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Last update - 11:54 30/09/2008 A positive column for the holiday By Yossi Sarid Tags: Israel News, Zeev Sternhell  After we overreacted, after we roundly condemned, after we gratefully kissed the long arm of coincidence for the fact that the landlord rather than one of his grandchildren locked the gate to the yard, after we wearied our brain with the question of whether this is the beginning of the end of democracy or perhaps the end of the beginning, and after we were forbidden to generalize - after all this, and on the eve of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, we should emphasize that not all is bad and speak in favor even of those trying to assassinate Zeev Sternhell. If it has recently seemed that our lives were becoming cheaper, the poster wrapped around the pipe bomb has proved the exact opposite: a prize of NIS 1.1 million is promised "to anyone who kills one of the members of Peace Now," and that is not a negligible sum for the head of a single leftist. We can still recall the days when such a murder came very cheap, and blood was spilled free of charge. The murder of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig, for example, could be called an NPA - a non-profit act. And then there's the murder of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the price for which has yet to be paid. Although the murderer was imprisoned, the spirit that moved him was not, and it continues to haunt the land. The marksman himself is serving a sentence, but those who marked the target for him are walking free among us, making rabbinical and political hay over it - without generalizing, of course. The Shin Bet security service, which was unable to protect Rabin in his lifetime, did not try to get to the bottom of his death either. Advertisement And suddenly, the fees for murder are soaring and even exorbitant. They're also determined precisely: 1,100,000, as though calculated according to the value of the dollar by an Israel-loving Christian in a church in frigid Alaska, or by an ordinary warmhearted Jew who loves settlers from a distance. The positive side of the assassination attempt does not end here, for it turns out that Peace Now is undergoing a renaissance. All those wondering where the movement is today, where it has disappeared to, have received a thundering Zionist answer. The movement is here, alive and well and exerting an influence - and it's really bothering someone up there on the hilltops. It's true that we're talking about "the margins of the Israeli right," as we generally describe them - without generalizing, let us remind you. Nevertheless, doesn't the center determine the margins? Doesn't a healthy body make an effort to immunize itself against viruses and weaken their venom? And what happened to the natural immunity of the settler leaders, who are afflicted by a malignant and spreading cancer and need major surgery? In honor of 5769, another ray of light in the darkness: Just when the prestige of the Israeli intellectual is wallowing in the gutter like a cabbage in the marketplace, that is precisely when it is raised from the ash heap. Who are you, Zeev Sternhell? Just an intellectual, a scholar, a Jewish intellect from the Brenner labor movement, a renowned expert on the sources and horrors of fascism, an outstanding columnist in an arrogant newspaper, an egghead - that's what you are. And here it is the ignorant "margins of the right," of all places, that decides to restore the glory of intellectualism and scholarship. Even on the Israeli left there is no longer such admiration for a scholar. So why see only black, and blacker than black? Instead, we should be asking: Should we accept only the bad but not the good? Bookmark to del.icio.us   Iranian support Khamenei: Iran will never abandon Hamas, its holy warrior Ismail Haniyeh. Weight connection Israeli, Palestinian women come together to lose weight and stay healthy.   1.   Peace Now Renaisance ? Yikes ! 07:27  |  Tod Zuckerman 29/09/08   2.   Best Thing That Happened To The Left In Years 10:02  |  Ben Israel 29/09/08   3.   # who is the fool? 14:11  |  A.M. 30/09/08   4.   #2 14:15  |  A.M. 30/09/08   5.   Response to A.M. - Try Thinking During the P.M. 03:14  |  Tod Zuckerman 01/10/08   6.   Do not Pay them To Kill Traitors, Pay Them To Leave Israel 18:34  |  Baruch Gold 01/10/08   7.   Peace Now 03:06  |  Jenny Skoble 02/10/08

Read & React Prof. Sternhell: Supporters of occupation are not Zionist Responses: 222 Discontented Fatah politicos consider launching third intifada Responses: 110 Olmert: Israel must quit East Jerusalem and Golan Responses: 396 Gershom Gorenberg: The settlement movement began in self-deception Responses: 66 McCain camp: Claim that Palin endorsed Hamas is 'libel' Responses: 100 More Headlines 00:38 Ex-U.S. weapons hunter: Iran 2-5 years from bomb 01:29 Iran supreme leader: Israel is on a path to destruction 01:54 IDF West Bank commander: Rightist violence encouraged by settler leaders 22:57 Syrian FM: We aren't supplying weapons to Hezbollah 00:39 Olmert to face eighth round of police questioning Thursday 22:23 Congress leaders optimistic on revived U.S. bailout package 20:26 Holocaust denier detained at London's Heathrow airport 02:53 Belgium bids farewell to resistance hero who saved Jews 02:34 Israeli investment bankers find Wall St. tumble ruins Rosh Hashanah 02:19 Meir Porush scores Haredi support in Jerusalem mayoral contest 02:37 Livni tells Meretz: I won't dismiss Justice Minister Friedmann 21:34 VIDEO / Israeli, Palestinian women come together to lose weight 02:07 'How can the People of the Book be against books?' 14:00 Bahraini FM calls for Mideast forum that includes Israel, Iran Previous Editions Select Day 01 oct 30 sep 29 sep 28 sep 26 sep 25 sep 24 sep 23 sep 22 sep 21 sep 19 sep 18 sep

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