ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVIST PICKS UP HIS RIFLE

'Former' Peace Activist Picks Up Rifle (NYSun)
In Der Spiegel (via Captain's Quarters) there is a piece by Zeev Avrahami, whom the paper desribes as a "former Israeli peace activist" who "explains why he has laid down his olive branch and is prepared to grab for his rifle."

When I finished my mandatory service, I decided never again to be a soldier. When I was called up from the reserves and ordered back to Gaza, I refused and became an outspoken and active opponent of the Israeli occupation. I spent a total of 45 days in military prison for my refusal to serve ...

When the rockets from Gaza began falling on southern Israel, my former peace activism became but a distant memory. The recent killings and kidnappings of soldiers on the Gaza and Lebanese borders sent us back to our past and into our closets: Once again, we Israelis are looking for our uniforms.

Today, I am convinced that Israel is fighting a justified war. Far from being an "optional war," this conflict was forced upon us. There is a feeling that every positive step taken in recent years has been answered by punishment. Now we are prepared to do whatever it takes to turn Israel into a safe place, even if this means invading Lebanon once again ...

We pulled out of Gaza and we have no desire to be pulled back in. We want to go to work, study, raise a family, enjoy the beach, and eat hummus ... We prayed for hummus and instead we got Hamas.

I too am turning back the clock. Eighteen years after finishing my military service -- almost two decades after swearing that I would never again wear a uniform -- I called the Israeli consulate in New York and gave them my phone number. If the army needed me, I told them, I would be the first on a plane back to Israel. And Sharon, of course, has still not woken from his coma. But I miss him.

Except it's incorrect to describe Avrahami as a 'former' peace activist. He's still a peace activist. He just realizes that sometimes you need to fight a war to achieve real peace.