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EDITORIAL
“The Other Front” is
Back
In the late 1980s,
during the first Intifada, the Alternative
Information Center
(AIC) decided to publish a weekly bulletin, entirely dedicated to Israeli
politics and society.
During this time, a lot
was published concerning the Palestinian uprising and the sociopolitical
reality in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza
Strip, but very little was known about the other front, the Israeli one. And,
in these days, a lot was happening in Israeli society and politics, especially on
the resistance front against the occupation and in solidarity with the struggle
of the Palestinian people.
During the Oslo process, international
coverage of Israeli society and its diversity improved greatly, and the need
for a special AIC publication on Israeli politics and society lost its urgency.
Moreover, the most valuable Israeli daily, Haaretz, began publishing an English
language edition, and the other dailies had their own websites for foreign
readership. We decided, therefore, to cease publication of The Other Front,
and, concerning the Israeli inner front, concentrated our efforts on less informational
and more in-depth analysis articles.
Today, however, the
structural crisis of Israeli politics, the endemic corruption of all its elites,
and what a Haaretz journalist called “the disappearance of the State” require,
once again, regular coverage of Israeli society and government. For, in the
medium term, the internal developments will have dramatic influence on Israeli
foreign policy, especially the risk of a regional war. This is the reason that
the last General Assembly of the Alternative
Information Center
took the decision to renew “The Other Front.” We hope our readership will find
it useful.
Michael
Warschawski
ISRAELI POLITICS
A Never-Ending Farce
Named Shimon Peres
“I am a loser?!” This
famous question-answer of former Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, summarizes his
entire political career. He never won an election, even ones where he was
confronting a nobody like former President Moshe Katsav, recently suspended for
being a suspected serial rapist.
Now, his friends are
pushing him to compete, once again, for the post of President. These “friends,”
however, are working for the victory of the Likud candidate, Reuven Rivlin, and
all the journalists are predicting a new defeat for the former leader of the
Labor Party, who deserted his longtime party two years ago to join Kadima. Desertion
and betrayal are the trademarks of Shimon Peres, all the way back to the 1960s.
Manipulations too, which can explain how he survived almost half a century in
the very center of Israeli politics, despite his permanent failure to get the
support of the voters.
At the age of 83,
Shimon Peres offered to replace Ehud Olmert as Prime Minister, after the Winograd
Commission published its preliminary conclusions on the way the Olmert handled
the last war in Lebanon.
His friends, however, are convincing him to run for the presidency of the Israel. To lose
again.
WINOGRAD COMMISSION
Go On, There is Nothing
to See…
The national commission
of inquiry on the last war in Lebanon
recently issued a provisory report that undoubtedly reflects what will be its
final conclusions. Yet one didn’t need this six-month-long, grueling (and
expensive) work of five prominent figures of the Israeli establishment, and
hundreds of witnesses and pieces of evidence, to draw the conclusion they
reached: though pre-planned by the government—according to the testimony of
Prime Minister Olmert himself—the Lebanon War II was a total fiasco.
During the second week
of the war, we published, in News From Within, a clear evaluation of the
total Israeli failure to that point, and we predicted that, if it will
continue, it will become even worse. The objectives of the war were never
clearly defined, and they changed several times throughout the war itself: to
release the Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah, to liquidate Hezbollah, to
stop the Hezbollah missiles on the north of Israel, to expel Hezbollah from the
border and more. None of these objectives were realized, and, on the other
hand, the Israeli military suffered a serious defeat with many casualties,
while at the same time Israeli cities and villages were hit by rockets of the
Lebanese resistance. The worse for Israel:
the weakness of the military and commanders was revealed to the whole world,
and, as a result, Israel's
deterrent strength was severely weakened (see next item).
Almost a year after the
war, the Winograd Commission is drawing the same conclusions, and pointing at
the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, and the former Chief
of Staff, Dan Halutz, as personally responsible for the fiasco. Halutz didn't
wait for the conclusions of the commission in order to resign and escape to Harvard University.
There is, however, one
big difference between the conclusions of the Winograd Commission and what we
wrote 10 months ago. In the report of the commission, there is no mention,
whatsoever, of the massive war crimes committed during the 33 days of the war,
the destruction of several villages in South Lebanon and of the town of Bint
Jbeil, the massive bombardments of Tyre and the Shiite neighborhoods of Beirut,
the thousands of civilians killed, and, in the last days of the war, the
massive use of cluster bombs.
These war crimes should
have been the main aspect of the inquiry on the war, and these war crimes must
be the main charges against Olmert, Peretz and Halutz. By not doing so, the
members of the Winograd Commission should be added to the list of those Israeli
political and military leaders who will be, one day, put on trial in an
international criminal court for crimes against humanity.
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL:
Israel has committed
war crimes in Lebanon
In a devastating
report, Amnesty International accuses Israel
of war crimes in Lebanon.
Among others, the yearly report of the international organization mentions the
killing of 1,200 civilians, the destruction of tens of thousands of homes,
bridges, main roads, power plants, which are described as a massive collective
punishment. As another war crime, Amnesty mentions the use of about four
million cluster bombs in the very last days of the war.
Amnesty International’s
report refers also to the Occupied Palestinian Territories:
in 2006, Israel
killed around 650 Palestinians, including 120 children. These figures are three
times higher than in 2005. Amnesty complains about the general immunity of
soldiers and settlers, who are suspected of murdering Palestinians and were not
put on trial
ISRAELI MILITARY
The Crisis is Not Over
One of the main
conclusions of the Winograd Commission concerns the bad performance of the
Israeli military. Though most of that section of the report will not become
public, it is not difficult to know what is the general evaluation of the
commission: the Israeli military is paying the price of six years of massive
repression in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories
and its transformation from a combat force into an occupation police force.
During the last years, many battalions have been transferred from the Northern
Front to the West Bank and Gaza,
and developed tactics of repression against civilians instead of tactics of war
against combat units, even small ones like Hezbollah. As Haaretz military
expert Ze’ev Shiff writes: “the confrontation with the Palestinians last for
years, and generations of IDF soldiers dealt with it as if it is the main
issue, as if this will be the only kind of confrontations in the future. This
had a negative impact on the army.” (Haaretz, 4 May 2007)
Moreover, a general deliquescence
has characterized the military establishment: for a long time, the combat units
didn’t get serious training, the emergency hangars were half-empty, and the
strategic command didn’t prepare a variety of options to confront an attack,
even limited, in the north. The decision was to rush and hit, assuming that the
enemy will not be able to react. That evaluation was wrong in two respects: the
Hezbollah fought back, with high efficacy and it was able to disturb the life
of Israeli society with its rockets and missiles.
These extremely serious
deficiencies are all linked to an unlimited self-confidence and pathological arrogance
of the Israeli military, which, as is known, are the worst enemies of
professionalism. The new Chief of Staff, Major General Gaby Ashkenazi was
definitely right when he announced, a couple of months ago, that it will take
years until the military will be reorganized and regain its deterrent capabilities.
For, it is not only an organizational reorganization which is needed, but a
political and psychological revolution too.
SDEROT
The Great Escape
For years, the small
town of Sderot
has been the target of Palestinian rockets, launched from the Gaza Strip.
Usually the Qassam rockets cause limited damage, and, until now, the number of
casualties was low. Last week the number of Qassam rockets hitting Sderot
increased substantially and a women was killed, and this week another man was
killed.
The Israeli-Russian billionaire
Arkadi Gaydamak (a man suspected to have strong connections with the
international Russian mafia and wanted in France for illegal arms dealing,
tax-evasion and money laundering), called the population of Sderot to leave the
town and established a big tent-camp for the "refugees" of Sderot. As
usual, the government reaction was a big mess: at first, it too called for a
partial evacuation of the town. Then, under pressure from portions of the
Israeli public opinion which, correctly, described the evacuation of Sderot as
a moral victory for the Palestinian armed resistance, Ehud Olmert backed off,
and expressed his opposition to the evacuation. Without effect: hundreds of
residents called Gaydamak to ask for assistance. New turn: the official policy today
is to help the Sderot residents "take a vacation" somewhere else.
The growing role and
influence of Gaydamak is driving the government crazy, first because it
reveals, once again, the impotence of state institutions in dealing with the
urgent needs of the Israeli population, and second, because Gaydamak will use
it in promoting his political ambitions at the expense of the ruling Kadima and
Labor parties. But there is little chance that the state institutions
will be able to compete with the billionaire, who seems to have unlimited
financial resources and is not bound, like the government, with bureaucratic
procedures in order to release the funds needed to help the people.
Israel is an extreme
example how a neoliberal economy and generalized privatization bring about the
marginalization of the State and the crowning of individuals who have
built their fortune by suspect practices, which not only the French justices,
but also the Israeli authorities are investigating.
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