Truth and punishment

There's nothing like the Mugrabi Gate affair to prove the futility of the dream of reconciliation with the Arabs. After all, it is clear to all, even to Leftist Jews, that the Arabs know the truth, but this doesn't change a thing.

Sheikh Ra'ad Salah stood there at the excavation site – expressly outside the Temple Mount compound, far from the mosques – and shamelessly announced: "This is a crime. Israel is destroying part of the al-Aqsa Mosque."

"There's no excuse for the excavation works that are undermining the sacredness of Islam." I would have understood had the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch said this, but it's surprising to hear King Abdullah of Jordan, a sought-after and beloved partner who knew about the excavations in advance, saying so. How can he accuse us of something he knows isn't true, and that we know that he knows? And what does Olmert say to himself when Mahmoud Abbas, who received funds, arms and kisses from him, when Abbas attacked Israel "for changing the character of the place and making it Jewish" – when even he knows the truth.

This false protest is consciously backed by countries such as Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan – all described by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as "moderate Arab states with whom we not only share the same values but also the same interests." How will Livni explain that her new friends are now setting her up?

Slap in the face from Siniora

This question should concern the peace camp, because it is seeking to mortgage our future against the words and signatures of such people and regimes. Either the "partners" have remained enemies within, or despite them being "moderate" they are being pressured by their people to attack. Either way, the result is the same; we shall surrender the heart of our country, threaten our security, and risk a civil war in exchange for a commitment that is worthless.

Olmert received a similar slap in the face from Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is presenting the deployment of troops in the south of Lebanon as an "achievement" of the last war. Even Siniora was informed of the plan to carry out excavation works in our sovereign territory, and knowing the truth he sent his army to fire at us and condemn us for our "Israeli aggression."

The new Arab colleagues are no different than Arafat, who also knew that the Western wall Tunnel and Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount did not undermine the mosques, yet despite this, with cold cynicism, he turned both these incidences into a casus belli for two wars.

The defense minister, who is folding under anti-truth terror, is reminiscent of Katherina in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Petruchio:

I say it is the moon that shines so bright.

I know it is the sun that shines so bright.

Now by my mother's son, and that's myself,

It shall be moon, or star, or what I list,

Or ere I journey to your father's house.

Go on and fetch our horses back again.

Evermore cross'd and cross'd; nothing but cross'd!

Say as he says, or we shall never go.

Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,

And be it moon, or sun, or what you please;

And if you please to call it a rush-candle,

Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.

I say it is the moon.

I know it is the moon.

Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun.

Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun;

But sun it is not, when you say it is not;

And the moon changes even as your mind.

What you will have it nam'd, even that it is,

And so it shall be so for Katherine.