Editor's note: This is the second part of an edited version of a pamphlet with the same
title published by the Ariel Center for Policy Research in February 2001. The first part appeared in
Outpost last month. Aharon Levran is a former Senior Intelligence Officer in the IDF and also served
as Deputy Commandant at the National Defense College. In 1984, he joined the Tel Aviv
University Center for Strategic Studies and was editor of the annual
Middle East Military Balance.
A country's strength can be measured by two primary parameters: First, its actual military strength and second, its "staying power." In part this term refers to its general potential strength--its geographic, demographic, economic, and other resources. But staying power also includes intangibles such as national morale and unity, motivation, the quality, and level of the people, values and beliefs, etc. The existence of a powerful, reliable ally is another important building block of staying power, certainly in the case of small countries.
If not for Israel's clear advantage in military strength, together with several intangibles of staying power such as motivation, quality and level of the people and commitment to Jewish and universal ideals, it would have been defeated long ago. These, along with the support and aid of the United States, ensured its existence and facilitated its well-being. Unfortunately, wide and dangerous cracks have become apparent over recent decades in most or all of these.
In recent decades, Israeli society has been plagued by mental fatigue from the long struggle with the Arabs, a sharp weakening of faith in the justice of Israel's cause, a conspicuous devaluation of national ideas, materialism for its own sake, placing the individual "me" at the fore, and so on. When self-fulfillment is more important than nationality and the collective, a society locked in a continuing struggle is severely weakened. Moreover, when those values and beliefs central to Israeli society are called into question, the state is clearly faced with a problem that goes to the very roots of its staying power.
The lack of consensus regarding national goals and the means to achieve them produces internal disunity and a rift in the national-social fiber. Both the morale and motivation of the nation and the morale and fighting spirit of the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces are affected. When IDF soldiers are on the front line and hear vociferous voices from home that raise doubts about the justice of their cause and the logic of their actions, they are confused. If the birth of the State was illegitimate and its subsequent years have been a crime (as the "post-Zionists" preach) and if the soldiers are given the impression there is no point or purpose in the fulfillment of their missions, it is no wonder if their fighting spirit is compromised. When the leaders, captivated by a belief in empty platitudes (like "the end of the conflict"), convey to soldiers contradictory orders and instructions calling for restraint, they cannot fight with all their might, a vital necessity in a country in our predicament. When an ephemeral organization such as the "Four Mothers" pushed for exit from Lebanon regardless of cost, and that coincides with the opportunistic urges of the Prime Minister, it is no wonder that the stay in Lebanon ended in flight and military humiliation which, incidentally, is continuing after the withdrawal as well.
Under such circumstances, the following doubt
In recent decades, Israeli society has been plagued by mental fatigue...
As if this were not enough, certain mothers publish shameful articles in which they preach to their soldier sons to disobey their commanders' orders if they lead them on missions in which their lives could be endangered. Some politicians jump on the bandwagon and support them.
It is therefore no wonder that the satiated, fatigued Israeli society projects terrible weakness. The enemy hears and searches for ways to take advantage of these significant flaws.
The deterrence capability, an integral part of national strength, has been fatally damaged and if the Arabs have not yet fully taken advantage of Israel's feebleness, it is only because they prefer (and they say this explicitly) to continue undermining Israel from within, utilizing "low intensity conflicts" instead of a comprehensive war.
[(Continued on p.4)]
May 2001 - 3 - Outpost