Dirty washing
Batya Gur, a successful Israeli writer went all the way to Belgium to tell the people there that Israeli Prime Minister Arik Sharon is a bad person, and to ask them to help get rid of him. I was personally deeply offended by her action. Like him or not, Israeli Prime Minister Arik Sharon is not a cruel despot. He was democratically elected. When he is elected out of office, he will not stage a coup and take over the rule of the country by force. He will go home and someone else will be prime minister, someone who will also be democratically elected by the people. So what is Batya Gur saying exactly, to those people in far away Belgium? Is she saying that the large majority of Israeli people, who voted Prime Minister Arik Sharon into office, are also bad people? What help is she asking for? Does she want Belgium, or the EU, or maybe the UN, to invade Israel, depose Sharon and appoint a puppet leader more to her liking? And why doesn’t she see fit to stand on a soapbox in Rabin Square and say all this to us (maybe using less offensive language to make it easier for us to hear and accept)? Why Belgium? Are we, the Israeli electorate, the people who spend our hard-earned money on her books, so ignorant and primitive, in her eyes, that she sees no point in wasting her breath trying to persuade us?

Let me tell you a little secret, Batya Gur. I am not angry with suicide bombers either. They are my enemies and I will fight them however I can. Anger is irrelevant. But I am angry with you, because you, my sister, empower them and give legitimacy to their actions.