The Logic of War

by Bruce Schimmel

NAZARETH, Israel -- The scene is almost funny.

A busload of pilgrims is caught in the middle of an intersection. Cars hang off sidewalks. People dart everywhere. It’s gridlock in Christ’s hometown and the air is filled with honking and much Arabic cursing.

And I'm behind the wheel of a car in the middle of it all.

Jammed with no place to move, it would have been amusing if not for the gun in the back seat, a rifle designed to empty its clip in a drum roll. Automatic weapons are illegal even in Israel, unless carried by a soldier. So thankfully, we also had one of those, albeit out of uniform, which at the moment was probably fortunate.

Our soldier, a tall 18-year-old blonde, could easily be mistaken for a buxom girl of the American heartland because, in fact, she is. A Jew, she's serving her people by defending her ancient homeland.

The Israeli army insists that its soldiers carry arms even on leave. The military here -- as elsewhere -- is propelled by a logic of war that puts winning above everything else.

So that is how we now find ourselves in the middle of Nazareth -- now an Arab town -- with an M-16, surrounded by angry Arabs.

The gun is stamped "Property of the U.S. Government" and clearly, it wasn't designed to be stashed under the seat of a Budget rental car.

I crawl through the blockade. Thankfully, nobody sees the rifle.

Nonetheless outraged, the blond bombshell is now on fire. She yells at her sister -- my translator and tour guide -- that she doesn't want me to drive through any more fucking Arab towns. Ever. Ever. Ever.

Then, we hear how Arabs had recently sneaked into camp and killed a couple of her comrades -- two 19-year-old girls -- while they slept in their beds. Their commanding officer, she says, is so distraught that she's taken all her leave time to be with the girls' grieving parents.

We drop off our soldier and her gun, offering vague promises to meet again in a couple of days. We drive home listening to the radio on which, coincidentally, my tour guide says there's an interview with a parent of one of the slain girls. The mother says her daughter didn't believe Israel should continue occupying Palestinian territories but she served her country anyway because it was her duty.

The air is thick with hate in this ancient land. Hatred in the hometown of peace. A soldier locked in hate as revenge becomes its own end.

These ironies of nearly biblical proportion would almost be funny if the people here were not trapped in the logic of war, with a gun at their backs.