In “Gone with the Wind”, the greatest movie of all times, there is a memorable scene: theNorthern army has already overrun most of the South. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) is bringingScarlet O’Hara home through the enemy lines. Suddenly he stops, gets down from the cart andtells her that he is going to join the beaten Southern army. Why?
“I have a weakness for lost causes.”
I am no Clark Gable, but I feel at this moment like Rhett Butler did.
I have fought with myself. I have literally spent sleepless nights. Now I can no longer avoid adecision. I have made up my mind.
I shall put the Barak ballot into the box.
I respect my many friends who have decided to put a blank ballot there. But I cannot join them.
I, too, have a long list of arguments why not to vote for Barak. I have only one argument in favorof voting for him.
If I were asked to set out all my argument in favor of a blank ballot, all the pages of thisnewspaper would not suffice. To make a long story short: He promised peace and brought war, andnot by accident.
While speaking about peace, he enlarged the settlements. Cut the Palestinian territoriesinto pieces with “by-pass” roads. Confiscated lands. Demolished homes. Uprooted trees.Paralyzed the Palestinian economy. Did not do a thing to put an end to the daily harassment ofPalestinian civilians at the hundreds of army roadblocks all over the territories. Caused ahuge accumulation of rage in the hearts of the Palestinians.
Conducted negotiations in which he tried to dictate to the Palestinians a peace that amountsto capitulation. Was not satisfied with the fact that by accepting the Green Line, thePalestinians have already given up 78% of their historic homeland. Demanded the annexationof “settlement blocs” and pretended that they amount only to 3% of the territory, while in facthe meant that more then 20% would remain under Israeli control. Wanted to coerce thePalestinians into accepting a “state” cut off from all its neighbors and composed of severalenclaves isolated from each other, each surrounded by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Whileagreeing – so it seems – to divide Jerusalem, did not agree to turn over to the Palestinians thecrucial sovereignty over their holy mosques.
Violated dozens of articles of the signed agreements, and specifically did not implement the”third withdrawal” from all the West Bank and the Gaza strip (except “specified securitylocations”) nor open the four “safe passages” agreed upon. Boasts publicly that he has notgiven back to the Palestinians one inch of territory.
When the situation was already ripe for an explosion, he allowed Ariel Sharon to “visit” thecompound of the holy mosques. When the intifada broke out, sent snipers to shoot in cold bloodfrom a distance hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, adults and children. Blockaded eachvillage and town separately, bringing them to the verge of starvation, in order to get them tosurrender. Bombarded neighborhoods. Started a policy of mafia-style “liquidations”,causing an inevitable escalation of the violence.
Has a complete lack of empathy with the other side. Continues to treat it as an enemy. Abused andhumiliated Yasser Arafat even while negotiating with him (and never uttered even onepositive word about him). Got the Israeli public to hate the Palestinians and their leaders.Caused the people to despair of any chances for peace (and thus convinced them to vote forSharon).
Treated the Arab citizens of Israel with contempt. Did not appoint an Arab minister. Wassilent when the police killed 13 Arab citizens during demonstrations. Did not send thecommanding officer to hell. Has not apologized to this very day.
Has shown complete indifference to every social and human issue. Has done next to nothing tominimize the social gap and treat the other social ills.
And so on and so forth. These arguments are more than enough to justify putting a blank ballotinto the box.
There is only one single argument for putting a Barak ballot instead: Ariel Sharon and hisgang.
There is certainly no analogy, and the circumstances are quite different, but there is somefood for thought in the following:
In 1932, some months before the Nazis came to power, the German Communists helped them toremove the last bastion of democracy: the government of Prussia, which at that timecontrolled most of Germany as well as the strongest police force in the country. TheCommunists wanted to destroy their Social-Democratic competitors and did not believe thatthe Nazis could hold on to power for long.
I vividly remember a newsreel: the Nazis had declared a transportation strike in Berlin, inorder to bring down the democratic government. They were joined by the Communists. Thenewsreel showed the Nazi storm-troopers in their brown shirts and the Communist “Red Front”members in their distinctive uniforms standing together in the cold night and warming theirhands over an open fire in a Berlin street.
I was 9 years old, and I remember the picture.