Meet Mona Liza Abdo, a Christian Arab who volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
My job as a commander in the IDF is to prevent terrorist attacks, smuggling operations and illegal entry into the country. I think if I prevent drugs from entering the country, I not only protect the Jewish people but the Arabs as well.
The IDF has produced a three-minute video (in Arabic! with English subtitles) about Abdo. What comes through is her clarity of thought, and her conviction that by protecting the Jewish state, she is also defending the Arabs who live there. It’s a perspective you rarely hear in typical reporting about the Israeli military.
The IDF obviously has a message it wants to get across–namely, that the Israeli military is inclusive and that there are Arab citizens who love Israel as much as any Jew. In this case, it’s particularly effective, not least because the person at the heart of the story is both articulate and attractive. (You even get to meet her mother.)
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