How the wheel turns
First, leftists slammed Army Chief Halutz; now, rightists are doing it
Part Two of "The march that wasn't"
When Chief of Staff Dan Halutz visited the Kissufim Crossing Tuesday night, the kids called him “Judenrat” and “Nazi.”
Part One
By Nahum Barnea
Part One: police, settler leaders discovered they share common interest
It’s interesting how the wheel turns: just a few months ago, left-wing groups tried to get the Supreme Court to overrule Halutz’s nomination to head the army because of his “aggressive” statements to the media.
Halutz is a believer in determination. Some right-wing leaders believe his aggressiveness towards their rebellio reflects on the entire security establishment.
Threatening the state
The key word to Halutz’s statements is “state”: when state authority is being tested, anyone who weakens the state threatens its very existence.
To a large degree, Halutz’s story is the story of every Israeli institution, its soldiers, officers, clerks and organizations.
People do not serve because they are in favor of disengagement, because they are in favor of Sharon, or because they are opportunists.
They serve because they have a responsibility to come, and they will try their best to carry out their missions to the best of their abilities.
Not so fast
The best news is that the things that keep this country Jewish are not breaking apart so fast.
The government, Knesset, and Supreme Court judges can all rest assured they have got someone in the field that will implement the policies they decide upon in their air conditioned offices.
One right-wing Knesset member told me how he sat and listened, getting angrier by the minute, to the stream of functionaries who reported to the Knesset about their part in the disengagement.
They were so proud of their contributions, he said. Not one had any reservations.
No instructions needed
Sharon does not need to give them any instructions.
And he doesn’t: despite claims by settler leaders, neither Sharon nor his sons were involved in this week’s decision regarding the protest march.
But we saw this week a phenomenon characteristic of all organized countries, from the worst dictatorships to western democracies: state employees and officers doing the bidding of the leader.
They do not judge his intentions. They just carry them out.
For this reason, everything is back to Sharon. The hatred the settlers have for him is overflowing; it is even greater than their hatred for late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
To them, Rabin was “only” a “drunk”; Sharon is a “dictator” and a “mafioso.”
“He kidnapped the nation,” said Rabbi Motti Elon, a relatively moderate leader of the religious right.
We are the country
It is easy to understand where this comes from. In the eyes of religious Zionism, the State of Israel is a messianic act. It is impossible for the state to reject this mission, even of its own free will.
Someone kidnapped it, raped it, thrashed it around. As soon as he disappears, the country will return to its rightful path.
This faith makes it possible for young settlers to continue to believe in the country.
“What is the country?” one teenager from Kiryat Arba asked me this week. “We are the country. It is not just Ariel Sharon.”
“If Sharon were to disappear tomorrow,” said another right-wing leader, “there would be no disengagement. Everyone would admit it was a crazy idea and back off.”
I said that now, I think I better understand the process undertaken by Rabin murderer Yigal Amir. He thought that by removing one person he could save the country.
You'd better be careful of this argument, I told one of the heads of the settler movement. He ruminated for a minute, then said quietly, “Still, everything depends on Sharon. No Sharon, no disengagement.”
Not even human
One of the pawns in the publicity campaign against Sharon is Gonen Ginat, the editor of Hatsofeh, the National Religious Party’s newspaper.
Ginat wrote, “If Sharon was a responsible human being… but he isn’t responsible, and not a human being.”
Then, a radio journalist called Pinchas Wallerstein looking for a reaction. Wallerstein said the call woke him up, but rather than brushing his teeth, washing his face and thinking about what he wanted to say, he hurried his response.
“Sharon is clearly not a human being,” he said.
If I were him, I would pray this recording doesn't come back to haunt him, with, or without, Sharon.
Nahum Barnea is a columnist for Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth
