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|  | Emmanuel Rosen Photo: Sharon Beck
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| | | | | Shaul Mofaz Photo: Gil Yohanan
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The Mofaz way
If Mofaz wishes to become PM he should offer more than drumbeats of war
Emmanuel Rosen
Shaul Mofaz wants to be prime minister. This is legitimate, not unreasonable, and the man certainly meets the minimum criteria for filling the toughest job in the world.
Yet the manner in which the former army chief and defense minister is trying to pave his way up raises serious suspicions of two critical problems: Either Major General (res.) Shaul Mofaz has not really retired from the army, and for him running a country and managing a war are one and the same; or else, he mistakenly thinks that in 2008 Israeli citizens feel that whoever yells the loudest, threatens more, and most of all kills more Arabs will also be a more successful prime minister.
We still have not forgotten Mofaz, then defense minister, whispering in Ariel Sharon’s ear something regarding the need to get rid of Yasser Arafat. That was a classic Mofaz move: Israel is dealing with a complex problem of a Palestinian partner who fails to deliver the goods? No problem; Shaul Operations Ltd. will eliminate the problem, and also talk about it in front of the cameras, because it’s not enough to be the neighborhood thug, people need to know it.
Arafat passed away and now we’re stuck, perplexed, with Hamas, unless we listen to what Mofaz tells us. You wake up in the morning with Mofaz’s demand to enter the Gaza Strip and hit them hard, eat lunch while hearing that Mofaz strongly objects to any kind of dialogue with our Syrian enemy, and in the evening when you watch the news you discover that the transportation minister also found the solution for the Iranian threat: Israel needs to attack them, what else.
Had Shaul Mofaz been contending for the leadership of a rightist militant party, we would not expect anything else of him. Yet when it comes to someone who wishes to become the chairman of a centrist party and a prime minister, we would like to hear something that is a little deeper, creative, and mostly realistic in respect to dealing with tough regional problems.
Mofaz reminds me of the rightist sticker introduced a few years ago: “Let the IDF win.” As if the entire problem is just giving our army the green light, and after a few bangs quiet shall prevail for 40 years at least. This is good for impassioned talkbacks or radio shows, but it’s a little worrisome when it comes from the man who may become the most important figure in the country very soon.
Mofaz’s mirages are just like the ones on the other side of the political map; those who think that if we only talk to Hamas, flatter Assad, and try to understand Ahmadinejad everything will be alright. In both cases, this is a worldview that is fit for the margins. It’s legitimate, and at times can be proper, but it cannot serve as the trademark of those who make pretenses of being level-headed and responsible
politicians.
It appears that even the father of the scaremongering doctrine in Israeli politics, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands what Shaul “the man” Mofaz fails to internalize
If Mofaz truly believes that the solution to all our troubles is “let the IDF win or hit them hard” I think we’re all in trouble. And if he thinks this is the way to woo the masses, it would be good for the masses to let him know immediately, through the polls, that we hate Hamas and fear Iran no less than he does, yet expect our leaders to do a bit more than pounding the drumbeats of war.
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