On October 6th 2008, when my short video, Israel’s Generals Speak came out on the internet, the media in Israel had a field day. “Israeli Generals Mislead,” cried the headlines, because one of the military people whom we interviewed for the piece said we took his words out of context. In the video, seven senior retired military men, and a former head of the Mossad, expressed support for the candidacy of Barack Obama, or his policies.
This was less than a month before the U.S. elections, and people on Israeli TV, radio, and in the printed media did everything they could to discredit the video. They derided the military people, saying that they are “foolish” to intervene in another country’s politics. First, it’s none of their business. Second, what if the other guy wins? For a day or two it became a big issue: should we Israelis intervene in the U.S. elections?
I am not a fan of military people. I think we have too many of them in Israel; they dominate our culture. So when a friend came up with the idea to interview Israeli generals, in order to convince American Jews to vote for Obama, I hesitated. By interviewing them, I’d be putting them in the spotlight. I’ll give them, once again, a position of authority.
But I decided to go for it because I realized that I am desperate. This is a difficult time here in Israel. The peace process is going nowhere. Right-wing parties are getting stronger, and more extreme. President Bush, while accepting almost everything the Israeli government said, and did, including building more and more settlements, was awful for Israel, in my opinion. The thought of having another president with the same politics was too painful to bear. I desperately wanted Obama to get elected. And I desperately wanted American Jews to hear the voice of Israel’s left.
Shlomo Brom, former IDF Commander of Strategic Planning, said when we interviewed him: “Often, an American president who agrees with every position of the Israeli government is causing damage to Israel, because Israel sometimes needs pressure from the outside. Obama can be a better president for Israel and for the peace process, precisely because he won’t necessarily agree with every whim of Israel’s policy.” Amram Mitsna, former IDF Commander of the Central Region, called peace “a strategic aim. Achieving it,” he said, “is worth the painful price [in territory] that we have to pay,” because “without peace Israel would be finished.” Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, former IDF Chief of Stuff, said that “Maybe it is less popular to talk about peace but this is the best solution for us, and this is one thing that we owe the next generations in Israel.” Giora Inbar, former IDF Commander of Lebanon, summed it up movingly by saying that he “doesn’t do it [pursuing peace] because he loves Arabs, or because he loves people,” but “because I served in the army for many years and I was in situations in which I had limitless military and physical power, and still I couldn’t resolve the conflict. That is why I understand we need to choose negotiations and compromise. Personally I would vote for Obama,” said Inbar, “to help the state of Israel.”
Eight senior Israeli military experts talk about Israel’s
security vis-a-vis the U.S. presidential campaign, fall 2008.
Directed by Eyal Eithcowich, and produced by Ariane Weisel Margalit
and Revise Films from an idea by Shari Motro.
It was moving for me to hear their words, and I was happy to put them together in a video. It was a personal achievement for me to do so, because I wasn’t always an activist, and my interest in politics was only from the outside, as a spectator. If someone had asked me a few years ago to interview generals and try to help Obama get elected, I would have probably said no. I would have found excuses, like saying that it won’t work, or that Israeli citizens shouldn’t intervene with the American elections. But I think that the real reason for backing away would have been fear. I would have been leery of making a splash. Of saying something. I wasn’t indifferent. I was passive.
But when I came back to Israel, after 14 years in New York, and wanted to do something against the occupation, I was fortunate enough to learn from anarchists! The Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, whom I filmed for a documentary,Enraged (2006) don’t back off when it comes to expressing their opinion, and acting on it. They stand together with non-violent Palestinian villagers, who are protesting the confiscation of their land, without compensation, for the purpose of building the wall that breaks their country apart, and makes the prospects of peace even more remote. These Jewish-Israeli anarchists, together with their Palestinian partners, get beaten with clubs, suffocate in clouds of tear gas, and get shot at with rubber coated metal bullets. Filming them, I realized that being passive is not the only option I have.
So I have no problem with Israeli citizens talking about the U.S. elections. The American president has a lot of influence in our region, and we are faced with questions of life and death, of course we should speak! So should artists. So should everybody. Why would anyone in their right mind ignore politics, and leave the center of power in our society to others?
Excerpt from Enraged
6:26 minutes from Enraged (58 minutes, Israel and Palestine, 2006)
a documentary by Eyal Eithcowich.
