The foreign editor of Look Magazine predicted today that Israel will find itself beset with a multitude of internal problems once peace comes to the Middle East. According to J. Robert Moskin, if peace is achieved, “pent-up problems, kicked under the rug for so long, will burst through like bombs.” The outbreak, he said, will be led by youthful Israelis of both sexes who now are required to spend 36 months in the army between 18 and 21. For them, Moskin explained, the war in which the tiny nation finds itself involved, is not thousands of miles away. “The soldiers hitchhike home for weekends, college students go when their units are called up, regardless of studies or exams, and their older fathers and brothers do reserve duty, often a month a year.” This is a “special world–the central experience” for the youth of Israel, the editor claimed. “There is no Canada to cop out to. They stay, They take it and hate the pressure and try to shape their lives around it.” In a recent trip to Israel, Moskin reported he received a variety of answers when he asked what will happen when peace comes and the borders are secured. They ranged from Whatever happens, it will be better than things are now; I can’t wait”–to predictions of a civil war.
Prof. Milton Rosenbaum, head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Social Work told Moskin: “If this country were not at war, there would be great student unrest.” According to Moskin, “in a strange way, the ‘ghetto mentality’ of the older generations has been passed on to this generation. Its Israel is in many respects a closed (though certainly a democratic) society, speaking a language no one else speaks, cut off from its Arab neighbors, tucked into a corner of the Mediterranean too far to make travel to Europe-easy.” The best of these young people, Moskin reported, “are serious bright, but somehow they disappoint. One feels a paucity of new ideas, reaching out, even of curiosity. They are determined that Israel shall survive, but they have no sense of sharing power or being able to move events. They are scarred by two decades of war.” Moskin reported that Dr. Louis Miller, Israel’s Chief National Psychiatrist told him: “Peace has its victories no less renowned than war. There are issues in peace that need to be conquered. Maybe we’ll now have more time to be concerned with Jews in Russia. Maybe we’ll have more time to relate to ourselves. Our history begins when the war ends.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
