While coverage in the U.S. focused on Colin Powell's decision to meet with Yassar Arafat--pity Sharon let Powell leave the compound afterward--the Israeli offensive continues. Somehow, US media treatment of the conflict only has time for a quick visual of a news anchor, flak jacket donned, in some picturesque setting, handing off the coverage to some correspondent reading Bush Administration tea leaves (or scat) as to what the US will do next: Mild Rebuke? Expression of Concern? Stern Condemnation? Guarded Optimism? The West Bank burns, and George Bush is still learning how to use his thesaurus and yawn at the same time.

Interestingly, the range of viewpoints regarding what Israel is doing, and how the aggrieved parties might proceed, is far wider in the Israeli press than it is stateside. It's also far less dependent on official pronouncements. Hence, the April 10 edition of the Israeli daily Ha'aretz had a long article--notably absent any "balancing" judgments of treasonousness from Likud spokespeople, a trope no U.S. report would be complete without--on the remarkable, courageous refusal of Israeli Army reservists to report for duty on the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

The reservist COs have gotten a bit of coverage in the US, but it's generally come without at least two pieces of context essential for understanding how important--and, for the Sharon government, alarming--their movement is.

When American readers think of conscientious objectors, we think generally of Vietnam. But while COs were unpopular in many parts of the US in the '60s, the risks they took are nothing next to what Israeli reservists face. There, military service is woven into the very fabric of Israeli life. All men serve; therefore, most adult men not in the army are veterans, and many identify with the military fiercely. Secondly, the military itself is seen as a very immediate guarantor of Israel's survival, and so words like "traitor" are not mindless epithets; they're taken seriously, and to refuse a call-up order is also, oftentimes, to defy your boss, your co-workers, your relatives--it is not an easy thing. Nor, if you stick by your decision, is the resulting jail time--sure, Israel tends only to torture Palestinians, but their "sympathizers" are only one rung above.

Into that maelstrom, so far, have walked an unprecedented 375 IDF reserve officers and soldiers so far [it's now over 400, as of April 20--ed.], all of whom, according to Ha'Aretz, have now signed a letter of refusal to serve in the occupied territories at a time when their ultimate commander, Ariel Sharon, has called the offensive being carried out there a war for the existence of Israel. On April 5, less than a week into the new offensive, a group of them, carrying Israeli flags to underscore their ties to Zionism, took their refusal directly to Sharon: choosing for their first public demonstration to gather outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. Their courage, and conscience, stands in pointed contrast to the armchair Zionists amassed at the US Capitol a week later.

The Israeli peace group Yesh Gvul ("There Is A Limit"), which has long counseled and organized Israeli COs, says that over the following weekend it received "dozens of calls" from more reservists seeking advice and help. And the sentiment may run much, much deeper. The Ha'Aretz article quotes a "refusenik" currently serving 28 days, Zlad Lahav: "I am a Zionist and a patriot and went to serve in an infantry unit out of free choice. When I informed [the army] of my refusal to do reserve duty in Hebron, around half of my friends in my platoon told me that they supported my actions. The others said they didn't agree with me, but understood me."

These are not pacifists, and they are Zionists; they believe in Israel, and are willing to fight to defend it, but not to steal Palestinian land, massacre civilians, or endanger their comrades (and, ultimately, Israeli civilians) unnecessarily. The stand at least 375 Israelis have now taken on behalf of their beliefs is more courageous than most of us can know. If Israeli soldiers--trained and encouraged to dehumanize all Palestinians, to consider even women and children as the enemy--are in large numbers sympathetic to or even empathetic with the decisions of men like Lahav not to fight, then Ariel Sharon may also be facing a limit. And it is one that has nothing to do with international condemnation or the visit of Colin Powell.