Ezer Weizman once told me this about Ariel Sharon: “Arik is like acontainer of sulphuric acid. Wherever you put it, the acid will eatthrough the container and then eat through everything around it .” Thiswas said many years ago, before the presidency put a damper on Weizman’slanguage. Now, everyone is trying to figure out: Just … Read more
translated from 19/Oct/98 Ma’ariv A man wrote his last will and testament. So and so much tohis wife. So and so much to each of his children. So and so muchto relatives and friends. The final paragraph stated, “Inthe event of my death, this testament is null and void.” This is essentially what any agreement … Read more
translated from 14/Oct/98 Ma’ariv One image came to my mind when I read the book: I am walking along a pathat night, content and happy. When dawn comes, I realize that I have beenwalking on the edge of a precipice the entire time. Sefi Rakhlevsky’s book, “The Messiah’s Donkey,” is the mostimportant book published here … Read more
Translated from Ma’ariv 24/Sep/98 “It is true that the Israeli Prime Minister’s name is Netanyahu; however,his first name is not Binyamin. It is Ben-Tzion.” So I wrote a year agoin an article which, for some reason, resonated particularly withjournalists abroad. Foreign correspondents phoned me urgently: How manytimes a day does Binyamin speak with Ben-Tzion? How … Read more
translated from Ma’ariv,September 16, 1998 The classic collaborator was a contemptible individual. He would tattleon his friend, who would then be executed by the Mista’aravim(Israeli undercover commandos disguised as Arabs), orcaught and tortured. Now there is a new breed of collaborator. They are respectable. They areaccorded the world’s appreciation, and granted fat budgets from humanrights … Read more
translated from 07/Sep/98 Ma’ariv Alive? Dead? Dying? Flopping? Many doctors surround the bedside of theOslo Accords and proffer their learned opinions. I can calm their fears.Oslo is alive — alive and kicking. The most important historical event which took place five years ago is notthe Oslo Accord itself, but rather the letter exchange which precededit. … Read more
31/Aug/98 translation, not yet published in Israel “Thou shalt not rejoice when your enemy falls.” Thus are we commanded bythe book of Proverbs. It’s a command that is not always easy to carryout. For example, when it concerns Abu Nidal, who according to the news iscurrently hospitalized in Egypt in a terminal condition. Abu Nidal … Read more
translated from 24/Aug/98 Ma’ariv Come on, let’s stop the nonsese. Today is the first day of the rest of your tenure.You can go on as before, and leave office as a joke in U.S. history books.The sax player who has turned himself into the sex player. To go on preoccupied by Monica and her ilk, … Read more
translated from 18/Aug/98 Ma’ariv Two disasters befell the Labor party two years ago: 1) It lost theelections. 2) It lost by a minuscule margin. Of those two disasters, thelatter is the bigger one. A big defeat can carry within it a great blessing. Military historyabounds in such examples. Ehud Barak, who enjoys studying the history … Read more
Ttranslated from 12/Aug/98 Ma’ariv If there were such a thing as a universal grading scale forcorruption, Israel would find itself firmly in the middle. It isundoubtedly a less corrupt state than, say, Liberia or Indonesia.But it is much more corrupt than Britain or Germany. I consider myself somewhat of an expert in the field. As … Read more