ISRAEL IS, as we well know, the land of unlimited impossibilities.In Israel, for example, the diplomats are striking. A strike of diplomats? But that is impossible! Postmen strike. Longshoremen strike. But diplomats? The most conservative, the most establishment people? The people who serve any Israeli government, whatever its complexion? Who find pretexts for all its … Read more
LEBANON IS in crisis. And what is new?Since the founding of the state, 90 years ago, the word “crisis” has been inseparably linked with its name. From the Israeli perspective, this crisis has a double significance. First, it endangers the quiet on the Northern border. Every internal crisis in Lebanon can easily lead to a … Read more
GOOD MORNING, Joe. At home In the US, your name is mud. But here you can really feel at home. In your time, you succeeded in infecting all of the US with hysteria. You detected a Soviet agent under every bed. You waved a list of Soviet spies in the State Department (a list which … Read more
“I HAVE three answers,” the Jew told the rabbi when his neighbor sued him for not returning a borrowed jar. “First, I never borrowed a jar from him. Second, the jar was broken. Third, I returned it to him long ago.” Avigdor Lieberman’s Peace Plan shows a similar kind of logic. PEACE PLAN? Lieberman? Oh … Read more
IT IS easy to despair before the filthy wave of racism that is engulfing us. The remedy for this despair: the growing number of young people, sons and daughters of the new Israeli generation, who are joining the fight against racism and occupation. THIS WEEK, several hundred of them gathered in a hall in Tel … Read more
THE EXPRESSION “Ship of Fools” was used by a Swiss theologian 515 years ago as the title of a book harshly criticizing the Catholic church of his day. Its licentiousness, he foresaw, would lead to disaster. And indeed, shortly afterwards a monk named Martin Luther split the church and set in motion the great Reformation. … Read more
THE JUDGE: “You are accused of murdering your wife and two children. How do you plead: Guilty or not guilty?” The accused: “Your honor, I do not deal with the past. I think about the future!” No, not a scene from a comedy. Something very similar really happened. That is how Eli Yishai, the Minister … Read more
FIRST, AN apology: I am not going to write about the Wikileaks.I like gossip as much as the next (wo)man. The leaks provide a lot of it, interspersed with some real information. But there is nothing really new there. The information only confirms what any intelligent person could have worked out already. If there is … Read more
A FRIEND of mine in Warsaw told me about a Polish journalist who visited Israel for the first time. On his return he reported with great excitement: “You know what I’ve discovered? In Israel, too, there are Jews!” For this Pole, Jews are people who wear a long black kaftan and a big black hat. … Read more
ON SATURDAY evening, two weeks ago, we returned by taxi from the annual memorial rally for Yitzhak Rabin, and as usual got into a conversation with our driver. Generally, these conversations flow smoothly, with lots of laughs. Rachel loves them, because they bring us face-to-face with people we don’t normally meet. The conversations are necessarily … Read more