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Sept. 21, 2007
Addressing Israel's problems
Former minister suggests greater integration of Arab population.
RHONDA SPIVAK
When 82-year-old Moshe Arens, former Israeli defence minister,
speaks about Israel's security, the word "deterrence"
is on his lips. In his view, it's what defines the Yom Kippur War
as such a success and the disengagement from Gaza and the Second
Lebanon War as such failures.
As Arens, who is also a former foreign minister, noted in a recent
interview, "The war that brought about the greatest turnabout
in Israel's [strategic] situation, in my opinion, was the Yom Kippur
War. After the Six Day War in 1967, and the three no's of the Arab
League in Khartoum, it was obvious that the Arab world was planning
a second round.... It was only after the Yom Kippur War that the
deterrence power of Israel was there in all its might. After that,
the Arab world never thought of another round.
"It is quite obvious that the Yom Kippur War was not only a
victory, but a great victory of the state of Israel," he continued.
"Egypt managed to surprise Israel and had some achievements
in the beginning – but they didn't last. In the Yom Kippur
War, some of the Arab states learned that war would not work. The
peace agreement with Egypt, in my eyes, was the direct result of
Israel's victory in the Yom Kippur War. Otherwise, we'd have seen
preparations for another battle [with Egypt and other Arab states],"
said Arens, who voted against the Camp David Accords in 1977.
In Arens' view, the Yom Kippur War led to "Israel's appearance
as an economic and military superpower ... today, we see that the
GDP [gross domestic product] of Israel, versus the GDP of the Arab
countries, is growing."
Arens, who was first elected to the Knesset in 1974, believes that
the Second Lebanon War must also be measured in its impact on the
Arab states. "One year ago [during the Second Lebanon War],
there was a real turnabout," he said. "In the eye of the
Arab beholder, there was a definite victory for Hezbollah and to
a great extent, in Israeli eyes, we were defeated. This is not a
simple matter. Israel was not defeated in the war, but the war undermined
the deterrence of Israel.
"When looking at the criteria for measuring victory and defeat,
the question should have been, did we manage to suppress the shelling
and the rockets? That's the only criteria. More than one million
people were in shelters and had to leave their homes. The civilian
population was abandoned. Half of the north of the country was destroyed.
More than 1,000 rockets were sent into Israel on the last day [of
the Second Lebanon War]. This was not a victory, but a defeat,"
he asserted.
As for Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza, Arens said,
"I believe the disengagement was a fatal mistake, especially
when we had been very successful in conquering terror [in Israel]
before the disengagement took place. Hamas's people believed that
terrorism caused the withdrawal. This concept – that terrorism
can have such results – is dangerous and brings us further
from peace."
As for what ought to be done in response to Hamas launching rockets
on Sderot, Arens maintains that the obvious thing to do is to send
ground troops to the launching sites, where they can put the rockets
out of range. In his view, "the best defence is offence."
When asked about whether he believes there will be peace between
Israel and the Palestinians, Arens responded, "I wouldn't hold
my breath."
He questions whether it is "realistic" to try to strengthen
Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas in the hope that he will bring stability
to the Palestinian territories and suppress terrorism. "Can
he really be expected to take control of Judea and Samaria and,
more challenging yet, to wrest control of Gaza from Hamas?"
Arens asked.
Arens has generally been thought of as belonging to the ideological
wing of the Likud party. He is, however unusual among voices in
the Likud when it comes to issues revolving around the rights of
Israeli Arabs. "I believe in full obligations and full benefits
for Israeli Arabs," he said. He is of the view "that Israeli
Arabs ought to serve in the Israeli army and that they ought to
be entitled to all of the rights and benefits that Jews in Israel
receive."
In this regard, Arens appears to be more liberal than the current
defence minister, Ehud Barak, who is chair of the Labor party, or
Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, neither of whom has ever
espoused such a viewpoint. Arens added that his opinion that Israeli
Arabs ought to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces has been shaped
by the fact that, "I'm from the United States originally,"
he said, "and it seems to me that that is what you need nowadays
for a true democracy."
Arens believes that living in a democracy, in a country where rule
of law prevails, in an economy that is making progress to the benefit
of all, can be a source of pride and satisfaction to Arabs in the
state, as well as to Jews.
"I have had this view [that Israeli Arabs ought to serve in
the IDF] for a long time," he said. "Army service would
help with the integration of Israeli Arabs into Israeli society.
The Druze do army service, and that has worked out well." It
was during Arens' second stint as defence minister, in the early
1990s, that equality for the Druze in the IDF was fully institutionalized.
In Arens' view, the degree of "Israelization" of the Druze
community, the significant decline in its birthrate over the years
and the loyalty that this community has demonstrated to Israel again
and again is the direct result of its youngsters serving in the
IDF. Charting a future in which the majority of Israeli Arabs identify
with the state is "one of Israel's most important challenges,"
he declared, and a subject deserving of much more attention than
it has been given by successive Israeli governments, he added.
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer who spends
several months of the year in Israel.
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