Editor

Yesterday in Jerusalem I went to a talk by David Horovitz, the new editor of
the Jerusalem Post. David is a young-looking man (age 40) who took over
only 2 months ago at the Post, and then the paper was sold to a new owner, a
Canadian firm. He looked very tired, but when he started talking he became
animated and was fluent.
David gave a summary of the current situation. He said that two main things
have changed, first Sharon has made it harder for the Palestinian terrorists
to kill us, and secondly Arafat's death has fundamentally altered the
situation. However, he is somewhat pessimistic about Mahmoud Abbas, since
he is one of Arafat's old guard, and he thinks there needs to be a change
over of the generations.
He mentioned that he had an interesting conversation lasting an hour over
coffee with a Palestinian he met while on an assignment. This was an
average man-in-the-street, who turned out to be quite moderate, against
terrorism, but who was convinced that Israel was responsible for all the bad
things that have gone wrong. He argued well and knew his facts, which
surprised David, who is after all a professional journalist. So the message
is that even the Palestinian moderates are convinced that Israel is the
cause of the conflict.
David felt that on our side there are only a few percent of extremists, and
the rest of us are in the "confused mainstream."
He felt that Sharon has acted poorly as a politician from a democratic point
of view. When he changed his opinion only a year and a half ago regarding
the disengagement from Gaza, due mainly to the demographic realities, he
then pursued it like his nickname implies, "the bulldozer," without enough
consideration for the political realities in Israel. His decision to opt
for a vote in the Likud Central Committee was an obvious mistake that most
observers could have told him would fail.
A member of the audience made an interesting comment, he said that he had
been Sharon's medical officer in the IDF and knew him well over many years.
He compared the settlements in Gaza with the Israeli outposts along the Suez
Canal in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. They had been over-run by the Egyptian
Army although there were a few holdouts. The high command decided it would
be too costly to re-occupy them or try to rescue any holdouts. But, Sharon
sent in rescue missions, against high odds, in order to evacuate them. He
felt that Sharon is doing the same thing in Gaza, recognizing that Israel
will have to withdraw from Gaza in any case, he is rescuing these "outposts"
that are remote from Israel proper, but before they are surrounded and
occupied by hostile forces.
He agreed with me that the biggest threat to Israel in the future could be a
peaceful and democratic Palestine, because then the internal cohesion within
Israel, without the external threat, might come unstuck. However, we are
still a long way from that situation.