Naomi Chazan has been around a while. She is an experienced legislator who has risen in the ranks to honored positions in the Knesset. She should know better. Frankly, all she has to do is open one of the newspapers or listen to one of the radio news programs she is loves to frequent.
In March of this year, 125 Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists. There were more dead practically every day that month. The culmination was the Passover massacre in Netanya, where 29 people were killed in the bombing of a hotel on Seder night.
The following week, the IDF began Operation Defensive Shield, entering the main cities of Judea and Samaria, arresting hundreds of terrorists, destroying bomb factories, and inflicting heavy damage on the terrorist industrial complex that had been developed in those areas. The operation was called off after three weeks - before achieving its goals - due to US pressure. But the results were quite noticeable. A 70% reduction in terrorist murders in April, down to 39.
Still, 39 more dead Jews is about 40 too many. In June, when terrorism again began to escalate, the IDF re-entered the cities and resumed their activities. In the two months since then, terrorism has been drastically reduced, and there have been prolonged periods with no murderous attacks. Bomb factories are still being uncovered and destroyed daily but the wailing of ambulance sirens has been all but silenced.
Along comes Naomi Chazan, saying that there is no military solution. The achievements of the IDF - the only military force in the world sworn to protect Jews - are insignificant in the eyes of Chazan. To her, the fact that Jews are no longer being killed with such impunity is not a solution.
In 1992, there were basically four possible solutions to the conflict in Israel. Transferring the Jews out of Israel and allowing the Palestinians to build a terrorist state on the ashes of the Jewish one, negotiation with the Palestinians to reach a "peaceful compromise", having the Israeli military defeat the Palestinians and then enforce a peaceful society, or transferring the Palestinians out of Israel and allowing the Jewish State to get on with the business of protecting Jews.
The Rabin government chose the second of these options, which, for a liberal democracy, was the most logical choice all things being equal. But all things were not equal, since the Palestinians chose the first option.
The logical impossibility of negotiating peace with someone whose very identity is based on our destruction never seems to have been a problem for the Israeli left. When reality finally began to set in two years ago, what remained of the Israeli left became convinced that the first option really was the most desirable. Naomi Chazan certainly seems to think so. Thankfully the rest of the country is not quite so prepared to commit national suicide.
Given that the first two options have been proven unfeasible, we are left with the military option or transferring the Palestinians out of Israel. It seems that, based on the facts, the IDF has provided the solution for now. Jews are not being killed as much as before due simply and solely to the presence of the IDF in Palestinian-populated neighborhoods where they can stop the terrorism before it starts.
Finally, the IDF is doing the job it was meant to do. Yes, there are still terrorist attacks and alerts. Yes, the country is still nervously looking over its shoulder. Yes, soldiers and security personnel are still ubiquitous. All that means is that the IDF is not finished its work yet - that there is still more to be done and with greater strength.
But Naomi Chazan does not believe there is a military solution at all. She has said so repeatedly. Perhaps that means that she prefers national suicide as offered by the first two options. Perhaps she would like to return to Oslo and the close to 1000 Israeli dead it has caused. Perhaps she would like to cleanse Israel of all her Jewish inhabitants. Or perhaps she has become a devout Kahanist and proposes to expel all the Palestinians from Israel?
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
