Israel Gives Border Duty to the Russians

A few days ago we joined up with another group of writers on the same fam, these were all from Canada and the west coast. One young writer named William Karz told a story about his experience for two months in an Israeli army boot camp. Apparently Americans and others can join this to get a taste of what it's like serving in the military there.

He said that many of the Russian immigrants who come to Israel and have to serve in the army must take a compulsary test to qualify. Due to the language barrier, they often score very low. This means they are usually assigned to working at the border crossings and other hotspots...basically the grunt work where most Israeli born soldiers don't want to go.

That's why you often read about shootings and deaths of rock throwing youths at these hot spots. The immigrants who man these outposts often can't understand Hebrew, or Arabic, and are quick to pull the trigger against the Palestinians. They lack the ability to negotiate, and so, often the CNN reports about these incidents stems from the barely trained soldiers who usually get this undesirable duty.

Bill also told about taking a felucca down the Nile in Egypt and how a man would stand guard all night on deck to fend off would be robbers who lurked in the bushes. Then he joined a new Egyptian friend to go and have dinner with him. They walked and walked and finally made it to the rivers edge. The man lit a bush on fire and began screaming, "Mohammed!, Mohammed!" til finally a friend named Mohammed came to pick them up and bring them across the river for dinner.