Miriam Herschlag, Sara Hirschhorn and Noah Efron talk about (1) The open-letter from Airforce reservists and retirees, calling on the Government to end the war, the army’s scorched-earth response, and the flood of letters-of-support for the original letter – What’s it all mean?; and (2) The decision by Hebrew University’s elite publishing house, Magnes, to shelve plans to publish a Hebrew translation of Mein Kampf, and whether or not there is a place on Israeli shelves for Hitler’s now-100-year-old manifesto.
All this and a singular record launch, a memorial tribute to Yaakov Kirschen, the auteur behind “Dry Bones,” and meeting a legend of Israeli song.
Songs
Hadag Nahash’s brand-new Tehilim, or Psalms, record – Yabi‘a Omer.
- Mi Ha-Ish
- Ki Le-Olam Hasdo
- Al Tashlicheini le-Et Zikna
Listening to the discussion of the open letter by reservists about tha Gaza War I strated thinking back to earler conflict and when war weariness set. As Tom Paine said “These are the times that try men’s souls.” This happens in long wars,. It happened inthe American Civil War AKA The War of the Rebellion. Were it not for Sheman’s vicotory at Atlanta McClellan might have one the 1864 election and ended the war with a division of the country and the continuation of slavery. Think of he muties inthe Fench Army in WWI. By the end of 1944 and into 1945 the US was getting tired fo the war. This is why Hamas seeks to proong the war. I will grnat that Israelli sttragey has been pooly thiguth out but was also retricted by stupid american advice. Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor shoud have been the first targets. Seond a secure area should have been set up after al the tunnels had been destroyed so that any non-cmabatants could move there after screening. Now is not the time to give up hard as that may be.
Thanks for this, Daniel. I see your point. In fact, it is very similar to (if more nicely historically-informed than) what Prime Minister Netanyahu said on his Youtube-video-to-the-people last night:
“We are at a decisive stage of the campaign, and at this stage, perseverance and determination are required in order to win.”
“If we give in to Hamas’s dictates now, all the tremendous achievements we’ve attained—thanks to our fighters, thanks to our fallen, thanks to our heroic wounded—will simply go to waste.”
“From the very start of the war, we’ve heard calls to end it—calls to end it through surrender—and those calls have only grown louder recently.”
“Had I yielded to those calls: we wouldn’t have entered Rafah, we wouldn’t have taken control of the Philadelphi Corridor, we wouldn’t have carried out the Beepers Operation, we wouldn’t have eliminated Sinwar, Deif, Haniyeh, or even Nasrallah, we wouldn’t have created the conditions for the fall of Assad’s regime and the severe blow to Iran’s axis, and we wouldn’t have changed the face of the Middle East. We would simply still be living under an existential threat.”
I see the point, and I take it seriously. However, history offers lots of examples of wars that it was best to stop fighting: America in Vietnam, Israel in Lebanon in the 1980s, France in Algeria, etc. In these cases, it became unclear just what the fighting was accomplishing, and the smart thing was to withdraw, regroup, try to attain one’s aims by different means. I wonder if that’s not the situation we are in today in Gaza. Fourteen months ago, the Prime Minister said that we were a small step away from total victory over Hamas. Now, more than a year later, he tells us that we are maybe six month to two years from (no-longer-total) victory over Hamas. It raises the question of whether it makes sense to kill and die at this moment.
Then add in the matter of the hostages, who probably will not all return unless we end the war.
So it is not just a matter of maintaining one’s resolve. I think it makes sense at this moment to ask, what is the most rational course to follow, and to me it seems like it is ending the war.
That said, I know I might be wrong, and you might be right. The situation is very humbling. But that is how things seem to me.
Many thanks for writing, and for listening.
Best,
Noah