ISRAEL IS an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this. I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, … Read more
REJOICE, REJOICE: the Foreign Minister has decided to set up a special team for dealing with the “core issues” of peace with the Palestinians. Yes, indeed. In preparation for the Annapolis meeting, the Prime Minister has put the Foreign Minister in charge of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. You might well ask: Isn’t it … Read more
.More than anything, Rabin was the typical representative of my generation, the “generation of 1948” – and not by accident was this generation defined by a war. THE PRESIDENT of the Knesset invited me to take part in the special Knesset session to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. I debated … Read more
WHEN I hear mention of the “Clash of Civilizations” I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. To laugh, because it is such a silly notion. To cry, because it is liable to cause untold disasters. To cry even more, because our leaders are exploiting this slogan as a pretext for sabotaging any possibility … Read more
THERE ARE books that change people’s consciousness and change history. Some tell a story, like Harriet Beech Stowe’s 1851 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, which gave a huge impetus to the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Others take the form of a political treatise, like Theodor Herzl’s “Der Judenstaat”, which gave birth to the Zionist … Read more
A RESPECTED American paper posted a scoop this week: Vice-President Dick Cheney, the King of Hawks, has thought up a Machiavellian scheme for an attack on Iran. Its main point: Israel will start by bombing an Iranian nuclear installation, Iran will respond by launching missiles at Israel, and this will serve as a pretext … Read more
TODAY IS Yom Kippur, and almost automatically my thoughts, like those of everybody else who was around at the time, go back 34 years, to that Yom Kippur. I was sitting at home, deep in conversation with a friend, when the sirens suddenly started to wail. The sound of sirens is always frightening, but … Read more
THE DIVISION of the Palestinian territories into a “Hamastan” in the Gaza Strip and a “Fatahland” in the West Bank is a disaster. A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis. The Israeli political and military leadership is happy about the split, according to the doctrine … Read more
.WHEN MY friends fall prey to despair, I show them a piece of painted concrete, which I bought in Berlin. It is one of the remnants of the Berlin wall, which are on sale in the city. I tell them that I intend, when the time comes, to apply for a franchise to sell pieces … Read more
IN THE year 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. The Bible records the words which the Assyrian general, Rabshakeh, addressed to Hezekiah, king of Judah: “Now, behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce … Read more