We're living in an upside-down world, said former Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman in an interview on the “Uvda” television program last week in which he warned against Israel being turned into a dictatorship. “The world has gone crazy,” Argaman said. “The anarchist has become the ruler, and we, those who served the State of Israel all of our adult lives, have turned into the anarchists. I’m a proud anarchist.”
It’s hard not to be impressed by Argaman and take his words seriously. He was being sarcastic when he adopted the epithet “anarchist,” but it’s worth taking a look at the switch he pointed out.
The former head of the security service of a country that runs a military dictatorship in the occupied territories, and which has forcibly controlled another people for almost six decades, is preaching against dictatorship. This fact is testimony to the claim that “the world has gone crazy” no less than the fact that Itamar Ben-Gvir is the national security minister.
That the generals of the Israeli occupation throughout the generations are standing on the front lines of the protests to save democracy, and are speaking out as experts on dictatorships, must have a meaning that’s worth pondering.
It’s not simple at all, because the protests are revealing an intolerance reminiscent of the phrases “quiet, we’re shooting” and “no shooting inside the APC,” something that isn’t surprising because it's being run as a military campaign in every way possible.
Argaman is the latest in a long list of senior former security officials who've come out publicly against the government’s “reforms.” Four hundred and fifty-six former Shin Bet officers sent a letter last month to Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet. “We see the intent of the legislation to weaken the judicial system as a coup against the foundations of the democratic system,” they wrote in the letter.
Hundreds of Mossad retirees, including five of its former chiefs, have signed a similar petition. It’s hard to turn on the TV or radio or open the newspaper without running into one of them.
Those who're leading the protest and who have given it its intensity, are former prime ministers, defense ministers, IDF chiefs of staff, deputy chiefs of staff and commanders of the air force. They include Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Moshe Ya’alon, Benny Gantz, Yair Golan, Gadi Eisenkot, Dan Halutz, Amir Eshel and hundreds of other senior officers.
Alongside them on the front lines are pilots and members of the military’s special forces and cyber units – the entire military elite, from all generations, has enlisted.
Israel has a long tradition of “shooting and crying.” Soldiers and commanders, too, “gatekeepers” of democracy who've served the occupation for years, then retire and speak about the danger of its continuation.
It’s hard to ignore the similar pattern in the military’s enlistment in the protest. Is this not a form of “occupying and protesting?” Is it not the protest that allows anyone who took a part throughout their adult years in running and maintaining the military dictatorship in the territories to cleanse themselves of the guilt of occupation and the responsibility for its crimes by enlisting in the fight to “save democracy”?
To complete the picture, there's one argument for the independence of the judicial system that serves these fighters: It functions as the legal Iron Dome against putting Israeli officers on trial for war crimes in international courts.
What are they really saying? According to the standards of the club of Western democracies, of which Israel sees itself as a member, we may be war criminals – but thanks to judicial independence, we're exempt from international law, and that’s why we need to defend the Supreme Court.
It’s hard not to feel, alongside the honest worries about the future of the country, that the protest movement is also satisfying the need to relieve a symbolic concern (responsibility and guilt) and preserving a system that protects them from a concrete concern (the international courts) involved in the continuation of the occupation, which it hasn’t spoken out against – certainly not broadly or with all the means it has at its disposal.
The Generals of Israel's Occupation Are Now Protesting
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26.03.2023
We're living in an upside-down world, said former Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman in an interview on the “Uvda” television program last week in which he warned against Israel being turned into a dictatorship. “The world has gone crazy,” Argaman said. “The anarchist has become the ruler, and we, those who served the State of Israel all of our adult lives, have turned into the anarchists. I’m a proud anarchist.”
It’s hard not to be impressed by Argaman and take his words seriously. He was being sarcastic when he adopted the epithet “anarchist,” but it’s worth taking a look at the switch he pointed out.
The former head of the security service of a country that runs a military dictatorship in the occupied territories, and which has forcibly controlled another people for almost six decades, is preaching against dictatorship. This fact is testimony to the claim that “the world has gone crazy” no less than the fact that Itamar Ben-Gvir is the national security minister.
That the generals of the Israeli occupation throughout the........
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