Yossi Sarid was the leader of the Meretz party from 1996-2003 and a Meretz MK from 1992-2006. Currently he is a columnist for Haaretz who offers a dry, acerbic wit, a wonderful command of the Hebrew language, and probing insights into the Israeli social psychology that forms the underlying foundation upon which Israel’s political struggles are played out.
In his latest column – Abbas is a dead man – Netanyahu and Barak killed him – Sarid depicts an Israeli leadership and public that are driven not only by legitimate security interests, but by triumphalism, anger, and an almost unrestrainable, self-destructive impulse to demean the enemy, the same enemy with whom peace must eventually be made.
Here is a snippet of Sarid’s troubling indictment:
“Netanyahu does not merely want to win; he also wants to humiliate. He does not merely want to stab a knife in the back, but also turn it in the stomach. Bibi understands the nature of the beast’s soul – that of Israeli public opinion, which cheers on the toreador who places his foot on the bull when it is already dead.”
Better in Hebrew (and entitled “Why Humiliate?”) than in translation, it is still a difficult and bracing read in English.
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