There will come a day – probably not in a long time, but in about two weeks, the day after election day – when Benny Gantz will curse the moment he agreed to be interviewed, last Wednesday, for the B network’s morning diary. When the interviewer Aryeh Golan mentioned Bezalel Smotrich’s ambition to replace him as Defense Minister, Gantz responded with a completely spontaneous burst of laughter.
There will come a day – probably the day after election day – that Gantz will curse the moment when the interviewer Aryeh Golan mentioned in his ears Smotrich’s ambition to replace him as Minister of Defense, Gantz replied with a burst of laughter, completely spontaneous
In about two weeks, when politicians and commentators will trace the events that caused the discrimination of the camp opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu, the laughter of the Minister of Defense will occupy a place of honor in the list of these signs. Perhaps he will even be placed in the first place in it, like his uncle Topaz’s statement about the Chachachaim, in the 1981 election campaign.
The similarity between the arrogant and racist statement of the entertainer who appeared at the election assembly of the formation 41 years ago (“Here are the soldiers and the commanders of the combat units; there, in the Likud, are the Chachachs who are hardly Shin-Gimels if they go to the army at all”) and the laughter of the head of a list Today’s state camp emerges from Gantz’s answer to his interviewer’s question – “Why are you laughing?”.
Gantz’s answer was no less instructive than his contemptuous and condescending laugh. He did not at all refer to the differences between the views his and the head of the religious Zionist list and did not mention Smotrich’s obvious ambitions to activate the army and the security system in order to preserve Jewish supremacy in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River; He did not talk about Smotrich’s position regarding the settlements, his offensive attitude towards the Arab society in Israel, his pathological hatred of the LGBT community and not even his support for their right to reduce to a minimum the positions open to women serving in the army.
If Gantz held a worldview contrary to that of Smotrich, it is likely that his possible appointment as Minister of Defense would have aroused opposition, panic and perplexity in him. But the mention of the possibility of Smotrich being appointed Minister of Defense did not stir Gantz; She made him laugh.
“The skills I possess, and my party members possess, in the field of safeguarding Israel’s security,” Gantz replied to Tshak’s question, “are as far away as east from west from Smotrich’s abilities. He does not have the tools.” In other words – neither world view nor political or moral positions separate him from Smotrich; All that separates them is “skills” in the military field. It turns out that even in this election campaign, as in the 1981 election campaign, those standing on both sides of the barricade are the “combat unit commanders” from here and the “shin-gimelim” from here.
If Gantz held a worldview contrary to that of Smotrich, it is likely that his possible appointment as Minister of Defense would have aroused opposition, panic and perplexity in him. But bringing up the possibility didn’t make Gantz blush, it made him laugh
These things are particularly serious against the background of the fact that this time they are being said by one of the leaders of the political camp, who is trying to convince the public that what is about to be decided in the upcoming elections is nothing less and nothing more than the future of democracy in Israel.
Gantz’s laughter – the laughter of an arrogant and arrogant general who suddenly finds himself being asked to argue with a sergeant or a corporal – reflects an essentially anti-democratic position. The defense minister apparently forgot that the role of the defense minister is a political and civilian role, not a military role. Just as the health minister does not have to To be a doctor and the Minister of Agriculture does not have to be an orchard owner, so the Minister of Defense does not have to be a general with military skills.
This is one of the basic principles of democracy, which were once taught in schools in Israel as part of citizenship classes. Benny Gantz, whether he learned them or not, has already managed to forget them.
The Minister of Defense, the basic principles of the democratic regime state, is not part of the army but part of the government; And the government is, of course, a civil and political system, of which the Minister of Defense is only one of its components. The role of this system is to direct, through the Minister of Defense, the army and supervise its activities.
In order to guide the army according to the government’s decisions and supervise its activities, no military skills are needed. Military skills should be demanded of the Chief of Staff, not the Minister of Defense. The Minister of Defense should be expected above all to be equipped with an appropriate system of moral and democratic principles, which will enable him to ensure that the army operates, according to the government’s directives, and in moral and democratic ways.
In order to guide the army according to the government’s decisions and supervise its activities, no military skills are needed. These are required from the Chief of Staff. A system of moral and democratic principles should be expected from the Minister of Defense
A look at the actions of the army in the two years that Benny Gantz served as Defense Minister shows that the moral and democratic principles according to which he operates are very close to the moral and democratic principles in which Bezalel Smotrich believes. Against this background, Aryeh Golan’s question – “Why are you laughing?” – takes on a completely different meaning, which Golan apparently did not mean.
The arrogance and arrogance implied by Gantz’s broadcast laughter will cause his party electoral damage similar to what Topaz’s words caused in 1981 to the Labor Party. Like Topaz’s words, Gantz’s laughter also paints him and his party as those who, instead of arguing with their political opponents, prefer to mock them, condescend to them and laugh at them.
But Gantz also caused his party additional damage, particularly heavy. The state camp works on several fronts to gain support among religious Zionist voters; The placement of MK Matan Kahane in a realistic place on the list is one of the most prominent actions in this area. However, many of the moderates among the religious Zionist voters, including the young among them, carry trauma from the days when the army treated them (or, more correctly, their parents) as soldiers whose main duty was to enlist to the military rabbinate and to serve as religious symbols or kosher supervisors. This disdain, both for them as soldiers and for the duties of the military rabbinate, still burns the flesh of many of them.
The far-fetched comparison that Benny Gantz made between his military skills (the former Chief of Staff) and those of Bezalel Smotrich (the kosher supervisor, for that matter) may awaken these old bears from their sleep.
A look at the actions of the army in the two years that Gantz served as defense minister shows that the moral and democratic principles according to which he operates are very close to the moral and democratic principles in which Smotrich believes
Not much has changed in the four decades that separate Dodo Topaz’s shin-gimelim from Benny Gantz’s kosher supervisors.