{"id":2101,"date":"2007-06-15T16:51:26","date_gmt":"2007-06-15T21:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2007-06-15T18:14:27","modified_gmt":"2007-06-15T23:14:27","slug":"and-the-civilian-world-bowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=2101","title":{"rendered":"And the civilian world bowed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Doron Rosenblum, Ha’aretz<\/em>, 14 June 2007<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, I understand that we all deserve a big “mazal tov.”<\/p>\n

For what? For the election of … ?<\/p>\n

No, no, more important: The government finally got the green light “to begin” “to examine” “the possibility” “of exploring” “negotiations” with Syria.<\/p>\n

True: We did get the OK from the big boss. But not without hesitation, and even that’s conditional.<\/p>\n

Who knows – perhaps in the end they’ll let us worry about the rest of our interests, too, and not necessarily those of the great superpower …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t jump too far in my conclusions. Basically, they gave the Olmert government a very short rope; and if there’s worrisome progress in the negotiations – they’ll make sure to rein him in. It’s happened before. When you get down to it, peace-shmeace isn’t their top concern.<\/p>\n

I thought they actually wanted to see peace prevail in our region, or at least calm.<\/p>\n

Nonsense. Not under just any conditions. In fact, only on their conditions: For example, that the diplomatic process not impede their freedom of action or their agenda.<\/p>\n

So what you’re saying is that they’ve come a long way since the Carter era.<\/p>\n

Who?<\/p>\n

The Americans.<\/p>\n

Who’s talking about the Americans? I’m talking about the IDF. About the big boss. The regional superpower. The top banana. Il capo di tutti capi. The IDF, which has had the real say-so here ever since the Six-Day War. If it wants – it will beat the war drums; if it wants – it will loosen the leash; if it wants – the defense minister’s orders will be carried out, checkpoints will be opened, shells will fly, outposts will be built. If it doesn’t want something – then it won’t happen. And by the way – Congratulations: From this week onward you can forget about a civilian defense minister, and maybe about a civilian prime minister. We’ve gone back to the barracks, big-time.<\/p>\n

But that’s absurd: How do you explain the reascendence of the army and the generals right after the Second Lebanon War? The one in which it was they who “didn’t deliver the goods,” in which it was they who disappointed?<\/p>\n

Did you see the series on Channel 10 about the Six-Day War? The episode about the military putsch on the eve of the war – a putsch to which the government acceded willingly, and which has essentially continued to this day? How did the former military intelligence chief put it? “The army is a professional union.” And such a union, by its nature, will always wish to strengthen its power and to have as much influence as possible. And really, we’ve yet to have a civilian leader who truly stood up to this union and blocked it, who ignored its advice, or resisted the dark temptation of its plans. It’s no wonder that, out of all of them, it was the three hyper-generals we had as prime minister – Rabin, Barak and Sharon – who were somehow able to face the army and implement some sort of agenda of their own. Maybe because only they really understood whom they were doing business with.<\/p>\n

But meanwhile no other agenda has proven itself, as the mule circling the grindstone said …<\/p>\n

My friend: There’s no way around it – This is Israel’s default setting. That’s how it came out of the factory. A war that has a state, that’s the user profile; and we’ve seen what happens when the manufacturer’s instructions are not followed. It’s no coincidence that Ehud Barak asked, “Who do you want in the next war?” and not “Who do you want to prevent the next war?” Anyway, one momentary failure by two civilian leaders has sent us furiously back to square one.<\/p>\n

Which is?<\/p>\n

Which is a series of ongoing failures by military leaders. But this way at least there’s something familiar to cling to.<\/p>\n

Still, a green light was given for talks with Syria. What’s that, just hot air?<\/p>\n

Look, after pondering long and hard, and having taken into account the fate of the nation as well as the investigation of the Bank Leumi affair, Olmert mustered his courage and sent a clear message to Assad. And believe me, it was no simple matter: From the moment the message was sent, saying that we’re prepared for negotiations, a lot of fingernails were gnawed around here. In the Prime Minister’s Office, you could cut the tension with a knife.<\/p>\n

Because of the fear that Assad wouldn’t respond to the initiative?<\/p>\n

No, out of fear that he would respond! But when 68 seconds went by and we still hadn’t heard anything from Damascus, we breathed a sigh of relief. It also helped a little that Olmert made his declaration while coughing with bronchitis, and after that hung up the phone, stuck silicon plugs in his ears and watched the national Under-21 team’s soccer match with the volume of the TV turned up to the maximum.<\/p>\n

And on the other hand, what’s the meaning of this whole obsession with war? Every day another officer starts prattling away, issuing warnings. What is this, arrogance or fear? A roll of the war drums, or a desperate attempt at deterrence?<\/p>\n

Both. It’s the Teddy Roosevelt method in reverse: “Speak loudly and carry a small stick.” “And we in the media are also to blame,” say the military reporters who bang on trash cans and ask who’s making noise here. And besides – it’s June.<\/p>\n

What does that have to do with it?<\/p>\n

June. The month of June. The season of war rutting. Korea. The Six-Day War. The battles with Syria in the 1970s. The first Lebanon War. Have you ever been to the Safari Park when the animals are in heat? The restlessness, the testiness, the tension that seeks release, the horniness, the longings, the yearning …<\/p>\n

And of course it doesn’t help that this year we marked the 40th anniversary of that June war …<\/p>\n

Right, and obviously all those reminders made every Ashkenazi and every Yadlin want to be a little Talik and Arik. By the rivers of Zion where we sat and there we wept when we remembered “Red Sheet” and “Drive, Bentzur, Drive!” and “The Temple Mount is in our hands.”<\/p>\n

Seems like Israel and the Six-Day War are sort of like Madame Bovary, who spends the rest of her life fondly recalling the big ball, the one-time event …<\/p>\n

Yes, how does it go there, apropos National Book Week? “Every time Wednesday came round she would sigh as she awoke and say to herself, ‘A week ago today … a fortnight ago … three weeks ago, I was ‘there!’ Little by little the faces of the people grew blurred in her memory, she forgot the tune of the quadrilles; the servants’ liveries, the look of the rooms came back less plainly to her vision; some of the details faded away, but the void in her heart remained …”<\/p>\n

So then the State of Israel could also say: Madame Bovary – that’s me?<\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doron Rosenblum, Ha’aretz, 14 June 2007 So, I understand that we all deserve a big “mazal tov.” For what? For the election of … ? No, no, more important: The government finally got the green light “to begin” “to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}