The textbook notion of government is that the executive branch, headed by the prime minister, is actually in control, formulates policy and calls the shots. That’s the naïve theory. But as Sir Humphrey, Yes Minister/Prime Minister‘s quintessential civil servant has relentlessly striven to enlighten TV audiences worldwide, true power resides elsewhere. When James Hacker assumed office, Humphrey lost no time to put him in his place. Continue reading →

Some of the folks who voted for Tzipi Livni or the luckless candidates to her left – whose electoral prospects she greedily devoured – are inveterate “Kumbaya” singers. No matter how hard and insensitively reality slaps them in the face, they still naively prefer the pose of pious believers in the honorable intentions of a genocidal enemy whose openly declared and entirely unconcealed aim is to obliterate them. The world may be a tad unkind, but the optimistic sham of unwavering trust in human goodness is too good to give up. Continue reading →

Argumentum ad hominem (Latin for “argument against the man”) is an insidiously effective and widespread polemical technique. Its essence consists of attacking a given person in order to discredit his message. There may be no objective fault with said message – indeed, it may be cogent and excellent – but it’s never properly evaluated because the messenger is spitefully trashed. Continue reading →

Frustrating as these pages’ preelection deadline may be, it does allow us to look back and revisit what the past news-packed weeks somewhat swept aside. Perhaps most galling is how Israel’s self-defense in the South invigorated the most radical elements of Israel’s far-out far-left.
Next time we carp about knee-jerk Israel-demonization abroad, we might ponder what weeds our democracy nourishes in our own overlooked backyard. Continue reading →

She wasn’t at all aware of Proverbs 26:11 and had no idea how Bing Crosby’s 1944 Academy Award-winning song “Swinging on a Star” remotely pertained to her pseudo-intellectual angst. The complexities of life were overwhelming enough without additional bewilderment. Continue reading →

Years ago, when peace with Egypt was new and relatively warmer, I was plenty angry with my paper for forcing me to file my copy from Cairo by telex rather than phone. I was sent there on a news assignment way back when among the broad lower strata of Egyptian society (as distinct from the razor-thin so-called intelligentsia) peace with Israel hadn’t yet been thoroughly delegitimized. Continue reading →

Happy days – the Israeli movie Waltz with Bashir is raking in the tributes. Having done us proud and won the Golden Globe, it’s now a prime Oscar contender. Already under its belt is the Israel Film Academy’s Ophir. It was singled out as the best animation feature by LA’s film critics and was an unexpected box office hit in its recent theatrical release in America. Continue reading →

The Six Day War’s second most popular hit (directly behind “Jerusalem of Gold”) was a song addressing Sharm e-Sheikh as a longed-for lover. The lyrics were inane, but the sentiment obviously struck a chord: “We have returned to you for a second time Sharm e-Sheikh; you were in our hearts always… Oh Sharm e-Sheikh, we’ve come back to you again!” Continue reading →

Nobody ever said it better than English Jacobean poet John Donne in his Meditation XVII: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,” therefore “any man’s death diminishes me.”

It’s all the more so when the departed man was as much of a unique and rare relic, alas, as was Tsafrir Ronen. Continue reading →

As an inveterate doll collector, I still vividly remember the cloying supposed look-alikes of Jackie Kennedy and dynasty-princess Caroline, spawned for quick profit during those long-gone Camelot halcyon days. For months I’ve been suspecting that neo-Camelot Barack Obama counterparts are already being sculpted and readied for production. Malia’s and Sasha’s crude likenesses will soon appear in vinyl or low-grade porcelain, I kept prophesying to anyone who reluctantly lent me a tired ear. Continue reading →