Yoaz Hendel
Lebanon war and peace
Op-ed: As Israel marks Lebanon War’s 30th anniversary, Yoaz Hendel analyzes Peace Now’s rise
The First Lebanon War made Peace Now. Until the war, they were a bunch of dreamers; some activists who quarreled with members of the Gush Emunim settlement movement, quarreled with themselves on whether to accept the notion of autonomy for the Palestinians, and quarreled with the nation for electing the wrong government.
And then came Sharon’s war and elevated them overnight. At first, when the IDF invaded Lebanon with the 40-kilometer plan and Operation Peace for Galilee, the muses were silent. At the time, Peace Now was made up of prominent members of society; some of them were IDF reservists.
Those who took action at the time were members of the “Committee against the Lebanon War,” radical leftists who decided, to begin with, that we must not fight in order to defend our north. The young Peace Now was still digesting the news. There were always two demons fighting within the movement, Zionism and anti-Zionism. The need to offer support during emergencies, versus the natural tendency to be against the State; to be swept by the post-war, post-heroism, post-Zionist camp.
Being swept is dangerous, and when one’s fan base shrinks, it’s hard to be picky. Israel has known leftist radicals since its early days. The most famous one was Judah Leib Magnes, the Hebrew University president, who objected to the War of Independence. Magnes asked the Americans to curb the flow of donations in order to prevent his own people, the Jews, from acquiring weapons and fighting. As to the question of what the Arabs will do to an unarmed Jewish community, he did not answer.
War was an excuse
Magnes’ method of using foreign states in order to press decision makers in Israel was emulated by far Left groups later on. In this context, the First Lebanon War was the watershed event. Not because of the mess and the casualties, the massacre carried out by the Phalange or the long time we stayed there, but rather, because of the power accumulated by members of Peace Now.
The start-up of movements that put an end to war was not developed here. It was imported from abroad. The Americans had the long hair, Woodstock, the eggs hurled at officers on campus and the mass rallies in Washington to stop the war in Vietnam. Here in Israel we had Peace Now.
The phenomenon is similar: War fatigue, post-modernism, focusing on the individual and not on the whole, lack of faith in the leadership. They had good reasons to settle the score with the government. They also had political reasons.
A year before Peace Now was formed and five years before the war, Avishay Grossman from Kibbutz Ein Shemer wrote in leftist paper Al HaMishmar: “For me, the fact that Likud took power is clear…there is a feeling that our world is about to be razed. The good old Land of Israel that we may be representing is going to hell.” And he wasn’t alone; many such views can be found in the archives.
The war was also an excuse. The “Begin is a Murderer” chants under the window of the only man who realized his movement’s vision and brought peace, the daily body count and mostly the pressure served to cut the war short and curbed the feeling of solidarity and dreams of a melting pot.
More than any terror attack or military strike, the protest eroded the ability of decision makers to continue. Military power became secondary, with public opinion determining the war’s length and success.
Sudanese focus?
Greek philosopher Heraclitus claimed in the Sixth Century BC that war is the father of all. In Israel’s case, he was right. The war in Lebanon painted the political Left and Right in black and white and framed them. All the demons emerged. Nobody remembered that the settlements were an invention of the leftist Mapai party and that peace was a rightist product. We already left Lebanon, but we are still stuck in theoretical discussions in favor or against the occupation.
After the war, the IDF withdrew to the south Lebanon security zone for another 15 years, and Peace Now members withdrew to monitoring the settlements. The monitoring team is the organization’s flagship. Those seeking figures about the growth of Judea and Samaria communities can find them there. The Palestinians make use of them, the Americans present them, and at difficult times Israeli officials use them too. Figures are an important good, but they don’t lead to a change in direction.
Reality at the flagship movement is difficult. Some two weeks ago, a meeting was held in Tel Aviv and organizers invited a foreign celebrity, Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin who called for a boycott of Ariel. The event had a nostalgic scent of the good old days, when the world was easy to understand. The natural choice: Peace or settlers.
On the other hand, they were concerned about the lack of influence. Just like the analogy of the drowning ship, the settlements are developing while Peace Now stands there with a spoon and counts the drops.
Where do we go from there? That’s a good question. This week, Peace Now’s Yariv Oppenheimer and his colleagues collected 1,500 signatures in order to send them to the attorney general. They want to indict Knesset Members Miri Regev and Danny Danon for the words they uttered about the infiltrators. I already wrote before that Regev’s lowly words were dishonorable and I understand Oppenheimer’s feeling, yet nonetheless, how are the infiltrators connected to a movement that promotes peace with the Palestinians?
To the same extent, Oppenheimer can send the settlement monitoring team to the Egypt border in order to count Sudanese migrants thirsty for human rights. Figures are important there too.
Oppenheimer told me that the direction is clear. The supreme objective is to bid the territories farewell. For the time being, they are working to create a more tolerant society. What does “for the time being” mean, I asked. Have you despaired from “Now?” Some people have, he said. I haven’t.
