The Bees in the Lion's Carcass

[Poll_Blind]

Good piece by Uri Avnery, musing about the results of the recent Lebanon war, Olmert, Peretz and Halutz ("this trio" referred to at the beginning of my snippet) and the protest movement in Israel:

--snip--
WHAT OTHER way is there to get rid of this trio?

The simplest thing is to have new elections. But that is not as easy as it sounds. Only the Knesset can decide to do that. Meaning, the Knesset Members must decide to dismiss themselves. Fat chance.

Moreover, as things look now, if elections were to take place in the present situation, the Right would win big. The voice of the peace camp was completely silenced during the war, and now, too, it has no exposure in the media. As a result, the criticism of the war that is being heard comes almost entirely from the Right. The public is not asking: Why did we start this war? It asks: Why did we not win? And it answers: The corrupt politicians did not allow the army to win. A new government is needed, a rightist and patriotic one, in order to rehabilitate the army and start another war to finish the job.

--snip--

To resume: there are in theory several options - all of them bad. This fact splits the "protest camp". Some protesters demand a State Inquiry Commission, whatever the cost. Others want the Gang of Three - Olmert, Peretz and Halutz - to resign without any inquiry. What the two groups have in common is that they are supported by the extreme Right, and especially the settlers, who declare, according to the best tradition of the inventors of the "stab-in-the-back" legend in Germany after World War I: "The treasonous politicians have stabbed the victorious army in the back!"

--snip--

It is impossible at this moment to know what is going to happen in the near future. But it is worthwhile to think about the impact of the war on public opinion in the longer run.

--snip--

But I believe that gradually a new conviction will form in the public mind: that this war marks the end of the days of easy victoriesr. That from now on, in any new war our rear will be exposed. That our army is not almighty, as we were led to believe. And mainly: that the war did not solve anything, that perhaps the solution is not military and we would do better talking with our neighbors.

--snip--

PB

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. The Yom Kippur war was not easy

I don't understand how people get stuck in the '60's, but I have no trouble remembering the desperate first days in '73 and the long, painful occupation of southern Lebanon.

If you want to indulge in your own fantasies of Israelis as holier than anyone else, go right ahead - but the Sabras I met are no more - and no less - human than the rest of us.

Hezbollah's timing of the "stunt" is suspicious at best - I'm going to remain focused on Iran because I remember that our generation isn't the first to deal with Islamic expansionism. Conversions at the end of a sword ain't new - and it ain't Jewish.