Monday, February 24, 2003

Israelis have suggested that the war (on Iraq) might salvage their economy and prompt recalcitrant Labor to join Mr. Sharon's coalition in a new government of "national unity." Expressed in its broadest, vaguest terms, this theory has come in for the sort of withering mockery that the idealistic vision of Oslo's effects suffered from the right. The accusation is the same: fuzzy, wishful thinking. Uzi Benziman, author of a biography of Mr. Sharon, wrote recently in the newspaper Haaretz, "Israel is looking for Ares, the ancient Greek god of war, to play the part of the deus ex machina in this drama." Referring to this "almost pagan faith," he continued, "it's still hard to shake the feeling that what the fervency of Israeli expectations regarding the war really attests to is despair." NY Times

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