Natan Koenig was blotting up blood from the floor of the cafeteria named for Frank Sinatra at Jerusalem\’s Hebrew University. Koenig worked for two hours on that 95-degree afternoon on July 31, arriving soon after a Hamas-made bomb exploded under a table, killing nine people, including two Americans, wounding some 90 others and shattering the lunchroom.
The consensus view of the intifada among Israelis, Diaspora Jews and American conservatives — that it\’s caused by Arab hatred and rejection of Israel — is nothing but a lousy excuse.
Talk about cognitive dissonance. The mood in Israel may never have been so hopeless, the indices of quality of life may never have pointed so sharply downward, and yet the calmest, most content person in the country appears to be Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Since Sept. 11, the administration has stood solidly behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\’s battle against the Palestinians, while ostracizing Yasser Arafat.
There is a new rhythm to the terror attacks against Israelis: They are coming in one-two punches, leaving the country staggering.
"We have no intention of reconquering the Palestinian areas," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told a news conference this week, repeating a common refrain of the Sharon government.
The \”officers\’ letter\” came out on Jan. 25 in Yediot Aharonot, Israel\’s largest newspaper — 52 reserve army officers declared that they would not serve in the West Bank or Gaza for moral and political reasons.
More than any other Israeli politician, Yossi Beilin has a knack for saying things that many other people are thinking but will not say, and he has just done it again.
Adi Eldar, mayor of Tiberias and head of the Union of Local Authorities in Israel, counts 140 acts of violence against Israeli mayors in the last five years.
On top of being in a military state of emergency for over a year, Israel is now in an \”economic state of emergency\” as well, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced last week. He was about the last person in the country to say the words out loud.
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