A REQUEST TO THE PRIME MINISTER

 

Amos Keinan, "Wallah"  8.2.00

 

 

React at once! With a strong hand and a flexed arm. Only when you have wrecked their infrastructure for them, only when you have destroyed every square kilometer in South Lebanon, only then shall you be able to exit in disgrace, just as the American generals departed from Vietnam.

 

React at once! With a strong hand and a flexed arm. Only when you have wrecked their infrastructure for them, only when you have destroyed every square kilometer in South Lebanon, only then shall you be able to exit in disgrace, just as the American generals departed from Vietnam, just as the French generals departed from Indo-China.

 

Don't be a sucker. Don't lend an ear to the mothers; don't lend an ear to any voice of moderation, because those would be signs of weakness. A strong head of state does not withdraw until he has been struck by a blow that shames him and brings him to death's door. Until he sees in Lebanon what the American generals  observed when their soldiers began to fight each other in the hope of boarding the evacuation helicopters. Until then, we shall not depart from this cursed Vale of Tears. 

 

You have to be as strong as Arik Sharon, who forced Lebanon into surrender; as strong as Shimon Peres, who showered them with Grapes of Wrath in the shape of smart bombs which slaughtered refugees who had fled to the outskirts of Beirut. You cannot allow yourself to be less foolish than Arik or Shimon or Bibi. If you are seen or heard to be less foolish, then that is a sign that you are a weakling of a nerd.

 

Knock them out! Crush them! Destroy them, rumble them, blow them up, bombard them, explode them. Make their women wear black in mourning; force four of their mothers to organize a movement. Show them that you are as strong as the French in Indo-China and the Americans in Vietnam! Remember! A great heroic general can only be one who departs in shamefaced disgrace from a lost war.