Israel’s Vietnam

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

Sick and tired of the stammerers

“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

Sacred Lies

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

Beating a dead horse

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

Even the Likud

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

Sulphuric acid

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

How the cat became a tiger

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

The real Netanyahu

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

The new collaborators

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