A historical anecdote attributes to the late Foreign Minister Abba Eban the statement that if Algeria proposed a resolution stating that the earth is flat and Israel flattened it, more than a hundred countries will vote in favor of it. Eban's refinement is intended to demonstrate how hatred and bias lead to the adoption of positions, which there is no proper way to describe them except for the word "absurd." The call by more than a hundred retired senior security officials to hold elections now also falls into the category of absurdity.
As in the case of the automatic majority against Israel at the UN, which repeats itself again and again regardless of the specific issue discussed in the organization's institutions, the former signatories of the letter did not do so for the first time. You won't have to struggle to find more petitions and letters from the last few decades, with more or less the same signatures. Some of the petitions dealt with downright ephemeral issues, others with weighty issues (such as the petition in favor of the withdrawal from Gaza), but they all have a common denominator – support for the traditional positions of the left and a firm attack on the positions of the national camp.
Let's set aside for a moment the question of who today considers the opinion of the retirees in the reserves, who made mistakes and misled the public many times – especially when they explained how much Israel's security would gain from fleeing Gaza and handing it over to the enemy, or who were discovered during a test in their nakedness, as the same retired chief of staff who sold his shares at the start of a war – and try to find the reasons for their appeal, which calls with pathos "the order of the day for the rebirth of Israel - elections now."
Not surprisingly, there are none in the ex-letter. They state that Israel paid a heavy price in blood due to the failures of the political and security echelons – an obvious and indisputable assertion – but do not bother to explain why this failure must be compensated for by another failure, that of dragging the country into elections in the midst of war. In addition, the generals forget to mention that they are the same security echelon that failed and is responsible for the longstanding failure.
Arguments against holding elections immediately, as demanded by the signatories of the letter, are not lacking.
A productive election campaign will crack the unity required for victory on the front and on the home front. If elections are forced now, decision-makers will be forced to engage in politics, not waging war
The essence of the elections is division, exacerbation of disputes and great wrangling – a country fighting for its existence in the face of external threats on several fronts does not need these. In a normal election campaign, we are all used to arguments that break out in workplaces and in living room conversations, and there is nothing wrong with them, but such arguments inside armored personnel carriers in Gaza or on the Lebanese border? A productive election campaign will crack the unity required for victory on the front and on the home front. If elections are forced now, decision-makers will be forced to engage in politics, not waging war. Instead of discussions with military leaders and conducting operations from the pit, they will have to devote themselves to primaries, election assemblies and other occupations that are irrelevant to the challenge facing Israel, and thus will abuse their role.
Don't forget that an election campaign also comes at a high financial cost – and putting it on the state budget when it is necessary to cut back and divert resources to waging war borders on actual crime. And how exactly will the elections be held in the evacuated areas or among the combat soldiers? Or is it actually convenient for those who push them to drag Israel into a political campaign to deny the choice to those who are now paying for their failures?
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