Sharon should beg for forgiveness
About two weeks after my son Raz and his five comrades from the Sayeret
Golani special unit fell in battle on the first night of the Lebanon War, in
the battle for the Beaufort outpost, I wrote an open letter to "Menachem
Begin, Ariel Sharon, Rafael Eitan and the ministers who raised their hands in
favor of the Lebanon War.".In my letter, I pointed out the criminal
stupidity of waging a cynical and superfluous war, a war whose only motives
were political-nationalistic, and I protested against the killing of our
innocent young men in a deceitful war; I considered their unnecessary death as
murder.
My letter, which prompted strong reactions, was severely criticized. I
received hate mail which caused me sleepless nights. Begin, "the noble
man," took my name off the list of recipients of the letters of
consolation which he sent to the families.
Right-wingers published a huge advertisement in one of the popular
newspapers, with the heading: "Danger ahead - from internal causes,"
in which they wrote the following: "Question: Would the British have
allowed Nazi sympathizers to incite bereaved parents to profiteer from their
children's blood while the fighting was still going on? The answer is a
definite no!"..
The bulldozer of false propaganda, reminiscent of the darkest regimes in
the history of mankind, was rolling at full speed. The government made an
effort to present the sinful war, which came after a very peaceful year on our
borders, as a "peace operation" whose purpose was to remove from
Israel nothing less than an "existential danger" (!); the arrogant
Begin promised everyone that "the land will be peaceful for 40
years," Sharon boasted, with Machiavellian cynicism, in front of the
cameras, of the "wonderful agreement" with the Maronite Christians
(remember?), the ignorant masses hoarsely shouted "Arik (Sharon), King of
Israel," and the mothers and fathers, who had just become bereaved,
mourned their sons who would never see the sun again.
It took 18 long, bloody years, thousands of young men, both Israelis and
Arabs, killed, thousands of injured and crippled, thousands of families whose
worlds fell apart, for the Israeli people to understand finally what the
nationalistic "stalwarts" had done to them.
Any enlightened nation would have meted out political punishment to any
statesman who caused such a tragedy. Therefore it is hair-raising to see how
Ariel Sharon, for example, one of the first perpetrators of the Lebanese tragedy,
was chosen to lead his party [the Likud]. And as if that were not enough, with
appalling lack of sensitivity he shamelessly pounces on any opportunity to give
advice... on the subject of his "expertise," Lebanon.
I concluded the letter which I wrote on June 22, 1982 with these words:
"And if you have any conscience and humanity, my deep sorrow, the sorrow
of an Israeli father whose world has fallen apart, and whose reason for living
has been taken from him, should haunt you day and night, and be like a mark of
Cain on your foreheads forever!"
After 18 years of pointless killing and of the weeping of mothers and
fathers, I have no more illusions: Their crying will not affect anyone's peace
of mind; it was enough to see how all the those dwarfs of populism, those who
enthusiastically began that terrible, stupid war in June 1982, rushed to jump
on the train of the sacred "consensus" when the people changed their
minds - in order be considered partners in ending the war.
To all those wretched people, after the 18 worst years in my life,
bitter years of bereavement, sorrow and unending longing, I now say: On your
knees! On your knees, all you liars who promised "40 kilometers," you
deceivers who promised "40 years of peace in the land," you deceitful
jugglers with "existential danger," you nationalistic fools, who
instead of making every effort to find a lasting political compromise,
criminally sent troops to face fire and death.
With the withdrawal of the last soldiers from Lebanese soil, you should
have taken yourselves to the military cemeteries in Israel, you should have
fallen on your knees, worn sackcloth, according to the ancient Jewish custom,
scattered ashes on your heads and begged forgiveness from all the young
Israelis who were killed, those whose innocence and love of the land you took
exploited so criminally. These young men wanted to live like young people all
over the world, to start families, to build their lives on this land, under
these bright skies, and you, in your blind stupidity, sent them to a pointless
and superfluous war, in which they fell - shot, torn by hand grenades, crushed
by missiles and mines, trapped and burned in tanks. And now they lie silent
beneath the flowers.
Not one of you has knelt, not one of you has put on sackcloth, not one
of you has beaten his chest in a plea for forgiveness. Not one of you has taken
the slightest responsibility for what happened, and not one has answered for
his deeds.
But the nation has learned a lesson, and in the hardest and most painful
way possible. Perhaps its sons will in the future have the sense to be on guard
as against fire - against militant nationalism, which everywhere and at every
time in history knows how to assume a mantle of patriotism which is concerned
with "the good of the nation," but always leaves behind a long train
of destruction, ruin, blood and tears.