Former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gillon recently said that if the security agency had wanted to, it could have apprehended the price-tag attackers who continue to evade prosecution. The way he put it was: "In the Shin Bet there is no such thing as 'can't,' there is only 'won't.'" Since Carmi Gillon was the agency's head, he clearly knows what he is talking about. He was the head when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered, and before that he was in charge of its unit tasked with apprehending Jewish culprits. He is responsible for one of the biggest security fiascoes in Israel's history. This, however, does not deter him from preaching to everyone else. Gillon's hypothesis raises some serious questions. Ostensibly, after having heard his remarks, this question is unavoidable: Since there is no such thing as "can't" in the Shin Bet, does that mean that under Gillon's leadership, it simply did not want to prevent Rabin's murder? Of course the answer is a resounding no. But Gillon is the one who came up with the idea that there is only "won't." This leads us to a story about a teacher who wanted to complain about a problematic student. She called the student's house, and a child picked up the phone and whispered "Hello-" "Is your mother home-" the teacher asked. "Yes," the child whispered. "May I speak with her-" "No," the child whispered. "Well, is your father home-" "Yes," the child whispered. "May I speak with him, then-" "No." "Are there any other adults at home-" the teacher persisted. "There's a police officer," the child whispered. "What is he doing-" she asked. "He's talking to my mother and father and with the emergency medical team and the firefighters," the child replied quietly. The teacher, hearing a noise, asked, "What is that-" "That's the rescue team's helicopter," the child whispered. "Why is there a rescue team at your house-" the teacher asked. The child said, "Because before I hid in the closet, I left a note for my parents saying that I was kidnapped." Too far This week, speaking on Army Radio, some people said some very harsh things about the ultra-Orthodox. Whoever is responsible for this needs to be fired immediately. Army Radio cannot be allowed to adopt, even for one day, the hateful methods used by the ultra-Orthodox media every day. Look who's talking Let's go back to Carmi Gillon. It appears that only in Israel can a man who failed so miserably preach to others. Not only preach, but preach about the very thing he himself failed at so colossally. He was the man who failed in directing the Shin Bet. He was the one tasked with intercepting a Jewish criminal in time. How can he preach to anyone- Apparently Gillon wants so badly to impart his great wisdom that he does not realize that his wisdom is precisely the wisdom that no one should accept. Not from him. Since there are still those who seek Gillon's questionable advice, we must revert to the urban legend from a Jewish community in the U.S. The Jewish institutions there had fallen into financial trouble, and the community leaders found that there was one rich Jew in the community who never contributed a dime. They sent the community head to visit the rich Jew and try to convince him to make a donation. The two met in the rich man's office, and the community head described the dire situation of the Jewish institutions and asked for a donation. The rich man asked: "Have you heard that my brother has been hospitalized for two years and can't provide for his wife and children-" "I'm sorry to hear that," said the community leader. "I didn't know." "And are you aware that I had another brother who was killed in a car accident, leaving his wife and children penniless-" the rich man asked. The community leader's face blanched. "I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know a thing about it," he said. The rich man continued: "And did you know that my mother has Alzheimer's disease and cancer and is in the hospital, and no other family member can afford her care-" The community leader looked down in shame and said, "No, I didn't know." The rich man then said: "So if I don't give anything to any of them, what makes you think I will give anything to you-" Trying it For years, Gerry Adams, the leader of the Sinn Fein Party of Northern Ireland, has been viewed as a hero. Even by the Israeli Left. There were times when every pseudo-intellectual leftist activist couldn't help but mention the Good Friday agreement between the British and the Irish. Last week, Adams was arrested in Britain as a suspect in the murder of a woman in 1972. With all due respect to statute of limitations and to reconciliation agreements, the British authorities do not ever let up. Here in Israel we have a prisoner who was convicted of murdering five people, and still our peace activists are united in their view that releasing him will help bring peace. His name is Marwan Barghouti. As Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, one of the staunch supporters of Barghouti's release, once said: "We have to try it." This brings us to the story that took place in Romania, during the era of Nicolae Ceausescu. In those days, there was a shortage of goods, and every consumer had to prove that they really needed the thing they wanted to buy. One day, a man wanting to buy dog food was asked by the woman at the checkout counter to prove he really had a dog. The man opened his bag and the dog's head peeked out. The woman sold him the dog food. Next in line was a man asking to buy cat food. He too opened his bag to reveal a cat's head as proof. He too was allowed to buy the cat food. A third man then opened his bag. Inside was a box with a hole in it. The woman put her finger in the hole and immediately handed the man a box of tissues.
Can't or won't?
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.
