not join the top leadership of a political party (Likud, Labor, and the National Religious Party are at present led by generals, and Meretz is practically led by a colonel), or manage to get elected as a mayor, their comrades help them to settle down as directors of large government corporations, universities, or public utilities.
The hundreds of ex-generals who hold most of the key posts in government and society are not only a group of veterans sharing common memories. The partnership goes much deeper. Dozens of years of service in the regular army form a certain outlook on life, a political world-view, ways of thinking and even language. In all the years of Israel, there have been no more than three or four exceptions to this rule.
On the face of it, there are right-wing and left-wing generals, but that is an optical illusion. This week that was particularly obvious: after the assassination attempt on Rantisi and the Hamas revenge attack, dozens of generals appeared in the media. (An Israeli general, however stupid he may be, automatically becomes a sought-after commentator in the media.) For the sake of "balance," generals-of-theright and generals-of-the-left were brought on screen, and lo and behold, they all said more or less the same thing, even using the same terminology.
More than in the "commentaries" themselves, this found expression in two Hebrew words: Ben Mavet ("son of death," meaning a person who must be killed).
As if by order, this week these two detestable words entered the public discourse. There was hardly a general, politician or correspondent who did not roll them on his tongue with obvious relish. They had never been heard before in the media. Now, suddenly, everybody has started to use them. Rantisi was a "son of death." Sheikh Yassin was a "son of death." The other Hamas leaders were "children of death." Perhaps even Yassir Arafat himself.
The expression appears in the Bible, II Samuel, XII. King David has committed a heinous crime, deliberately arranging for his most loyal officer, Uriah the Hittite, to be killed in battle, so he can have his wife, Bath-sheba, for himself. The prophet Nathan denounces him for this deed, telling him the story of the rich man who slaughtered the only sheep of a poor man. David gets very angry and tells the prophet: "As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing is a son of death!" To which Nathan replies: "Thou art the man!"
Ironically, the Bible applied the term to the greatest leader of the people of Israel, who had committed an abominable crime. Now it is used by the leaders of the State of Israel against Palestinians.