Navon: Stop Using Epithets to Describe Political Opponents

President Yitzhak Navon has called for an immediate halt to the use of such phrases as “traitor,” “PLO supporter,” and “stabbing the nation in the back,” when describing political opponents. “We must remember that we are one people, with one common destiny, and if, God forbid, our existence should be in danger, we are all in the same boat, “he said in a television interview Friday.

Navon also praised the government for setting up the judicial commission of inquiry into the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and expressed the view that the Israel Defense Force could accept criticism and emerge stronger In the process.

“Army officers may be criticized,” Navon said, “but criticism does not erase their service, their dedication, their praiseworthy deeds. Rather, it deals with certain behavior over two or three days. The army’s strength has not been harmed, and there is no reason for fear that officers will not want to take upon themselves positions of command.”

Speaking to officers today, Navon said: “The State of Israel will prosper and strengthen, if it is built on a high moral level. The IDF in the Lebanon war restrained itself, soldiers had scarified themselves, and there was a lot of hesitation — otherwise the war would not have lasted long … Because there was the will to avert hurting civilians, and because of the desire to allow the political negotiations to achieve the utmost.”

In praising the government for setting up the commission, Navon said, “We were obliged to hold this inquiry, for ourselves, for our heritage, for our basic concepts of the sanctity of human life.”

Meanwhile, it was learned that in a segment edited out of the television interview on Friday, Navon mentioned the possibility of a “national unity government,” involving both Labor and Likud. “It may be unlikely to form such a government, but the leaders of both camps should meet to discuss the ideas,” Navon said.