All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing… This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile… The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. – Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” 1955

In mythology, Sisyphus was a man who was sentenced by the Greek gods to ceaselessly push a rock up a hill and watch it roll back down. In his work “The Myth of Sisyphus,” French existentialist Albert Camus wrote that Sisyphus’ punishment came from the gods’ belief that there are few crueler punishments than harsh and pointless labor. Camus, however, argued that Sisyphus could eventually turn his curse into a calling, as a struggle invents purpose. He could learn to find meaning in his strenuous labor. What was intended as punishment could become a source of satisfaction, and even hope, despite the suffering and disappointment.  

On March 2, Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel and began what is now developing into the third, or perhaps fourth, Israel-Lebanon war. The IDF Chief of Staff and the Defense Minister have told the country that there is no defined timeline to end the war, since this is the “war of our generation” and could go on “indefinitely.” The acceptance by the Israeli public of the new campaign in Lebanon betrays a profound forgetting not only of every time Israel has tried to “win the war” in Lebanon and failed, but of past leaderships who rejected perpetual war as a viable status quo. 

Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1982, in the midst of Lebanon’s horrifically bloody civil war. The PLO, having been kicked out of Jordan, settled into southern Lebanon and began using it as a launching pad for attacks against Israel. The IDF went in to try and root it out, in a campaign that became known as “Israel’s Vietnam” for its pointlessness and the lives it cost. Coming on the heels of Israel’s historic peace with Egypt, the First Lebanon War created a break in Israeli society, which had been inculcated with the notion that all of Israel’s wars were borne of necessity. Israelis broke the taboo of protesting during wartime and demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands against a war they clearly saw as one of choice.

For the first time, many Israelis also refused reserve military service, and the first organization for conscientious objectors, “Yesh Gvul” emerged. After the IDF withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1985, it occupied a portion of south Lebanon near the border. This occupation was not borne quietly by the Israeli public, who pushed to stop sending soldiers into Lebanon because of persistent attacks by Hezbollah and the high human cost. In 2000, after successfully unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak fulfilled his campaign promise to end Israeli troop presence in Lebanon, announcing, “The 18-year-old tragedy is over.”

Six years later, the Second Lebanon War broke out, but ended after a little over 30 days thanks to a United Nations cease-fire, which was accepted by both Hezbollah and Israel under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after hundreds of civilian and military casualties on both sides. There was no talk of “total elimination” of threats or an “indefinite” war. There were no eight-hundred-kilometer – the area below the Litani river – evacuation orders. 

The current Lebanon campaign is riding on the tailwinds of the near-total destruction of Gaza and its partial military re-occupation; the vehement denunciation of the Iranian regime by the United States and the “epic fury” it has unleashed; and the collapse of the peace movement in Israel. The Netanyahu government has successfully framed war as Israel’s destiny and permanent status quo, as his Chief of Staff characterizes the Lebanon incursion as a continuation of the Israel-Gaza war and an extension of the Israel-Iran war:“Israel has been in a prolonged state of emergency for the past two years… However long it takes, it will take.”

There are no calls from the broad Israeli public to stop the war, or prevent soldiers from once again going into Lebanon, despite the unbelievable toll of the First and Second Lebanon wars. Israelis have accepted the Netanyahu government’s insistence that war is a curse, and, like Camus’ Sisyphus, they try to find joy and meaning within the suffering and disappointment. They party in bomb shelters. They watch the news as pilots bomb Beirut, and newscasters praise the bravery of the IDF’s pilots and soldiers. They listen to the Chief of Staff’s calls for discipline and perseverance, and try to keep up good spirits, praising moments of reflection in the shelter and a newfound sense of community. 

Israelis have forgotten that war has always been a choice, not a curse. There were Israeli leaders in the past  – Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and even Ariel Sharon – who, even if they were right-wing, decided to pursue peace and even relinquish territory for it. Begin made peace with Egypt. Rabin made peace with Jordan, and began the peace process with the Palestinians. Barak withdrew Israel from Lebanon. Sharon gave up Israeli claims to Gaza. These leaders influenced and were influenced by an Israeli public who opposed warmongering and did not believe it was Israel’s destiny to live by the sword. No such leadership or public exists today.

All of Israel’s past wars fold into one another, their lessons drowned out by the blare of sirens and the rush of military planes overhead. Israelis huddle in shelters, or are sent to the northern front, hoping that this is the last war, knowing that it isn’t.

They try to find small moments of joy in this new life. One must imagine Israel happy. 

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)