Yohay Elam

In the past few days, there is a lot of criticism in Israel regarding the war. Blames are put on the army, and on the political leaders. I read a lot of articles this weekend, and here is my personal summary. I collected the links in various places on the web after writing the post. My text is based on my opinions, influenced by various conversations and especially from reading many articles in Haaretz.

Some are speaking about the army’s surprise with Hezbollah’s anti-tank missiles. There were too many of these missiles, and they destroyed many tanks. They also hit many infantry soldiers that were in village houses.

Others are speaking about the reservists being untrained and under-equipped. Complaints about old equipment were joined with complaints about the lack of food and water.

Also the military tactics there were presented to the political leadership came under fire. Luckily for the chief of staff, Dan Halutz, his personal financial matters overshadowed his mistakes in running the war. I think that the stock selling story isn’t that bad. He didn’t use secret internal info, and didn’t do any wild speculant moves in the financial markets. The story overshadows his mistakes, and also those of the leadership.

The leadership of my country is now blamed for many things. They took a very hasty decision when starting the war. Such a serious decision should have been given more thought. Especially when the army wasn’t really ready for it.

They are also blamed for aiming at high goals and changing them frequently during the war. It began from changing the strategical situation in the ME and eliminating the threat of the rockets fired on Israel. It soon became obvious that these goals couldn’t be met.

I also think that they could have stopped it earlier, and I went to some protests, but its over now.

What bothers me most, is how the leadership took care of the civilians up north.

The devestating hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans almost a year ago exposed America’s deepest problems. The people with means, got into their cars and took off. They had the money that drove them to safety. The others were left behind. The weather forecasts were quite accurate and were in the news for many days. The federal government did nothing. When the level of water became lower, it was unvealed that an investment of about $5m in the levee that defended the city could have prevented most the destruction.

Also here, in a much lower scale, the government neglected the residents of the north. Going to war was a decision made by the government. Some say there was no choice, but that’s not my point. My point is, that the government should have taken responsibility for those residents, after it went to war.

Didn’t they expect this rain of 4000 rockets, 1000 of them on Kiryat Shmona? Maybe not. But after the war began, the Katyusha rockets hit the north, and this was the time to act. The government watched how the people with means fled southbound to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat and other safe places. The unhealthy and poor people were just left behind. Only near the end of the war, the government organized short term evacuations.

Another thing that the government avoided is to declare a legal state of war. Declaring the war as a war also in legal terms would have allowed a faster transfer of money to aid those in need.

Like in Katrina, the public is called to help the relief efforts. Volunteers replaced the government in some of it’s basic responsibilites. Many commercial companies did “hugging” campaigns to aid the residents of the north (and to gain good publicity). A known controversial billionaire, Arkadi Gaidamak, also helped in setting up a city of tents on the seashore of Nitzanim.

This is the most disappointing thing for me. The process where the government steps away from it’s responsibility towards the citizens is going on for many years. Well, the last elections, held only 5 months ago focused on social issues. The party that pushed these issues, and to my opinion set the agenda for all the other parties, is the Labor Party, which I vote for. Amir Peretz was elected to lead the party just last Novemeber after heading the national worker’s union for 10 years.

The same Amir Peretz is now minister of defense. He seemed mor like the minister of offense in the current war. I still try to understand the last 60 hour effort to reach the Litani river, after the ceasefire was already decided upon. I still don’t see what good has come out of it. 33 soldiers were killed, and the territory that was conquered in those 2 and half days was quickly evacuated afterwards.

Anyway, I was expecting him, as a very senior member of the government, to do more for the residents of the north. I didn’t expect him to neglect them to the good will of aid organizations, billionaires, and commercial companies.

Today, the government decided to create a special government cabinet led by PM Olmert. This cabinet’s mission is to reconstruct northern Israel after the war.

I hope that this will not stay only as an answer to the wide public criticism inflicted on the government. The elections didn’t bring a change in social policy. Maybe the war will become a turning point not only in ME strategy, but also in social policy in my country.

If not, the government should step down. Some people already call for the resignation of the government because of all the abovementioned failures and others. The sad thing is, that in the current political situation, I don’t see a better alternative.

The war was a very dramatic event. Its deadly cost was terrible. In Israel, more than 150 people were killed during the conflict. In Lebanon, the numbers pass the 1000 mark. In addition, lots of people were severely wounded, and their lives are destroyed. Also the economic damage is devestating, and it will probably take a long time to estimate it. I doubt that the Israelis that were damaged will be compensated. And the Lebanese refugees? The chance is lower.

The ceasefire that began Monday morning seems to hold. 3 and half days after it was declared, the dispopulated north of Israel came back to life. Even the more militant people of the north cannot hide their sigh of relief. In Lebanon, refugees jammed the roads heading south, wanting to get back home, even if it is only a pile of rubble.

What’s next? Where do we go from here?

Yesterday, I’ve been at a meeting in the Peace Now offices. As I previously wrote, I’ve been just one week ago to a demonstration against the war, that was organized by Peace Now. There, someone walked around and collected details from possible activists. I wrote mine, so I soon got an invitation to this meeting.

The meeting was a discussion about what the organization should do. Peace Now is an ideological movement, but is always connected to actual affairs. Of course, it is much easier to react to something that is going on now, than to push your own agenda. It was easier taking a stand against the war (well, only in its last days) or supporting Sharon’s disengagement plan last summer. Currently, there is a vacuum or blackout. Nobody knows what exactly happened. There are different explanations of what happened, and should have been done. Talks about the future aren’t really heard. There were 7 participants and about 8 or 9 opinions. That’s how it is with Jews. Some said that the Palestinian problem should be brought back to life, some said that peace with Syria should head the agenda, some said both. I still don’t know what Peace Now should do. I guess the events will dictate the agenda.

An interesting idea was raised by a veteran Israeli blogger Ofernicus. I like reading his posts and especially his jokes (In Hebrew). Ofernicus, aka Ofer Lando, is a right wing voter, quite far from my left wing stand. A few days ago, he wrote a letter to Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, calling her to start a peace initiative with Lebanon. I commented doubtful thoughts to his (Hebrew) post, but wished him luck.

I don’t want to write these doubts again in English. I haven’t changed my mind completely. I still think that there would be lots of problems on the Lebanese side. On the other hand, I became enthusiastic about the initiative. Making the initiative itself is great. Its nice that people promote what they think, and not just think or whine about it. Its also for a very good cause.

Ofer and his friend Eliram, took an extra step. They opened the Peace between Lebanon and Israel blog in English. This is somewhat similar to Ingrid’s Blogger Round Table which I read regularily with great interest. The difference is that the new blog focuses on one issue: bringing peace between Israel and Lebanon. The blog’s writers are currently only Ofer and Eliram. They are trying to recruit Lebanese bloggers, as well as other,  to contribute their as well.

I’m putting my skeptical thoughts away, and changing them with optimistic and hopeful ones. It might be naive, but I don’t mind.

I wish them luck and success.