Defense Minister Benny Gantz dropped a verbal, ethical, and political bomb this week. Addressing a conference in Jerusalem, the Blue and White party leader revealed dangerous elements have penetrated the coalition and the government: "The military is sustaining blows from both reckless public figures, some of whom are post-Zionists who are willing to weaken us all for likes. The attempt to thwart the career [military] service framework harms security. The discourse about career soldiers is filled with lies that amount to blood libels. I have no intention of allowing this situation to continue," he said.
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It's hard to downplay the significance of Gantz's remarks, and it is hard to imagine more serious things being said by a defense minister and former IDF chief of staff. Gantz alleged that there are figures in the Israeli corridors of power who are willing to harm state security, which was never a top issue for them to begin with, for social media likes.
We nevertheless should downplay and dismiss these remarks. It seems Gantz did not even mean them. Had he placed importance on the frightening picture he painted, he would act to remove these dangerous and anonymous figures from their positions of power. At the very least, he would have resigned and refused to cooperate with the anti-Zionist subversion.
Gantz, however, has done none of the above. His strong words were not meant to serve as a warning of the current reality or a call to action but were rather in line with Israeli political fashion, which can be seen across all camps and sectors, in which the hottest trend is to issue alarming and even apocalyptic declarations purely for the sake of making them or to achieve some public relations or political objective. We are used to politicians breaking their promises, such is the way of the world, but there are some declarations from which there can be no return.
If you claimed the Ra'am party is infested with terror supporters and is a sister movement to Hamas, you have no right to establish a government with it or form a coalition with its assistance. If you told the public establishing a government with 10 Knesset seats is undemocratic, you have lost your right to do so because democracies do not take anti-democratic action.
If just yesterday, you claimed emergency legislation on the coronavirus was dictatorial, you cannot make use of that same legislation when you come to power without explaining how it is that you are not carrying out dictatorial action. If you authorized such actions in the past, you have lost the right to cry out about the injustice of it all.
Yet none of these laws do not apply in Israel. Judging by the meaningless statements issued by the country's leaders, who wind up doing the very thing they initially warned against, the State of Israel today is a dictatorship led by, among other things, those who seek to destroy its security and spill its fighters' blood. After all, that is what they themselves said before taking power.
Of course, these statements have no grip on reality, and that's a good thing. Tragically, a reality in which the leadership cries wolf and rushed to embrace the real wolf for political benefit poses just as much danger.
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