Abstract

Minority Report

Nothing is more to be despised, in a time of crisis, than the affectation of "evenhandedness." But there are two very nasty delusions and euphemisms gaining ground at present. The first of these is that suicide bombing is a response to despair, and the second is that Ariel Sharon's policy is a riposte to suicide bombing. The Gush Emunim settlers, religious rightists who had just begun to colonize the West Bank in earnest, were hoping to create a permanent occupation. A certain General Sharon was already turning up at their meetings and looking for a political opening. Meanwhile, Yasir Arafat was refusing to repudiate the Palestinian "covenant," which more or less called for the expulsion of all Jews who arrived in Palestine after the 1917 Balfour Declaration.