The cry which became a movement

Many former commanders of the Lebanese war play leading roles
as Knesset members or ministers, and continue defending their
"creation". attempting to frighten and silence anyone who dares
to claim there is a problem.

On the night of the helicopter disaster I became forcefully aware of the terrible price we were paying in the Lebanese quagmire. I made up my mind that something must be done to stop the endless bloodletting. My assumption was that if these were the results, there must be something wrong with the means, that we must call for a change, for improvement in the situation; and not accepting it as if it was preordained.

I made up my mind that something must be done to stop the endless bloodletting.

I spoke about the need "to do something", with two friends: Ronit Nahmias and Yafa Arbel. We had raised our sons together and had shared various periods in their lives and joys, including the beginning of their army sevice.

We were now facing profound sorrow and despair, and also a great anxiety about their future. That same week my feelings were reinforced by the pronouncements of the members of the Kohav Yair Forum , who agreed that our ways of handling the Lebanese situation must be reconsidered and a solution to the problem found. The Minister of Defense ( Itzik Mordehai), accused them of weakening the devotion of the soldiers, and their familie's. Yet their words carried hope, revealing that someone was willing to examine the issue of Lebanon and try to prevent the next disaster. It was then that I started thinking that there may be someone who wants to supress the fact about this beeing a protracted and bloody war. Many former commanders of the Lebanese war play leading roles as Knesset members or ministers, and continue defending their "creation". attempting to frighten and silence anyone who dares to claim there is a problem.

With this in mind I turned to two of my women friends, Ronit and Yafa, who shared my feelings and we wrote a letter of support to Knesset members from various parties, who participate in the Kohav Yair Forum. we were surprised about the prompt replies we received from the most of them, in which they expressed willingless to meet us and continue the struggle.

Meanwhile the Hakibutz newspaper had published an article entitled " "Mothers in the Service of the Army", in which Eran Shahar expressed his amazement at the resignation with which Israeli mothers accept the fact that, at a certain age, their sons become soldiers, dedicating their lives to political or military
goals, without even questioning themselves about it.

I told Eran I feel totally identified with what he had written. after talking it over on the phone, eran asked me to meet him, so he could write down my feelings. I asked my friends Ronit and Yafa to join me. They invited Miri Sela, from our movement, to come too. Our sons serve together in the army. We were asked to describe the way we see the situation in general, and the lebanese problem particullary, in wiew of the fact we live in the north. The article appeared on Passover Eve, under the title "Four Mothers" (a line from a well-known Passover song).

We decided to adopt this as our name. But we did not imagine that our detractors would use it as an opportunuty to bypass the problem and focus on our being women and mothers. Several times we tried to say that fathers and many worthy citizens joined our protest, but we received publicity, mainly as a new phenomenon.

We enlisted politicians from all the parties interested in promoting the peace process and first and foremost in ending the war in Lebanon. Everytime we received publicity, a lot more people joined our ranks, encouraging us to confront the government's entrenched position that "there isn't anyone to talk to", "there is no solution", and other clishes, abandoning us to the calamity of loosing wonderful young lives in the Lebanese quagmire. We engaged polititians from all parties, which were interested promoting peace, and to bring this war to an end. After our movement was established, I chose an additional plan of action, that of educational research. This might lead, in the long term, to peace in our region, with the help of our link with the Jewish Community in the Diaspora, and also the international community.

Today our message reaches many people in all strata of the Israeli public, who protest about the deadlock and politicians lethargy.

Let us hope that this protest will cause the government to wake up and bring the tragedy called Lebanon to an end.

Rachel Ben Dor,
chairman of the Four Mothers Movement.