Israel's culture of post-political responsibility

This culture of post-political criticism and irresponsibility has bred a sanctimonious crescendo of righteous indignation, mainly voiced abroad, the actual purpose of which is simply to coddle the egos of the former political elite.

Alon Liel

Seth J. Frantzman..
Terra Incognita/JPost..
05 December '12..







In a new film about the directors of Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, called The Gatekeepers, Ya’akov Peri claims the actions he ordered his agency to carry out can make one become left-wing.

“You knock on doors in the middle of the night, these moments end up etched deep inside you. When you retire, you become a bit of a leftist,” he says.

Isn't it convenient how one can wait until retirement to develop a moral compass? Of course, Peri’s moral quibbles apparently don’t apply to the period when he was actually in charge. No, Peri’s “insight” is reserved for the benefit of those who came after, for the actions of Israel today.

A fully mature adult takes responsibility for his actions. Not only that, but he learns from the results of his actions. When he makes mistakes, he attempts not to repeat them. One of the truly remarkable things about Israel is the degree to which the country was, for many years, run by a political elite who not only took no responsibility for their actions, but refused to learn from, or even admit, for that matter, their mistakes The defining characteristic of this group is its capacity for blaming others for all the country’s troubles, never mind that they themselves once held the wheel and are, to a very large extent, responsible for the very problems they now critique.

In July 2011, for example, Shlomo Gazit wrote that “if we don’t separate from the Palestinian population on the ground, Jewish and democratic Israel will be unable to survive.” He bemoaned the Palestinians in the West Bank having to navigate a “legal system that enforces the law in a discriminatory way on the basis of national identity, [which] is actually maintaining an apartheid regime.”

This would all be easier to take seriously were it not for the fact that Gazit himself played a central role in establishing the Israeli regime that now governs the West Bank. Foreign Affairs has noted that Gazit was “the coordinator of Israeli government operations in the Occupied Territories from 1967 to 1974, was on the ground in the early years of the occupation and has closely followed developments since.” Gazit prefers that the media focus on how, as a young boy, he joined the Hagana in 1942 and then went on to serve for 32 years in the IDF. Although he authored the book Trapped Fools: Thirty years of Israeli policy in the territories in 2003, in his op-eds on the subject he rarely brings up his own role in being present at the creation of the very system he denounces.

War and Technology

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut Yehudit
12 Tamuz, 5770
24 June '10

Like everyone else in Israel, I applaud Israel Aircraft Industry's success in launching the Ofek 9 satellite. This is a technological achievement that we can all be proud of. The Ofek 9 will give us a clearer picture of how close the Iranians are to their nuclear bomb. Now, an Israeli satellite will pass over Bushehr every half hour instead of every hour, and its telescopic lenses will penetrate deep into the ground – a truly remarkable feat and we salute the Israeli engineers for their accomplishment.

But a nagging question must be asked: Will this information advance Israel's defense capabilities even one inch?

In Israel, technology is rapidly replacing content. Paradoxically, the stronger Israel becomes both economically and militarily, the weaker it becomes politically. To paraphrase Churchill, when leadership chooses disgrace in fear of war, it gets disgrace and war as well. When advanced technological capabilities interface with true leadership and a clear vision, the technology becomes a significant power multiplier. But when advanced technology interfaces with small-time politicians concerned only with dousing the crisis at hand, it becomes a fig leaf.

Apparently, Israel's current leaders have already decided to stand by as the Iranians race toward nuclear capabilities. They will look the other way as Hezbollah acquires more advanced missiles that reach Eilat and will smile sheepishly as the Gaza port freely unloads state-of-the-art weaponry – because we have nothing to worry about: We have advanced technology.

Tragically, we are repeating the mistake of the Yom Kippur War. Instead of acting with conviction in the justice of our Jewish destiny in the Land of Israel, our leaders hide behind pompous military theories that glorify our technological ability to contain the first strike.

Israel's leaders must change the rules of the game and make the act of tampering with Israel's existence a venture too painful to consider. Its civilian population must be prepared for war – not peace. Protective gear must be distributed swiftly to the populace. Every person in the greater Tel Aviv area must know where he will find shelter in Judea or Samaria in an emergency.

Gaza and Lebanon must understand that missile attacks against Israel will be dealt with according to the Golan Heights model: Pictures of the abandoned Syrian villages there must be distributed widely. Since the Yom Kippur War, the Golan Heights model has proven itself as the only way to achieve lasting peace.

Those who think that they will be able to hide behind cutting edge technology in the approaching inevitable war would be well-advised to think again. Israel must go to battle with firm faith in the G-d of Israel and its Jewish destiny. With those two decisive factors in place, our cutting-edge technology will be a powerful tool for victory and not a fig-leaf for catastrophe.

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Bullying the neighborhood bully

Soccer Dad
19 March '10

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him, 'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac. He's the neighborhood bully.
Neighborhood Bully - Bob Dylan

Scott Wilson writing on the web for the Washington Post posits that Israeli leaders are not likely to win diplomatic battles with the United States.

Next, think back to 1992. Picking a fight with the Bush administration cost Shamir his job. Who succeeded him as prime minister?
Rabin, who immediately pledged to cease construction of what he called "political" settlements in the territories. Perhaps he, too, remembered 1975.

Of course one could also point to Ehud Barak who did all he could to cooperate with the Americans to the point of making an unprecedented offer to Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000. Arafat rejected the offer and, two months later, launched a war against Israel. None of President Clinton's goodwill towards Barak helped him as months later he went down to the worst electoral defeat in Israel's history.

The two previous paragraphs, though, give a hint to Wilson's premises and the limitations of his analysis.

(Read full post)
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