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w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051028.html
Last update - 02:15 30/12/2008
How we like our leaders
By Amira Hass
This isn't the time to speak of ethics, but of precise intelligence. Whoever
gave the instructions to send 100 of our planes, piloted by the best of our
boys, to bomb and strafe enemy targets in Gaza is familiar with the many
schools adjacent to those targets - especially police stations. He also knew
that at exactly 11:30 A.M. on Saturday, during the surprise assault on the
enemy, all the children of the Strip would be in the streets - half just having
finished the morning shift at school, the others en route to the afternoon
shift.
This is not the time to speak of proportional responses, not even of the polls
that promise a greater share of Knesset seats to the mission's architects. This
is, however, the time to speak of the voters' belief the operation will
succeed, that the strikes are precise and the targets justified.
Take, for example, Imad Aqel Mosque in Jabalya refugee camp, bombed and strafed
shortly before midnight on Sunday. These are the names of the glorious military
victory we achieved there - Jawaher, age 4; Dina, age 8; Sahar, age 12; Ikram,
age 14; and Tahrir, age 17, all sisters of the Ba'lousha family, all killed in
a "precise" strike on the mosque. Another three sisters, a 2-year-old brother
and their parents were injured. Twenty-four neighbors were wounded and five
homes and three stores destroyed. This part of the military victory did not
open our television or radio news broadcasts yesterday morning, nor did they
appear on many Israeli news Web sites.
This is the time to speak about the detailed maps in the hands of IDF
commanders, and about the Shin Bet advisers who know the exact distance between
the mosque and nearby homes. This is the time to discuss the drone planes and
the hot air balloons fitted with advanced cameras floating over the Strip day
and night, filming everything.
This is the time to rely on legal advisers studying the operation to find the
right phrasing to justify "collateral damage." Time to praise Foreign Ministry
spokespeople who in their polished language, with their elegant South African
or charmant Parisien accents, say it is the fault of Hamas, which uses
neighborhood mosques for its own purposes.
Talk of double standards has always been moot. Maybe there was a huge weapons
store in the mosque. Maybe Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militants met there every
night and from there planned to launch their upgraded fighter jets.
Where does the IDF Chief of Staff sit when he draws up war plans? Not in the
Sahara, or even in the Negev. What would happen if someone blew themselves up
at the entrance to Tel Aviv's Cinematheque movie theater, and those who sent
him said sorry, but he was headed for the Defense Ministry down the street?
This is not the time to recall long-forgotten history lessons to say this is
not the way to topple a government. Nor is it the time to make rational
recommendations for balanced statesmanship. The time for such things has
passed, along with the New Order we once arrogantly tried to establish in
Lebanon, which only brought us Hezbollah. Along with the Orientalists' plans to
reduce the popularity of the PLO, which only paved the way for the emergence of
a militant Islamic nationalist movement.
The time of such recommendations has passed, along with the grab of Palestinian
lands and hyperactive construction of settlements in the Oslo era, which only
laid the cornerstone for the second intifada and the fall of Fatah.
The era of reason and judgment died long ago, even before the targeted
assassinations of Fatah activists in the West Bank, which soon turned into
shooting attacks on soldiers and the emergence of another few thousand young
people taking up arms, not to mention the phenomenon of suicide bombers.
It is never the right time to say "we told you so," because once it is possible
to say those words, they are already invalid. We cannot revive the dead, nor
repair the damage caused by arrogance and megalomania.
This is the time to speak of our own satisfaction and enjoyment. Satisfaction
from tanks once again raising and lowering their barrels in preparation for a
ground attack, satisfaction from our leaders' threatening finger-waving at the
enemy. That's how we like our leaders - calling up reservists, sending pilots
to bomb our enemies and manifesting national unity, from Baruch Marzel to Tzipi
Livni, Netanyahu to Barak to Lieberman.
