On stamina and strategic myopia
By Yoel Marcus
Haaretz, January 13, 2004
Sometimes I wonder if a silent chief of staff would be better than a chief of staff who talks. Not because one minute he says, "We won;" and the next, he says, "The solution is political;" but because he has this urge to blame the army's failure to eliminate terror on the Israeli public.
Last week, Moshe Ya'alon said that the weakest link in national defense is the Israeli public and its lack of stamina. Israelis, he said, are not prepared to fight for their goals and risk their lives, and there's no agreement on what the whole fight is about since September 2000. So when it comes to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you don't need a commentator to tell you that Ya'alon is saying it's the public's fault that force hasn't worked - which is a little strange.
The goals of Israeli society are survival and living in peace and security. These are goals established by the state. But as the government's political objectives grow foggier by the moment, one wonders what exactly the chief of staff is asking the average Israeli to lay down his life for. In declaring us the weakest link, Ya'alon is ultimately saying that it's time to trade in the public for a new one.
For the historical record, let it be said that the power of endurance of Israeli society far outweighs the performance of its myopic governments over the years, since the intoxicating days of the Six-Day War that left this country's leaders drunk and giddy, and led to this insane business of settlement, designed to create a seemingly irreversible situation.
From intifada to intifada, from one terror attack to the next, the ability of Israeli citizens to get with on with life is amazing, considering the fact that there is no place a person is safe - unless you happen to be the chief of staff or a government minister with a bullet-proof car and a phalanx of armed guards.
Actually, this public, accused of being the weakest link, shows uncommon bravery every single day. People go to soccer games, to the movies, to public performances; they fill the cafes and restaurants that have reopened for business after being ripped apart by bombs.
Not that this is what you'd call "normal life." Not that the economic situation, which is a direct consequence of government ineptitude, doesn't hurt. But Israeli citizens have shown that they can be tougher and smarter than their governments. Most of the public was a lot calmer on the eve of the Iraq War than the government, which went into a panic and ordered us to open our gas mask kits, prepare sealed rooms and get ready for a chemical attack that was a distinct possibility if Saddam found his back to the wall. The majority of Israelis didn't bother.
Neither is it true that lack of consensus on the nature of the conflict has made it harder to deal with. According to the surveys, most Israelis are in favor of giving up settlements and outposts in return for peace. Ariel Sharon was elected twice not because he was the guardian angel of the settlements, but because people believed that only he could impose the will of the majority on the minority. He was elected on the strength of his commitments to peace, security and painful concessions.
The mass protest organized by the settlers on Sunday may have been impressive, but they are still a minority in this country. Meanwhile, Sharon is talking more than doing, although the White House is turning up the steam on the illegal outpost issue.
Yedioth Ahronoth recently quoted a senior officer who said: "We've wiped out all the terrorist cells except for one - the one made up of 3.5 million Palestinians." That pretty well sums up the bitter truth about the policy of force embraced by Sharon's government.
The Middle East is bursting with changes. Syria is fighting to clear its name; Iran will accept limitations on nuclear armament; Libya says it will halt its nuclear development program; Syria wants to negotiate peace with us; and we can't bring ourselves to say yes.
Why is it that with all the Axis of Evil countries on America's blacklist, its friend, Israel, is the one that may end up on trial in the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the issue of the security fence? Why is Israel perceived as a rejecter of peace?
The problem is not public stamina, but the collective intelligence of a government whose strategic perspective goes no further than its nose.
