How much longer, for heaven’s sake, are we going to be preoccupied withthese trivialities? Who is a Jew? Are Reform conversions valid? Only abroad or in Israel too?What does it mean to be a Jew? Is it a religion or a nationality? Does aRomanian woman, whose father is a Jew and mother a Christian, become,upon … Read more
translated from 04/Jan/99 Ma’ariv I have an important personal statement to make: I do not want to be PrimeMinister! I will not announce my candidacy even under “specialcircumstances.” What special circumstances, you ask? It’s obvious. I am not mulling over forming a new party, despite the pressure applied tome. For example: The blue-eyed party. It … Read more
translated from 14/Dec/98 Ma’ariv Dear friends, have you gone mad? Have you lost your minds? Are youliving in another country? On another planet? Whoever’s bright idea it was to draft the haredim is going to bring down acalamity on the state of Israel. True, their draft-dodging is annoying. If you serve in the IDF, if … Read more
translated from 07/Dec/98 Ma’ariv Will he land at the Arafat Airport or not? Will he treat Arafat asa head of state? Will he demonstrate even-handedness between Israeland Palestine? All of this is unimportant. What is important is that President Clintonis even coming to Gaza, thus granting the Palestinian Authority astate-in-the-making status. For Netanyahu’s government this … Read more
translated from 30/Nov/98 Ma’ariv What kind of logic leads soldiers into a trap? It happened once before.They called it the “Bar-Lev Line.” Almost by chance, without any priorstrategic planning or any official decision, a line of fortifications wasestablished along the Suez Canal. Israel Tal, Ariel Sharon, MatityahuPeled, and yours truly, had decried this folly, to … Read more
“Enough!” was the voters’ verdict in the local elections. The results show that there has beena profound change in the public spirit. It hastired of all those stammering parties that are for and against anythingand everything, that change their positions every morning according to thelatest polls. It is sick and tired of the politicians who … Read more
translated from Ma’ariv 22/Nov/98 Like two well-trained ballet dancing partners who no longer need to practicetogether, the enemies of peace from both sides jumped into action. Eachknew exactly what to do. On the morning after the signing of the Wye Accords, Moslem extremistscarried out an attack. Jewish settlers immediately responded withan act of “revenge.” The … Read more
translated from 09/Nov/98 Ma’ariv How many more times can one beat this dead horse? When the Palestinians reached the lowest point of their nationalexistence, they did what the Jews had done in similarcircumstances: They found solace in composing prayers of rage.The Palestinians have been expelled and scattered throughout adozen states, their homeland divided up among … Read more
translated from 03/Nov/98 Ma’ariv Only the Likud could sign such an agreement without the country going upin flames. 45 years ago, when we were barely a handful of individuals working forpeace with a Palestinian state, even in our wildest dreams we could nothave envisioned that a day would come when a leader of Herut would … Read more
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