An Israeli Commando Shares His Story

Aaron Cohen was born in Quebec, Canada, but moved to the United States later. Both his parents were involved in the entertainment industry. He grew up in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
When he grew older, however, he decided he wanted to make aliyah – to move to Israel (at least temporarily), where he wanted to serve in the Jewish nation-state’s army.
And that is exactly what he did. He trained, focused, went to Israel, and joined one of the army’s best special forces, the duvdevan. Years later, he wrote a book about his experiences: they provide us with the rare opportunity to understand what the duvdevan, and other Israeli anti-terror groups, do, how they operate, how they look at national security and Palestinians, and, of course, how the constant threat of terrorism influences every single Israeli, not just those (currently) serving in the army.
The book is an absolute must read for those interested in books about the military. It beats a Tom Clancy with ease, because you know that everything Cohen tells you happened in real life. In fact, you get the distinct impression that he is hiding part of the story from you, in order to protect Israel’s anti-terrorism units’ secrets (especially their tactics, etc.).
Although extremely entertaining – I read it in one sit – and interesting, Cohen’s book does have some weaknesses. And they come at the very end: He uses the last pages to convince the reader that America has to radically change its approach to terrorism. The US, he says, has to Israelize. It has to give up some of its fundamental freedoms – at least for certain members of society – so it will be easier for counterterrorism specialists to identify (potential) terrorists, and to arrest them.
Cohen bases his recommendations for a large part on 9/11. This even showed, he says, that terrorism is as big a threat to America as it is to Israel. Therefore, it has to learn from Israel’s experiences; it has, after all, the most experienced and best anti-terrorism forces in the world.
Terrorism does indeed pose a serious threat to America and every other Western country, but the situation is not even remotely comparable to that Israel found itself in when it founded by Ben Gurion. Israel is surrounded by many millions of mortal enemies. It is a tiny little country, with a dismissible population (relatively). Israelis constantly have to leave with terror threats. In fact, rockets are fired at Israeli civilians every single day of the week.
Not so in the United States. The US was hit hard once by terrorists: on 9/11. No major terrorist attacks occurred ever since. Not in the U.S., at least. Americans – whether they are Middle Eastern, Asian, Native American, WASPs or something else – love their country passionately. The average Arab American is not waiting for orders to blow themselves and a dozen innocent citizens up. Extremist groups are not in control of entire neighborhoods, let alone entire cities. Hamas, as Cohen explains in his book, truly controls neighborhoods. Youngsters are stopped when they leave a mosque, and told to strap a bomb around themselves: if they do no, they and their entire families will be killed by the terrorist organization.
Lastly, although Israel certainly has the best anti-terrorism warriors in the world, it is fair to ask whether Israel’s tactics have truly proved to be effective: the hatred for Israel has not decreased. The terror threat is just as big now as it was a few years ago, perhaps even bigger. Palestinians still dream about destroying the Jewish nation-state and wiping out its entire population (or at least forcing them to migrate). You have to wonder whether the hatred would decrease if Israel would stop considering “every male Arab a potential terrorist” (Cohen’s words), which would admittedly be extremely risky (as Cohen put it: “what good are civil rights when you’re dead”).
Putting a long story short: Israel and America are two entirely different countries, with different problems. They can learn from each other, of course, but trying to copy the other would be ludicrous.