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Look Who's Talking II | ||
Ehud Asheri Haaretz | ||
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Side A: "This is a war for our very survival"; "In war as in war"; "Either we fight or we flee"; "If to fight, then to the end"; "There are no deluxe wars"; "War is not an insurance policy"; "We have to restore the deterrent capability"; "The whole of Lebanon is Hezbollah"; "NATO pulverized Kosovo, right?"; "Churchill also bombed Dresden from the air"; "We have to teach them not to mess with us"; "The whole Arab world is watching"; "A cease-fire now is a victory for Nasrallah"; "The nation deserves victory"; "You don't talk with those who want to destroy you"; "The only way to deal with the neighborhood bully is to give him a slap"; "They have to be made to beg that we will stop"; "First we'll win, then we'll talk"; "No one is going to do the work for us"; "It's all a matter of hasbara [explaining ourselves]"; "Have you ever heard of defensive democracy?"; "Read the article by Prof. Harari on the Internet."
Side B: "This is not a war for survival"; "No one doubts our deterrent capability"; "You have to understand the limits of power"; "The only language Israel understands is the language of force"; "In war there are only losers"; "No power has ever succeeded in defeating guerrilla forces"; "It is impossible to liquidate an ideology"; "An army can't eliminate a terrorist organization that enjoys popular support"; "It is impossible to achieve an unequivocal decision"; "The price will be intolerable"; "Only a political solution will stop the Katyushas"; "The only way to deal with the neighborhood bully is to talk to his parents"; "Syria has to be removed from the equation"; "The IDF is an army that has a state"; "The time has come to change the masculine-macho-talkback discourse"; "A state cannot behave like a terrorist organization"; "You can't turn the home front into cannon fodder"; "Revenge is not a policy"; "International support is worth more than any military achievement"; "No hasbara can cope with shattered children"; "Read Yigal Sarna's article on the Internet." Side C: "Maybe I'm changing my mind. Today I'm in favor of Michel Guriashvili" (one of the contestants in "A Star is Born"). Clip and hang on walls All the statements in the section above (apart from the last) were taken from the public debate that is being waged in the media between the camp of those who support the war's continuation and the camp of those who are against this. If I were to identify the speaker in each case, there would be few surprises, other than one: Some of the finest pronouncements of the "pro" camp were uttered by Amram Mitzna, the former leader of the Labor Party, who has turned from a pure white dove into a predatory hawk. Mitzna's position is less surprising in its militarist essence (once a general, always a general) than in its militant style. Just when the diplomatic solution is taking shape, he is sounding like an assembly line of war slogans whose starting switch is jammed ("We can win, we have to win, it's vital to win!"). Clip, enlarge, hang on walls in the cities (or at least in IDF bases). Trivia quiz Read the following and answer the two questions that follow: "We asked for peace talks three times in the past few years, and we didn't even get an answer";1. Who made these statements, and where? (A) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a speech to the nation;2. Why isn't this talked about? (A) Because it's Syrian propaganda;The evacuation that refreshes The original idea belongs to the radio and television journalist Menachem Horovitz, our reporter in the north: "The word 'evacuation' is not the right definition," he said on Army Radio this week. "The headlines will say that Israel is evacuating its residents from the northern border and all kinds of descriptions that will not add honor to the State of Israel. There is no need to evacuate the residents of Kiryat Shmona, but there is a need to give them the possibility, at the state's expense, of leaving Kiryat Shmona until the end of the war." In other words, the evacuation is essential but has to be called something else. Instead of "evacuating" people, we will allow them "to leave at the state's expense." The next day the government adopted the recommendation almost verbatim. The decision was to remove the people of Kiryat Shmona for a few days (with an option to extend this until the end of the war), but instead of the humiliating term "evacuation" it was called "refreshment." Thus the "steadfastness of the home front" was preserved without giving the enemy a moral victory. The trouble is that the linguistic maneuver didn't work. Even Maariv, the country's most patriotic paper, reported that "the evacuation of the residents of Kiryat Shmona has begun." | ||