Under the banner “Israel Wants Change,” tens of thousands (estimates run from 40,00-80,000) Israelis came out last Saturday to Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to register their opposition to Netanyahu’s policies. Coming into the square was a group of some forty retired soldiers and commanders of all ranks of the Armored Brigade that was the first to cross the Suez Canal in 1973. These veterans’ message was to engage in a peace agreement with Palestinians. As the veterans approached from behind the large crowd they wondered how they would make their way to the stage. According to Michal Herzog who was there, she said, as a citizen for change, the veterans presence electrified the rally and turned it into the most moving moment: as people saw them carrying their 1973 Veterans’ posters, the crowd parted to make way for the veterans, cheering and applauding as they walked to the stage.

Speakers at the Tel Aviv rally, many with extensive military and security experience, confronted Netanyahu’s record just days after the Republican orchestrated his reception in Congress. The speakers criticized the prime-minster for his failed foreign and domestic policies, for creating a rift with the Obama administration for Israel’s staggering economic disparities and growing poverty and for his Iran policy.

The rally was organized by One Million Hands, a politically un-affiliated citizens’ group that calls for citizens’ participation in the coming elections to put pressure on political parties to commit to an agreement with Palestinians, to end the occupation and deal with the soaring economic disparities in Israel. Its founder Dror Ben Ami stated that the only way for Israel to move forward was to get Netanyahu out of office. The tens of thousands who filled the square agreed that the prime minister has been an obstacle to an urgently needed political, social and economic change. The most pointed criticism of the prime minister’s policies came from Meir Dagan a highly respected former Head of the Mossad Israel’s Spy Agency, who served for eight years from 2002 to 2010.

Addressing Netanyahu’s Iran policy, Dagan acknowledged that Iran was a serious threat that needed attention, however the threat had to be dealt with wisdom and not with belligerence declaring a war on the United States and consequently making Iran happy to see a rift between Israel and America. Dagan said that there was a much better political alternative to the current Netanyahu government, which lacks the skill and the will to make courageous wise decisions that would keep in focus the best interests of the country. The prime minister “has only one fight, to remain in office and in the name of that fight he drags the whole country into an abyss of a bi-national country and the end of the Zionist dream. I do not want an apartheid state. I do not want to rule over three million Palestinians.”

Dagan was personal as he mentioned his long service, “For 45 years I have served this country — all of them dedicated to safeguarding its security as a Jewish and Zionist state. I don’t want that dream to disappear.” He spoke passionately and tearfully about the future, “I have a dream—to leave my three children and seven grandkids a changed society…a life of growth and fulfilled dreams and not constant war. I would like to promise them a better life than the life I experienced…a society of equality for all its citizens and true equality…We must choose another direction because we are now at a crossroads from which there is no return.”

Like Dagan, all the speakers at the rally drew on their military service and security expertise to become warriors for a change in foreign and domestic policies. They noted what a change it had been for them to speak in public. Major General (res.) Amiram Levin who was also Deputy Director of the Mossad said, “We are all here because we can no longer stand idly. I sensed that Israel was losing its way and that we are galloping towards disaster – and that’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’m fighting this war on this stage that is so foreign to me.”

Levin went on to speak of the contested meaning of Zionism and to wrench it from those who used it as a nationalist land-grabbing occupying concept, “We are in a war over the country’s character and over its very existence. This is a war over the Zionist dream. This is war over our future, and our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. This is a war over our belonging to the family of enlightened peoples in the world.”

One veteran after another got up to speak about the need to now actively fight in the public domain for change, decency and peace. Josef Regev, “who was in the first IDF tank to cross the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War and was gravely wounded in the fighting, lashed out at Netanyahu. ‘I learned the hard way the horrors of war. Last year, my friends and I led the call for reviving work on an agreement. But we were disappointed to learn that the prime minister’s conduct only hurts the possibility of reaching an agreement’.”

The list of speakers included Michal Kesten-Keidar, the widow of Lieutenant Colonel Dolev Keidar, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge last summer. She shared her story of the loss of her husband and spoke of the loss of political faith in the current government, “No one is talking about the diplomatic process or peace agreements anymore,” she said. “An entire election campaign is being run without mentioning the blood that was spilled here this summer. Maybe it’s too scary. Too difficult. But I, last summer, lost the love of my life to war, and I have come here to ask you – when you go to the ballot box, vote for those who will try to prevent the next war. For those who are willing to do everything possible to prevent more deaths.”

She added the following criticism of Netanyahu’s lack of vision and his spreading a politics of fear, “Mr. Prime Minister… it’s impossible to speak all the time about Iran and to turn a blind eye to the bloody conflict with the Palestinians which costs us so much blood.”

The most striking feature of the rally was a sense that citizens could and should make a difference. For a number of years those who opposed the prime minister’s policies, stayed home with a sense of despair and avoided the public sphere. That has changed drastically with the growing involvement of experienced veterans of wars and of service for the country.  As they see it, as they fought in wars they are fighting now for life, peace and human decency. Their commitment, service and vision have inspired citizens who came to the rally and those who stayed home but support their vision for change.

One Million Hands and all the other groups of veterans and citizens, including women’s groups for peace and several civic groups for equality and agreement with Palestinians will keep their organizations active and watching the next government.
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*David Langerman is a 1973 Armored Brigade veteran and active in Combatants for Peace organization and in One Million Hands. He participated in the Tel Aviv rally and is a frequent contributor to the Jewish Pluralist.