The Gatekeepers Page #7

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Suddenly I was told,

"Listen, the army is opposed.

"A one-ton bomb would

cause collateral damage. "

There was a bitter argument.

Finally, after several hours,

the Prime Minister was convinced

to cancel the attack.

I called the Prime Minister to

convince him that it's unreasonable.

The compromise

was a quarter-ton.

It was based on

probabilities.

The house had two stories.

If they were on the second

oor, it would kill them.

If they were on the first

floor, it wouldn't kill anyone.

The bomb was dropped.

It was a direct hit.

The second story

was destroyed

and the entire "Dream Team" fled

the house on their own two feet.

Some people insist they saw

crippled Sheikh Yassin running.

If there's a moment

you realize,

not that we missed,

but that we were mistaken,

because of what happened

with Salah Shehadeh,

we paid the price

with the "Dream Team. "

it took a long time to get

to some of the people there,

like Sheikh Yassin

and others.

God knows how much

damage they caused

until we managed to take

out the ones we did.

Some of them were never taken

out and are still active today.

I've often said, "Terror is

a barrel with a bottom. "

You can reach the bottom. You don't

need to reach the last terrorist.

You reach a critical mass, and

that's enough of a deterrent.

I can prove to you that

Hamas did not become more moderate

after Sheikh Yassin

was eliminated.

I can prove to you

that when we killed Abbas Musawi

and Nasrallah took over instead,

the security situation in

Israel didn't really improve.

That's why, when we deal, not with the

one coming to kill us immediately,

but with the person preaching,

we are headed toward a place, which

is forbidden by international law

and basic justice poses huge

question marks as to its ethics,

but I'm talking to you

as head of the Shin Bet.

It's ineffective.

I was born near

the Sea of Galilee.

I grew up in

a children's house,

like all children who lived

on kibbutzim did back then.

I had a wonderful childhood.

I knew that there's

a house in Jerusalem

and on the second floor

there's a long corridor.

At the end of the

corridor, there's a door

and behind the door is a wise

man who makes decisions.

He thinks.

My parents called him

the "Old Man," Ben-Gurion.

Years later, after

the Yom Kippur War,

I went to Jerusalem, and I

went to that same building.

I was on the second floor

and found no door at

the end of the corridor

and behind the missing door,

no one was thinking for me.

You see that void,

that lack of initiative,

that willingness to let

things take their course,

without you stepping

in and saying,

"This is as far as it goes,

in this direction or that. "

You can't make peace

using military means.

Peace must be built

on a system of trust,

after, or without

using military means.

In the end you must build

it on a system of trust.

As someone who knows the

Palestinians well, I claim that

there should be no problem

building a system of trust

with them, a genuine one.

For Israel, it's too much of a luxury

not to speak with our enemies.

As long as they decide not to

speak to us, I have no choice,

but when we decide not to speak,

I think we're making a mistake.

Do you support

speaking to anyone?

Anyone we can, even if they answer

rudely, I'm for continuing.

There is no alternative.

To what?

To talking.

Hamas? Islamic Jihad...

Including everyone.

I said everyone,

so it includes...

Even Ahmadinejad, whoever.

I'm always for it.

It's a trait of a professional intelligence

operative to talk to everyone.

Things get clarified.

I see you don't eat glass.

He sees I don't drink petrol.

That's how it is.

I want to

read something that

Professor Leibowitz,

a critic of the Occupation,

wrote a year after

the Six Day War, in 1968.

"A state ruling over a hostile

population of one million foreigners

"will necessarily become

a Shin Bet state,

"with all that this

implies for education,

"freedom of speech

and thought

"and democracy.

"The corruption found

in every colonial regime

"will affix itself to

the State of Israel.

"The administration will have to

suppress an Arab uprising on one hand

"and acquire Quislings, or

Arab traitors, on the other. "

What do you think about this prediction,

given where Israel is today?

I agree with every

word he wrote.

Explain.

There's nothing to explain.

Every word he said

is etched in stone.

Is that what Israeli

society is like today?

I think it's an accurate depiction

of the reality that emerged

from 1968 until today.

I wouldn't say that

it became a Shin Bet state,

but no doubt, our current

situation with the Palestinians

undoubtedly created a reality

that is very similar

to what Leibowitz wrote.

You knock on doors

in the middle of the night

and wake a sleeping family,

all cuddled up in bed.

The mother's tears

or the last goodbyes of the suspect

you take from his family's embrace...

It's not easy. You see

the family suffering,

those difficult moments

between parents and children,

between children and parents.

These moments end up

etched deep inside you

and when you retire you

become a bit of a leftist.

We are making the lives

of millions unbearable,

into prolonged

human suffering.

We leave the decision

about what's appropriate

to a soldier who's spent

a few months in the army.

A year earlier he finished

high school, at best.

He's standing there facing

a father holding his baby girl

deciding, does he search him or

not, does he let him pass or not.

It kills me.

The future is bleak.

It's dark, the future.

Where does it lead? To a change

in the people's character

because if you put most of

our young people in the army,

they'll see a paradox.

They'll see that it strives

to be a people's army,

like the Nahal unit, involved

in building up the country.

On the other hand, it's a

brutal occupation force,

similar to the Germans

in World War ll.

Similar, not identical.

And I'm not talking about their

behavior toward the Jews.

That was exceptional, with its

own particular characteristics.

I mean how they acted to the

Poles, the Belgians, the Dutch...

To all of them... The Czechs.

It's a very negative

trait that we acquired,

to be... I'm afraid

to say it, so I won't.

We've become cruel,

to ourselves as well,

but mainly to the

occupied population,

using the excuse of

the war against terror.

Clausewitz, who was wise

even though he wasn't Jewish,

or at least we haven't

discovered his Jewish roots,

said almost 200 years ago...

I'm translating, but the

essence of what he said is,

"Victory is simply the creation

of a better political reality. "

That's victory.

Victory doesn't dictate that

we have to conquer Gaza

or Ramallah or

Nablus or Hebron.

I think my son, who served for

three years in the paratroopers,

participated in the conquest of

Nablus at least two or three times.

Did it bring us victory?

I don't think so.

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