The Bog that is Politics
A few posts ago, I wrote about the haredi draft issue (“Draft Dodger Wet Rag”). That was about the issue of not serving in and of itself. Since then, due to an inability to come to an agreement with the government, the haredi parties are threatening to leave the government. It was also reported that Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman accused the government of arming family clans in Gaza to fight Hamas.
Politics. Nothing impedes the running of a country more.
We are in a war. I do not expect that those who disagree with each other will suddenly put all that separates them aside, and decide to agree on everything as part of the war effort. There are more than enough distractions for this government to deal with. Those who choose not to fight make a statement about loyalty not only to the state, but also to the people. To make the fight that much more difficult for those willing to fight is treasonous.
Jewish lives are at stake. And there is a list: Our soldiers are at greater risk when politicians bicker; the hostages become more sapped of hope – how much fun it must be for the terrorists holding these poor souls to show them news reports of how the Jews are more concerned with political infighting than saving their lives; we citizens are more exposed and more vulnerable to attack with the release of murderers from our prisons in exchange for hostages. This is not the time for standing on political principle that weakens us.
Liberman’s problem with arming Gazans to fight Hamas is legitimate. We are putting weapons in the hands of enemies who will turn them on us, he argues. It has happened before. After the signing of the Oslo Accords, in addition to relinquishing territory to the newly-formed Palestinian Authority, we provided them with funds and guns, ostensibly for the PA to provide security to protect us. Within days, those weapons were used against us.
My first thought when I heard of the plan to arm Gazans went back to 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel recruited Lebanese Christians to go into the Palestinian camps. Our soldiers would be spared that threat. Of course, what we did not account for was the anger the Christians harbored against the Palestinians created by years of war.
Arming these Gazans may or may not be a good strategy. It might work, it might backfire. What is totally out of line is how Liberman chose to address this. He could have turned to the prime minister and discussed its pros and cons. It will likely have been revealed eventually, but Liberman going public in order to benefit at the polls is inexcusable.
Playing politics increases the risk to soldiers, hostages and civilians. The issues we debate will not go away. The priority has to be our winning. Stop the manipulations – they only make things worse.
