That the prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister and chief of staff will get the pink slip eventually is a given. Neither the committees nor the commissions nor whatever the politicians establish to whitewash the whole affair will indict them – all they’ll do is point the finger of blame away from them toward their predecessors or the military establishment. And their days in office may thus be prolonged. But as alluded to by the Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick, the real accounting will happen in the civic/political realm of ballots, not in the legal/judicial realm of commissions of inquiry.
And it is in that realm where eventually the public will have its say and hopefully its way. If Olmert’s indecision and hesitancy in conducting the war could be written off to flat-footedness or inexperience (to the extent a career politician in his 60’s can be deemed “inexperienced”), he and his pals could be forgiven and their political careers salvaged. But what the Israeli public is not about to let stand is the arrogance, moral blindness and smugness on the part of these careerists. These are traits of smallness, and small people cannot lead the country forward.
Which brings us back to the citizen-soldier demonstrators and their pro-war protests. As a proxy for the electorate at large, their calls for changes at the top have little to do with retribution or revenge for the failures of their leaders and almost everything to do with preparing their country for the next round of fighting, which many feel is imminent.
They know that investigative commissions and committees, even in the unlikely event that they are run by serious men and women, can only deal with the past and not with the present or future. They know that every day these politicians and officials sit in their offices is a day of immense danger to their nation, and that the first step in fixing what’s broken is not an inquiry or tribunal but the replacement of the team in charge.
The conventional worry leading into this war was that the Israeli public had bought the idea that they were living in a normal country and that because they didn’t have a sense of their country’s uniqueness among the nations of the world they wouldn’t fight for it.
Fortunately for Israel and the West, we now know that Israeli citizens and soldiers are quite willing and eager to endure the rigors of war provided they have leaders who are prepared to fight to win. Let us hope that one way or another, Israelis will get the leaders they deserve. And that this will happen while the game is still in halftime.
Scott Italiaander is a financial adviser and an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia.