At a critical moment for Israel, at a time that it's being led by the very government that brought its greatest ever disaster down upon it and is being headed by a man with no honor and no shame, it has been deprived of an opposition. Instead of an opposition, it has a leader among the left who is outflanking the "totally right-wing government" from the right.
Yair Golan, the chairman of the Democrats party (a union of Labor and Meretz), once again called this week for occupying a security zone in Lebanese territory. Even a cease-fire that would ensure Hezbollah was pushed north of the Litani River and includes ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip and bringing the hostages home doesn't appeal to this "leftist" opposition member. As if he had suddenly identified processes from the 1980s, Golan thinks that "we should prepare for immediate action on a ground maneuver that would enable control of the Lebanese heights that dominate our territory."
Golan doesn't support such a move for messianic, ideological reasons, but on security grounds. But in Israel's well-known reality, in which a settlement is destined to become a "community" and "temporary" is destined to become permanent, Golan still seems to be thinking like an army officer rather than the leader of a party that's supposed to offer a left-wing alternative. And in fact, his plan is a new incarnation of a plan once dreamed up by the army's Northern Command.
Nor is Golan alone. The leader of the Israeli center, Benny Gantz, has also announced that he would support "a ground incursion into Lebanon if this is what is needed," while some of his political partners in the "pro-change" bloc, who once considered Benjamin Netanyahu an illegitimate prime minister, have either joined his government (Gideon Sa'ar) or advocated attacking Iran and "going all the way" (Avigdor Lieberman).
Army operations aren't a substitute for diplomacy. The last thing Israel needs are proposals for another occupation or new targets for assassination. Israel requires a determined, moral opposition that will challenge the security hubris of the Israeli right, which now feels that it has an opportunity to do anything it pleases. Such an opposition is needed not only because our enemies – from Iran to Hezbollah and Hamas – can still respond, but also to think about the day after the war.
Death and destruction aren't goals in and of themselves, and the opposition mustn't be the one calling for expanding a war that would end with the army once again sinking in the Lebanese quagmire.
The only opposition leader who is still trying to promote a different kind of diplomatic thinking and has not fallen in line with the right-wing government is Yair Lapid. But he isn't enough. Israel needs a broad opposition to remind it of what ought to be self-evident – a regional war would be a disaster that must be avoided. Israel must work in close cooperation with its Western and Arab allies to promote diplomatic agreements and sane alternatives for life in the Middle East.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.