Haaretz | Thursday, April 28, 2016 5 WEEKEND

Amos Harel The outgoing Outgoing C4I chief Moscovitch. “A great deal will depend ... on the ability head of the IDF's to transmit, in real time, information aj. Gen. Uzi Moscovitch, computers and on the launcher, to intelligence ... to the who this month conclud- plane that will bomb the target.” ed four and a half years communications David Bachar as head of the Israel De- fense Forces’ C4I branch branch outlines M– the IDF’s teleprocessing directorate the army's method will not reduce the threat to the – was never one for caution or diplomat- Israeli civilian rear within a reasonable ic restraint. Now that he’s on discharge approach to time. The problem is that the home front leave, at the age of 52, wrapping up 34 cyber warfare is taking punishment and bleeding, and years in the army, a conversation with it’s possible that a confrontation will be him can be conducted more openly. and dealing dual-sector [including also rocket fire Moscovitch tells Haaretz about the with Hamas and from Gaza].” place of cyber operations, defensively Intelligence was transmitted ef- and offensively, in the General Staff’s Hezbollah in future fectively in the Gaza Strip in 2014, but current plans, and describes the next confrontations the IDF suffered from other problems possible confrontation, as he and his there: flawed operational plans, dispari- colleagues see it. ties in the General Staff’s fire plan, and “We can predict with high probability hesitation at the senior political and mili- that in the next five to seven years, there tary levels. Dragged into a war against will not be a war here of conventional Hamas, both senior echelons had dif- armies, of the kind we became accus- ficulty deciding on the primary goal: tomed to in the past and which the IDF to cripple Hamas’ rocket-launching ca- was designed to face,” Moscovitch as- pabilities; to destroy the organization’s serts. “There are no conventional wars tunnels (a goal that was set only after 10 today: Countries are not conquered. days of fighting); or to end its rule (an Even great powers almost never con- idea to which the leadership, from Prime quer territories openly anymore. A rev- Minister Benjamin Netanyahu down, olution has taken place: From clashes objected). between the great industrial armies, we Moscovitch, who declines to com- have reverted to war against organiza- ment on this analysis of the Gaza war tions and militia forces – even if in the – even though he is considered one of case of Hezbollah, the organization has the war’s harshest critics in internal steep-trajectory firing capabilities at General Staff forums – maintains that the level of a state, if not a great power. the IDF will be better prepared in a fu- “We see a similar pattern in the Gaza ture confrontation with Hezbollah, but Strip,” he continues, “with the whole admits that obstacles still loom. “There alignment of defense and steep-trajec- A new type of warfare are thousands of targets there that we tory munitions concealed amid civilian know about – we have extraordinary surroundings and underground. If in the intelligence. Let’s say that under op- past, we were called on to cope with an timal conditions, most of the civilian enemy capable of concentrating a force responsibility. transferred to the field units in time, for grate and filter information.” “When you look at southern Leba- population in southern Lebanon flees and attacking powerfully on the ground, In the past few years, as a result of a fear it would leak to the enemy. The model is already working well, non,” says Moscovitch, “you see 150 to to the north. Even then, after a short with the ability to seize territory, today process spearheaded by Maj. Gen. Aviv The change, whose roots lie with but a reverse risk is now developing, he 170 villages in which Hezbollah has built period, you have already attacked most we are facing dozens of smaller organi- Kochavi, the former director of Mili- then-Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and notes. “In my view, we are flooding the combat systems since 2006. According of the targets known to you, but rockets zations. It’s not an existential threat, but tary Intelligence (now head of North- then-MI chief Amos Yadlin, was given company commander at the end of the to a cautious estimate, each such village still continue to be fired at the civilian it’s become more difficult to pinpoint the ern Command), the IDF formulated a great momentum under Kochavi, dur- chain with too much information. The has 40 to 50 areas that you will have to rear. Here you’ll need intelligence and enemies and deal with them.” new concept of intelligence warfare. ing the term of Benny Gantz as chief same problem exists in the business deal with in a war. It can no longer be the ability to deal rapidly with time- A different response was required Its main feature is rapid integration of of staff, and was first put to the test in world – ‘big data’ – where more informa- the rake-up method that the IDF used in sensitive targets” – in other words, for the new military reality, for which intelligence and other information on Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 tion is collected than the end user can fil- the first Lebanon war, in 1982. At that mobile rocket launchers or embedded the IDF did not begin to deploy until af- a vast scale, from diverse sources, and war in Gaza. “From the moment that MI ter and handle efficiently in real time.” time, the chief of staff, Raful [Rafael Ei- launchers whose location is only re- ter its relative failure vis-a-vis Hezbol- then “pushing” a large part of it for- connects with the end units and doesn’t Even though a clash with Hezbollah tan], told division commanders: Within a vealed after rockets have been fired lah during the Second Lebanon War in ward, to the combat units. MI was partly make do with having intelligence sit in does not appear to be an immediate week you are positioned on this-and-this from them into Israel. 2006. A key feature is a change in the influenced by the trauma of 2006, when GHQ [general headquarters], the imple- danger, given the Shi’ite organization’s line. Today, the enemy is scattered and That, says Moscovitch, “will be the way intelligence is collected, and more it emerged that not enough information mentation of the concept depends on continued involvement in the civil war in decentralized. The fact that you have tipping point in the campaign. Intel- particularly in its dissemination to the was available about Hezbollah’s deploy- teleprocessing,” Moscovitch says. “You Syria, a war in Lebanon is the primary crossed the rocket-launching space ligence will go on working, but a great units – a development that was of great ment and that an important segment of need a teleprocessing infrastructure, operational challenge that the IDF is with an IDF ground force doesn’t mean significance in Moscovitch’s realm of the intelligence that did exist was not information systems, the ability to inte- preparing for. they will stop using that space. The old Continued on page 12 The power of Ronit Elkabetz The greatness of the late Israeli actor stems from the fact that her own unique persona informed the credibility of all the characters she played

Raya Morag who’s playing the part of the subordinate character. The persona generated by Elkabetz o describe the contribution of thus makes it possible for us to grasp the Ronit Elkabetz – who died at 51 way in which women participate in the T on April 19 – to Israeli cinema, we systems of power and oppression, as they need to invoke the term “persona.” A per- participate in the systems of resistance sona comes into being when, at a certain and criticism. Through her persona, moment in an actor’s work, the different Elkabetz is occupied with an attempt to characters he has played coalesce in the develop a class, ethnic and gender con- viewer’s mind into one imaginary entity, sciousness that derives from power, not which is also identified with the actor’s from its absence. The ability to create actions, behavior and appearances in the such a complex position for her subject public arena. – of victimization from which prodigious At a certain point in the audience’s feminine power erupts – is not connected consciousness, Elkabetz’s cinematic- only to the story that each of the films stage presence in the characters she relates. played – such as the ostracized sister And Elkabetz’s greatness as an ac- in Shmuel Hasfari’s “Sh’Chur” (1994); tor doesn’t lie only in her ability to play the divorcée whom the younger, still un- convincingly, and in minute detail, a married Zaza loves in Dover Koshash- broad range of characters (in keeping vili’s “Late Marriage” (2001); the pros- with the acting tradition fostered by ac- titute in Keren Yedaya’s “Or” (2004); tors such as Meryl Streep, for example). the resident of the remote development Her greatness stems from the fact that town in Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s her persona informs the credibility of Visit” (2007); Viviane in the trilogy Elkabetz, in a promotional shot for her the characters, so that the traits they she codirected with her brother, Shlo- 2011 film “Invisible.” Ilya Melnikov bring to the screen generate a strong mi Elkabetz (“To Take a Wife,” 2004; quasi-documentary sense. In other “Shiva,” 2008; and “Gett,” 2014), and a words, Elkabetz’s rebellious conscious- raped woman in Michal Aviad’s “Invis- Through her persona, ness peers and bursts out from each of ible” (2011) – became intertwined with the subordinated characters she plays, her extra-cinematic figure and created Elkabetz is occupied with without this contrast undermining the a new image, a persona. an attempt to develop character’s authenticity or the integrity On the surface, it seems as though of her acting. most of her films (both those she either a class, ethnic and In this way, the revolutionary strug- created herself as screenwriter and di- gender consciousness gle realized in her persona was able to rector, and those in which she simply remove itself from the binary concep- acted) saw her playing characters who that derives from power, tion of ownership of power (men) versus Join the Princess and the are on the margins of Israeli society, not from its absence. powerlessness (women). That struggle and dependent on the benevolence of not only asks the male viewer questions Wizard on their spectacular patriarchal figures and subject to eth- about his voyeuristic, race-driven and nic and religious strictures. But at the fundamentalist attitude toward Mizrahi journey in search of their lost same time, these characters are fed by domesticity and family, shackled by tra- women; it also demands of him, through heirlooms. Elkabetz’s persona. As such, even when dition, and so forth. The point is that in her continued presence, her persona, to they embody excruciating defeat (as in the course of representation that aspires relinquish his psychic violence. Look for shiny jewelry and “Or,” when Ruthie’s daughter is unable to portray this depressing reality and rail Few actresses in world cinema have hunting tools that have to extricate her mother from the cycle against it, Elkabetz’s persona declares also gone on to become directors (oth- of prostitution), or tragic victory, which the presence of a Mizrahi woman who is ers are Barbra Streisand, Jodie Foster vanished in the palace, and they achieve at the price of their sexual- educated, modern, secular and the mas- and Angelina Jolie), and only occasion- discover ancient spells and ity (as at the end of “Gett”), they assume, ter of her body, sexuality and decisions. ally did their work as directors support through Elkabetz’s persona, a subversive As such, women’s rights to autonomy, to the ideological stance that drove their mysterious papyrus writings. power that turns the family-social-insti- their body, to divorce, to property and work as actors, without compromise. In But beware of the lurking tutional order inside out. more, spring forth from the intensity and this sense, both Elkabetz’s awareness By means of her ability as an actor power of Elkabetz’s persona. of the need to constantly critique the demons that are trying to throw to make her persona the prime driving It is Elkabetz’s ability as an actress power systems, and her voice and con- force of the characters she played, Elka- that drives this complex process, in sciousness are marvelously singular in you off the trail! betz succeeded in becoming the bearer which – in addition to the representa- world cinema, and not only in Israeli of tidings both for women and femininity tion accorded the disadvantaged and filmmaking. in Israeli cinema, and especially for Miz- helpless woman – the viewer becomes rahi women (referring to Jews of Middle aware of the race- and gender-driven The writer is an associate professor of cinema Eastern or North African origin). power systems that characterize Israeli studies in the department of communication It is not only a case of resistance to the society in general. Yet at the same time, and journalism, and head of the Smart Family consignment of the Mizrahi woman to the viewer feels the tremendous poten- Institute of Communications, at the Hebrew being poor, uneducated, identified with tial power that resides within the woman University of Jerusalem.

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