Reluctant Warriors

Elite citizen-soldiers speak of their inner lives, how they became such a select group of fighters, what it is like to face an enemy, including the ambivalence, hesitance, as well as certitude about protecting their families, who live within kilometers of the battlefield that is Israel. All these men chose to leave active military service, but continued as officers in the reserves. The author, a psychoanalyst, interviewed these soldiers over the years of the Second Intifada and Lebanese War. Each one had some family member or friend killed. They speak and want to be heard. These Jewish soldiers are the Macabees of today, but they tell of the tension between being a fine soldier versus being humane. The real action for these men is their inner reactions: fears and hopes and memories that will not rest.