educators, officers, and judges will again be able to look people in the eye.
ONCE WE DECIDE ON OUR NATIONAL goal, we can begin strategizing how to get there. I know it won’t be easy, but the problem is ours and no one else’s. Status quo leads down a slippery slope to a binational and finally a Palestinian state. Thus the next logical step is to define a place for the Palestinians, and this place has to be reasonable, so that future reconciliation is possible. This place is present-day Palestine—those still-conquered territories that we should now set free, and let the Palestinians solve their national problem. We should take part in their efforts in an active and positive way, with no patronizing whatsoever. We must mobilize the whole world for this. This is strategy.
In the short term, we must secure our safety. We have to prevent terrorists from attacking us, and outlaw countries from threatening our existence. With good strategy there is hope that such threats will diminish over time, but until then we have to use our weapons, too. So we’d better do it wisely and efficiently, smashing only the guilty and avoiding collateral damage. And if something bad happens by mistake, we should admit it, explain, apologize, and even pay reparations. These are tactics.
Let me say clearly that I also understand that hitting terrorists without any damage to innocents is hard. This does not mean that the problem has no solution. It just means that it is not a trivial problem. We have seen so- called unsolvable problems before—for example the problem of the SAM arrays. The fact that the military problem of hitting a terrorist who hides within the civilian population hasn’t been solved yet (and one can solve a problem without achieving 100 percent success) doesn’t mean it is not insoluble but only that not enough work has been invested in solving it yet.
The requirement to hit a terrorist hidden in a civilian population is nothing new. This has been an issue for more than a hundred years—it has been discussed philosophically and defined legally—and there is an array of possible solutions—offensive, defensive, and others. It may be a difficult problem perhaps neglected for too long, but the solution lies not in abolishing civilized law and going wild. Perhaps just the opposite is true. Of course, this requires leadership.
THESE ARE THE REAL TOOLS: a clear goal and well-balanced and rational navigation in that direction, without whining or aggressive rampages. Rational behavior, tough but ethical and decent, without panic and without giving up our unique qualities and mental stability, is the only strategic option left for every sane government in the world. Sycophantic political leaders with no map or compass are our worst enemies, no matter how sweet their smiles.
In short, all comes from within. This is my answer to the question I was asked by my daughter Noah.
IN SPITE OF THE OLD AIR FORCE maxim, I was never too proud to explain or apologize, and before I end this book I want to do some of that, too.
First, about its length. When I began writing I thought to explain to myself the meaning of three difficult years, and somehow I ended up covering the other twenty-five years, too. Second, I apologize for talking so much about myself, and perhaps misrepresenting the fact that I wasn’t there alone. The truth is that behind every word in this book stand many friends who were there—fought, laughed, toiled, lived, and died beside me. They were witnesses to my story, and I remember them all. And one more thing should be said, that I am aware that my truth is subjective. All I know is myself, and this, too, is not a small thing. And if I didn’t tell everything, it is because you wouldn’t believe it anyway. In fact, some of the most interesting stories I left out of this book. Maybe I’ll tell them sometime, perhaps in the third person.
But I am happy with this work. For the first time I looked back and saw my vapor trail across the azure sky, and my white line is beautiful in my eyes, and well closed.
I HAVE MANY MORE WONDERFUL years ahead; there are many things I want to do and many places to wander, from the depths of the sea to the caverns of Earth and up beyond the stars. I raise my eyes and look, and lo, the world is full of new colors, no less beautiful than azure. Green, for example; green appeals to me tremendously. And I know more good days are on the way. And like everything in my life, they come from within.
Acknowledgments
THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK was not easy, and this is the place to thank those who encouraged me, invested effort, read through drafts, and gave their opinions, and thanks to them I succeeded in finishing the work.
A special thanks to my friend Samuel Gorvine from Brazil, who believed I had a story to tell and encouraged me to sit down and write it. Sam also rewrote my crude translation of the book to English.
Brigadier General (Ret.) Shlomo Egozi of the IAF, Col. Ido Ambar and his son Jonathan, Mrs. Urit Bodinger, Ambassador Ran Ichay, my dear friends Oded and Rochale Idan, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Furman, and Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ran Pecker all wrote long and helpful discussions of my work.
Colonel (Ret.) Muki Betzer, Col. Shay Gilead, Dr. Shimshon Zelniker, Col. (Res.) Roi Manoff, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Zvi Kanor (“cool it down, pal”), Col. Israel Yahalom, and architect Haimi Shnider gave me their personal opinions along the way, and helped me out when I got stuck.
In addition, I want to thank the Palmach Generation Association for information I gathered from the
I thank them all.
And last but not least, my loving gratitude to my four children, and especially to my daughter Noah, who woke me with an extremely hard question, and to my elder son, Etay, who claimed to be “a spectator from the first row… unfortunately not as a partner but as an admirer or sometimes a spy”—and who knew how to tell me correct words that affected the answer this book is supplying.
And most of all, the one to whom I dedicate this book, the one and only, a person with no hint of falsehood —to Ali.
Copyright
Originally published in Hebrew in 2008 as Ram u-varur by Yedioth Ahronoth Books. English edition, translated by Samuel Gorvine, first published in 2009 by Zenith Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA
Copyright © 2009, 2010 by Iftach Spector, translation by Samuel Gorvine
Hardcover edition published in 2009. Digital edition 2010.
All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purposes of review, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge.
