“HALF AND HALF,” the late Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, is said to have answered, when asked whether he wanted tea or coffee. This joke was intended to parody his hesitation on the eve of the Six-day War. (Though secret documents published this week show Eshkol in a very different light.) The American public now resembles … Read more
I WAS surprised when, towards the end of 1975, I received an invitation from the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, to meet him at his residence. He opened the door himself, poured me a glass of whisky, poured one for himself, and without any further ado asked me: “Tell me, Uri, have you decided to destroy … Read more
IN BERLIN, an exhibition entitled “Hitler and the Germans” has just opened. It examines the factors that caused the German people to bring Adolf Hitler to power and follow him to the very end. I am too busy with the problems of Israeli democracy to fly to Berlin. Pity. Because since childhood, precisely this question … Read more
WILL GERMANY enact a law that demands that every Turk aspiring to citizenship swear allegiance to the “German Federal Republic, the Nation-State of the German People”? Sounds like a ridiculous idea. Will the US Senate adopt a law that would compel every candidate for citizenship to swear allegiance to “The United States of America, the … Read more
WHICH IS the real Netanyahu? Bibi the weakling, the invertebrate, who always gives in to pressure, who zigzags to the left and to the right, depending whether the pressure comes from the US or from his coalition partners? The tricky Likud chief, who is afraid that Avigdor Ivett Lieberman might succeed in pushing him towards … Read more
EHUD OLMERT raised his hands before his face, two fingertips almost touching: “We were that close!” He was talking about the negotiation he had conducted personally with Mahmoud Abbas, just before he himself was forced to vacate the Prime Minister’s office. That was the climax of the speech he made last week at a meeting … Read more
SURFING THE television channels, I came across an interview with the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi on an American network (Fox – would you believe it). “My grandfather told us to love the enemy even while fighting him,” he said, “he fought against the British resolutely, but loved the British.” (I quote from memory.) My immediate … Read more
IN THE main thoroughfare, beneath my window, there was absolute silence. Not a single vehicle was moving. We were sunk in conversation with a friend of ours, when something unbelievable happened. The air-raid sirens started to wail. Within minutes, cars started to race down the street at a crazy speed, men were leaving their houses … Read more
THERE IS a story about the man who dictated his will. He divided his property generously, provided for all the members of his family, rewarded his friends and did not forget his servants. He finished off with a short paragraph: “In case of my death, this will is null and void.” I RATHER fear that … Read more
A DUTCH journalist asked me last Wednesday to try and divine the thoughts of Binyamin Netanyahu on his way to Washington. It seems that she was satisfied with the results, because she asked me to divine the thoughts of Mahmoud Abbas, too. She must have liked that as well, because then she asked me to … Read more