ARTICLE AND COPY SHOWCASE

Ever since nineteen forty eight when Israel was driven to war by allied arab forces (the war of independence) the country has been in a state of constant  enforced conflict.

Even in times of relative peace Israel has suffered occaisional terrorist attacks intended to keep the country on it’s toes lest it fall into a state of presumptuous complacency, and god forbid, get the feeling that it had been accepted as a legitimate member state of the region.

 Israel’s struggle with it’s neighbours still continues with little hope of any type peaceful solution in the near future. This continual state of confrontation makes Israel a society that suffers from a great deal of stress and anxiety.

Doctors tell us that to suffer from anxiety for extended periods of time is detrimental to our overall health. We are liable to develop any of a vast number of medical complaints many of them very severe.

Israeli citizens simply do not know when and where they are going to get hit next. 

Countries under continuous stress also suffer anxiety syndromes. Societies can show signs of continued impatience, nervousness, the need to escape, lack of respect for authority, lack of motivation to do national service, lack of faith for a better future and a feeling of vulnerability to mention but a few examples of the many possibilities.

It is a situation which is taken to be a fact of life within Israel but, nonetheless, the effects of this continued anxiousness are very real. Israeli’s are very much aware of these problems and yet seem to accept them as a part of their specific idiosyncratic way of life but does it really have to be this way?

The question has often been asked, have Israeli leaders passed up upon genuine opportunities for peace in the past?

If so, what were the motives for such decisions to be taken? A lack of desire for peace and normalization? Would peace have gotten in the way of the personal ambitions of certain people in some circles? Has the prospect of being an ordinary country, going about the ordinary business of life and government simply been inconvenient to the agenda of governments? 

Whatever the answer, Israel has a responsibility to it’s citizens and that responsibility is to maintain the well being of all within it’s boarders. And I do mean in every respect, both physically and mentally.

Whatever Israel does in the future must be done with a view to turning Israel into a country that can go about the business of living a safe and secure life, just the same as citizens of all other normal contries.

The stressful atmosphere that Israeli citzens put up with, day in day out, must come to an end. To accomplish this the problem must be seriously addressed and weighed in all future decision making deliberations of the highest level of Israeli government.

Being in a state of continued conflict, Israel maintains a huge army which takes up a very disproportionate part of it’s budget in comaprison to the country’s size. This leaves very little money to invest in other areas in need of urgent attention. This lack of social investment has been going on for decades. Has Israel hit the level of social decay? Will Israel find itself sitting on a pile of social debris?

The quality of a society, as a whole, can only be judged by the mental and emotional condition of all the people who live within it’s boarders. 

No ammount of patriotic exclamations and sweeping statements on the part of politicians can rectify the true situation. If Israel truely wants to be an example to the world in all it’s aspects, action most definately needs to be taken now.