Rabbis For Human Rights

It's over, and we Israelis may as well admit it: We have lost the war, and it is far better that we recognize this reality earlier rather than later, in order to save as many lives as possible.

We cannot compete with the Palestinians. They are not restricted by moral considerations when it comes to forcing us out of the territories, and therefore, any and all atrocities committed against us are legitimate in their eyes.

It would seem that we are also not terribly bothered by moral questions, yet, we still apply some brakes. We have not made a strategic decision to toss all ethical restrictions to the wind, although, we are getting close to reaching such a decision - at least de facto, if not de jure.

Certainly, that seems to be the case in examining the personal behavior of too many of our soldiers and the military decisions by our governmental leaders, like house demolitions, expropriation of lands, and all forms of collective punishments. But, as long as we still cling to a bit of the moral high ground - opposing capital punishment, decrying the notion of transfer, and opposing counter-terror by settlers - we will find ourselves heading for humiliation on the battleground.

However, we should not understand humiliation as defeat, in the sense that we are slowly, but steadily, being driven out of the territories. Rather, we should see the beating we are presently taking as if someone is imposing a harsh realization upon us.

Whoever thought that we could indefinitely rule over two-and-a-half million people and maintain not just our security, but our sense of decency, simply misread our dramatic historical march over the centuries from exile to restoration.

We Israelis react in particular ways to tragedy. When the Katyushas landed in Kiryat Shmona, our initial reaction was to respond harshly. It was not until our soldiers were being killed on a regular basis inside Lebanon, that the general populace said: "Enough." And so, former prime minister Ehud Barak took us out of Lebanon unilaterally - to the applause of the vast majority of Israelis.

Such is the case with our presence in the West Bank and Gaza. Suicide attacks within Israel proper prompt calls for revenge. But now that soldiers in the territories are being cut down with impunity, we will see not just peace activists protesting our belabored stay in the territories, but also ordinary middle-of-the-roaders crying out: "Enough." The two hundred plus reserve officers who are refusing to serve in the territories gives strength to this claim.

The peace camp's slogan, "End the occupation and return to ourselves," is most appropriate. As long as we are controlling the lives of the Palestinians, determining where they can travel, how much medicine and food and water they will receive, what land they can (or cannot) build on, whether they can harvest their produce or not, we will find it difficult to separate ourselves from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and his cohorts, whose hands are drenched in blood, and whose mouths are awash with hypocrisy.

Jewish national identity was forged on the anvil of the Egyptian experience of slavery. It was against the background of collective suffering that we were born as a people, charged with becoming a "holy nation." Our wanderings in the desert were to teach us that the maintenance of our freedom would be dependent upon the definitive rejection of the social model of power and its abuse, as symbolized by ancient Egypt.

Did we return to our ancestral homeland only to become like the ancient Egyptians? If so, then we will never be ourselves, as was historically prescribed for us at the moment of our national birth.

It is sad that we cannot realize on our own that the occupation is killing us, not only physically, but also morally and spiritually. We should do what we did in Lebanon (and what the Americans did in Vietnam and the French in Algeria): declare victory... and unilaterally withdraw.

That is what is going to happen in the end, because we cannot tolerate attacks on our soldiers on someone else's soil. And let's face it, the West Bank and Gaza can no longer be thought of as part of Israel, it belongs to the Palestinians, and they will do to us exactly what we did to the British - drive us out. They have found the right formula to break our resolve, despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's opposite claim.

So, why should we allow the Palestinians, whose behavior and actions lack all moral fiber, to be the arbiters of our moral conscience? Let's do it by ourselves. All of us have to join those reserve army officers and say: "Hell no, we won't go," so that we can "end the occupation and return to our (moral) selves."

Originally published by The Jerusalem Post, 16 Adar 5762; Thursday February 28, 2002
Original Online version can be found at: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/28/Opinion/Opinion.44236.html
© 1995-2001, The Jerusalem Post - All rights reserved
Republished with Permission.