The Wonders of Unreason

At the peak of his career, mathematician John Nash seemed to have done the impossible: with the help of medication, he overcame schizophrenia and returned to developing brilliant theories that advanced game theory by light-years. However, his wife accidentally discovered a painful secret: he was not taking his medication.

All that time, he was pretending and believing that he was on a mission for American intelligence and was in mortal danger (yes, like in the movie 'A Beautiful Mind').

In an interview on Kan 11 a few months ago, Gadi Eizenkot, with the composure of a lecturer, outlined his hawkish political vision: to fight terror 'night after night,' and at the same time ensure that '120, 140, 150 thousand Palestinians go out to work in the State of Israel every day.' And then he signed off with four words: 'That is what was in the past.'

Past. A word from history books. Something with yellowing photos, carriages, and serious men with mustaches. Only Eizenkot's past does not reside in the last century. It ended at six twenty-nine in the morning on October 7, 2023. That is not the past. That is the day before yesterday.

And what was there, in prehistory? Separation between terror and the population, of course. Quiet in exchange for money. Calm in exchange for permits. Everything is perfect. If the song is familiar, it is because we heard its verses morning and evening from senior military officials and defense ministers (from both left and right): a. Terrorists and civilians are oil and water. b. Economy buys quiet.

We paid for that song with thousands murdered in trickles, and another 1,200 in one day.

Eizenkot is not just another general who 'did not learn the lesson.' He believes there is no lesson to be learned. A leading candidate for prime minister declares on air that the plan is to return to October 6. This is not a 'failure to draw lessons.' This is nostalgia.

Doubters received final confirmation this week: the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) between 2018-2021, Kamil Abu Rukun, was proudly added to Eizenkot's list. 2018, remember? The years of the suitcases. The lie that 'Orich received money from Qatar'? Abu Rukun met with Qatari officials to ensure the money entered Gaza. When asked how to ensure the money would not reach Hamas, he replied: the mechanism 'we created' and it 'works like a clock.' Israel knew that money was flowing to Hamas every few weeks. Just like a clock, which chimed on 7.10. In those years, his unit also promoted work permits for laborers from Gaza. Hamas asked, the system complied. What could possibly go wrong.

Lessons and conclusions? No matter how you look at it, Eizenkot is offering the same product in an expanded version and under the same COGAT (!). His campaign stands on a legitimate claim: Netanyahu is to blame for the massacre. But it is hard to voice it when you add the operators of that exact same policy to the list and promise to restore it. This is not a government plan, this is an early warning for the commission of inquiry. That is what was in the past. The concept too. And the mechanism that worked like a clock. The difference: we call it a lesson, he calls it a platform. Whoever misses it, should remember what arrived the day after. And should set an alarm clock.

The end of Dr. Nash is known: after treatments and hospitalizations he reached voluntarily, he recognized his illness and learned to live with it, until he received a Nobel Prize. Eizenkot still does not understand that there is a problem. Good luck to us.