THE ELECTIONS will take place in three days, and they are boring, boring, boring.So boring, indeed, that even to think about their boringness (if there is such a word) is boring. For lack of any debate about the issues, media pundits are reduced to discussing the election broadcasts. Some are good, some indifferent, some atrocious. … Read more
I FIND Chuck Hagel eminently likeable. I am not quite certain why.Perhaps it’s his war record. He was decorated for valor in the Vietnam War (which I detested). He was a mere sergeant. Since I was a mere corporal in our 1948 war, I find it elating to see a non-commissioned officer become Minister of … Read more
IN A few hundred years, a professor looking for an especially esoteric subject will ask his students to research the Israeli elections of 2013.The students will come back with a unanimous report: the results of our research are incredible. Faced with at least three grave dangers, they report, Israeli parties and voters just ignored them. … Read more
SUDDENLY, I realized that a new star had appeared on the political firmament of Israel. Until yesterday I did not even know of its existence. A respected public opinion poll posed a Nixonesque question: From which politician would you buy a used car? The answer was stunning: not a single politician reached the mark of … Read more
“Palestine, from the Jordan to the Sea, belongs to us!” declared Khaled Meshal last week at the huge victory rally in Gaza. “Eretz Israel, from the sea to the Jordan, belongs to us!” declare right-wing Israelis on every occasion. The two statements seem to be the same, with only the name of the country changed. … Read more
“Revenge is a dish that is best eaten cold,” is a saying attributed to Stalin. I don’t know if he really said that. All the possible witnesses were executed long ago.Anyhow, a taste for delayed revenge is not an Israeli trait. Israelis are more impulsive. More immediate. They don’t plan. They improvise.In this respect, too, … Read more
IT WAS a day of joy.Joy for the Palestinian people. Joy for all those who hope for peace between Israel and the Arab world. And, in a modest way, for me personally. The General Assembly of the United Nations, the highest world forum, has voted overwhelmingly for the recognition of the State of Palestine, though … Read more
THE MANTRA of this round was Once And For All. “We must put an end to this (the rockets, Hamas, the Palestinians, the Arabs?) Once and For All!” – this cry from the heart was heard dozens of times daily on TV from the harassed inhabitants of Israel’s battered towns and villages in the South. … Read more
HOW DID it start? Stupid question. Conflagrations along the Gaza Strip don’t start. They are just a continuous chain of events, each claimed to be in “retaliation” for the previous one. Action is followed by reaction, which is followed by retaliation, which is followed by … This particular event “started” with the firing from Gaza … Read more
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU and his patron, Sheldon Adelson, betted on Mitt Romney, with the State of Israel as their chip.They lost.For Adelson, the betting tycoon, that doesn’t amount to much. Some you win, some you lose. For Netanyahu, it’s a different matter altogether. He grew up in the US (where he got to know Romney in … Read more