(A shorter version of this article was published yesterday in Haaretz). AVRAHAM BURG (58) was a member of the Labor Party and for some time the Chairman of the Knesset. His late father was a long-time cabinet minister and a leader of the National-Religious Party, before it became a rabid messianic mob. The relations between … Read more
IT IS now fashionable to say that “the two-state solution is dead”. Or: “Time for the two-state solution is running out”.Why dead? How dead? It’s one of those things that need no proof. To say it is enough. If pressed, though, the fake mourners of the two-state solution give a reason: there are just too … Read more
WHEN YOU have a conflict between two parties, the way to solve it is clear: you put them in the same room, let them thrash out their differences and emerge with a reasonable solution acceptable to both. For example, a conflict between a wolf and a lamb. Put them in the same room, let them … Read more
ON MY 70th birthday, I received a gift from Yitzhak Rabin: he signed the document recognizing the existence of the Palestinian people, after many decades of denial. He also recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as its representative. I had demanded this, almost alone, for many years. Three days later, the Oslo agreement was signed … Read more
PERHAPS YOU are facing the same moral dilemma as I am:What to think about Syria?What to think about Egypt? LET’S TAKE Syria first. When it started, the choice for me was clear. There was this evil dictator, whose family had mistreated their people for decades. It was a tyranny with fascist overtones. A small minority, … Read more
LET ME come back to the story about Zhou Enlai, the Chinese Communist leader. When asked what he thought about the French Revolution, he famously answered: “It’s too early to say.” This was considered a typical piece of ancient Chinese wisdom – until somebody pointed out that Zhou did not mean the revolution of 1789, … Read more
IF YOU happen to bump into John Kerry at Ben Gurion Airport, you may wonder whether he is coming or going. He may well be wondering himself. For many weeks now he has been devoting most of his precious time to meetings with Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, trying to get these two people together. … Read more
(A shorter version of this article was published in Haaretz on June 19, the day after the official birthday.) IF THE life of Shimon Peres was a play, it would be difficult to classify. A tragedy? A comedy? A tragicomedy? For sixty years it looked as if he was under a curse of the Gods, … Read more
NO OPERA by Richard Wagner could have been more dramatic. It looked as if it was directed by a genius. It started low-key. A little piece of paper was thrust into the hand of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol as he was reviewing the Independence Day parade. It said that Egyptian troops were entering the Sinai … Read more
DURING THE Spanish civil war of 1936, a news story reported the deaths of 82 Moroccans, 53 Italians, 48 Russians, 34 Germans, 17 Englishmen, 13 Americans and 8 Frenchmen. Also 1 Spaniard. “Serves him right,” people in Madrid commented, “Why did he interfere?” Similar things could now be said about the civil war in Syria. … Read more