Moshe Ya’alon is now one of the leaders of the democratic protest movement in Israel. In a moment of very comic relief, he appeared two days ago on Channel 13 TV, talking about the risk of the judicial overhaul leading to the IDF perpetrating war crimes.
Ya’alon knows about . Law professor Menachem Mautner noted on Facebook how the army under . In the past, Ya’alon the democrat called activists in the human rights organization , arguing that the term “illegal outpost” was itself illegitimate. “What does all this say about our people, the opponents of a revolution, who have turned him into a central figure organizing the campaign aimed at defending the rule of law?” wondered Mautner. “That they have a short memory? Or is there something much deeper at play here?”
Indeed, there is something much deeper at play, Professor Mautner.
The illness has returned. If we thought for a minute that we had matured and healed, along came the protests and brought it back, in a big way. Recurring illnesses are particularly nasty. Sometimes they are lethal. Under the aegis of the protests, Israel is returning to its old and evil militarism, after it seemed that we had been weaned off it, with the days of worshipping generals behind us.
The protests, which rattled and aroused the public in an impressive manner, also afforded a chance to get an image of its hidden fabric. The national CT scan has revealed a renewed worshipping of the army. This is bad news.
Slowly but surely, the militaristic facet has taken charge of the protest movement’s agenda. Not a day goes by without protest letters bearing a military logo. Yesterday it was former fighters from Golani and the Egoz reconnaissance unit, the cyberwarfare warriors and special ops soldiers in military intelligence. They will not serve in a dictatorship. They joined the pilots, Shin Bet and Mossad agents, and veterans of other elite units. No letter signed by former commanders of the Gadna youth premilitary units has surfaced yet. We are anxiously waiting for one from the Kfir Brigade, stationed in the West Bank. Sami Peretz wrote in Haaretz that he salutes those who have spoken out. They are indeed worthy of respect. Anyone willing to fight the dangers of a dictatorship is.
The problem begins when army veterans – in Israel no one really leaves the army, the old boys serve forever – take over the conversation. It’s definitely not their fault, it’s the fault of their flock of followers, the protesters, the demonstrators and the journalists, who so emphasize their presence at demonstrations, giving them more resonance than any other sector gets.
The Zionist left always held aloft the army, much more than the right did, in order to prove its patriotism. While there was always concern that politics would pervade the army, politicizing it – this has been the case ever since its inception – the opposite risk now has cropped up, that of politics (of protest) becoming militarized. This is now happening before our very eyes.
It’s not only the personalities and sectors leading the protests, it’s the language as well, the use of childish military pathos and pomposity. One writer has already called this Israel’s first intifada, without having a clue what an intifada looks like. Another one talks about war to the bitter end, and everyone is talking about victory at any cost, as if we were battling in Normandy.
The most-discussed outline for a solution, beside the one proposed by President Herzog, is one proposed by Yuval Diskin, another renowned and distinguished democrat, a former head of Israel’s secret and anti-democratic Shin Bet security service. Yes, in this protest a former Shin Bet chief can become a guide, a Mossad chief can become an ideologue of Israel’s democrats, and veterans of killing squads can become heroes of the left, with cyber warfare spies hoisting the banner of liberty.
The intellectuals, the captains of human rights, ethics and conscience have been replaced by weaponized reserve army warriors. They will be the ones teaching Israel about democracy.
It’s good that they’ve joined, since they have a lot of heft in Israeli society, much more than they deserve. Their joining the protest, along with people from high-tech and the business world, was a game changer.
One can salute them, but one must also ask: Are these the guides and rule setters of democracy? Where did they learn about democracy and human rights? In the West Bank town of Hawara, or in the Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya? In Room 4 in the detention center in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound, or in memories of the 1950s reprisal raid on Qibya?