Aug. 15, 2002

MIDDLE ISRAEL

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Under other circumstances, it would have been a stroke of genius, a rare blending of prosaic counterattack and poetic justice.

After all, newly aspiring prime minister Amram Mitzna is not your typical retired general who, like a lunatic convinced he's Batman, dives headlong into the thick of the fray, pathetically full of himself and tragically shorn of the talent, originality, and ideas, not to mention experience, with which he might at least get that far. Blessed with an ability to listen reconciled with a resolve to do, and sporting a trademark beard that has been with him since he was burned in the face in one of the many battles he saw since 1967, Mitzna has displayed what most Israeli generals-turned-politicians have traditionally lacked: a willingness to challenge authority and a reluctance to storm the top.

Mitzna's challenge to his superiors came in style when - as a brigadier-general in 1982 - he attacked not just a major-general nor even the chief of staff, but the minister of defense himself, for what he saw as an adventurous military campaign that unnecessarily risked Lebanese civilians and Israeli soldiers.

The minister was Ariel Sharon.

Though launched in a closed forum from which it was doubtfully intended to leak out, that attack was clearly made with the knowledge that it might cost Mitzna his promising military career at 37. Ultimately, that part of his future was salvaged, though the attack probably did deprive him of a candidacy for chief of staff. Still, for better or worse, Mitzna's confrontation 20 years ago of defense minister Sharon established his reputation as a man with independent views and the courage to voice them.

Even so, soon after his retirement Mitzna decided to shun national politics and ran instead for Haifa's mayor, and after his handsome defeat of longtime mayor Arye Gurel, he actually got down to the business of running his town.

In that same election of 1993, Ronni Milo won Tel Aviv's mayoralty. Unlike the charismatic but unassuming Mitzna, the lackluster but pompous Milo saw nothing the matter with seeking the premiership itself, even while his utterly unimpressive stint as mayor had yet to expire.

Mitzna, at the same time, painstakingly invested himself in easing Haifa's traffic problems by launching the Carmel Tunnel project, developing tourism breakthroughs such as the seaside promenade, and nurturing Arab-Jewish harmony in a way that paid off during the fall 2000 Israeli-Arab riots which, in his town, were nipped in the bud.

Indeed, in a political system dominated by professional hacks, obsequious aides, gray technocrats, and military egomaniacs, Mitzna's bid is a breath of fresh air. It's good to finally see an aspiring prime minister climb the political ladder the conventional way - from the bottom - rather than from the top, as Ehud Barak did. Had Barak - or, for that matter, Binyamin Netanyahu and Haim Ramon - spent a decade as a mayor, his fortunes, and ours, might have been different.

Alas, Barak didn't choose Mitzna's course of effort, delivery, and modesty but insisted on storming the summit, where he inflicted on us, his party, and the very institution of the political dark horse such damage that Mitzna - with all due respect to his reservation and purity - cannot overcome, let alone undo.

TO PREVAIL, Mitzna will of course have to win over the political mainstream. In attempting that, he will first of all have to somehow make people forget the Barak trauma. Unfortunately for him, that would be against human nature.

Israelis will remember not only next year, but also for many subsequent years and even decades, the charlatan who promised to champion the socially weak, only to ultimately ignore them and reside among Kfar Shmaryahu's rich and famous.

Israelis will not forget Barak's frivolous tinkering with a hodgepodged "secular revolution." Israelis will not forget his chaotic retreat from Lebanon. Israelis will not forget his nonchalant promises for peace with Syria by this spring and with the Palestinians by next fall (or was it the other way around?) And Israelis will surely never forget the ongoing nightmare that sealed Barak's tragedy - and launched theirs.

WHY, one might ask, should a good man like Mitzna be made to pay for someone else's failures?

Sadly, because he is asking for it.

In effectively demanding "unconditional direct negotiations" with Yasser Arafat and in insisting on laying the blame for the current situation on Sharon, Mitzna suggests that between his and Barak's bids for power nothing wrong has happened other than an aberration called Sharon.

To be viable, any Labor candidacy must shun that attitude and begin instead with a statement like:

"In 1993 we embarked on a journey to peace. Though fraught with risk, it was fueled by our belief that ruling over three million Palestinians was neither feasible nor desirable. The risk entailed a gamble, and the gamble failed. The enemy lied to us and, while talking peace, resorted to war. For that, we take full responsibility. At the same time, our belief - that they and we must separate - has not only survived this war but in fact become consensus, so much so that the father of the settlement movement, Ariel Sharon, is now personally building the separation fence. We may soon be facing electoral defeat, but ideologically we stand vindicated."

Sadly, despite his famous modesty, Mitzna couldn't bring himself to say such simple words, opting instead - as if stuck in 1982 - for yet another personal attack on Sharon, blaming him for the current mayhem.

Well, Amram, this time around, the public is blaming nothing on Sharon, and it is you who is not with it. Your mild personal character and impressive managerial record may have been what your party needed back when it crowned Barak, but today what it needs is the political repenter and national healer that you evidently are not.