The State that flees its identity has designed its army to have no identity. If you do not know who you are, you cannot identify your enemy and you certainly cannot win a war.
If the report on Israel’s Channel 2 about how the decision not to attack Iran was made is correct, then the debate on an extremely fateful, existential issue for Israel was carried out in a cigar-smoke filled room with tables laden with culinary delights.
Actually, why not? When nothing has any meaning, everything turns into a calculation of capabilities, statistics, amounts, probabilities and technologies. The prime minister did not rise to the occasion and make the participants keenly aware of the historic significance of that fateful moment. He was busy trying to gain the support of two of his ministers before the deliberation began. Netanyahu was busy with politics, the generals were busy with technicalities and everybody lost their fighting spirit.
At the end of the Six Day War, Israel refused to recognize its own justice and allowed its Biblical heartland to be defined as ‘occupied territories.’ In Oslo, Israel went one major step further. Not only did we not recognize our justice, but we recognized the justice of the enemy that claims that this Land is theirs.
From that point on, the ‘peace industry’, which advances the careers of those who toe its line, became a decadent industry. Generals who gather in cigar-smoke filled rooms and refuse to perform their duties are its final result.
But there is also some good news: Technically, the IDF is stronger than ever. And much more important – we have never had such wonderful and dedicated soldiers and field commanders.
Now all that we need is leaders who will return us to ourselves.