For a while now, Israelis have been reading and hearing about a strange, new tank unit called the Phoenix unit. Like the bird for which it is named (in Hebrew, oaf ha-chol, the bird of the sand), the unit was created by a hi-tech executive, long since out of the army, who decided to revive old tanks, long since out of service. (There’s also a story in Times of Israel.)
The story—of the men and their tanks, and how they did when they were finally sent into battle—is in the video above.
Towards the end of the video, like everything else in Israel these days, the conversation touches a bit on politics. As the narrator of the video notes, it’s a story of “citizens taking responsibility for something that was not their responsibility, in contrast to politicians who aren’t even doing that. Perhaps our next generation of leaders will come from here.”
He asks one of the creators of the unit, “It’s not going to stop in the army?”
“No, people will understand that there is no one else. You want change? Don’t talk about it. Do something. Do it. Don’t talk about it in some group where you sit with your friends or get pissed off … You want to make a change, make a change.”
The hope, obviously, is that the confidence and belief in itself that the Israel of old had can and will—like the mythological phoenix—rise once again from the ashes.
From time to time, when we find something of interest (whether we agree with it or not, in whole or in part), we share links to enrich our collective larger conversation. I thought that the following piece in Tablet Magazine by Elliot Abrams was very worth passing on. No matter where one stands on the two-state-solution, and especially if one is instinctively in favor, one needs to engage the questions that he raises.
Again, you can read the article here.
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