Israeli Veteran Proud of His Confederate Heritage

After a ceremony to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans,

Arieh O'Sullivan displays the Confederate flag he took

into battle with him when he and his Israeli

paratrooper unit invaded Lebanon in

the 1982 war, Feb. 22, 2012. (Arieh O'Sullivan)

Here's an interesting story in the Jewish press, about an Israeli Arieh O'Sullivan, a former paratrooper and officer in the Israeli Defense Force.  O'Sullivan, a citizen of Israel, drives around in an army jeep with a Confederate flag on the spare tire.  He recently joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans, aligning himself with a chapter in Biloxi, Mississippi.

O'Sullivan fought with the IDF in Lebanon in 1982, and like thousands of Confederate descendant-soldiers, carried the Confederate battle flag into battle -- concealed in one of his pouches.

O'Sullivan's ancestor was in the Confederate cavalry of Alabama (so was mine), and O'Sullivan notes similarities between the Confederate nation and Israel -- as have I.  His impressions are not quite the same as mine, however.  O'Sullivan says this:
“There’s some kind of kinship between Israel and the Confederacy: Both are mired in self-pity, victimology and obsession with history.”

My impressions of the two nations' similarities are these:

1. Both are (or were) small nations surrounded by hostile forces bent on their violent destruction.
2. Both are the target of unending lies, distortions, ignorance and slander about their origins, purposes and the reasons they are/were attacked.
3. Both are/were absolutely determined to survive against seemingly overwhelming forces.

The Jewish Times reported this story factually and impartially, without trying to slime it with leftist or Yankee spin, as is done regularly by the American propaganda press (also known as the mainstream media).  Read the story here.