Every Jew, and certainly every Israeli, has a vision of what Israel should look like. In almost no case does Israel actually resemble any such view. But, perhaps more than other Jews, Sharon has a right to describe his view and to air his thoughts. He earned that right through the contributions he has made throughout his life to the defense and growth of the State of Israel.
The major item that I recall from this final chapter is Sharon's view that Israel has no "set of national goals" to provide a "sense of direction and identity". Ever since I read this, a few years ago, this has bothered me. It bothers me to this day because I realize, with every news story I read from Israel, and with every discussion I hold on religious, social, and political issues within Israel and within the larger Jewish community, that it is true.
Ask most Israelis, and most Jews in the Diaspora, what are the major problems faced by Israel, and they are liable to answer: Oslo, religious-secular arguments, human rights, economics, trade, or a host of other equally important issues. But none of these are the major problem faced by Israel. They are all important, to be sure. And they all have something in common: they are symptoms of Israel's illness -- but they are not the illness. These issues are, to Israel's major problem, what sniffles and fever are to the flu.
Israel's major problem is a lack of vision. Ariel Sharon was right. Israel has no sense of national priorities and national goals upon which to resurrect the quickly disappearing sense of national direction and identity. It is no mistake that as the Oslo process wears on many of the other issues are also resurfacing with a heightened sense of urgency. The religious-secular divide seems greater than ever. Morale in the Israel Defense Forces, and among the population in general, has never been lower. Israel has rarely been more vulnerable and at the mercy of the world than it is now. All these problems grow at the same time, and for the same reason.
For the past nine years the Israeli political and security establishments have gone blindly about, confused and unsure of what to do next. When all of a sudden the Arabs began throwing stones, and putting children in the way, Israelis became confused. It was as if Israel was the racoon in the headlights of the world media and world condemnation.
But what was it that made Israel behave differently in the past nine years than it had before then? After all, Israel was built on strength, determination, initiative, and cunning creativity -- qualities all which have garnered Israel, and the Jewish nation in general, the welcome reputation it deserves in technology, military science, politics, economics, and a host of other areas. Above all, though, Israel was built on pure, unadulterated chutzpah.
What has happened to that chutzpah in recent years is that it has plain disappeared. No Israeli leader today is prepared to stand up and show the chutzpah that built Israel, and that is sad. For if Israel was built on chutzpah, its demise will be due to a lack of that same chutzpah.
Ariel Sharon said as much in his book, which makes recent events all the more perplexing. For it was with a tremendous sense of grief that I read this week of Sharon's meeting with Shimon Peres in an effort to bring Labour into the government.
The Israeli Labour party, under first Yitzchak Rabin, and then Shimon Peres, did more to damage the heart and soul of Israel than any other government in Israel's history. They sought to give away the land that forms the cradle and sustenance of the Jewish nation. They deprived tens of Jews of their civil rights through the use of administrative detentions, and violent repression of public dissent. They acted wantonly to divide the Jewish nation against itself -- even carrying this effort so far as to stage an assassination attempt on Rabin in an effort to de-legitimize the religious and the right-wing in Israel and in the Diaspora. The ultimate horror was that the staged assassination backfired, and Rabin actually was killed. Even so, that did not deter the plotters of the secular left from pursuing their objectives.
The government of Rabin and Peres was not the cause of Israel's problems, only the worst yet manifestation of them. Under Yitzchak Shamir, whose dearest dream was to build national unity through unifying the government, there was already a pronounced lack of initiative and of imagination. There was already a sense of blind confusion where there should have been clear and ambitious policy initiatives. Shamir brought Peres and Rabin into his government, and the two leaders of the left used every opportunity they had -- and created ones where there were none -- to betray Israel's government by advocating and pursuing opposing policies. (This is all well-documented in various memoirs.) In fact, it was Shamir's lack of leadership that was responsible in part for Labour's victory in 1992, and that gave Rabin and Peres the opportunity to openly pursue their own objectives.
Now, Sharon, the hero General of Israel who created the Likud party out of an assortment of different splinter parties in 1973, has approached Peres to discuss the latter's joining the government again. What does Sharon hope this will accomplish other than yet more opportunities to hamstring the current Likud government? Perhaps it is Sharon's aim to serve notice that his rivalry with Prime Minister Netanyahu is not a thing of the past. But even if this cynicism is the reason for Sharon's move, the truth does not change.
Sharon saw that Israel needs a sense of national priority, and of identity and esteem. If anything, that need has become even more pressing today than it was when he wrote those words in 1989. But even Sharon, who knows what is needed, is not prepared to act to bring Israel what it needs. In that, Sharon is no better than any other Israeli "leader".
What Israel needs is a real leader who has the chutzpah to stand up to the Arabs and proclaim for the world to hear that Jewish blood is not cheap, that peace means peace and not blind concessions, and that the Israeli government must do what is necessary for Israel to survive, and not what the rest of the world demands of it. For a while, I had held up the hope that Binyamin Netanyahu might provide that leadership. Then, when it became apparent that Netanyahu was not the answer, hope survived in the person of Sharon. Now, Sharon has betrayed that hope as well.
Shimon Peres will certainly not provide Israel with the leadership it needs. The question now, though, is "who will?" Where have all the Israeli heroes gone who can provide Israel and the Jewish nation with the willpower and the strength and charisma that are so necessary for Israel to reclaim the glory that should be hers -- but that is so lacking?
Copyright 1996. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
