Israel's "Peace Now" Movement
Gillon, Philip
ISRAEL'S 'PEACE NOW' MOVEMENT PHILIP GILLON One of Premier Menachem Begin's most compelling arguments—that he had a broad consensus of the Israeli population, apart from the extreme Left, behind...
...Neriya was the commander, and the tank joined another brigade which was taking part in the counter attack in the 'Firdan' area...
...he dismissed them as left-wingers...
...They worded it very carefully...
...There they met and fell in love...
...And it's worked wonderfully...
...He was born and brought up in Holon, where he matriculated and was also a member of a youth movement...
...The idea was taken up so enthusiastically by their friends that in a few days they had 300 signatures to their letter...
...So we saw a historic opportunity, perhaps a unique one, slipping through our fingers...
...Rightly so...
...If we thought that a chance for peace had been lost through Israel's fault, our moral positions would be very difficult...
...Green-eyed, thin-faced, ascetic-looking, in appearance he is reminiscent of the English poets who suffered in the trenches in World War I. Their letter snowballed into a movement...
...ISRAEL'S 'PEACE NOW' MOVEMENT PHILIP GILLON One of Premier Menachem Begin's most compelling arguments—that he had a broad consensus of the Israeli population, apart from the extreme Left, behind his policies about the West Bank—collapsed like a pricked balloon on the night of April 1, 1978...
...As it turned out, thousands of Israelis shared our anxieties...
...she too was serving in the Sinai Desert during the Yom Kippur War...
...Look, almost everyone in Israel is in the reserves...
...It may not be because of the way he is handling the negotiations, it may be because of the economic mess...
...It was a problem of conscience...
...Our strength is that our supporters come from all parties—the Labour Alignment, the DMC, the Liberal wing of the Likud, even some members of Herat and the religious parties...
...Any number of high-ranking officers have gone into politics, and have not played down their achievements while in the Army...
...If Israel banned anybody in the reserves from going into politics, we'd have hardly any politicians...
...I was in the hospital for a month, and had to go back several times...
...During the Yom Kippur War, Yuval was awarded the Ot Ha'gvura (The Decoration for HerPhilip Gillon is a reporter for The Jerusalem Post...
...Both his parents are sabras...
...Could he or his friends become conscientious objectors...
...Begin had dismissed them with patronizing contempt, indicating that he considered them too young to understand diplomacy...
...I can only say that we are constantly amazed by the extent of the support we are getting...
...The dry, sober citation of Yuval's feats, issued by the Israel Defence Forces, reads like the notes for a scenario prepared by the scriptwriter of a James Bond film...
...The ban applies only to regular soldiers...
...I'd say that the approach of'My country, right or wrong' was valid for Diaspora Jews—as well as for Israelis when they went abroad— until Begin came to power, because there really was a broad consensus of aims among Zionists until then...
...Where does 'Peace Now' go from here...
...His romance with Julie, which ended in their marriage, might also have been written by that Hollywood scriptwriter...
...When we organized the hand-to-hand relay of a message to Begin through the hills of Judea, it was a dramatic success...
...It is not surprising that problems of conscience are important to Yuval...
...On October 15, Lieutenant Neriya and his company took part in a counterattack against an Egyptian division...
...One of the criticisms made by the opponents of'Peace Now' is that its supporters are mostly students, academics, professional men, white collar workers, businessmen and industrialists—it is alleged that they are not reaching the masses...
...We have certainly been very pleased to learn that there are American Jews who support us...
...Sadat had done a great thing in recognizing the right of Israel to exist, he had broken the psychological barrier, even though he is still a maximalist in many respects...
...This was proof at grassroots level that a large section of the population was profoundly disturbed by the fear that Begin was letting peace slip through his fingers...
...So we decided to send him a letter he could not ignore—a letter from combat officers in the reserves, who had made their contributions to Israel on the battlefields, and who were still serving in the reserves...
...Captain Yuval Neriya served as the deputy-commander of a tank company which fought on the first day of the war in the Kantara area...
...Our idea was to show the Prime Minister that he did not have the nation behind him when he refused to negotiate over Judea and Samaria to get peace...
...His company destroyed a large number of enemy tanks, but three of its own were hit...
...The Labour Alignment, the official opposition, wasn't doing its job...
...I'm not talking about those who thought peace would come in a few days, but about thinking Israelis...
...We started with officers to prove our credentials, so Begin couldn't treat us like he treated the schoolboys...
...Lieutenant Neriya organized their evacuation...
...For a while I thought that he might prove to be a great leader...
...We know very well that our places would be in the front lines on the battlefields...
...His father is a full colonel in the Israel Defence Forces, a regular soldier who has devoted his life to the defence of his country...
...Thirty thousand people gathered that night in Tel Aviv's main public square in a peaceful demonstration of support for 'Peace Now', a movement initiated only three weeks earlier by 300 reserve officers...
...The talks, lasting deep into the night, were between them and a close friend, an air force pilot...
...Then I went on a trip abroad with Julie, before we started our studies at the university...
...During this battle, he noticed a tank whose commander had been wounded, and he decided to leave his tank and take over command of this one...
...Some schoolboys in Beersheva had written a letter to Begin, voicing their anxieties about the way Begin was handling the negotiations...
...One of the problems in Israel is that our political system makes it impossible for politicians to know what the inarticulate voters are thinking...
...Some academics wrote a letter...
...That's rubbish...
...On October 8, he organized a tank manned by five officers from his company who had been left without tanks...
...But it's true that we haven't made contact yet with what you may call the inarticulate groups that voted for Begin in the election...
...When my last tank was hit and caught fire," Yuval recalls, "four of us managed to get out...
...Some unexpected support has come from American Jews, despite the long-standing tradition that Jews in the Diaspora should not intervene on questions of Israel's security, lest they undermine Israel's bargaining position in America...
...We also wanted to show him that we, the combat soldiers, would be placed in a very difficult moral position if the chance to achieve peace was lost and another war broke out...
...That is why we are struggling so hard for peace now...
...The occupants of the apartment are Yuval and Julie Neriya...
...Four more tanks were added to his force, and he was appointed commander of the newly-formed company...
...Later, he organized a force of three tanks and joined the fighting in another area...
...That's why we are so tormented by the fear that the chance for peace will be lost...
...I think that we filled a political vacuum...
...Yuval's mother was a lieutenant-colonel in CHEN...
...Most of the company's tanks were hit during this battle, and Neriya, then a lieutenant, divided his time between fighting and evacuating wounded men and crippled tanks from the battlefield...
...No...
...But we have thousands of people from all walks of life in the movement now...
...Another criticism was that it was improper to use their military careers for what was, after all, a political purpose...
...When that party compromised with the realities of politics, the former protestors were bitterly disappointed...
...His tank was hit, but he transferred—for the fifth time—to another tank...
...he gave in to Arik Sharon, Geula Cohen and Gush Emunim, started settlements, talked again about our mystic duty to hold the West Bank, not only for security, but also for historic and religious reasons...
...He is studying for his master's degree in psychology and political science, she for her master's degree in genetics...
...So it is inconceivable that they should continue to give him unquestioning support...
...Its success surpassed Yuval's most optimistic hopes...
...Then came the letdown...
...So far we have held ten meetings in different places, all attended by thousands of people...
...We are determined not to become a political party...
...But this is just an impression, there's no way of knowing what these people are really thinking...
...What would he do if all the efforts of 'Peace Now' were to fail, and Begin's policies were to lead to the outbreak of another war...
...On the night of October 15, Neriya found himself commanding a force of five tanks fighting in the 'Chinese Farm' area...
...Under pressure from the right, Begin changed his line back to what it had been before he was elected...
...Within a month they had held the great rally in Tel Aviv, and had started branches in other parts of the country...
...She is also an officer, a lieutenant in CHEN, the Israeli Women's Army...
...Yuval describes how they started 'Peace Now...
...At first Begin talked in a very imaginative way...
...Does Yuval think that Diaspora Jews should intervene, or should they back Israel completely, at least in public, whatever they may think privately...
...When I got better, I worked for some months as a youth instructor in a Youth Club in one of Tel Aviv's deprived areas...
...Isn't there a danger that eventually it will have to be given a political party framework, as happened to previous protest movements that ended up in Yigael Yadin's 'Democratic Movement for Change...
...the fifth man was killed...
...When Sadat came to Jerusalem in November and was received so enthusiastically by Begin, the hopes of all Israelis were raised...
...this applies to members of the Knesset, and to anyone taking any political action...
...So rarely is it given that only Yuval and seven other men have received it in Israel's history...
...I have an impression that many of the people who voted for Begin are disillusioned now...
...Until now, Israelis have all gone into action with easy consciences, convinced that there was no alternative for Israel...
...Neither have our opponents: the countermovement, 'Secure Peace,' got to the same kind of people as we did...
...Another criticism made by their opponents is that, by talking of reserve officers, they set themselves apart as a snob outfit, excluding other ranks...
...The Sadat visit obscured people's financial worries: when the excitement died down, the inflation and other anxieties hit them very hard...
...Peace Now' was born in anguished talks that took place in a small, two-room apartment in Miyunit Idelson, one of the Hebrew University's student dormitories on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem...
...Yuval's antecedents place him among Israel's elite, if Israel can be said to have an elite...
...He admits that he had never thought that they were starting a movement...
...But when Begin introduced this concept that the West Bank must be held for reasons other than security, he split the Jewish people, including Diaspora Jews, right down the middle...
...On October 18, having organized yet another tank and crew, he took part in a large-scale attack on the 'Chinese Farm', during which he was severely wounded and evacuated to a hospital...
...oism), the Israeli equivalent of the American Congressional Medal of Honor and the British Victoria Cross...
...So far we've organized every event as if it were a military exercise—getting the right people to do each job that's needed...
Vol. 3 • June 1978 • No. 7
