[lbo-talk] Fwd: excellent editorial from ha'aretz

[Doug Henwood]

[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.