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The Great Shame

The evacuation from south-Lebanon is being presented by the Israeli government as a great achievement. As a matter of fact, Bibi Netanyahu before Ehud Barak, told the U.N. assembly that in principle, Israel will leave the security region. But no Israeli, no peace lover, and not even the mothers of the Israeli soldiers who served over there could even dream that the evacuation will turn out to be an international disgrace with many negative ramifications of Israel's well being.

Ahron Meged, one of Israel's most respected novelists, a member of the Israeli old left and a literary institution in Israel, expressed in an article Yediot Ahronot, May 28, 2000, his personal reaction to this shameful evacuation: "Many will bless the evacuation from Lebanon. This action is originated in reality and the simple logic. We are 18 years late. Of course only a few will not share the joy of our soldiers who were lucky not to be wounded. But only a few Israelis did not feel a terrible sense of shame and disgrace. The reason is that we ran away in panic. And we left behind to our enemy tanks as well as shoes.

"This event can be compared to many descriptions of defeated armies which run away leaving their weapons and shoes behind. This scene also means a treason and a betrayal of their partners to the fighting, their battles and their victims.

"From now and for the future we can draw the following conclusion: In the eyes of ourselves, in the eyes of millions of Arabs who live in the countries around us, in the eyes of the Palestinians, in the eyes of the Israeli Arabs, the state of Israel will be perceived anew on one hand as a strong country, as the strongest military power in the Middle East... but Israel also will be perceived on the other hand as a country that one can cut to pieces, piece by piece. One does not need a military frontal offensive in order to destroy the country, one can use Intifadas or the tactics of the Hizbullah, the new symbol of heroism (in the Arab world). They (the Arabs) will say: all we have to do is just to copy the Hizbullah and the victory will be in our hands. Israel in the future will not be able to sustain its existence."

Meged can not figure out why Barak was so happy when he reported to the press about the evacuation or the terrible run away. Meged predicts, in irony, that those happy people will be much happier when they will see the parade of the Golan's residents in a forced process of evacuation. Of course, Meged, like many Israeli writers such as Amos Oz and Amos Kainan, are against this evacuation.