“This is a conflict for marathon runners,” he said. “This is a long conflict that won't end in a week, or two weeks, or another month. In my opinion, not even this year. This is a fateful conflict, and this is the time for resilience and not for refusing (to serve).”
And so, in one paragraph, Mofaz illustrated two of the leading issues in Israel this month. First, there is the on-going security situation, one that Prime Minister Sharon has watched deteriorate to an all-time low. One year ago, Sharon was elected to bring the country out of the security quagmire into which Ehud Barak had plunged us. Sharon won the largest mandate in Israeli history for the singular purpose of restoring security to a nation reeling from massive terror attacks aimed at us by our erstwhile partners in peace.
Since Sharon took office, 221 Israelis have been killed. Added to the 66 killed in the five previous months, the total exceeds the entire toll from the seven years between Oslo and September 2000. And the attacks are carried out with increasing impunity as time goes on.
The last two weeks have been among the deadliest in history. 24 Israelis have been killed and scores more wounded in a series of attacks that caused the nation to begin begging for Sharon to do something. In response, Sharon this week said that Israel would respond to the attacks, and that such violence could no longer go unanswered. For 48 hours after this statement, nothing happened.
When General Mofaz got up to speak yesterday, many understood his words as an analysis of Palestinian intentions. They are not interested in negotiation or in reaching any kind of settlement with Israel. Indeed, the Palestinians had just finished rejecting the Saudi “peace” initiative, which is nothing more than a resuscitation of UN Resolutions 242 and 338. They are interested in violence for violence’s sake, in killing as many Jews as possible over as long a period as possible. In this assessment, Mofaz is, of course, correct.
But it doesn’t take the Chief of Staff to state something so blindingly obvious. Everyone in the country except for Yossi Beilin and Meretz can see the truth of this analysis. I think Mofaz was hinting at something else – something he has said outright on one or two occasions. This war will be a long one simply because Israel does not have the will to end it promptly.
When the violence erupted 17 months ago, Ehud Barak chose to make even more concessions than previously in the hope that the Arabs would finally start to like the poor little Jews of Israel. Yasser Arafat showed him for the fool he was. Barak was followed by Sharon, who has not made any concessions to Arafat – other than leaving him alive and his authority intact. And Arafat is showing him for a fool as well.
Then there are the IDF officers who have signed a petition refusing to serve in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. Their objection does not arise from any conscientious factors. These are officers who have served for many years without uttering any such objections. Rather, it is a politically motivated statement aimed at further weakening the foundations of the State of Israel and its security doctrine.
The media calls them “Refuseniks”, one of the most insulting pronouncements they can muster. Not insulting to the officers, of course, but rather to the real Refuseniks of decades past who wore their Zionism as a badge of honor and paid with their freedom and livelihoods for it. That Jewish and Zionist heroes such as Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel, and thousands of others should be grouped with a handful of traitors in IDF uniforms is the most shameful act of sycophancy the Israeli media has yet devised.
The conspiracy between these officers, the media, and the political left serves only to deprive Israel of whatever will it has left. Ariel Sharon is its prime victim.
In the marathon conflict that Mofaz spoke of, Sharon can’t even get out of the starting gates. He presides over a hamstrung government whose left foot keeps tripping up its right, and whose right keeps running and getting tripped yet again. And Sharon at its head can’t figure out why his shoelaces seem constantly undone. Perhaps if he lost some weight – the extra bulk of his unwieldy national unity government, he would be able to realize that he is in fact wearing slip-ons and point his feet in the right direction.
A true leader would be able to cut through all the treason-chic that passes for ideology on the Israeli left, would be able to put the IDF rejectionists in their place, would be able to promptly end the violence through sheer might, and would be able to divest himself of the political baggage that has been acquired over decades of proud national service. He would be able to recognize the slip-ons given him by the electorate and dispense with the laces that bind him to ineffective policies.
But alas, Sharon is not the proud leader we all thought he was. He, too, has lost the political will to fight Israel’s battles on both domestic and external fields. He too has joined the military rejectionists, refusing to fight for political reasons. And it is that lack of will, that refusal on the part of Sharon, and the rejectionist officers, that led Mofaz to make his statement.
I hope that Mofaz continues reading the situation properly. If he intends to run for political office following his retirement from the IDF in July, something that is a marathon in itself, it would be refreshing to see him act on such readings, perhaps get some Nike cross-trainers, tie them properly, and begin rebuilding Israel’s national pride.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
