IT WAS wonderful. I went to the seashore for the first time since my operation three weeks ago. A five minute walk from my home. The sea was placid, smooth. A mild sun was shining near the horizon, not too hot, not too cold, just as we like it. A cool wind, not too cold, … Read more
There is no such thing as “international terrorism”.To declare war on “international terrorism” is nonsense. Politicians who do so are either fools or cynics, and probably both. Terrorism is a weapon. Like cannon. We would laugh at somebody who declares war on “international artillery”. A cannon belongs to an army, and serves the aims of … Read more
EVERY TIME you think we have reached the limit, something else pops up and the limit moves. One might have thought that the Hitler-Mufti story was the absolute limit of craziness. But here comes Uri Ariel, and proves one wrong. Ariel’s cats top Netanyahu’s mufti. Ariel is a cabinet minister. Eh, minister for what? Almost … Read more
IT IS not very pleasant when serious people around the world – historians, psychiatrists, diplomats – ask themselves if my prime minister is completely sane. But this is happening now. And not only abroad. More and more people in Israel are asking themselves the same question. All this is the result of one event. But … Read more
SOMETIMES, A small incident can pierce the darkness and reveal a frightening picture. This happened last Sunday in Beersheba, the capital of the Negev. The picture was frightening indeed. THE INCIDENT started as a routine attack, one of many we have become used to in recent weeks. Some call it “the Third Intifada”, some speak … Read more
ISRAELI DEMOCRACY is sliding downwards. Sliding slowly, comfortably, but unmistakably. Sliding where? Everybody knows that: towards an ultra-nationalist, racist, religious society. Who is leading the ride? Why, the government, of course. This group of noisy nobodies which came to power at the last elections, led by Binyamin Netanyahu. Not really. Take all these big-mouthed little … Read more
I FIRST met Mahmoud Abbas in Tunis at the beginning of 1983. I knew that he was responsible for the Israel desk in the PLO leadership. Said Hamami and Issam Sartawi, the PLO delegates with whom I had been in permanent contact since 1974, told me that he was in charge. But he was not … Read more
FORTY-FIVE YEARS ago Gamal Abd-al-Nasser died at the early age of 52. It is not an event of the past. It continues to have a huge influence on the present, and probably will on the future. My meetings with him go back to 1948. I used to joke that “we were very close to each … Read more
“WE HAVE nothing to fear but fear itself,” said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was wrong. Fear is a necessary condition for human survival. Most animals in nature possess it. It helps them to respond to dangers and evade or fight them. Human beings survive because they are fearful. Fear is both individual and collective. … Read more
IN THE early 1950s, I published a story by my friend, Miko Almaz. At the time, the new State of Israel was in dire straits, its leaders did not know how to pay for next month’s food. Someone remembered that in a remote part of Africa there was a small community of Jews, who owned … Read more