Israel's vital unity
Iii the unprecedentedly divided political situation now being endured by Israel the friends of that embattled country ought to attempt to encourage Israeli soldiers and politicians to pause a moment and consider Whether their situation is as bad as it seems to them now to be. Dr Agranat's inquiry went, Perhaps, too far in altogether exculpating General Moshe Dayan for his role in events leading to the Yom Kippur war, but it does seem evident that the General played an imPortant part in making ready Israeli defences MI the Golan Heights, as the crisis loomed hearer. It is also true that a nation as small as !Israel must lament bitterly, and suffer bitterly I,o the future from, so high a proportional loss to the late war. But the fact remains that, to IIST nation in a comparable position, what the sraelis regard as an unsatisfactory defence Would be considered a famous victory, when °he allows for the odds against her. It is on tht. fact that the Israelis should now build: Mistakes were made which, because of the Precarious position of the country, put her in lerious danger; but they were speedily recti :d, and it is not difficult to ensure that they "O not occur again. This is no time for disunity in Israel: the country has survived because, despite all the disadvantages in time of war of a democratic system and a nation of highly opinionated individuals, there was always an essential and underlying unity. Division now could well be suicidal. Nor is it too late for the various warring factions to take a deep breath and reform their ranks to present a closed front to the enemy outside the gates: not only is it not too late, it must happen.
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