May 14, 2006

A.B. vs. A.S.

Letter to Jerusalem Post

Sir, - In "Speak for yourself, A.B. Yehoshua" (May 11) I learned a few things about A.B. that I had not known before. Uri Dan may be right to call Yehoshua a post-Zionist "big mouth" of the Oslo camp. But even for a Likudnik like me that did not mar the beauty of his words in Washington.

Far from demeaning Jews of the Diaspora, Yehoshua was encouraging them to come home and experience Jewish life in Israel as a second skin rather than be content with the clothing of the Diaspora, which our people have so often been forced to change, mostly at short notice and under threat.

Dan's mentor, Ariel Sharon, often peddled the same message, although not in such beautiful words. In his Paris speech in 2004 Sharon enraged locals by urging French Jews to leave for Israel. But just a year later he was bulldozing Jewish families out of their homes in Gush Katif.

Yehoshua may have softened in his old age. Sadly, Sharon did the opposite.
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