Twenty-six years after the IDF left the Beaufort fortress, it returned there as part of the operation in southern Lebanon — and the return to one of the most charged symbols of Israel’s presence in the security zone has once again raised questions about cost and meaning.
Joseph Cedar, director of the acclaimed film “Beaufort,” spoke Sunday morning to the ynet studio and said that, as far as he is concerned, there is no reason for excitement: “It is a really depressing day.”
“The flag flying again over the Beaufort outpost is a reminder of fixed thinking, of failure, of acceptance of a mistaken conception that leaves us inside a cycle of bloodshed,” Cedar said. “I cannot understand the excitement over capturing a mountain that was once perhaps a symbol of heroism, and became a symbol of being stuck inside a cycle of bloodshed.”
Cedar, whose film “Beaufort” was released in 2007 and was written with Ron Leshem based on his book “If There Is a Heaven,” was asked whether the withdrawal from the outpost — symbolized in the film, among other things, by the removal of a sign stating the mission: to protect northern communities — was itself part of that conception, since northern communities were ultimately left unprotected.
“I will take advantage of the fact that almost no one speaks to me about military matters, because I am not a retired general and I am not the address for analyzing military moves,” he replied. “Usually I am a film director, but because this is so unusual, I will say something: The conception is not military — it is human. There is a limit to power, but there is no limit to suffering. We are stronger, and yet we keep losing and losing and losing. To get out of this conception, we need to look at reality differently. The reality is of human beings standing opposite us who are not willing to surrender, not willing to give up human rights and civil rights.
“We are stuck in the thinking that with more force we will solve the problem, and we are not looking at the fact that throughout all these years we have not succeeded. In recent years, no one has placed limits on our use of force. We could do what we wanted in Lebanon, and the fact is that both in Lebanon and in Gaza, the real and painful threat remains. And now, with this flag flying again over Beaufort, maybe this is an opportunity to look at things differently and think about a future in which the solution is not military,” he said.
Cedar called for different thinking regarding the threat from the north.
“As Israelis and as Jews, we are very proud of our creative thinking, of our ability to think outside the box, to look from a new angle that others do not see. After so many years in which we are doing the same thing — why are we not looking differently? Why, just as there are now, in my view, hundreds of excellent, smart people trying to solve the drone threat, are there not hundreds of people, our best minds, trying to think about how to change Hezbollah fighters’ motivation to keep attacking us?”
He added: “Why isn’t there such a think tank with authority that tries, alongside the tactical solution to drones and missiles, to think about what we can do through dialogue that would change reality? And the fact that there isn’t is on us. It is not on Hezbollah. We are the ones who need to break this conception.”
Asked about his description of the day as “depressing,” in contrast to Metula Mayor David Azoulay, who called it “an exciting day,” Cedar said: “I deeply understand the fear, distress and despair of northern residents, because they do not see a solution. What I am telling them is that the solution is not military.”