WE WERE THE EXPRESSO GENERATION - How Israeli patriotism rises to the occasion, particularly the current Tik Tok generation.
By: Joseph Puder
Friday, August 9, 2024
My generation in Israel was called the expresso generation. It meant to dismiss us as spoiled café and discotheque dwellers, unlike the previous generations of sweat and blood who sacrificed personal comforts to build the nation of Israel.
The early 1960’s in Israel was a time of relative peace or, perhaps, better qualified as a time when there was less terror and no official war. The reparations from Germany, “compensation” for the murder of Six Million Jews in Europe by the Nazi German regime, transformed Israel from austerity to relative prosperity. The influx of these funds enabled many to open new fashionable stores on the chic Dizengoff street in Tel Aviv. Steakhouses along the street competed for crowds with the famous coffee houses with names such as Kasit and Roval, frequented by named artists and writers.
Our cultural icons changed as well. The music we heard over the radio was now less of the Red Army choir and the French Les Companion de la Chanson, and more of the American idols, such as Elvis Presley, the Platters, Paul Anka, etc. It was the beginning of the Americanization of Israel. And, when in November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated, my generation was in shock and mourning.
Beyond our borders, Egypt, the most populated and powerful Arab state, led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, was occupied in Yemen, where the autocratic, secular, pan-Arabist, and pro-Soviet Nasser regime was seeking to oust the Yemeni royalist regime, which was supported by Saudi Arabia. Yemen was, in fact, Egypt’s Vietnam, it bled its forces, and hence, Israel was able to enjoy a relative peace.
Once the war in Yemen came to an end, and the United Arab Republic (UAR), that united the forces of Egypt and Syria under the leadership of Nasser, was dissolved by the Baathist regime in Syria, Nasser focused on what Cairo’s radio “Voice of the Arabs” declared was Egypt’s aim - to “Throw the Jews of Israel into the Mediterranean Sea.”
In the months leading to the 1967 Six Day War, Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli navigation, effectively choking off Israel’s trade routes with Africa and Asia through Israel’s Eilat port. Nasser subsequently expelled the United Nation’s observer force from the demilitarized Sinai Peninsula and poured over 100,000 Egyptian troops into the Sinai. Israel faced a war of extinction having to deal with three fronts: in the south with Egypt, Syria in the north and Jordan in the east. In addition, military contingents from Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan joined the Arab camp.
The discotheques and coffee houses of Tel Aviv and Haifa were empty in May of 1967, Tel Aviv became a ghost town, where only women, children and the elderly were seen in its streets. High Schoolers dug graves for the impending catastrophic casualties. Our expresso generation didn’t hesitate for a moment. Every urban “expresso” kid joined the fighting forces alongside the kibbutzniks in ground combat units, in a tank, on a patrol boat and as part of the Air Force’s ground and air crews. Being left out of uniform constituted a disgrace. Thus, even those who were disqualified from serving for medical reasons insisted on being drafted.
The knowledge, that should our Arab enemies be victorious, a new Holocaust would await us, was certainly a motivating factor. Our generation still remembered the Holocaust, albeit our culture, until the Eichman Trial was still focused on building the persona of a new Israeli as distinct from the helpless Jews of eastern Europe, who allegedly went “like sheep to the slaughter.” We also knew that we had no other place to go to, and that having won our homeland after two-thousand years of exile and persecution, we couldn’t return to the status of homelessness and a pitiful existence.
October 7, 2023, was another wakeup call – this time for those regarded as being part of the Tik Tok generation. Israel was invaded by murderous terrorists as part of an Iranian strategy to destroy Israel by attacking it from multiple fronts. The Iranians and the Palestinians, in both Gaza and Ramallah (seat of power for Palestinian Authority) perceived Israelis to be weak, spoiled by the good life, and vulnerable. Massive demonstrations throughout major Israeli urban centers, and even in the military ranks, purportedly against the Likud government Judicial Reforms, but basically to bring down the government, created major chaos in the country.
When the enormity of the Hamas massacres was revealed, every “Tik Toker” demonstrator in their 20’s and 30’s and some, in their teens, rushed to enlist in combat units. Reservists, in their late 20’s and 30’s left their high-tech businesses to fight- the reservist’s turnout was 130%, more than 30% of the required numbers. Much like during the Six-Day War, young reservists rushed in from vacations in Asia and Latin America, leaving jobs in the US and Europe, to save the country. Israeli patriotism, in an age comfort and individualism, was and is exemplary.
Within Israel, civil society, without much government financial support, sought to house the internal refugees from the communities displaced by the barrage of attacks by Hamas in the south and Hezbollah’s rockets in the north. Food and clothes collection sites were on overdrive, and the nation embraced the families of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas to the Gaza Tunnels.
Time and again, Israeli young people have defied the characterization of their elders. Whether they were called the Expresso generation or the Tik Tok generation, the implication of these labels was that the younger generation was spoiled, soft, and less dedicated to the nation’s survival. Yet, time and again, the young people of Israel proved that in a crunch, they are ready to sacrifice life and limb for the survival of the Jewish state. Am Yisrael Chai! This phrase became a song, and a statement of defiance, sung by old and young alike with pride and enthusiasm.