ماتي پيليد
Mattityahu "Matti" Peled (بالعبرية: מתתיהו "מתי" פלד, born Mattityahu Ifland on 20 July 1923, died 10 March 1995) was a well-known Israeli public figure who was at various periods of his life a professional military man who reached the rank of Aluf (Major General) in the IDF and was a member of the General Staff during the Six-Day War of 1967; a notable scholar who headed the Arabic Language and Literature Department of Tel Aviv University; a radical peace activist and a leading proponent of Israeli dialogue with the PLO and of complete withdrawal from the Occupied Territories in whose conquest he personally had a major role; and a member of the Knesset who often expressed controversial views considered "extreme left" in Israeli terms, yet was treated with considerable respect by staunch political people.[1]
| Mattityahu Peled | |
|---|---|
 | |
| الكنية | Matti Peled |
| وُلد | 20 July 1923 Haifa, Mandatory Palestine |
| توفى | 10 March 1995 |
| الولاء |  Israel |
| الخدمة/الفرع |  Haganah Israel Defense Forces |
| سنوات الخدمة | 1941-1970 |
| الرتبة |  جنرال |
| قاد | Givati Brigade, Military Commander of Jerusalem, Commander of Occupied Gaza in 1956, Quartermaster General in the 1960s |
| معارك/حروب | Israeli Independence War العدوان الثلاثي Six-Day War |
| أعمال أخرى | Professor for Arabic Languages, Tel Aviv University, عضو الكنيست (see below) |
| ماتي پيليد | |
|---|---|
| تاريخ الميلاد | 20 July 1923 |
| محل الميلاد | Haifa, Mandatory Palestine |
| تاريخ الوفاة | 10 مارس 1995 (aged 71) |
| الكنيست | 11 |
| الحزب المُمثـَل في الكنيست | |
| 1984–1988 | Progressive List for Peace |
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Early years
Peled was born in 1923 in Haifa, then the main port of the British Mandate of Palestine, and grew up in Jerusalem. Like many youth of that period, he was involved in one of the Socialist Zionist youth movements. At the age of 18 he joined the Palmach, the newly created Jewish paramilitary defense organization, as Palestine was becoming threatened by Rommel's rapid advance across North Africa. After Rommel's defeat in 1943 however, Peled was involved in various acts against the continuing British rule. He served in the Palmach's Jerusalem Platoon together with Yitzhak Rabin, with whom Peled was to maintain lifelong contact.
الحاكم العسكري لغزة
Peled served as the military commander of Gaza during the half-year Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, which followed and extended the العدوان الثلاثي in 1956.
"احتجاج الجنرالات" وحرب الأيام الستة
During the severe political crisis of May 1967, in the lead-up to the Six-Day War, Peled—then at the rank of Aluf (Major General) and in charge of the IDF Supply Division—was considered a hawk. At the time when the government of PM Levi Eshkol seemed to be hesitating whether or not to launch a pre-emptive attack on the Egyptian armies concentrating in the Sinai, Peled was among a group of generals who demanded that the government start a war, and threatened to resign if it did not.
Others involved in this Generals' Protest (which only became known to the general public many years later[بحاجة لمصدر]) were then Major General Ariel Sharon and Major General Israel Tal. Sharon later became Defence Minister and Prime Minister and held positions then diametrically opposite Peled's. Tal, who later also became a dove, but a less radical one, never entered active politics.
Some historians credit the Generals' Protest with a decisive role in Israel's making the decision to launch the Six-Day War—a crucial turning point in the history of the country and of the entire Middle East to the present day. Others, however, assert that the Eshkol Government had already decided to go to war and that its apparent hesitation was mainly aimed at gaining international (and specifically, American) support.
When later asked about this incident—as he was on numerous occasions during his later career on the Left—Peled expressed no regret. He stated that having been in charge of the Supply Division, he was aware that prolonged mobilization, with the IDF reserves comprising a significant percentage of Israel's overall workforce, would severely cripple the country's economy, which was already suffering from a severe, years-long recession. Therefore, Peled asserted, he was duty-bound to tell the government that the country could not afford a long mobilization and that it had to strike "a sharp decisive blow," after which the reserves could be discharged—which is what Israel proceeded to do in the June 1967 Six-Day War.
Peled reiterated, however, that he had conceived of this as a purely military operation to counter a military threat, and that he had no idea that Israel would maintain occupation of the territories captured for decades afterwards, or establish settlements designed to effect their annexation and permanently change their demographic character. He had opposed these tendencies as soon as they appeared after the war.
Peled retired from military life in 1969. In that period he visited Vietnam as an official guest of the U.S. Army and was cordially received by American generals. At the time he still supported the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, a position that was to change in subsequent years.
الدارس والمعلق
Peled had already studied Arabic literature during his military service, and soon after being discharged he completed and submitted to UCLA his Ph.D. thesis on the Egyptian Nobel Prize laureate نجيب محفوظ. Subsequently, Peled was one of the founders of the Arabic Literature Department at Tel Aviv University, which he headed for several years, and soon gained a reputation as a serious and innovative scholar in his chosen field.
ناشط السلام
Peled was married and had two sons and two daughters. One daughter, Nurit Peled-Elhanan, is a professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She lost her 14-year-old daughter Smadar Elhanan in the 1997 Ben Yehuda Street suicide bombing, in the center of Jerusalem. His son, Miko Peled, is also a peace activist and lives in San Diego.
References
- ^ Obituary: General Matti Peled | The Independent (16, March 1995)