May 8, 2012
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4048
We have recently been subjected
to a variety of prominent Israelis publicly besmirching their country in
order to promote their personal agendas or compensate for their
frustrations. However we fail to appreciate the extent to which these
ravings damage our global standing and embolden those seeking Israel’s
destruction.
The most recent outbursts on
display at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York in which I
participated, received massive global media coverage and were attended
by over 1200 participants from throughout North America. Most attendees
expected to hear reports relating to Israel’s current situation but were
thoroughly bewildered when the former Israeli Prime Minister and the
retired head of Mossad expressed views which were more in synch with J
Street and the marginal left wing liberals.
I was not on the panel in which these statements were uttered. Had I been, this is what I would have sought to convey.
Israel is currently confronting
the greatest challenges since 1948. We face existential threats from a
potentially nuclear Iran which publicly proclaims its determination to
wipe us off the map. The extremist Islamic revival in the Arab world
raises doubts whether we will be retaining our tenuous peaceful
relations with the purportedly moderate neighboring states.
Other than in the US, Canada and
Australia, our standing in the world has been undermined by virulent
Islamic and indigenous anti-Semitic campaigns of demonization and
delegitimization. Clearly, now is the time for unity and for responsible
Israelis to exercise restraint and avoid offensive hyperbole when
criticizing their government, especially when abroad.
Yet ironically, precisely when
rank and file Israelis display a greater consensus towards the security
policies of the government since the great divide over the Oslo Accords,
former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in New York indulged in historical
revisionism, implying that had he remained in office we would already be
at peace with the Palestinians, apportioning blame on the Israeli
government for failing to achieve peace and hailing the duplicitous and
intransigent PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as a genuine peace partner.
He omitted to mention that he
negotiated with the Palestinians behind closed doors without the
approval of his cabinet, the government or the Knesset and that despite
his offer to return to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines, accepting
some refugees and having had the gall to offer to forgo Israel's control
of the Temple Mount, Abbas still turned him down and did not even
bother to make a counter offer. He accused his own Ministers of having
discouraged Abbas from accepting his offer.
It was not a pleasant spectacle
to witness a discredited former Israeli Prime Minister heckled and booed
by an American Jewish audience. But Olmert had only himself to blame
for this.
Regrettably, in the current
jungle of Israeli politics, anything goes. Olmert subsequently told the
New York Times that Netanyahu “was disrespectful of America”, that
“America is not a client state of Israel” and should not be perceived as
if it “obeyed orders from Jerusalem”. To make such statements which
will undoubtedly be exploited by anti-Semites, exemplifies the depths to
which former PM Olmert has sunk.
Could one imagine former
President Bush, whose country is not under existential threat, speaking
in such disparaging terms in relation to the policies of his successor?
Had he done so, most Americans would have been outraged.
There was no doubt that Olmert
had lost the plot following his CNN interview in which he made the
bizarre assertion that a US right wing conspiracy had led to his
political downfall. In what sounded like an adaptation of the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion, he claimed that it was “millions and millions of
dollars transferred from the US by figures from the extreme right wing”
which toppled his government and thwarted his attempt to achieve a
lasting peace.
Equally appalling were the
outbursts from former Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, who, displaying contempt
for the sensitive position he had occupied only a year earlier,
launched a vitriolic campaign besmirching Prime Minister Netanyahu and
challenging his motives in relation to the Iranian nuclear threat. A
week earlier in Israel, Yuval Diskin, the outgoing head of the Shin Bet,
hysterically questioned the sanity of our Prime Minister and Defense
Minister Barak and denounced them for being "messianic” and “appealing
to the idiot public”.
There may be legitimate grounds
for different opinions concerning the timing and employment of military
force against Iran. But such matters are not determined by the
uninformed public and we must rely on our elected leaders operating with
the sanction of a responsible government-appointed security committee
to make the final decision. That is why many of us not privy to the
intelligence required for making a balanced judgment have avoided
debating the issue.
Surely we are entitled to expect
former intelligence officers who dissent from government policies, to
conduct themselves in a sober and responsible manner even if they harbor
animus against Netanyahu for having failed to grant their personal
requests whilst in office. And above all, to avoid undermining the
Israeli government’s efforts to strengthen global sanctions in order to
obviate the need for military action.
Could one visualize the retired
head of MI5 or CIA warning the public that their national leader was a
deranged Dr. Strangelove unfit to lead the country? Would such behavior
by a retired intelligence chief be tolerated in any normal democracy?
To exacerbate the situation, at
the Jerusalem Post Conference, Dagan justified Diskin’s outbursts as
“serious” and legitimate manifestations of freedom of expression. After
publicly calling Likud Environment Minister Gilad Erdan a “liar”, he
warned the stunned audience that Erdan’s suggestion that upon
retirement, intelligence chiefs be prohibited from making public
statements for a limited time was paving the way for a Nazi state.
One can easily visualize how the
Iranians and Islamic extremists observing such grotesque behavior can
mistakenly conclude that Israelis are self-destructing.
In a normal Western democratic
country, the responsible media would condemn and effectively marginalize
former political leaders or officials making such inflammatory remarks.
Alas, in Israel, much of the media thrive on such outbursts and it is
thus hardly surprising that we continue to fail so abysmally in the war
of ideas.
This issue has no bearing on
freedom of expression. We can take pride in the fact that despite the
external threats confronting us, we remain a feisty democracy. And the
forthcoming elections are likely to demonstrate that the vast majority
of the nation supports the security policy of this government including
its strategy regarding the Palestinians and Iran.
In any healthy society there are
certain conventions to which those engaged in public life are obliged
to adhere. When abroad, politicians and public officials should be
emphasizing the issues we hold in common rather than conveying divisive
and destructive messages. Israel displays a lack of civic responsibility
when people like former Prime Minister Olmert or retired heads of
Intelligence uninhibitedly promote their personal agendas outside this
country in a manner which jeopardizes our future well-being by
minimizing the threats confronting us. The damage such behavior inflicts
on our global status cannot be underestimated.
The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.He may be contacted atileibler@netvision.net.il
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
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