Americans tend to think of war as something disconnected from their daily lives, a televised foray into a country with people who don’t speak English and who dress differently.

For most of us, the wars in Iraq and on terrorism are the only exposure to a state of war in recent memory. Indeed, there hasn’t been a conflict on the mainland United States since the Civil War. At Binghamton University, a Facebook.com search for “Beirut” yields more results for another name for beer pong than for the Lebanese capital.

But some of those who have had recent experience in Binghamton and the Middle East have gained a new perspective of what it means to be in a country at war.

Ben Greenberg, ‘05 (see main story), recently relocated to Jerusalem. Of the many fundamental differences between the US and Israel, Greenberg has found the two nations’ views of war the most stark.

While images of fallen soldiers returning home aren’t shown in the United States, Israeli news sources publish their pictures as well as their biographies.

This, Greenberg said, “makes it easier to empathize — not just as individuals, but as a society — with the tolls of war. That’s something that’s missing from American discourse.”

Since service in the army is mandatory for high-school graduates in Israel, Greenberg’s perception of American soldiers who volunteer for service has altered dramatically.

“I can appreciate it more,” he said of the volunteer spirit of the American soldier. “It’s made me more aware of what a sacrifice it is.”

For Karin Blecher, a senior pre-med major who was born in Israel and was there this summer days before the conflict erupted, the differences loom larger than just those between the two nations’ soldiers: it goes to the very attitude of the countries at war.

“Here it’s defending ‘freedom’ and defending ‘democracy’,” Blecher said. “There it’s defending people — the Israeli people.”