This summer, with campus nearly 6,000 miles away, several Binghamton University students and alumni found themselves in the middle of an international conflict that made headlines around the world.
For those who spent time in the Middle East, the violent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ranged in impact from enlistment in the Israeli army to social observations from a country at war.
Israeli-American students, some destined for Israel’s mandatory army service, now see their enlistment through new eyes. At least two recent BU graduates, Elan Sasson ’05 and Shani Ackerman ’06, are now in the Israeli army.
Sasson, who enrolled in 2005, said he had no idea such a major conflict would break out when he decided to go to Israel.
“It just kind of came out of nowhere,” said the 22-year-old American citizen.
Whereas Sasson spent his four years at BU studying psychology, he has spent the last month on the front lines, in Lebanon, with infrequent two-day breaks.
“Enjoy Binghamton for me,” he said. “I’m kind of missing that about now.”
And Sasson certainly isn’t alone in his commitment to the army.
Many Israeli-Americans, such as alumna Kim Richardson ’05, have had to grapple with the decision.
Richardson, who at 21 has moved permanently to Israel, considers serving in the army a rite of passage, and is hopes she will be able to enlist sometime this year.
On Aug. 1, nine days before Richardson arrived in Israel, her friend Michael Levine died in combat in southern Lebanon.
According to Richardson, Levine was a “passionate person” who was determined to serve in the Israeli army. His death, she said, “makes the war a lot more personal.”
“There’s a very big psychological factor. I’m always going to be an American in Israeli society,” she said. “I want to integrate into Israeli society by doing this mandatory thing.”
Richardson’s decision to emigrate to Israel is far from unique. She arrived in Israel on Aug. 10 on an airplane with 200 others making the move known as “making Aliyah” (literally, “going up” to the Holy Land). She said that despite the conflict, there were seven other flights planned for the summer. On hers, the first since the conflict began, the crew announced that nobody had canceled.
“If you wait for a time when everything in Israel is calm, you’ll never make it,” she said.
Frans Koster, a senior who spent the summer of 2005 in Beirut studying Arabic, found himself in a country still recovering from the Civil War that had plagued it from 1975 to 1990. Now, pictures of bombed-out streets serve as a bitter reminder of the progress he saw a year ago.
“Lebanon is too complicated to understand, even for the overview I had in the three-and-a-half months I was there,” he said. “But I saw a country moving ahead.”
His view now is that the Lebanese people are “tired and frustrated” at having to face yet another period of rebuilding.
His hope is that people get behind the process of restoration in order to keep the military organization of Hezbollah from gaining strength and support in Lebanon.
For those who have decided to travel to the Middle East despite the war, the possible exacerbation of the conflict is also a cause for concern.
BU alumnus Ben Greenberg, ’05, is spending the year in Jerusalem, studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. He arrived in early August, despite the escalating violence in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Instead of canceling his trip, Greenberg has opted to be — like others living in Israel — cautious.
“You’ve got to have your head up,” he said. “You have to be attentive, not necessarily wary, or scared.”
And while the perception of Israel is that of a tumultuous, dangerous country, there are those that argue that security in Israel surpasses that of the United States’ and post-9/11 New York City. Many restaurants, shopping malls, and cafes in Israel have guards and metal detectors at the entrance. Major bus stations, students and alumni say, have as many security measures as airports.
Nevertheless, safety is not taken lightly by students traveling to the Middle East.
Richardson, whose parents made her promise not to take public buses on her first and second trips to Israel, shares Greenberg’s concern.
“I have a rule for myself: if I’m uncomfortable, I’ll get off [the bus],” she said. “You have to look out for suspicious things. And that’s part of Israeli culture, looking at stuff, noticing each other.”
Ira Glasser, ’05, also went to Israel for the first time under the condition that he not ride buses. The practicality of public transportation made him change his mind. On one occasion, Glasser boarded a Number 19 bus.
“A few days later, a suicide bomber attacked on that Number 19 bus,” he recalls. “It’s something I’ll never forget. I still have the ticket.”
Even so, Glasser — who spoke at BU’s 2005 commencement ceremony in the Events Center — considers his first visit fairly uneventful.
“It was relatively calm there then,” he said. “There were only two suicide bombings.”