The contest between Binyamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon in the Likud Central Committee resembled a duel between two gladiators in the Roman arena. The more so since many of the Committee members behaved like the Roman rabble who screamed, rioted and demanded blood. In this fight, Netanyahu resembled the Retiarius, a gladiator who had nothing … Read more
In “The Second Coming”, the Irish poet W. B. Yeats described chaos thus: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of … Read more
One day Joha, the hero of popular Arab humor, sold his home. The price he demanded was ridiculously low and he had only one condition: “on one of the walls there is a nail that I am much attached to. I don’t want to sell it.” The buyer readily agreed. Who cares about a nail? … Read more
The day before yesterday the Haaretz headline screamed: “Doctors: Arafat died of Aids or poisoning”. Aids appeared in first place.For dozens of years, the Israeli media has conducted, with government inspiration, a concentrated campaign against the Palestinian leader (with the sole exception of Haolam Hazeh, the news magazine I edited). Millions of words of hatred … Read more
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: / A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; / A time to break down and a time to build up…” The book of Ecclesiastes has no truer follower than Ariel Sharon.Witness, Sharon … Read more
Dear Settlers –“Dear” in the most literal sense.At long last it must be spelled out, without hypocritical pity, without “if” and “but”. We have paid billions of shekels in order to settle you in the Gaza Strip. We have paid billions to keep you there, and most of you have lived there at our expense. … Read more
A thousand demonstrators, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals protested the building of the stretch of Wall next to Imatin.”This is not a Security Fence, but a way to rob Palestinians of their land and add it to the Immanuel settlement.””The route of the Wall penetrates 17 kilometer into the West Bank and usurpes a big part … Read more
August 18th, 2005 – a milestone in the history of the State of Israel.This was the day on which the settlement enterprise in this country went into reverse for the first time. True, the settlement activity in the West Bank continues at full speed. Ariel Sharon intends to give up the small settlements in the … Read more
A picture engraved in memory: Ariel Sharon in the Knesset. Around him the storm is raging. The Members rush about, shouts ring out from all sides. The Member on the podium waves his arms, denounces and curses him. Sharon sitting at the government table. Alone. Immovable. Massive and passive. No muscle in his face is … Read more
It was all expected: both the massacre and the questions it raised. But behind the easy questions that practically posed themselves, much more difficult and unasked questions are hidden.The General Security Service (Shabak, a.k.a. Shin Bet) has been warning for a long time that the “disengagement” from Gaza could lead to an outbreak of Jewish … Read more