November 2, 2006
Yossi Sarid Seems To Kerry On
As Israel approaches the national memorial day commemorating the 1995 murder of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, the Gesher Organization asked Israelis what event caused the greatest rift in society.The Rabin assassination came in second, while Ariel Sharon's destruction of the Jewish communities in Gush Katif came in first.
But apparently Yossi Sarid is intent on seeing the Rabin assassination claim its rightful place as the event that has caused the greatest rift in Israeli society.
In Thursday's Haaretz, Said writes
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that one in every three Israelis supports a pardon for Rabin's assassin, and that one in every two religious right-wing Israelis favors his early parole. Your eyes burn in their sockets as you read this news, as you refuse to believe what you are reading. Yet, why should we be surprised? The spirit of amnesty is drifting down from the upper echelons of Israeli society, slowly descending to the lower ones. The rabbis who encouraged the assassin, explicitly or implicitly, long ago received their pardons. Those who stood on the balcony at Jerusalem's Zion Square the night that bloodshed was sanctioned inherited Rabin's place, and were later even declared his ideological successors - the last "Mapainiks."Although the assassin was apprehended and sent to prison, because he was the one who fired the three bullets, those who drew a bull's-eye on Rabin's back and told him that the prime minister was a permissible target have never been forced - perish the thought! - to account for their actions.
For a another perspective of the Rabin assassination Israel Matzav has posts here and here.
Sarid's attacks on the rabbis reminds me of John Kerry's comment about the US soldiers in Iraq--except for 2 differences.
1. Sarid is not telling a 'joke'--he means every word.
2. Unlike in the US, in Israel there will be no wellspring of condemnation and demands for an apology.
Technorati Tag: Yossi Sarid and Yitzchak Rabin and Israel
Out of sitemeter
Hamas's novelty wears off
Council speak 09/14/08
Still not barking
The Media and The Hubris of Hope?
Osama didn't bark. why not?
Palin's coming out party
I go flying so high
A piece of peace
Seven year ago plus
David,
Thanks for linking me (twice in one post no less!), but you may have missed the post in which I explained why 30% of the country wants to pardon Yigal Amir. You can find that post here.
Posted by: Carl in Jerusalem at November 2, 2006 3:35 AMEnough of this already, Kerry simply botched a joke targeting Bush, not the troops, as clearly seen in the transcript of his speech provided by C-SPAN:
"It's great to be here with college students. I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting US stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."
...........
The GOP and its supporters would like to continue exploiting Kerry's verbal gaffe to shift attention from the actual war in Iraq.
Posted by: Laura at November 2, 2006 12:24 PMThe point is that regardless of whom Kerry was targeting, the comparison with Sarid holds in terms of the 2 differences.
But as long as you mention it, for Kerry to criticize Bush's intelligence is kind of odd.
While the general impression during the 2004 presidential campaign was that Democrat John Kerry was the intellectual superior to President Bush, it turns out that their grades while undergraduate students at Yale were remarkably similar.
In fact, Bush's were a tad higher. His four-year average was 77; Kerry's 76. Both were C students.