Tzipi Livni, as her name indicates, is the white bird of Israeli politics (Tzipi is short for Tzipora, "bird," and Livni comes from Lavan, "white"). As against the hawk Binyamin Netanyahu, the vulture Ehud Barak, and the raven Ehud Olmert, she was...
Mephisto, the demon who bought the soul of Faust in Goethe's monumental drama, describes himself as "a part of that force which always wants the bad and always creates the good." Yossi Beilin, who resigned this week as chairman of the Meretz Party, is...
Forget the Qassams. Forget the mortar shells. They are nothing compared with what Hamas launched at us this week. The chief of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has approached an Israeli newspaper and proposed a cease-fire. No more Qassams, no...
The most famous words ever spoken in Gaza were the last words of Samson (Judges 16:30): "Let me die with the Philistines!" According to the Biblical story, Samson took hold of the central pillars of the Philistine temple and brought down the whole building...
"The tumult and the shouting dies / The captains and the kings depart…" Rudyard Kipling wrote in his unforgettable "Recessional." King George departed even before the tumult had died. His helicopter carried him away over the horizon, just as his trusty steed...
The Annapolis conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny. Like quite a lot of political initiatives, this one too, according to all the indications, started more or less by accident. George Bush was due to make a speech. He was looking for a theme that would...
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...
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...
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...
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...
