Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossaries
- Chronology
- Preface to the second edition: Towards 2020
- Introduction
- 1 Zionism and security
- 2 The Hebrew Republic
- 3 New immigrants and first elections
- 4 The politics of piety
- 5 Retaliation or self-restraint
- 6 The Rise of The Right
- 7 The Road to Beirut
- 8 Dissent at Home and Abroad
- 9 An insurrection before a handshake
- 10 The end of ideology?
- 11 The Killing of a Prime Minister
- 12 The Magician and the Bulldozer
- 13 ‘He does not stop at the red light’
- 14 An unlikely grandfather
- 15 A Brotherly Conflict
- 16 Bialik's bequest?
- 17 Stagnation and Isolationism
- 18 An Arab Spring and an Israeli winter?
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
14 - An unlikely grandfather
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossaries
- Chronology
- Preface to the second edition: Towards 2020
- Introduction
- 1 Zionism and security
- 2 The Hebrew Republic
- 3 New immigrants and first elections
- 4 The politics of piety
- 5 Retaliation or self-restraint
- 6 The Rise of The Right
- 7 The Road to Beirut
- 8 Dissent at Home and Abroad
- 9 An insurrection before a handshake
- 10 The end of ideology?
- 11 The Killing of a Prime Minister
- 12 The Magician and the Bulldozer
- 13 ‘He does not stop at the red light’
- 14 An unlikely grandfather
- 15 A Brotherly Conflict
- 16 Bialik's bequest?
- 17 Stagnation and Isolationism
- 18 An Arab Spring and an Israeli winter?
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Ideology and Evacuation
Sharon's ideological heritage originated in Mapai even though he had actually founded the Likud in 1973. His ideological mentors were David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan rather than Jabotinsky and Begin. He believed therefore that only a policy of military strength would win respect from the Palestinians and the Arab world in a hostile neighbourhood. Like Ben-Gurion, he argued that a display of national resilience would indicate that the country could not be brought to its knees through acts of violence. His political opponents, however, echoed Sharett's reservations. In a lecture in 1957, given shortly after his resignation, Sharett commented:
Without diminishing the importance of day-to-day security, we must always bring the question of peace into our overall calculations. We have to curb our reactions. And the question remains: has it really been proven that reprisals establish the security for which they were planned?…Do people consider that when military reactions outstrip in their severity the events that cause them, grave processes are set in motion which widen the gulf and thrust our neighbours into the extremist camp? How can this deterioration be halted?
The arguments, fifty years later, had still not been resolved.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A History of Modern Israel , pp. 321 - 349Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013