Various political analysts have denounced Prime Minister Olmert for accepting the UN Cease-Fire Resolution. Caroline Glick of The Jerusalem Post calls the Resolution an “unmitigated disaster.” Ari Shavit of Ha’aretz not only says “Olmert must go,” but he blames the decadence of Israel’s ruling elites for this disaster.
A. The UN Resolution
1. The Resolution does indeed signal a victory for Hezbollah and its patrons Iran and Syria—hence a defeat not only for Israel but for the United States.
2. With UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, it will be impossible for Israel to defend itself in the future from Hezbollah attacks without incurring UN condemnation.
3. No provision is made for the enforcement of UN Security Council resolution 1559 to disarm Hezbollah’s terrorist army.
4. No mechanism has been created to enforce the embargo on arms supplies to Hezbollah from Iran and Syria.
5. Israel may lose control of the Shaba Farms (or Har Dov)—a massive area of the Golan Heights that separates Israel from Syria.
6. The resolution lacks any operative clause for the release of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
B. Contrast What Hezbollah Has Accomplished
1. It destroyed much of northern Israel.
2. It humiliated the IDF in the eyes of the world.
3. It has undermined U.S. confidence in Israel as a strategic asset.
4. It united the Muslim world against Israel.
5. It strengthened the Shi’ite position in Lebanon.
6. It may soon gain control of the government, in which case Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah will become Lebanon’s prime minister. Iran will then be on Israel’s northern border.
C. So What’s Next?
1. The Olmert government must be toppled as soon as possible. Yes, Kadima and Labor will lose several seats. Yes, Israel Beiteinu, Likud, and National Union will form the next government together with the religious parties. But this will not give Israel what is most needed: an in-depth understanding of why Israel lost the war and will lose the next and last one unless systemic changes are made in the character of the regime.
- It’s not sufficient to blame inadequate military intelligence or the failure to launch a ground invasion or the disadvantages of having an air force man as Chief of Staff.
- Nor is it sufficient to blame the ineptitude and cowardice of Israel’s government and opposition parties. This doesn’t go to the root of the problem.
2. Although the decadence of Israel’s ruling elites—Left, Right, and Center—is now more obvious than ever, what is the root cause of this decadence?
D. The Most Fundamental Cause of Israel’s Defeat in Lebanon
1. I have said and say again that the root cause of decadence in Israel is the system of secular education that has destroyed the moral fabric of the democratic world—a system of education that propagates the doctrine moral relativism.
2. Relativism alienates Israel’s political, judicial and military elites from the beliefs and values the Jewish heritage. Because Ariel Sharon was tainted by relativism, it was easier him and his government to expel 10,000 Jews from their homes, destroy their schools and synagogues, and yield Jewish land to Islamofascists.
3. Relativism undermines confidence in the justice of Israel’s cause. I have seen this relativism in universities and in the statements of Israel’s ruling elites.
4. Relativism prevents Israel’s ruling elites from facing the enormity of evil, even when it involves the genocidal intentions of Israel’s Arab neighbors. Lacking the courage to face this evil,
- Israeli prime ministers seek peace with Arab despots whose media propagate murderous hatred of Jews.
- Israeli prime ministers foster the illusion of “peaceful coexistence,” which disarms our people, undermines vigilance—so that the government fails to take the steps necessary to deter and defeat aggression.
E. A Less Obvious Cause of Israel’s Defeat is its Undemocratic and Unstable System of Governance
1. Since members of the Knesset owe their positions and perks to their party leaders in the cabinet, they cannot exercise independent judgment vis-à-vis government policies.
2. Given a prime minister’s power to appoint several MKs to the cabinet or shorten their political longevity, Sharon was able to “induce” 22 Likud MKs to support Labor’s withdrawal-from-Gaza policy even though it was rejected by 70% of the voters in the 2003 election. But this retreat from Gaza in the south encouraged Hezbollah’s aggression in the north.
3. Since the Knesset could hardly have enacted the Gaza Evacuation Law if those 22 Likud MKs were individually accountable to the voters, Sharon’s implementation of that law, that is, his betrayal of the voters, is a direct consequence of Israel’s flawed system of government—which led to Israel’s debacle in Lebanon.
4. Notice too that the Supreme Court, a self-perpetuating oligarchy, “legalized” Sharon’s betrayal of the electorate by declaring Judea, Samaria, and Gaza “belligerent occupied territory.”
5. Finally, Israel’s lack of preparedness for the Lebanese war may be partly attributed to its system of multi-party cabinet government, which produces governments whose average duration is less than two years. This makes long-range planning impossible.
F. What is to be Done?
1. Israel urgently needs systemic change. A National Commission of Inquiry, though necessary, is not a way to institute such change. Nor are street demonstrations, unless Systemic Change is their objective. Demonstrations are episodic, divert public attention from the root causes of Israel’s malaise, and waste time, energy, and financial resources. More serious, sustained, and programmatic action is necessary.
2. In 1996 I met with members of the executive committee of Professors for a Strong Israel and urged them to form a “Congress of National Salvation” to promote the adoption of a Constitution. Five years later I made the same proposal to other extra-parliamentary nationalist groups. I have also met with a spokesman of Manhigut Yehudit and urged him to form a “shadow government” in anticipation of a war that would lead to the collapse of the government. This had to be done, I said, before the Establishment recovered from defeat in the war.
3. In each case I had prepared a working paper for Systemic Change. It contained a comprehensive set of national policies, a proposal for professional committees paralleling government ministries, as well as a proposal for a grass roots movement to galvanize the nation. Apparently, these efforts of mine were premature.
4. Therefore, I now call upon you to join me in the formation of a “Movement for Regime Change.” This Movement will have two-interrelated goals:
- On the one hand, the Movement will reveal that the State Israel is conceptually deranged: it is neither truly democratic nor truly Jewish. This lack of sanity and authenticity constitutes the basic cause both of Israel’s internal problems and inability to cope with the murderous hatred of the Arab world.
- On the other hand, the Movement will restore the nation’s sanity and integrity by promoting a unique form of democracy, one that uses democratic principles to make Israel more Jewish, and Jewish principles to make Israel more democratic.
- I have a concise, reader-friendly booklet that articulates these goals. Also, our Foundation’s website is a virtual library on the flawed mentality of Israel’s ruling elites, the self-destructive character of Israel’s ruling institutions, and how this pathological state of affairs may be remedied.
5. If you are interested, please write or call me.
