as soldiers younger ical tests and interviews ensue,
than I spend day and night in says Ms. Levy.
"It's a very exciting moment.
concrete trenches on the borders
of Syria and Lebanon. It's a life It's like a different stage of life."
Parents usually accompany
few Americans can imagine. And
when you're there, it still seems teens to the Bakum, and amid
tears and dramatic
unreal.
Life in Israel includes Soldiers pr epare farewells, the youngsters
the army. Starting at tanks on a Golan trade their long hair and
age 18, boys serve for at Heights b ase. jeans for crew cuts and army
fatigues. (The girls can keep
least three years, girls
for one year and nine months. their hair at any length as long
Few women fight; many do sec- as they wear it back in a pony-
retarial work, wearing army tail.)
It's a sobering experience. The
greens.
Dalit, 19, says the girls don't boys are given dog tags for
resent menial tasks. Even the around their neck and also for
smallest jobs contribute to mak- each shoe, in case a leg gets shot
ing Israel a stronger nation, she off. They also undergo dental x-
rays, in case one day their bodies
says.
The Israeli army officially nee,d to be identified.
Identification cards list a sol-
formed in 1948, during the War
of Independence, according to Gal dier's allergies, "in case you fall
Levy, a soldier with Sar-El, the YOUNGEST LEADERS page 108

she grew 4r,
sheva, she had pro
',.11.ome and could not
ere after the a-any:. :‘
have not so much money,
and I can't rent an apartment,"
she says. "For me, [Belt Herd
its like home."
She pays 100 shekels (equal
to about $33.33) a month to
stay there and hopes to even-
tually rent an apartment. Men
av is simultaneously
completing her high school
studies and working, mostly as
a waitress.
"You need to have a perma-
nent and high 'salary" to live in
Israel, she says. Apartments
in Tel Aviv, a stone's throw
from where she lives in Jaffa,
can cost $500 per month. Many
young Israelis share a place
with two or three people.
Belt Hen is not a palace. The
bathrooms are dirty, the show-
ers "need improvements." Most
ti
of the residents are of Ethiopi-
an or Russian descent, Merav
; 1 22
says.
There is one phone and a
recreation room with a TV.
Due to the sparsely-furnished
a_
kitchen, Merav mostly eats <
out. Sometimes the washing
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