The Stolen War

Is there no limit to the villainy of Hamas? Seems there isn’t. This week, they did something quite unforgivable. They stole a war. For some weeks now, our almost new Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, has been announcing at every possible opportunity that a new war...

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Shukran, Israel

If Islamist movements come to power all over the region, they should express their debt of gratitude to their bête noire, Israel. Without the active or passive help of successive Israeli governments, they may not have been able to realize their dreams. That is...

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The Duke of Nablus

The name of Munib al-Masri has recently come up as a possible candidate for prime minister of a Palestinian national unity government. Not being a member of either Fatah or Hamas, he is acceptable to both. Al-Masri himself denies any such ambition. He says that he is...

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With Friends Like Gingrich, Does Israel Need Enemies?

My God, what a bizarre lot these Republican aspirants for the US presidency are! What a sorry bunch of ignoramuses and downright crazies. Or, at best, what a bunch of cheats and cynics! (With the possible exception of the good doctor Ron Paul). Is this the best a...

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A Day in November

This Tuesday will be the 64th anniversary of a fateful day for our lives. A day in November. A day to remember. On Nov. 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted, by 33 votes against 13 (with 10 abstentions), the Palestine Partition Plan. This event...

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Weimar Revisited

“You and your Weimar!” a friend of mine once exclaimed in exasperation. "Just because you experienced the collapse of the Weimar Republic as a child, you see Weimar behind every corner.” The accusation was not unjustified. In 1960, during the Eichmann trial, I wrote a...

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Spilling the Beans About Bibi

“You can lie to all of the people some of the time, and to some of the people all of the time, but you cannot lie to all of the people all of the time.” This slightly altered quotation from Abraham Lincoln has yet to be absorbed by Benjamin Netanyahu. He thinks it...

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Hold Me Back!

Everybody knows the scene from school: A small boy quarrels with a bigger boy. “Hold me back,” he shouts to his comrades, “before I break his bones!” Our government seems to be behaving in this way. Every day, via all channels, it shouts that it is going, any minute...

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Everybody’s Son

The most sensible — I almost wrote “the only sensible” — sentence uttered this week sprang from the lips of a 5-year-old boy. After the prisoner swap, one of those smart-aleck TV reporters asked him: “Why did we release 1,027 Arabs for one Israeli soldier?” He...

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The Second Herzl

On Yom Kippur eve last week, when real Jews were praying for their lives, I sat on the seashore of Tel Aviv, thinking. I was thinking about our state, the State of Israel, in which I have, so to speak, a founder’s share. Will it endure? Will it be here in another 100...

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