Earthquake in the air

September 25, 2003

Fear the fear still life painting by Silvia Rosenberg, 35x50 cm on canvas

A group of 27 air force pilots, mostly reservists but nine in active service, told Haaretz last week that they were refusing to accept assassination missions against Palestinian terrorist leaders if it involved sorties over the populated areas of Gaza. But the Haaretz report was not noticed by the rest of the press. So, last night, the pilots went to Channel Two -- and Yedioth Ahronoth -- with the following public letter they said they sent to air force commander Dan Halutz: 'We, Air Force pilots who were raised on the values of Zionism, sacrifice, and contributing to the state of Israel, have always served on the front lines, willing to carry out any mission, whether small or large, to defend and strengthen the state of Israel. We, veteran and active pilots alike, who served and still serve the state of Israel for long weeks every year, are opposed to carrying out attack orders that are illegal and immoral of the type the state of Israel has been conducting in the territories. We, who were raised to love the state of Israel and contribute to the Zionist enterprise, refuse to take part in Air Force attacks on civilian population centers. We, for whom the Israel Defense Forces and the Air Force are an inalienable part of ourselves, refuse to continue to harm innocent civilians.

'These actions are illegal and immoral, and are a direct result of the ongoing occupation which is corrupting all of Israeli society. Perpetuation of the occupation is fatally harming the security of the state of Israel and its moral strength. We who serve as active pilots -- fighters, leaders, and instructors of the next generation of pilots -- hereby declare that we shall continue to serve in the Israel Defense Forces and the Air Force for every mission in defense of the state of Israel.'

The air force was quick to drop the nine pilots in active service from the roster. Commander Maj. Gen Dan Haltuz, whose own comments earlier this year that after he drops a bomb he feels a slight surge in the plane, and nothing about the people who might be hurt below sparked a controversy of their own, said it was important to keep the refuseniks pilots letter 'in proportion.'

Halutz said 'we have the most humane and morale army there is. This is political refusal. I don't understand how one can refuse in advance to carry out an order that was not yet given. Political refusal is the mother of all dangers to this nation. Refusal should not be a part of our language … we must keep things in the right proportions, we are talking about only 27 out of thousands of pilots.'

The firestorm of controversy was huge this morning. But typical of Israel over the past three years since the violence of terror and counter-terror began in full intensity with no political track to ease the tensions, the pilots' main complaint -- how the occupation is corrupting Israeli society -- was immediately dubbed a 'political' argument and therefore not subject to debate, and not a matter of morality.

Instead, for most Israeli commentators and politicians, the issue was obedience in the army. Hebrew University Political scientist Shlomo Avineri, for example, told Israel Radio that he hoped the occupation 'would end this year and all the settlements would be removed,' but the pilots should have raised the issue inside the force, with their commanders, and he noted that the High Court had already ruled that opposition to the occupation does not suffice for a soldier to claim that 'the black flag of an illegal order' hung over a military order. Yet another Hebrew University professor, Yaron Ezrahi, said the problem was not the pilots, who were right, but the air force commander, whom Ezrahi said lacked the 'required sensitivity to be a commander in the Jewish state's army.'

There was something strikingly familiar about the controversy, going back to the 1970s, when some Tel Aviv high school students wrote to Golda Meir questioning her policies that did not seem to be aimed at dialogue with the Arabs; later a letter from mostly Jerusalem-based combat officers to Menachem Begin, calling on him to be flexible n the peace talks with Sadat, turned into the Peace Now movement.

The controversy had the Right wing politicians condemning the pilots as something just short of traitors -- several of them are highly decorated, and one, Yiftach Spector, the oldest among them at 63, was legendary in the air force for his 'right stuff,' as a squadron and base commander who participated in the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq. Young pilots are raised on battle stories about Spector and on books he wrote -- and at 63 he still flies as a trainer in the reserves for the flight school. So, nobody expected 'these salt of the earth' to be jailed for refusing service, but they were roundly condemned from the Center, Rightward.

On the Left, MKs Amram Mitzna of Labor and Zehava Galon of Meretz did not issue calls for others to join the pilots -- on the contrary, in fact -- but they expressed sympathy for the moral quandary the pilots expressed and agreed that the occupation was responsible for the situation. The rejected comparisons to the Right wing rabbis who call on soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate settlements, noting that the pilots are not calling on anyone else to join them in refusing orders and will no doubt not resist whatever the air force decides to do with them.

Ironically, Halutz could yet benefit from the letter. He has set his sights on becoming deputy chief of staff on his way to chief of staff. With Halutz under attack from seemingly 'Leftist' pilots, Sharon could find it politically correct for his purposes to choose Halutz over other candidates.

On the real front, one soldier was killed and five wounded, and five Palestinians -- four of them gunmen and one a three-year-old girl -- were killed this morning in two separate IDF operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The girl and two Palestinian gunmen were killed in el-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza during a raid meant to arrest Islamic Jihad and Hamas operatives. The soldiers were killed and wounded when they came under fire after surrounding the house of a local Islamic Jihad leader, Jawad Shahin. The army said the plan was to arrest Shahin, but gunmen inside opened fire, and the soldiers fired back. Shahin was killed and two other gunmen, Hamas activist Mohammed Akel, and Islamic Jihad activist Nur Abu Aramana were killed -- along with the toddler girl -- when an Apache helicopter struck at the building as part of the effort to end the gunbattle.

In Hebron, troops surrounded a building in which three Islamic Jihad men were hiding. The troops returned fire after gunmen shot from inside the building, killing two and seriously wounding a third. One of those killed was Diab Shuweiki, considered a senior Islamic Jihad commander in the city, whom Israel has tried to assassinate at least twice in the past. Both times he escaped with light injuries. Also killed was an Islamic Jihad man who was involved in a shooting attack at the settlement of Otniel. A third man, Shuweiki's brother Omar, was wounded.

In other developments:

Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said yesterday that if international efforts fail to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel 'might have to take action.'

In New York, at the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who told him U.S. opposition would be unswerving to the security/separation fence moving eastward from the Green Line.

The High Court of Justice has given the state until tomorrow morning to explain why it should go through with a prisoner exchange that does not include at the very least information about the air force navigator who has been missing for nearly 18 years after he fell into Hezbollah custody in south Lebanon.

And Aryeh Deri, the former strongman of Shas, the Sephardi-Haredi political party, was acquitted of six out of seven earlier convictions in a lower court about using state money for pet political projects.

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The Other Israel edited by Tom Segev, and published in September 2002, is a selection of essays, articles, and other jouranlist writings by a range of Israeli voices articulating practical, legal, and moral dissent to the Israeli government. The book questions popular assumptions about Israel's true supporters: are they those who support occupation, settlement and reprisal, or those calling for reconciliation and a just settlement? The book challenges the narrow perception that Zionism means taking over 'Judea, Samaria and the Gaza dsitrict.' Contributing writers include: David Grossman * Amira Hass * Avi Shlaim * Ilan Pappe * Gideon Levy * Meron Benvenisti * Neve Gordon * Shulamit Aloni * Baruch Kimmerling * Ami Ayalon * Ze'ev Sternhell * Gila Svirsky * Uri Avnery

[an error occurred while processing this directive] in Frosties, the anthology of quotations

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