Meeting three Israeli teenagers Tuesday afternoon at Windham’s Wal-Mart was the highlight of my week. Being very interested in what’s happening in the Middle East, it was sobering to meet three boys from northern Israel who were stocking up on American clothes and music before flying back to Israel that night.
As I spoke to them near the entrance of a store synonymous with America’s economic prosperity, I couldn’t believe these same kids would soon be back in the land synonymous with terrorism – back living under the threat of Hezbollah missiles and Hamas suicide bombers.
The three boys, Savee Abu Haya, Meadad Falah and Raik Mishleb, who had just spent a few weeks at Seeds of Peace camp in Otisfield, looked very tired when they agreed to pose for a photograph for Page 2 of this week’s newspaper. Since Tuesday’s photo-op, I’ve been wondering why they looked so tired. Was it all the challenging dialogue and perspective-widening at Seeds of Peace making them tired? Were they simply drained by the life-altering camp activities? Or was it because they shopped ’til they dropped at Wally World? Was it simply because they needed lunch?
Or, maybe they weren’t tired at all. Maybe their calm and cool was because that same night they were to fly back into a war zone where they may face death.
In sync, as if with one mind, when asked how they were feeling about returning to a warring land, the teens said in broken English, “Yes, a little bit scared.” They weren’t acting. They weren’t bucking up for an audience. Their honesty revealed a quality that they take their lives seriously and that their lives mean something to them.
We don’t face death here in the Lakes Region. We’re safe. The only danger we face is danger we bring on ourselves. We go hiking and get lost or fall. We drive and get in an accident. We make bad financial decisions. For the most part, we bring on our own problems. Not so in Israel. Israelis can be killed by a suicide bomber at any time. Or, now that Israel and Hezbollah have drawn swords, an all-out regional war is a possibility. It’s a different life in Israel. They have a different perspective as a result.
I had the good fortune to visit Israel in 1995 and 1998. I stayed for six months in total and have many great memories. I had plenty of fun, but I also learned some life lessons. I learned what it was like to live in a place where, at any moment, a Jihadist’s bomb or gun could kill dozens, myself included.
These realizations were eye opening for such a pampered American as myself. And while I loved Israel, I must admit I was relieved to be done with the life lessons and get back inside America’s safe and secure borders. Our country, I realized, is a safe haven.
These three boys, as well as all the Seeds of Peace campers, are different from me, from you, from us Americans. They’re different because they face death each day. They’re tougher, too. Our teens, especially our football players with their sullen poses for the yearbook camera, think they are tough, but they feign toughness. These Israeli kids may not be stronger than their American counterparts when it comes to muscles, but they are tougher in their souls. In the few minutes I spoke with them, that quality came across clearly.
As you read this week’s newspaper, please turn to the three boys’ photo and look closely. For us readers, the boys will be forever seated comfortably in Wal-Mart rocking chairs. But the photo is just one more American memory for them. Now, a year from now and hopefully 10 years from now if they’re still alive, their daily plight will be carrying the burden of hateful neighbors and their evil acts of terrorism.
I don’t pity these three boys for their lack of a peachy outlook. I admire their seriousness. They are growing up knowing they will be required to serve three years in the army after high school. After they leave active duty, they will be on-call permanently should Israel go to war. This sort of threatening future grounds a person, especially a teenager knowing this kind of life awaits him.
When I sat them down in the rocking chairs on a hot Lakes Region afternoon, little did I know I’d be witnessing one of their few remaining safe and secure moments. Sitting there, they looked like normal kids, except they aren’t normal kids. They’re from Israel, where life is anything but normal.
-John Balentine, editor
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