A Palestinian youngster breaks into a settlement, enters the nearest house, stabs a 13-year old girl in her sleep and is killed. Three Israeli men kidnap a 12-year old Palestinian boy at random, take him to an open field and burn him alive. Two Palestinians from a...
Suddenly, a familiar face, almost forgotten, appeared on the TV screen. Well, not entirely familiar, because it now sports a prominent black beard. (If I were he, I would quickly shave it off.) Yes, there he was. Former Chief of Staff, former Prime Minister, Ehud...
Many years ago I received a phone call from the Prime Minister's office. I was told that Yitzhak Rabin wanted to see me in private. Rabin opened the door himself. He was alone in the residence. He led me to a comfortable seat, poured two generous glasses of whisky for...
Once I heard the following story from the then Swedish ambassador in Paris: "In 1947, when the UN was discussing the plan to partition Palestine, I was a member of the subcommittee dealing with Jerusalem. One day, the Jews sent a new representative. His name was...
I recently mentioned the German word Gleichschaltung – one of the most typical words in the Nazi vocabulary. "Gleich" means "the same", and "Schaltung" means "wiring". The long German word means that everything in the...
"Please don't write about Ya'ir Golan!" a friend begged me, “Anything a leftist like you writes will only harm him!" So I abstained for some weeks. But I can't keep quiet any longer. General Ya'ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli...
When David Ben-Gurion read out Israel's declaration of independence (officially: "Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel") on May 14, 1948, I was in Kibbutz Hulda. My company of the (still unnamed) Israeli army was ordered to make a night...
No. It's not "us" and "them". Not "us" – the good ones, the moral ones, the righteous ones. Or, to put it bluntly, the magnificent ones. The Jews. And not "them" – the bad ones, the evil ones. To put it bluntly...
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...
Editor's Note: Reporting the identity of "Soldier A" is a violation of the Israeli military's gag order and is a crime in Israel. The author would have faced prison for naming him. Most Western media outlets have complied with this gag order. However, a few...
