Fwd: excellent editorial from ha’aretz
[an editorial that would never appear in the NYT]
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733036.html
The government is losing its reason
Bombing bridges that can be circumvented both by car and on foot;
seizing an airport that has been in ruins for years; destroying a
power station, plunging large parts of the Gaza Strip into darkness;
distributing flyers suggesting that people be concerned about their
fate; a menacing flight over Bashar Assad’s palace; and arresting
elected Hamas officials: The government wishes to convince us that
all these actions are intended only to release the soldier Gilad Shalit.
But the greater the government’s creativity in inventing tactics, the
more it seems to reflect a loss of direction rather than an overall
conception based on reason and common sense. On the face of it,
Israel wishes to exert increasing pressure both on Hamas’ political
leadership and on the Palestinian public, in order to induce it to
pressure its leadership to release the soldier. At the same time, the
government claims that Syria - or at least Khaled Meshal, who is
living in Syria - holds the key. If so, what is the point of
pressuring the local Palestinian leadership, which did not know of
the planned attack and which, when it found out, demanded that the
kidnappers take good care of their victim and return him?
The tactic of pressuring civilians has been tried before, and more
than once. The Lebanese, for example, are very familiar with the
Israeli tactic of destroying power stations and infrastructure.
Entire villages in south Lebanon have been terrorized, with the
inhabitants fleeing in their thousands for Beirut. But what also
happens under such extreme stress is that local divisions evaporate
and a strong, united leadership is forged.
In the end, Israel was forced both to negotiate with Hezbollah and to
withdraw from Lebanon. Now, the government appears to be airing out
its Lebanon catalogue of tactics and implementing it, as though
nothing has been learned since then. One may assume that the results
will be similar this time around as well.
Israel also kidnapped people from Lebanon to serve as bargaining
chips in dealings with the kidnappers of Israeli soldiers. Now, it is
trying out this tactic on Hamas politicians. As the prime minister
said in a closed meeting: “They want prisoners released? We’ll
release these detainees in exchange for Shalit.” By “these
detainees,” he was referring to elected Hamas officials.
The prime minister is a graduate of a movement whose leaders were
once exiled, only to return with their heads held high and in a
stronger position than when they were deported. But he believes that
with the Palestinians, things work differently.
As one who knows that all the Hamas activists deported by Yitzhak
Rabin returned to leadership and command positions in the
organization, Olmert should know that arresting leaders only
strengthens them and their supporters. But this is not merely faulty
reasoning; arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of
a gang, not of a state.
The government was caught up too quickly in a whirlwind of prestige
mixed with fatigue. It must return to its senses at once, be
satisfied with the threats it has made, free the detained Hamas
politicians and open negotiations. The issue is a soldier who must be
brought home, not changing the face of the Middle East.