All hail the peacemakers 19
HE APPEARED out of nowhere. Literally.
The Israeli Police needed a new commander. The last one had come to the end of his term of office, several senior officers had been accused of molesting their female subordinates, one had committed suicide after being accused of corruption. So somebody from outside was indicated.
When Binyamin Netanyahu announced his choice, everybody was amazed. Roni Alsheikh? Where the hell did he come from?
A FARMER comes to the big town for the first time. He visits the zoo and stands for hours transfixed before the cage of the kangaroo.
"There is no such animal!" he keeps exclaiming.
I must confess that I felt the same when I saw Donald Trump on TV for the first time and heard that he was a candidate for president of the US.
"Impossible," I muttered to myself. "Must be a hoax!"
HELP! I am walking into a minefield. I can't help myself.
The minefield has a name: BDS – boycott, divestment, sanctions.
I am often asked about my attitude towards this international movement, which was started by Palestinian activists and has spread like wildfire throughout the world.
The Israeli government now considers this movement a major threat, more so, it seems to me, than Daesh or Iran. Israeli embassies all over the world are mobilized to fight it.
The main battleground is the academic world. Fanatical adherents of BDS are conducting fierce debates with equally fanatical adherents of Israel. Both sides use experienced debaters, diverse propaganda ploys, phony arguments and outright lies. It is an ugly debate, and getting uglier.
BEFORE EXPRESSING my own attitude, I would like to clear the ground. What is it all about?
Ethiopian-Israeli activist's "J'accuse"...thanks for this!!
SO IS Hezbollah a terrorist organization?
Of course not.
So why has the Arab League decided that they are?
Because most of the league's member states are Sunni Muslims, while Hezbollah is a Shiite organization supporting Shiite Iran and Alawite (quasi-Shiite) Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
So were Israel's Arab parties right when they condemned the league's resolution?
Right, yes. Wise, no.
SUDDENLY I remembered where I had seen it before.
The same kind of face. The same chin thrust forward, to produce an impression of force and determination.
The same way of speaking. One sentence and then a pause, waiting for the mob to shout approval.
The same combination of monster and clown.
Yes. Unmistakable. I saw it in my early childhood. On newsreels.
Benito Mussolini. Rome. Piazza Venezia. The Duce on a balcony, The huge mob down below in the piazza. Delirious. Applauding. Shouting until they were hoarse. A mass orgy of mindlessness.
Good stuff CMOT!
ONE OF the most famous lines in German poetry is "Don't greet me under the lime trees."
The Jewish-German poet Heinrich Heine asks his sweetheart not to embarass him in public by greeting him in the main street of Berlin, which is called "Unter den Linden" ("Under the Lime Trees").
Israel is in the position of this illicit sweetheart. Arab countries are having an affair with her, but don't want to be seen with her in public.
Too embarrassing.
THE MAIN Arab country in question is Saudi Arabia. For some time now, the oil kingdom has been a secret ally of Israel, and vice versa.
IT SEEMS that everything possible has already been said, written, proclaimed, asserted and denied about the incident that is rocking Israel.
Everything except the main point.
THE INCIDENT revolves around "the Soldier of Hebron". Military censorship does not allow him to be called by his name. He may be called "Soldier A".
It happened in the Tel Rumaida neighborhood of the occupied South West Bank town of Hebron, where a group of super-extreme right-wing settlers live in the midst of some 160,000 Palestinians and are heavily protected by the Israeli army. Violent incidents abound.
I LIKE the President of the State of Israel, Reuven ("Rubi") Rivlin. I like him very much.
This may seem a bit strange, since he is a man of the Right. He is a member of the Likud party. He believes in what is called in Hebrew "the whole of the Land of Israel".
However, he is a very humane person. He is kind and unassuming, His family has been rooted in Palestine for many generations. He sees himself as the president of all Israelis, including the Arab citizens.
I believe that he harbors a secret contempt for Binyamin Netanyahu and the likes of him. So how was he elected president? The President of Israel is chosen in a secret ballot of the Knesset. I strongly suspect that he did not get all the votes of the Likud, but was elected by the votes of the Left.
THIS WEEK, President Rivlin published a peace plan. That is not a usual act by a president, whose office is mainly ceremonial.
I LIKE the President of the State of Israel, Reuven ("Rubi") Rivlin. I like him very much.
This may seem a bit strange, since he is a man of the Right. He is a member of the Likud party. He believes in what is called in Hebrew "the whole of the Land of Israel".
However, he is a very humane person. He is kind and unassuming, His family has been rooted in Palestine for many generations. He sees himself as the president of all Israelis, including the Arab citizens.
I believe that he harbors a secret contempt for Binyamin Netanyahu and the likes of him. So how was he elected president? The President of Israel is chosen in a secret ballot of the Knesset. I strongly suspect that he did not get all the votes of the Likud, but was elected by the votes of the Left.
THIS WEEK, President Rivlin published a peace plan. That is not a usual act by a president, whose office is mainly ceremonial.
IN 1975, I was stabbed in the chest at the door of my apartment. The assassin missed my heart by millimeters.
He was caught by my female neighbors and arrested. It appeared he had no political motives – he was upset because I had planted listening devices in his head.
While in hospital, I got a call from London. It was from the representative of the PLO, who conveyed to me the best wishes of Yasser Arafat.
A few minutes later I had a visitor: General Rehavam Ze'evi, known by his nickname Gandhi, an extreme rightist, came to see me. The hospital staff were flabbergasted.
"What gun do you carry?" he asked. I told him it was a Webley, a British service revolver.
"Very bad," he judged. "The hammer is too exposed. Where do you carry it?" I told him that I generally carried it in my belt.
"Even worse," he remarked. "Before you can draw it, you are dead."