On Being Spartan

Once upon a time, every kibbutz set aside a field in the winter for growing wheat. The country was – and still is – a net importer of wheat. But, so the thinking went, in the event of war or nuclear holocaust, we would still have enough wheat to survive. Self-sufficiency was valued to the extent that the prices of milk and eggs were fixed and subsidized, their production set by quotas determined by demand, and allotted to farmers in a somewhat equal manner. Tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and grapes were picked by Jews, volunteers and hires, marketed practically fresh from the fields or made into local wine.

It was the very political parties now controlling our finances who did away with the obligatory wheat fields and tried, with some success, to destroy our self-reliant, locally producing food growers in favor of imports meant to weaken the collective power of the agricultural sector. Now, made-in-Israel means someone slapped a sticker with an Israeli flag on a piece of plastic merchandise.

Did Bibi, in his talk about “Super Sparta” and autarky (a fancy word for self-sufficiency) mean to return to the days when the kibbutzim and moshavim could feed the county while succeeding in making a living?

Well, no, as he later explained. He was referring to our military capabilities.

Except, of course, that we can all see the coming economic isolation on the very near horizon, meaning some level self-sufficiency may be forced upon us.

We can, of course, continue to import from the US – and pay stiff tariffs. And we’ll continue to buy cheap stuff from China. But the food we import today from places like Turkey and the EU? Let’s call it endangered. And once the bills come due for this war, our taxes will skyrocket (for those of us who actually pay taxes) and prices, which are already on the rise, could leap stratospherically.

To be honest, I’m not sure who he’s fooling with this autarkic military capability stuff. Does he mean to create missile factories? Drone assembly plants? Will we become like Iran, investing all of our resources in building long-range missiles and nuclear enrichment plants? Will we create weapons workshops to employ those who lost their jobs and businesses after two years of reserve duty or when their high-tech companies relocated?

How does he plan to achieve that self-sufficiency? As of today, this war is being run on a steady flow of weapons direct from the US. Gaza is carpeted with shrapnel stamped “Made in the USA.” Our planes are Apaches and American stealth bombers. The “patriot” in our Patriot missiles? Made by Raytheon in the US of A.

Any military autarky will be symbolic – at best. One exception might be our intelligence and security technology, which is highly sought after. The failures of Oct. 7, 2023, the ongoing guerilla war, the beeper attack on Hezbollah leaders, the failed and successful attempts on the lives of Hamas leaders: These highlight the plusses and minuses of over-reliance on technology for information and strategy.

All Spartan systems will, sooner or later, fail

Yet Bibi does not seem to be suggesting we rethink any of the above. Rather, if I understand his subtext, he means for the government to tighten its control – increasing our weapons production while, simultaneously, weakening the autonomy of the military. It’s the reverse of the strategy they tried with the kibbutzim and moshavim, but the end goal is the same.

Invoking Sparta was a misstep for Bibi. We all learned in high school that Athens was the preferable alternative, while Sparta collapsed under its own rigid commitment to a militaristic state.

No one wants to live in Sparta. And yet, we are living in a country in which a war that should have ended over a year ago is getting converted into a long-term occupation of another entity, a long-term mission to suppress every last shred of resistance to Israeli might. Soldiers are serving more and more time in active duty, neglecting their families and lives. We are living in a country in which castes are increasingly codified – one caste to work and fight wars, another caste who neither work nor fight and who live on the backs of the first caste, and a third caste of elites who, once they manage to grab a coveted office, funnel largess to their extended families, dog groomers, friends and building contractors.

As Super-Sparta, we can take this state to its logical conclusion. And then, when the system inevitably collapses, historians will point, for example, to the shrinkage of the working/warrior class leading, ultimately, to a destabilized economy. Or they’ll find that that caste finally rebelled and stopped showing up to fight. The point is that all Spartan systems will, sooner or later, fail. The particulars are unique; the arc is not.

The point, Bibi, is that Sparta was taught to us as an object lesson in citizenship. It has always been up to us as citizens to prevent Spartan thinking from taking over. So, Bibi? If you want to offer us Sparta? No thanks.