'Will Herzog and Livni give Hamas more than 1,150 terrorists for one captive?'
Amnon Abramovich
Photo: Channel 2
The Labor Party's security alternative
Op-ed: While Isaac Herzog lacks a military record, his perspective is supported by most retired senior IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet officials.
A terror attack took place on the eve of the 1988 Knesset elections: A terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail into a bus on Jericho Road and burned a mother and her three children to death.
Another attack occurred on the eve of the 1992 elections: A terrorist stabbed 15-year-old Israeli schoolgirl Helena Rapp to death in Bat Yam. The city fumed. Tires were burned, smoke billowed, dustbins were turned over and junctions were blocked.
"It's clear that we lost the elections tonight," the Labor Party's advertiser said to me at the time. "If that's the case," I said, "you haven't done your job. A terror attack in Jericho should serve against the Likud, not against you, because according to your perception an Israeli bus should not be traveling around Jericho."
Election Fever
Baruch Leshem
Op-ed: The number of likes each party leader gets will not decide the outcome of the 2015 elections; a focus on security will mean success for Netanyahu, while a socioeconomic push will propel Herzog into the PM's office.
I traveled to Bat Yam at the time for an election conference with Uzi Landau from the Likud party, and the next day with Haim Ramon from the Labor Party. Landau spoke about a harsh punishment and proper Zionist response, mainly by building more settlements. Ramon spoke about an even harsher punishment, but the opposite way – through separation, by building a fence, a real wall, and painful military strikes if needed.
At the end of that week, I defined Ramon as a "black dove." The expression took off, the doves a bit less.
The visual difference between a black dove and a white dove is in the way the issues are presented, the rhetoric, the marketing, but the goal is similar – to end our control of the Palestinians. While the white dove uses moral terms and ponders a Scandinavian peace, the black dove uses combat expressions which only serve an Israeli purpose.
For the white dove, the end of the occupation is meant to create peace with a delicate partner yearning for intimate neighborly relations. For the black dove, the end of the occupation is meant to preserve a Jewish and democratic nation state and prepare the Israeli society for the tests of strength it is still facing with Islamic mutations.
The black dove disgusts the refined, meager left – but has the ability of capturing the ears and hearts of members of the soft right and hardcore center, who make up the majority of the public in Israel.
Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni with Zionist Camp's candidate for defense minister, Major-General (res.) Amos Yadlin (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Yitzhak Rabin was a black dove. He demanded "to break their bones," and at the same time declared his willingness to travel to Gush Etzion with a visa. He cursed Yasser Arafat and his gang, but mockingly defined the settlements as "Ariel-Emmanuel-Shlumiel."
Ariel sharon turned into a black dove later in his life. After the evacuation of Gaza and before the elections, after which he had planned to carry out an evacuation in the West Bank, the surveys gave him about 50 Knesset seats and the support of most voters as prime minister – more than double the number of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's supporters today.
The Labor Party has succeeded in winning an election only twice in the past generation: The first time with Rabin, and the second time with Ehud Barak. They both promised – and appeared capable of fulfilling their promise – to end the occupation and severely beat the Arabs.
Isaac Herzog lacks a military record validating political-security moves. His appearance, voice and manners are more befitting of a prime minister in Australia and Canada. The surprising agreement with Tzipi Livni strengthened the notion that he is a spongy welfare worker rather than a tough negotiator.
But on the other hand, he has the security echelon behind him. Most of retired senior IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet officials support Herzog and his perspective. This isn't an insignificant thing in the Israeli discourse. It's a tool which could become effective.
Netanyahu makes sure to include and stress the "Israeli citizens' security" in every statement and tweet, even when he is forced to address the cost of living or housing. A presenter takes care of his voters. "Will Buji and Tzipi face the Islamic State, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran?" he mocks and teases.
Yes, you should reply, absolutely. Will Herzog and Livni give Hamas more than 1,150 terrorists for one captive? Will Herzog and Livni withdraw under fire after more than 51 days of fighting without progress in the next Operation Protective Edge?
Sunday's operation in the north was not driven by the elections. It was another operation on a sequence which begun before the elections were moved up and will continue after the elections. Black doves are not allowed to doubt it, even if Mughniyeh's kid was killed on the day the Central Election Committee banned the use of children in the election campaign.
Amnon Abramovich is a Channel 2 News commentator.
