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During the U.S Civil War 620,000 men were killed over a five year period. It was one of the most momentous struggles in American history. Many are familiar with the fact that during the Civil War the draft was instituted and that in the northern states it was possible for men of means to buy their way out of serving in the Federal army. In contrast in the American South the wealthy men of substance volunteered to fight and die. Many of us are familiar with the fact that wealthy men were able to avoid fighting and dying in the Civil War in this manner. We accept or we condemn this fact. But few of us are under the impression that these people who avoided service, and thus avoided risking their lives, are equal to those who served. In the aftermath of the war society rightly granted certain dispensations to those who had served and revered them as the heroes of their time.

Many are familiar with the 'greatest generation' that fought in the Second World War. This generation of Americans, like that of 1860, went to fight in a cause that was greater than themselves. Many did not return and even more that did return came home wounded. After the war the G.I. Bill provided these men with the ability to go to college. Thus society showed its thanks. Few people are under the impression that those that went to defeat Nazism and the Japanese Empire are equal to those who remained behind. Most concede, by calling it the 'greatest generation' that those who went were more important than those remained. Even General Marshal understood this when he desired to lead the Normandy invasion himself, acknowledging that his role at home, as the highest ranking military man next to FDR, was less than the actual commander leading, what Eisenhower termed, the 'Crusade in Europe.'

Today however our democratic societies have come to look on those in the military with contempt, hatred and disdain. Whether it is towns trying to forbid the military from recruiting or colleges doing the same or people spitting on soldiers, we have developed, since the 1960s, into a society that is suspicious and hateful towards the military. At home that contempt for those who bear arms is also directed at other pieces of authority, such as the police.

In other democracies the trend is similar. Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz on September 8th, 2008 in 'The Shin Bet's academic freedom' condemns the fact that Israeli universities provide degrees to soldiers in uniform. He claims that the Hebrew University is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world precisely because its rector has recently cancelled a program that provides degrees to Shin bet (secret service) agents through a special study program. For Levy this means that soldiers are therefore subject to the "same laws as any other student." He condemns the "twisted thought process" that claims members of the security forces deserve "the right to special academic conditions." He points out the programs he condemns, such as a course at Haifa University that gives pilots a B.A after just a year of study. He compares these pilots to "cleansing staff who sweep out the lecture halls" and notes that they do not receive "special academic conditions." Levy calls it a 'curse' that soldiers have received these special rights. He says "the idea that members of the security forces are entitled to more-not just exaggerated and scandalous pay, discounts for those in uniform at steak houses, but also at the ivory towers. They don't deserve special treatment." He scoffs at the idea of soldiers at the university rubbing "shoulders with an environment that is generally very foreign to them: the intellectual milieu…they will read and write and-who knows-maybe they will also think and ask questions. The experience will surely broaden their horizons, which sometimes resemble the narrow barracks in which they serve." Levy calls for "no separate groups with special conditions and most of all no shortened programs…the universities must not allow themselves to be conscripted into safe guarding Israel's security…it contradicts their academic and intellectual existence…a civil society striving for economic and intellectual growth must be weaned from its worship of those in uniform…[to the military:] your contribution is no more important than that of other members of the population."

When Levy compares the men in uniform to the cleaning staff and notes that the university should not be 'conscripted' into providing any special programs for the military and its veterans he seems to forget two essential things. The cleaning staff do not risk their lives everyday when they come to work. It reminds me of the scene in The Right Stuff when the wife of a test pilot talks about her girlfriends whose husband's work on wallstreet, "how they would've felt if every time their husband went in to make a deal, there was a one in four chance he wouldn't come out of that meeting." Mr. Levy also misses a second point: who does he think defends the ivory tower and his own right to write what he pleases? When people speak of the idea that the military contradicts "academic and intellectual existence" they seem to forget that in all cases in the world it has been force of arms that have allowed for this academic and intellectual existence. When people speak of a "civil society [that] must be weaned from its worship of the uniform" they forget that it is the uniformed men and women who stand at the frontiers guaranteeing that civil society. When the frontiers collapse, as they did in the Roman Empire or in ancient Greece and the military units evaporate, who guarantees the security of the ivory tower? The ivory tower is not merely a metaphor for the university. It is also the very idea of the gilded halls where the men in ancient times met to discuss philosophy and science. But when there were no more men left to defend those institutions these philosophers were swept away as well and all that was left was the ruins, the columns and marble arches, with no civil society and no learned men and women.

A society that hates the men under arms and makes sport of them and jeers at them as if they are foolish thugs, and refuses to give them any benefits for risking their lives will one day find that those men and women in the armed services no longer want to serve. If the men had returned from the Second World War to a society that had contempt for them and spat on them and refused to give them the G.I Bill so that they could receive a top level education after having fought for their country, would they have been productive members of society? What kind of America would it have been if the 9 million men who returned from the war had been cast aside like a dustbin, left uneducated and told that they might have a job sweeping the streets. Would that 'greatest generation' that had liberated the people of Europe taken kindly to an intellectual society that despised them so?

John Edwards spoke of 'two Americas' during his campaign for the U.S presidency, the wealthy one and the poor one. But he missed something. In Israel there is a similar matter of 'two Israels'. There is the Israel that does its duty and receives little pay for years of national service and expects that at some point it will receive the meekest of rewards. There is also the Israel that condemns and hates the other Israel, the Israel that scoffs at them, calls them narrow minded and declares that all in society should be equal. But equality under the law is different from equality before the state's institutions. When the state calls upon its men and women to serve, and if needs be die, those called upon deserve recompense from the state. If that comes in the form of discounts and decent pay and a good education at a top ranked university that is only fair. To claim that the university owes them nothing, to claim that the ivory tower exists in a vacuum may sound nice today, but one day that vacuum may be rudely punctured, as it was by the July 2002 terrorist attack at Hebrew university. Then suddenly the civil society begs for protection. Perhaps one day it will find that the 'other Israel' it has so often critiqued and cast into the dustbin will no longer provide that protection. Then perhaps the university will no longer be 'conscripted' to the uniform and will be fully weaned from the security services. But like a baby weaned and left without the protection of the mother and the father, where will the child seek protection in a brutish world? Who will it conscript to defend itself? Will Gideon Levy man the security check at the entrance to Hebrew University? Will the Arab students at Hebrew University who glory in their right to wear a khaffiya to class, and pray in a special area and pass out anti-Israel fliers from a booth defend the university? Who will strap on the shield and risk his life? We are not all equal members of society and we do not all obey the same laws. Some are called upon to risk all by the state and others are not. To pretend that the two are the same is to do the greatest injustice to those who paid the ultimate price and never even had the chance at a university education, let alone one that allowed them to protect, serve and be educated at the same time.

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