Shooting and handing out candy

It is only a very small minority of people who support the refusal to serve in the territories and also back up their beliefs with actions. A decisive majority of Israelis oppose non-compliance with draft orders; some are convinced that Israel is not guilty of war crimes, others think that Israel has the right to carry out crimes, while still others hold that refusing to serve is prohibited in all cases, especially where the Israel Defense Forces is concerned.

But there is a third group that is attempting to have its cake and eat it, too. Members of the moderate Zionist left, from Ami Ayalon to MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), from the left of the Labor Party to Meretz, say - often halfheartedly - that Israel is doing terrible things but fiercely oppose the refusal to serve in the territories for various reasons and call on soldiers not to carry out illegal orders.
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Apparently, more than 35 years of occupation and more than 16 months of siege are needed to claim that even from a practical point of view, a soldier who is attempting to preserve his humanity has no other option besides the refusal to serve in the occupied territories. Apparently more time must pass and more blood must be spilled before Israeli society realizes that it is impossible to serve in the territories today without breaching the Geneva convention.

The Americans who refused to serve in Vietnam and the French who refused to serve in Algeria said - without engaging in evasive, casuistic formulations of refusing illegal orders - that they would not serve in occupied territories. They were considered traitors, but today they are considered heroes by most of their compatriots.

Service in the occupied Palestinian territories, just like service in Vietnam or Algeria in the past, cannot be done without carrying out illegal orders. It is, itself, completely illegal.
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Analysis / There is no military solution

No longer the silver platter

In the 1950s, the state's war against terror was fought with a completely different attitude, primarily because it sensed that it was defending its home. Today, the IDF is playing its cards very carefully in the face of Palestinian terror because it has to consider the degree of national consensus for its actions. The sense that there is no alternative, that the victims are an inevitable price to pay in the struggle to guarantee our national existence is no longer taken for granted; in any event, it is not shared by all sections of the public.

As a result, the right wing's expectations for a government decision on an all-out war against the Palestinian Authority are going unanswered - not only because such a war is likely to ignite the entire region; and not only because reoccupying the territories will, in the end, only bring the two sides back to the bloody crossroads at which they now stand; but also, and perhaps primarily, because a full-scale war is likely to exact hundreds of casualties from among the IDF, and it is becoming more and more apparent that Israeli society is not prepared to pay such a price.
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Legitimizing vile talk

Comments filled with contempt for Palestinians in the territories and Arab citizens of Israel have recently been echoing widely through public forums. Right-wing politicians have started to speak openly about a need to remove Palestinians from the territories. Sometimes they are careful not to use the word "transfer" which still carries a public stigma - but transfer is nonetheless exactly what their suggestions mean. In an atmosphere of frustration and despair stirred by the lethal conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, such proposals win an unprecedented measure of public support. In a poll Ma'ariv published this weekend, 35 percent of respondents supported transfer.

The government, the Knesset and the main political parties are failing to clamp down on the degenerating norms of public discourse. Racist, fascist formulations attain quasi-legitimacy when they come from the mouths of ministers, Knesset members and rabbis. Minister Binyamin Elon's comments supporting transfer and a public campaign staged by Moledet on this subject have not been met by a single denunciation. Blunt statements made by Minister Uzi Landau suggesting that we do to the Palestinians "what the Iraqis did to the Kurds," and vituperative comments made by Minister Avigdor Lieberman, have been condoned as natural expressions. It appears that media outlets eyeing improved ratings prefer such spokespeople to more temperate speakers, and so they give them ample air time.
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Israeli society is not alone in being exposed to such extremist viewpoints during a time of national crisis. However, the tensions now gripping the society are not some warrant that justifies a gross slippage of national moral standards or the corruption of public discourse by extremist right- wing leaders who managed to carve a place for themselves in the consensus. Israel's society is not just locked in a struggle to achieve security - it retains a strong obligation to preserve its values, and to protect them, even in circumstances of crisis. This is a crucial task which should not be under-estimated.
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The Israeli right wing wants to do the Palestinians what Hitler did to the Jews. If the Palestininas won't leave, they are willing to destroy them. The Palestinians left their homes in 1948 and couldn't go back. They aren't going to leave again. Israel is sliding into a right wing hell. The Israeli peace movement has been quiet. It seems to be waking. Not a moment too soon.

Revenge suicide bombing fails to derail Israel's peace movement
Support for the anti-war campaign is growing even as a blast killed diners at a Jewish settlement, reports Graham Usher from Jerusalem

This endless cycle of armed combat is not the only reminder of Lebanon. Last week the Palestinian death toll from the intifada reached 1,000, 248 of whom have been children. The Israeli death toll reached 256. As Israeli analysts noted, this is the same number of Israelis who lost their lives during Israel's post- 1985 occupation of southern Lebanon. The difference is the Lebanon war lasted 15 years, and most of the Israeli casualties were soldiers. The intifada has lasted 15 months, with the death toll including 164 Israeli civilians.

If the 'national consensus' behind Sharon is starting to fracture, so too is the consensus of the Israeli peace camp. For years movements like Peace Now - which called last night's demonstration - made full withdrawal from the occupied territories conditional on a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

But many among the protesting reservist officers - as well as new grassroots movements, like 'The Green Line - students for a border', are championing more unilateralist solutions. 'They believe the priority for Israel is to leave the occupied territories, with or without an agreement with the Palestinians,' said Arie Arnon, a leader of Peace Now.

He said the call for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal was gaining ground within the peace movement and Israeli society, akin to the protest movement that helped pull Israel out of Lebanon.

Noam Kuzar, 18, typifies the new generation - the first Israeli soldier to refuse to serve in the occupied territories in the present conflict and one of the youngest, he believes it is time for ordinary Israelis to take action.
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