What has really changed in Israel since 1973?
This is not the time to make a move toward peace. Why should we? Anyway, there is quiet.
By Gideon Levy Tags: Israel newsIn the morning we decided to take a trip. I was staying as a guest with a couple of friends at Kibbutz Hatzerim. From there, we took a car belonging to the kibbutz and headed south, to Sinai. We crossed Rafah and reached El-Arish. We drove as if the area were our own backyard. It was only when we realized we were running low on fuel and the Israeli gas stations were closed that we changed course and abandoned plans to reach the Suez Canal.
It was Yom Kippur. Once we returned to the kibbutz, we noticed a large crowd forming in the cafeteria. MK Aharon Yadlin, a member of the kibbutz and one of the Labor Party's most senior officials, received a phone call summoning him at once to a meeting with the prime minister. This was Yom Kippur, the year 5734 on the Jewish calendar. War.
There is no need to give an answer now to the question of what would have happened had we continued on our trip, but this of course is not the only question that has reverberated since that year. Our complacency - mine and that of the paratroop officer from Hatzerim during our last trip together to Sinai - was not out of step with Israeli society in the fall of 1973.
This past weekend, I leafed through the newspapers of the 30 days that preceded "the earthquake." There is no better barometer in sampling the spirit of the time. "Cairo: Impose economic blockade against Israel if it doesn't withdraw from the territories," "Richard Nixon: U.S. attaches supreme importance to settling conflict in the Middle East," "The Seventh Brigade celebrates 25 years in Latrun," "Golani conference in Yarkon Park," "Palmach veterans reunion set for October 16," "Sam Peckinpah's 'The Getaway' and 'Last Tango in Paris' playing for the 23rd week at Studio Cinema," "Haaretz now being sold in Sharm el-Sheikh courtesy of the Arkia corporation." The newspaper labels the heads of the PLO as "terrorists," as usual. Military affairs commentator Ze'ev Schiff wrote: "The IDF assures itself there will not be a stalemate in thinking along the chain of command." More headlines declared: "Israel celebrates 1,900 years since Masada" and "The Israeli Opera presents 'The Queen of Sheba.'" "Expedite your holiday blessings," says a notice from the postal service. "Three-day march gets underway from Beit El, marchers hug and kiss the chief of staff, David Elazar," Sasi Keshet sings at the Magic Carpet nightclub and Shimon Dzigan presents "Shehecheyanu V'ki'imanu."
IDF generals would park their Valiant cars on the sidewalks of Kings of Israel Square and grab a bite to eat at Eli Ronen's steakhouse, the best steakhouse in the entire country, whose walls were adorned with the generals' photographs. Every child knows by heart the names of everyone in the IDF General Staff, men whose faces would soon be plastered on the walls of Sukkot tents. There are no real parties in town without a general on hand. Moshe Dayan came up with an idea: "a deep-sea port" at the Israeli settlement of Yamit. Transportation minister Shimon Peres is quick to offer an explanation to the press, stating that "professional considerations" were behind the port project, which will break ground in another 12 years.
And then there's the cherry on top of the whipped cream: an announcement from the Labor Alignment in preparation for the elections to the eighth Knesset. It was given the heading "The Bar Lev Line," above a picture of the strapping group of individuals who comprised the party's dream team. "Quiet reigns on the banks of the Suez. So too in the Sinai desert, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and the Golan. The borders are secure, the bridges are open, Jerusalem is united, settlements are arising and our political standing is strong. This is the result of a carefully-weighed, daring, bold and visionary policy. Vote by inserting the Emet slip into the ballot box." This was September 19, 1973, 17 days before Judgment Day.
Three-and-a-half years before this, in April 1970, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat invited the head of the World Zionist Organization, Nahum Goldmann, to visit Cairo. Prime minister Golda Meir prevented the trip, doing so with scorn. In February 1971, Sadat presented his conditions for peace with Israel to the United Nations' envoy Gunnar Jarring. The Israeli government rejected these conditions out of hand. Defense minister Dayan said at the time how it was better to have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace than peace without Sharm el-Sheikh. In July 1973, he offered a prediction to Time Magazine that war would not break out in the next 10 years and that Israel would remain in its borders.
"If Israel rejects our outstretched hand, I will enlist a million soldiers and we will embark on war," Sadat vowed in an interview with an Austrian newspaper. "They're not even capable of crossing the canal," Golda Meir said. The rest is history.
Even now, "quiet reigns on the banks of the Suez." Now, on the eve of Yom Kippur, in the Jewish year 5770, quiet reigns on the Golan Heights, the northern border, the West Bank, even in Gaza, relatively speaking. This is not the time to make a move toward peace. Why should we? Anyway, there is quiet. It is true, the generals are not as adored now as they were then, and Haaretz is not being sold in Sharm el-Sheikh, and Dzigan is dead. Aside from all that, though, what has changed?
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"The liberally-minded on both sides have an obligation to quell hardliners." (Iman) Most unfortunately, no Palestinian leader can quell his own extremist factions if he has no country to rule, and his land is all sowed with foreign settlements protected by a foreign occupation army. As long as the West Bank is occupied, there can never be a Palestinian September 1970. See under 'Black September', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
"Where will the left be in 2045? Will there be a left at all?" (Joe Sittizen) Where will the Jewish state be in 2045, after a Two State solution had been found to be practicable no more, and a Jewish minority, between the sea and the river, had been faced with an impossible choice: Either to forcibly impose its rule over an Arab majority, OR, for those still here, to accept resignedly to live in a "one-man-one-vote" state for two peoples, extending from the sea to the river Jordan? Will there still be a Jewish and democratic state at all, if Israel fails to separate from the Palestinians? Or will Zionism be then, in 2045, spoken of as the most dismal failure of the Jewish people in modern time, the Nations telling us, "Sorry guys, but you had your chance." "A phenomenon noticeable throughout history, regardless of place or period, is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests." The opening words of historian Barbara W. Tuchman, in 'The March of Folly - From Troy to Vietnam". "Persistence in error is the problem. Practitioners of government continue down the wrong road as if in thrall to some Merlin with magic power to direct their steps. There is always freedom of choice to change or desist from a counter-productive course if the policy-maker has the moral courage to exercise it. Yet to recognize error, to cut losses, to alter course, is the most repugnant option in government." (Barbara Tuchman).
The real significance is that the foolish Mr. Levy now lives in an israeli state that is 60 years old, vice one that had only survived for 25 years. To have survived these last 35 years in such a hostile world is very significant--To put it in perspective, just imagine another 35 years of existence of the israeli state, with modern Israel approaching its centennial year, with the palestinians still refusing to live in peace with Israel, with the grandsons and great grandsons of long deceased "refugees" still insisting on their "right of return". The most signicant "change" of all would be that Israel changes as little in the next 35 years as it has in the last 35.
USA air lifted supplies,food, and everything to help israel win the '73 war. The transfers from USA to Israel has never stopped
"[Israeli occupation of] these territories has a very viable foundation in Jewish heritage." (Scott) How can you, Scott and your likeminded kind, so consistently stand for such nonsense? There is nothing in our Jewish heritage that allows or encourages us Israeli Jews to settle amidst a foreign and stateless population, on lands on which no Israeli government has ever declared full sovereignty. The promise made to Abraham is not a special licence for a UN state member to implement policies that would be condemned if carried out by any other country's government. What sense would that make, I ask you, to allow all UN states members to appeal each to its own holy scriptures? Or should our leaders call on the entire world to convert to the 'true religion'? They have sometimes been stupid, but ayatullahs they are not. Thanks God for that.
...that sort of spoils whatever point you were trying to make eh? Oh, I see the point, you thought Israel was "bequeathing" property to the Palestinians... Wrong twice in a row. Israel will be returning stolen property when it retreats behind its international recognized borders. Nothing more, nothing less.
I'll tell you what changed. Israel used to spread fear and terror on its neighbors, now it gets whacked every time it tries. Israel used to dictate terms, now it is under pressure to negotiate different terms & it will soon be forced to accept. Israel was paradise gained, now it is hell inherited.
Whilst I agree with Gideon, rather than looking at what has changed, one ought to see what needs to change. The days of the generals of the post June six-day war put Israel in an unrealistic euphoria bound to be short-lived. It is time for both Arabs and Jews to choose peace based on mutual respect. The liberally-minded on both sides have an obligation to quell hardliners. Obama can be a formidable and fair catalyst. Give him, us, the world a chance. Enough blood.
Little has changed except the map and there Israel has surrounded itself with its embattlements filled with soldier/civilians, turning the entire country and its occupied territories that has made it into a big ghetto, hostile, aggressive, hypocritical and scornful, with little security and little future of integration into an area from which it increasingly continues to isolate itself. Some future.
"It was better to have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace than peace without Sharm el-Sheikh" I never before heard this quote. It seems that Israel's leaders pay too little attention to their own history.
I was there also Gideon the people in charge then were Leftist who had a rosy colored picture of the world. I also saw at that time the the Europeans and the US could not be trusted. And Trust is the most important part of a peace treaty. The US held back supplies threaten to give Israel nothing even though Israel knew the night before of a impending attack I know I was a witness on Oct. 5th, The Europeans refused American and Israeli fly over and refueling privileges. So please Gideon don't fill me with Leftist rosy colored glasses ideology. http://ralphsrant1.blogspot.com
Irrespective of your convoluted and quixotic thought process, I must ask you this: Do you have even a semblance of pride in your own peoples perseverance and patently effective methods of reigning in the ubiquitous masses? Not to sound condescending, but honestly, these territories are spoils of war that so happen to have a very viable foundation in Jewish heritage. As a corollary, I am not opposed to bequeathing this property if done so in a manner that is utile for the Jewish state. But what are we supposed to do? Say "oh forget it, lets just hand over our land for fun in hopes that sworn historical enemies will all of a sudden do a complete 180 degree turn"? You CANNOT honestly believe that this is possible, do you?
but considering the arrogance of the israeli government; do you REALLY expect there to have been any lessons learned from past mistakes? and in the case of THIS government and its agenda; would you really expect them to be applied even if there was?
Is that Israel will no longer be able to threaten it's neighbours safe in the knowledge that their neighbours can't reciprocate. In 1973 Israel was arrogant.
It is refreshing to see a person's moral compass facing the right direction. http://vimeo.com/6630724
Since 1973 the left wing in Israel has gradually dug its own grave and is now on the verge of jumping into it. Levy is among those with the best shovels, as he digs and digs and digs himself deeper in the pit of morass, gloom and doom. Is it the decline of the left that allowed the ascension of the right? Or is it that the majority now believe the right more than they left? Is the left credible any more? Well, the polls say no. Levy, however, will continue to weep and wail that Israel is destined for doom, that the world is against us for justified reasons, and that we should be ashamed of ourselves. The truth is, however, that the left is simply ashamed of itself, and its impotence to do anything other that stay sucked into the Palestinian question first, foremost, and almost exclusively. It's been 36 years since 1973. Where will the left be in 2045? Will there be a left at all?
Golda Meir asked Nixon and Kissinger for help; and the airlift of food, military supplies and everything else started. Israel won the war. The dependency relationship started and never stopped. USA taxpayers give between $3-5 billion yearly. Without receiving a thanks.
In this space of time Israel also signed the Oslo Accord, which failed. Later Barak met with Clinton and Arafat at Camp David, sure Arafat did not get all he wanted, but it was Israel which recognized the need for a Pal state, both with Rabin and Barak, and recieved, bus bombings and suicide bombers in return. Sorry Gidon but your way has been tried, and sadly, yes sadly it has failed. Back in those days we thought the Arabs would not attack on Yom Kippur, we do not think that anymore. We also used to believe at the beginning of the intifada, that Ramadan is a time for peace, yet some of the worst bombings took place during Ramadan, both here and in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. So yes we are a little less dilusional and realize that by you simply ommitting the failures at Land for Peace, does not mean that they did not take place. Too bad you did not get to the Suez that day, you might have found yourself bunking with General Sharon. What fun!
Well no it is not just the intifada, it is also Hamas, and it is the indiscriminate rocketing of civilian targets, and the suicide bombs strapped to children, women and macho idiots. It is the Hezbo-lalas in the north, the unremitting endless insanity that comes out the mouths of Egyptian so called intellectuals and elitists. It is the Holocaust Denial and nuclear arming of Iran. It is a world and the UN of course which doesn't have time for the condemnation of Al Qeda, that votes Libya to head the Human Rights division, a world which hasn't come to the aid of anyone, yet finds the time to point fingers at Israel. As if the Pals have been a shining light of democracy, human rights and understanding. We all know what is going on, but some of those who should know better, are married to their agendas & or Ideologies, or are just driven by the same hate that drove the planet sixty years ago. Happy New Year folks!
It is easy to label people, LEFTIST, RIGHTIST or whatever the description would be. What is important to se what this person try to achieve. In my view Gideon Levy tries in his articles to wake up the conscience of the blind, so that people of all faithes can live in peace and harmony. That what I label as AN HONORABLE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD!
Alot has changed Gideon. There is no Sadat there is no Sinai with its huge land mass to give up. There is history of israel giving giving giving and getting nothing in return. What has changed Gideon is you You have become embittered, psychotic with your desire to see Israel commit national suicide.
Gideon Levy holds up a mirror to Israel's leaders and Israeli society in general and most people don't like what they see. There are two choices: change yourself, so your reflection becomes something more likeable, or smash the mirror. How sad that most people in Israel choose the second, easy, option! Shana tova v'g'mar chatima tova
"surrendering to Palestinian retro fantasy is no solution." (bar kochma) No, it is not. But no one, not even Gideon Levy, I am sure of that, is preaching for "surrendering to Palestinian retro fantasy." "Leaving Gaza exacerbated the situation." (bar kochma) That is indisputable. But again, no one is advocating leaving the West Bank in the foolish way Sharon left Gaza, while publicly insulting ("a featherless chick") the man elected six months earlier for Chairman by a clear majority of his people, and choosing to open wide before Hamas the gates of the city.
I read your article, remembered the past, and told to myself how fortunate Israel is to have you.
Culture! Social behavior! ........ because it has not changed, Israeli society is still on a downfall!
The euphoria of the six day war gave israel a swollen ego and nationalist fervor that was not entirely cured by the 73 war, nor the return of Yamit and all of Sinai. Mr. Levy's self congratulating extremism doesn't help tho. Israel's excess pride is clear, but surrendering to Palestinian retro fantasy is no solution. Leaving Gaza exacerbated the situation. So, any comprimises must be done on a mutual footing. Levy's criticism is always one sided, and so morally flawed.
...as we do here in the US south when we hear news or a storytelling that was entirely moving. The only other thing I could add would be For Goodness Sakes that was a fine piece of prose. And I hate the word "prose," always have.
Gideon; I am not proud of your writing and in fact i know you are leftist and in spite of all the thing you have said against Israel i tell you this: Mosheh Dayan ALA VE SHALOM said israel must be mad dog to survive i pray and i say kadish for him and you do same we alsome destroy levenon and Gaza that is why is quite i can go to synegoge and pray in peace you have a unique country do not destroy it all of you leftist in haaretz pray for ISRAEL