EPILOGUE

Orna Shimoni

I searched for you among the tanks withdrawing from Reichan. I tried to identify your voice among the joyous voices shouting, “Mom, I have come out of Lebanon!”

But you were not there. The Hizbollah guerillas were there. They shouted, sang, unfurled their flags and burned ours. They raised their weapons on high but did not fire. No one dies from happiness and rejoicing.

I told your commanders that great courage was needed to withdraw from Lebanon without a single casualty, dead or wounded. It required courage and maturity to understand that one may give up on some trucks and even computers, instead of giving up on a child.

You do not die from the hasty folding up of flags. In their hearts, our soldiers respect the flag. It is better to fold up a flag than to come home wrapped up in one.

For 18 years this horrible war has dwelt with us.

My husband fought with the military reserves. My children grew up and fought in the Lebanon. We rejoiced in the weddings of the young people and my sons-in-law went out to fight in the Lebanon. Grandchildren were born; my husband passed away. My little boy joined the Israel Defense Force (IDF), only to return to me wrapped in a flag.

For 18 years there raged the war in Lebanon, a war that was supposed to be an operation for peace. I confess that I also believed that there was no alternative and that the penetration of forty kilometers into Lebanese territory was needed to being peace and quiet to the Galilee. How wrong I was.

My anguished questioning lasted for about ten years. Is the occupied strip really a Security Zone? Does it protect the northern border of the State of Israel? Has not our prolonged stay in the Lebanon converted our soldiers into hostages of the Syrians?

For many long years there was a feeling that this was a virtual war. Sure they told us in one of the campaigns about “a war on another planet”. This was a war of one thousand families whose sons were fighting in Lebanon on three-year tours of duty.

From every side we heard a lot of people preaching at us, asserting, warning and inspiring panic.

“You ladies simply do not understand that we just have to be over there.”

“If we are not over there, then you can forget about normal living for the people in the town of Kiryat Shemona and for the children in kibbutz Misgav Am, in the hills above the town.”

“Without an agreement with the Syrians, the Hizbollah will pursue us down to Jerusalem. They are the long arm of the Syrians.”

And we, indeed, did not understand. We did not understand the governments of Israel who sank into a political fixation that grew into a military stagnation for ten years. During that period, many changes have taken place in the Middle East that could have exerted a major influence for change upon our policies in the Lebanon. No, we did not understand.

The statistics continue to haunt us but no one is moved. Twenty to twenty-five solders fall in action every year. Explosive charges bury three more of our sons in the wreckage. While the pictures of soldiers embracing each other with tears in their eyes fill the televlsion screens, the members of our Knesset (Parliament) and government debate what they consider more urgent issues, such as whether it is proper for soldiers to shed tears. The leaders of the nation do not attend military funerals. Instead, they follow the television reports of soldiers weeping for their comrades and mourning family and friends who cry out their bereavement.

The response to roadside bombs and Katyusha rockets on Kiryat Shemona and the settlements of the Galilee is military. The IDF demands a harsh reaction. The political echelons decide. Our forces go into action in operations large and small. A stray shell from the artillery and a stray rocket from a gunship also enter into the ritual and Lebanese civilians are killed. A whole family is wiped out.

The IDF explains the error, “Yes, let’s call it a misfire. Even terrible tragedies such as these happen in wartime”. The other side is quick to retaliate. Katyusha rockets again rain down upon the Galilee. Social and economic life in the north become impossible. Many members of the moshav settlements abandon their homes. Fatal casualties and statistics. More of our sons return home wrapped in a flag. The families plunge into darkness and the Galilee descends into bomb-shelters.

The governments of Israel come and go but their vocabulary never changes. They continue to assert, warn and inspire panic.

“The Security Zone protects the north.”

“Withdrawal from Lebanon can only take place under a general agreement with Syria.”

“In your campaign, you ladies slacken the hand of our armed forces and strengthen the motivation of the Hizbollah.”

In the end, the IDF continues to be a hostage to the negotiations with the Syrians. Roadside bombs continue to blow up our sons. Our leaders are in a state of fixation; indifference is the order of the day. The IDF claims that it cannot act because its hands are tied. As usual, the cabinet convenes only when an open grave appears on telelvision. “We shall react harshly at the appropriate time. A unilateral withdrawal is not possible.”

All the scenarios that the Chiefs of Staff present to the government are deemed to be certain. “That will be the reality,” they say, “the north will become a bloodbath.” The present government (like its predecessor) returns to its agenda of daily affairs; the public goes back to its consumer goods, and the IDF reverts to making sure that that the statistics remain unchanged. The nation can live with twenty to twenty-five fallen soldiers in a year.

The trade union in the IDF gets stronger and stronger. It seems that there is a consensus that is strengthening the military’s fixations and stagnation. Most of the high-ranking officers do not dare to come out of the closet with their dilemma of unanswered questions. “Have we perhaps used up all our options in the Security Zone. Could it be that we can better protect our settlements from the international border? Does the IDF have an answer to such prolonged guerilla warfare? Does the IDF have an answer to guerillas who are fighting to liberate their land and have reached a professional level that neutralizes all the technological advantages of the IDF?”

The officers with hold these reservations remain silent because they are fearful for their ranks and their promotions. Some of them “just have no time to think” because they are bogged down in the stagnant strategy that forces them to go out into another military operation that will perhaps thaw out the stagnation by its very daring.

Roadside bombs blow up our soldiers along the fence. Mortar bombs kill our soldiers near the fence. The reaction is not surprising, that is, if we were not over there, on that side of the fence, then the enemy would strike at our civilians over here, on this side of the fence. The awful catastrophes become a statistic. The forest fire that consumes the soldiers of the Golani brigade also devours their families in their flames. The tragedy of the helicopter crash – 73 of our sons – 73 families. The disaster of the naval commando operation that cut down some of our most elite fighting men. A tank that plunges into an abyss and buries beneath it the boys inside and two families.

The politicians continue in their fixated thinking. We continue to hear the military and the politicians express their demands for “a harsh reaction”’ and “a strike at Syrian targets in the Lebanon”. These statements consistently accompany the fighting throughout the years, during all the years of combat.

Our attitudes to the South Lebanese Army, in the context of a unilateral withdrawal, are also a weighty factor in the reasoning of the opponents of such a withdrawal without an agreement with the Syrians. The public debate heats up with increased intensity about the legitimacy of our right to express an opinion and to act militantly throughout the country. The debate begins to snowball because of the involvement of senior officers of the IDF. Again they accuse us of slackening the motivation of our fighting men and strengthening the Hizbollah. It is “easier” to occupy themselves with this question rather than to examine and decide whether the Security Zone is in fact defending the North and whether the IDF could better protect the settlements while stationed along the international boundary of the State of Israel.

This question is never examined in serious discussions (after all, it’s only a matter of life and death). Does the Security Zone indeed serve the purpose for which it was occupied, namely, to protect the northern region of the State of Israel? For ten years, there was no in-depth discussion such as this in any Israeli government. The only discussions were initiated in the aftermath of a terrible catastrophe or in anticipation of a daring military exploit.

I demand a commission of inquiry to investigate our political leaders over this question. For the past ten years, the State of Israel has established a number of commissions of inquiry about disasters that occurred on a certain day. In this case, the disaster (call it a crime or a murder) had been going on for many long years and hundreds of soldiers, our children, had been killed. No one bothers to investigate; no one assumes responsibility. The conclusions of a commission of inquiry to investigate the political leaders are important, mainly to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster (call it a crime or a murder) in the next generation.

So few were the people whom we succeeded in infecting with our outcry about the Lebanon.

We were like a Don Quixote tilting against the windmills of the whole world.

The campaign in the Lebanon did not end in victory.

It was a political fixation that fostered military stagnation.

It was the policy of all the governments of Israel that created the tragedy (call it a crime or a murder).

It was the policy of the governments of Israel that converted the army into a trade union.

All the leaders of the nation during the past decade have been partners in the horrible abyss which swallowed into its darkness hundreds of children, mothers and fathers, whole families choking and going under.

For this I demand a commission of inquiry.

We have withdrawn from the Lebanon.

We have continued our activities in demanding that the government of Israel strengthen the society, economy and security of the northern settlements. We journeyed to the northern settlements after the withdrawal of the IDF from the Lebanon. One female member of Kibbutz Mennara told me, “This quiet is hurting my ears.” Shula of Zar’it said to me, “I get up in the morning and instead of hearing mortar shells in flight and exploding, as usual in past years, I hear the flight of birds.” My wish for the northern settlements is that only the song of birds shall greet them at sunrise.

Ms. Orna Shimoni,

The mother of Lieutenant Eyal Shimon,

Whose dreams were shattered by an anti-tank missile.