Rare intelligence
I hope many of your readers get a chance to see The Gatekeepers. It is an Israeli documentary featuring six former Shin Bet heads discussing the politics of Israel in regard to the Palestinian territories dating back to the success of the Six-Day War. These intelligence leaders, who presided over some of the toughest times any country has had to battle through militarily and politically, speak with rare candidness. To a man, they agree that Israel, in order to survive, must change its militaristic policies and begin to talk seriously with anyone or everyone to finally achieve some kind of peaceful settlement.
Too many times we in the United States hear the most militaristic talk from American Jews who are living comfortably in our safe communities, without the fear of suicide bombers suddenly blowing up a bus or a shopping center or hearing the whine of an incoming rocket aimed at our homes or schools. It’s so easy to talk tough 6,000 miles away from where the real action is. However, these six men have lived through the wars, the intifadas, and the terrorist bombings and have seen the carnage of what the IDF unleashed in retaliation. They openly talk about the innocent collateral damage that has killed so many on both sides and what it is doing to Israel.
If anyone has the experience and the right to say that it has to stop, they do.
Leon Sirulnick
Manalapan
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