Secret Failures

This is not a pleasant time to be an Israeli. Revelations this past week that a series of negotiations on multiple diplomatic and political fronts all ended in failure have left us with a greater sense of vulnerability and more bereft of hope than I can remember. The Turkish talks, where just days before the Gaza incursion serious progress on a Golan deal was reportedly made by Olmert and Assad, ended abruptly when Israeli planes filled the skies over Gaza. Then came the excruciating disappointment that met the empty-handed return of the Shalit negotiators after an entire nation had prayed for a miraculous end to Gilad's captivity. And, unbeknownst to many of us, Bibi and Barak held clandestine discussions over Labor joining the coalition, a development that now threatens to split the demoralized party at Tuesday night's emergency meeting of its central committee.  What do all of these quiet negotiations, kept far from the Israeli public eye, have in common?  Failure; and perhaps ineptitude. Where does that leave the Israeli public?  Reeling, apathetic; and possibly hopeless.

The Gilad Shalit story is the most painful. It is hard to describe how much this one kidnapped soldier occupies the thoughts of an entire nation.  Maybe it is his innocence, so young and wide-eyed in happier photos we see flashed over and over on the television screen.  Maybe it is the determination and dignity of his parents who have devoted their every waking minute to his release.  After two weeks camping in the Jerusalem cold, on Saturday night the family closed the makeshift tent they set up next door to the prime minister's residence, marking in great sorrow the 1000 days that Gilad has lingered in Gaza. They bravely vow to fight on.  I hope their son knows that.

As Hamas escalates its spin on the failure of the prisoner exchange, threats of more kidnappings and heightened terror activities in the West Bank make an already nervous IDF step up security.  This, against the backdrop of the revelations coming from soldiers that the highest standards of moral military behavior, in which Israel has always taken such pride, may have failed on the Gaza battlefield.  No one is so naïve to believe that bad stuff does not happen in war. But no one should be so jaded as to think that strict guidelines are not provided to the soldiers.  That is the question: not what was the exception, but what was the expectation? That the IDF decided to immediately investigate is a welcome sign of the continuing strength of this beleaguered democracy.  As we brace ourselves for what Bibi's final government will look like when his two-week extension comes to an end, we will hope even harder that the democratic foundation will hold.