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Prince Harry went to war
By Ari Shavit
Tags: Prince Harry

Prince Harry went to war. Qassam rockets don't strike Bristol, Grad rockets don't fall on Liverpool, yet Prince Harry went to war. Angela Merkel is not threatening to topple the United Kingdom, the Scottish zealots are not about to rebel, yet Prince Harry went to war.

Prince Harry went to war because the British royal family sees itself as a serving elite. Royalty is not only privileges. It is also a commitment. The man for whom Britain has done well and made its leader must lead even when Britain is fighting. Even if the fighting is strange and surreal - in distant Afghanistan.

Prince Harry went to war. His mother may have died in a tragic car crash, but the orphan Prince Harry went to war. The media criticized him and his family, yet the celebrity Prince Harry went to war. It wouldn't do, it really wouldn't do, for the third in line to the throne to endanger himself, yet still, the "party prince" went to war.
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He didn't run off to the psychologist, he didn't arrange a back or leg problem. Daddy Charles didn't fix him up with a soft seat in the military radio station at Brixton. Grandma Elizabeth didn't make a phone call to settle him in a cozy job in communications intelligence at GHCQ Cheltenham.

Prince Harry neither requested nor received a service posting close to home. He didn't return to Buckingham Palace every evening, and didn't go to Windsor every weekend. Like everyone else, like the commoners, Prince Harry ate crap in the bloody sands of Afghanistan. Because Prince Harry is a British prince, not an Israeli one.

Israel has no royal family. Neither does it have a real aristocracy. But Zionism is to a large degree a project of elites. Israel would not have been established or survived without the elites of the First and Second Aliyah, the Palmah strike force, the special IDF Unit 101, and the Nuclear Research Center.

These were elites who served voluntarily. They were "what you can do for your country" elites, not "what your country do for you" types. They knew that those who bear a nation's coat of arms must be committed to the nation, that whoever stands at the head of the people can only lead from the front.

The present oligarchy isn't like that. Many in it believe, wrongly, that they can take without giving, lead without serving. This oligarchy must be called to order. It must understand what the House of Windsor knows: If it wants to preserve the privileges it has taken for itself in the last decades, its place is now in Ashkelon and Sderot.

Its sons belong in the combat units. Like the British royal family, the Israeli power families must take responsibility - like Prince Harry, the Israeli princes must return and go to wars.

It's hard, it's cruel, but there is no other way. We're not dealing with distant Afghanistan. Here the war is over our home.
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  1.   Absolutely right - but don`t forget the princesses 09:36  |  5th generation 06/03/08
  2.   why? 10:25  |  sam 06/03/08
  3.   The Windsors and War 10:25  |  Harold 06/03/08
  4.   Leader`s Must Lead 10:25  |  ERSB 06/03/08
  5.   GOING TO WAR HAS A SOBERING EFFECT 10:28  |  Robert 06/03/08
  6.   Moreself-congratulatory BS vom Shavit 10:44  |  Ehud 06/03/08
  7.   PRINCE HARRY VS PRINCE SHARON 10:46  |  indrajaya 06/03/08
  8.   i don`t get it, did prince harry go to war or something? 13:56  |  don 06/03/08
  9.   Long gone are leaders who led from the front! 13:57  |  Said 06/03/08
  10.   But Price Harry Wasnt a Yeshiva Bochur 14:54  |  Yaakov Sullivan 06/03/08
  11.   # 3 Perhaps the non fighting Rabbis should do the same. 14:56  |  petra 06/03/08
  12.   #8 - Yes he did 16:16  |  Steve 06/03/08
  13.   No comparison: Israel`s is an army of necessity 16:18  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 06/03/08
  14.   Yaakov Gaza is still waiting for your promised visit to go to war 16:21  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  15.   Yaakov, unlike Prince Harry you are a coward not keeping promise 16:24  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  16.   Yaakov, do you still dare showing your face here and not in Gaza? 16:26  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  17.   PRINCE OF RATS FROM JAKARTA GOES TO WAR AGAINST MICE 16:28  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  18.   Olmerts sons have avoided the IDF 16:48  |  Herbert Kaine 06/03/08
  19.   Olmerts sons have avoided the IDF 16:48  |  Herbert Kaine 06/03/08
  20.   Olmerts sons have avoided the IDF 16:48  |  Herbert Kaine 06/03/08
  21.   Olmerts sons have avoided the IDF 16:48  |  Herbert Kaine 06/03/08
  22.   Olmerts sons have avoided the IDF 16:48  |  Herbert Kaine 06/03/08
  23.   f-16`s aren`t bombing the UK 16:50  |  sam i am 06/03/08
  24.   Yeah Said, Arab officers have always done it with a revolver 16:52  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  25.   Shavit left out Arab Princes thirsty for blood of non-Muslims 16:54  |  Genuine Tosefta 06/03/08
  26.   ALL to fight, so ALL should learn too! 17:30  |  Torah 06/03/08
  27.   TO NO 9 LONG GONE. 17:52  |  DANNY. 06/03/08
  28.   NO 11. 17:54  |  DANNY 06/03/08
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