By Professor Joseph Mintz, PhD
“Death Death to the IDF”, chanted singer Bob Vylan at the Glastonbury music festival in England in the summer, notoriously transmitted live by the BBC. They have since made some sort of apology for doing so, but the idea that there is something wrong with IDF service has seeped into the general consciousness of the West.
In the leftist and Islamist conspiratorial antizionist worldview, Israel is the embodiment of evil, so of course fighting in their army must be evil too. Even when the world at large takes a moment to recognise the dangers of antisemitism and speaks up against it, this perspective can still lurk, even if unconsciously, beneath the surface.
So in academia and elsewhere, free speech advocates and indeed allies will say it’s wrong to target Israeli professors or students because they undertook “mandatory” service in the IDF. But it’s only wrong because Israeli Jews have to serve in the IDF, so you are discriminating against people based on something they had no choice in. There’s an unstated implication that if they had had a choice, then it would be better if they had not done so. There’s still something “untouchable” about Israel and the IDF in the argument.
Well, I’m sorry but that’s just plain wrong. As October 7th showed us so very clearly, Israel only exists because of the IDF and if it didn’t exist, and if Jews didn’t fight in it, then millions of Jews living in Israel would be dead. IDF soldiers are not, as the conspiratorial antizionists madly think, supporting evil, but fighting for democracy, human rights and yes, Jewish self-determination in their indigenous land.
The focus on “mandatory” service also has a tinge of the notion of Tsarist conscription, as though Israeli Jews are somehow being press-ganged into fighting. Well again, no, I’m sorry, Israel is not Russia. The vast majority of young Israeli Jews (and indeed other groups including Druze citizens) very much want to serve in the IDF to defend their people and their way of life.
I had friends in England who joined the IDF straight from school, or after university. They were my heroes, just as from my community in London now, young people heroically continue to go to Israel to serve. And they are not just fighting for Israel.
The conspiratorial antizionism of the left sees the institutions of liberal democracy, very much including the American or UK armies, as pretty much just as evil as the IDF. They don’t believe in equality or human rights, or the idea of free democratic nations. Because if they can’t believe that these things apply to Jews, they don’t believe in them at all.
I will not be bullied into being ashamed of the IDF or of the heroes who fight for Israel and liberal democratic values and neither should you.
Joseph Mintz is Professor of Inclusive Education at UCL. He engages in research on inclusion, special educational needs, teacher education for inclusion and has led research projects funded by government and national agencies. He has written for the Jewish Chronicle, the Algemeiner and Times Higher Education. He regularly presents on issues of inclusion and special education in a range of national and international forums. Follow him @jmintzuclacuk His views are his own and do not reflect those of his employers.
