Last update - 00:00 18/03/2008
In war as in war
By Yoel Marcus
Israel's minister of defense has become a minister of war, says my colleague Gideon Levy. He condemns Ehud Barak's actions and expresses his bitter disappointment in the man. Sadly, Israel is not Switzerland. Its neighbors are not Luxembourg and Lichtenstein, and its defense minister is not a character from the opera dressed in a fancy uniform with a feather-plumed hat. As a country that has known nothing but war in every shape and form since the day it was born, Israel's defense minister is indeed a minister of war. This is not a derogatory term but a realistic job description.
Despite the fact that we have signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, thanks to courageous leaders on both sides, Israel remains a target for elimination. The Palestinian people, whose right to establish a state of their own was granted by the United Nations at the same time as it was granted to Israel, chose to turn down the offer. Instead of living alongside a pint-size sliver of a state called Israel, the Palestinians preferred to fight for all or nothing.
As a country forced to live by the sword for the last 60 years, Israel could have easily become a military dictatorship. But it retained its humanity and its democratic character, blossoming into a developed country admired by friends and foes alike.
Israel fell in love with the territories it captured in the Six-Day War, but over time, in the wake of wars and terror and global pressure, small windows of goodwill opened that allowed the signing of peace accords. Arguably the most dramatic of them, after the Yom Kippur War and peace with Egypt and Jordan, were the Oslo Accords, signed at a gala ceremony on the White House lawn, and later in Cairo.
Yasser Arafat proudly drove into Gaza in a black limousine, waving to the cheering, hope-filled crowds. But instead of words of peace, the chairman's maiden speech was a war cry against Israel.
In 2000, it was then prime minister Ehud Barak who presented Arafat and president Bill Clinton with a comprehensive agreement that included the option of dividing Jerusalem. Arafat turned white, Clinton wrote in his memoir. Soon after that, the second intifada erupted. The Palestinian leadership wrecked any opportunity for an agreement with its own two hands.
Barak pokes fun at the incredible amateurishness of the Palestinian leaders, with their fancy suits and scent of after-shave, who lost half their people to Hamas in Gaza. Our fight is not with the Palestinians in Gaza, says Barak, but with those who drove out, bumped off or incarcerated 17,000 Palestinian Authority security personnel. Our fight is with those who have been shooting rockets into Israel for the last seven years. It was no accident that Ariel Sharon insisted that the first stage of the road map should be halting terror and dismantling the terror organizations, although he himself evacuated Gush Katif unconditionally.
Hamas, boosted by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism now spreading like a plague in this part of the world, by Iran's threats to destroy Israel and support of terror, and most of all, by the exposure of Israel's soft underbelly - the home front - in the Second Lebanon War, is threatening to arm itself with long-range rockets that can reach the heart of Israel.
Barak denies that any kind of mutual cease-fire was declared between Hamas and Israel. There was an outside initiative (mainly from Egypt) to get Hamas to stop firing Qassams at Israel. And if they stopped shooting, Israel would stop retaliating. But Israel has not promised to end the war on terror in the West Bank, out of fear that Hamas is liable to gain control there, too, and topple the last vestiges of sane, albeit weak, leadership.
Seven years of rocket fire into urban centers is not something that any country can tolerate. Islamic Jihad claims its attacks are a response to Israel's targeted assassination of four wanted murderers in Bethlehem. Stop the targeted hits and we will stop firing rockets, says Jihad. But this equation, even if it is based on some sort of agreement, cannot and should not be accepted by Israel. A deal that prevents Israel from fighting terror but allows missiles to be lobbed into our cities is out of the question.
A government's primary commitment is to its citizens. Noble sentiments are all very well, but not when blood is being spilled. Creating a linkage between what is going on in Gaza and what is going on in Judea and Samaria will only invite attacks from the West Bank on Israel proper.
Ehud Barak is not talking about "victory" in Gaza, to use the populist rhetoric of Benjamin Netanyahu. All he wants is to end the rocket fire from Gaza. He is not keen on a "major offensive" in Gaza, but if a ground operation is necessary, our minister of war will not back down from what needs to be done. In war as in war, as they say.