Four Mothers

In 1997, following a helicopter crash which killed 74 soldiers on their way to Lebanon, a new organization was formed to pressure the Israeli government to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible. It was called Arba Imahot, Four Mothers in Hebrew, the term used for the four matriarchs of Judaism: Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. Their pressure worked. In 1999, Prime Minister Ehud Barak promised to leave Lebanon within a year of the formation of his new government. He delivered on May 25, 2000.

Six years later, as Israel is once again at war in Lebanon, Haaretz Magazine asks four of the former leaders of Four Mothers what they think about the current situation and whether they were right to demand a unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon:

This war is different by Ari Shavit

The absent mother by Esti Ahronovitz

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Ehud Barak