Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Beyond the Green Line: A British volunteer in the IDF during the al Aqsa Intifada Paperback – September 10, 2017 by Marc Goldberg



This is a brief autobiography of a 22-year-old British citizen, who, after a young life of feeling like being treated as a second-class Jewish citizen in London, decided in early 2002 to move to Israel for the express purpose of joining the Israeli army for two years.  

Having strong Jewish pride, the author, dreaming of becoming a paratrooper, a general, and a war hero in the Israeli army, recounts how after undergoing basic army training, decided he would rather immediately begin engaging in various military patrols inside the Palestinian West Bank, rather than seeking officer-school training [all of this accounted for about 40% of the book].  He served on various search-for-the-terrorist raids, and he details his experiences in maneuvering along narrow, twisting allys in old villages which gave jihadis easy escape routes.

However, as he noted in his forward: "In places I have collapsed the events of several different operations into one operation for brevity and narrative purposes."  Hence, this book really isn't a historically accurate account of Israeli military ops, but more of a collage collection of consolidated foot-patrols where something of military-interest activity occurred.  

The author initially thought that, as a Jew, he was going to Israel to defend the Jewish homeland from terrorist attacks.  However, after humping around the hills and dales of the West Bank, he developed a "What's the purpose of this patrol?" attitude as Palestinian kids constantly pelted his vehicle with rocks, and started taking drugs.  He soon left the military, and returned to London, where he tried to figure out the purpose of his seemingly squandered life.  After some mental counseling, he returned to Israel in 2010.

The author doesn't analyze the Palestinian-Israel conflict, he doesn't analyze the motivations of the jihadi Islamikazes, he doesn't ponder Israeli politics -- this book seems to be more of a post-PTSD, self-help book in analyzing why he became disillusioned with his army service, and then revealing his redemption efforts in overcoming his drug addiction to start a family.

This is an easy read book about a Jewish teen who lost his enthusiasm for war, but renewed his determination in trying to find some redemption by living in and supporting Israel.

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