IN JANUARY 1077, King Henry IV walked to Canossa. He crossed the snow-covered Alps barefoot, wearing a penitent monk’s hair shirt, and reached the North-Italian fortress in which the Vicar of God had found refuge. Pope Gregory VII had excommunicated him after a conflict over the right to invest bishops throughout the German Reich. The … Read more
IT IS already a commonplace to say that people who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Some 1942 years ago, the Jews in the province called Palaestina launched a revolt against the Roman Empire. In retrospect, this looks like an act of madness. Palestine was a small and insignificant part of … Read more
SOME WEEKS the news is dominated by a single word. This week’s word was “timing”. It’s all a matter of timing. The Government of Israel has insulted the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, one of the greatest “friends” of Israel (meaning: somebody totally subservient to AIPAC) and spat in the face of … Read more
SOME WEEKS ago, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in Rome, was released after serving 28 years in prison. The motives for his act have never been clarified. But a Palestinian leader once told me his version: God appeared to Agca in a dream and told him: Go … Read more
THIS COMING Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Israel will consider an application by a group of Israeli citizens to compel the Interior Ministry to register them as belonging to the “Israeli nation”. Odd? Indeed. The Israeli Interior Ministry recognizes 126 nations, but not the Israeli nation. An Israeli citizen can be registered as belonging to … Read more
FROM TIME to time I ask myself: what would happen if the world’s governments decided to abolish all their spy agencies simultaneously? True, it would be a great blow to the authors and movie producers who make their living from secret service stories. Their products would lose their appeal. It would be a disaster for … Read more
THIS WEEK the Netanyahu government let off a stink bomb under the chair of Mahmoud Abbas. For months now, Abbas has angered the Prime Minister. He has refused to start “peace negotiations” while the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are continually expanding. Everyone knows that the proposed negotiations are meaningless and will … Read more
MANY IMPORTANT struggles in Israel are calling out to people of conscience. Among others (in random order): The struggle for preserving the environment and the future of the planet. The struggle for democracy against fascist trends. The struggle for human rights and civil rights. The feminist struggle. The struggle for the rights of gays and … Read more
GEORGE MITCHELL looks like a kangaroo hopping around with an empty pouch. He hops here and he hops there. Hops to Jerusalem and hops to Ramallah, Damascus, Beirut, Amman (but, God forbid, not to Gaza, because somebody may not like it). Hops, hops, but doesn’t take anything out of his pouch, because the pouch is … Read more
I TRIED to resist the temptation to tell the same classical Jewish joke a second time, but circumstances delivered a plausible excuse. Almost every Jew knows the sentence “Kill a Turk and rest.” The whole story goes like this:In Czarist Russia, a Jewish boy is called up for the war against the Turks. His tearful … Read more