"These
people are not the first despicable individuals that we have admired, as
though they represent the myth of the noble savage. The murderers of
the Palestinian collaborators were members of the Palestinian Authority –
our intimate partners."
"We saw people get butchered in the streets
almost every day, tied up to telephone poles in the center of town,
bodies dragged through the streets to the thrilled cries and applause of
the crowd. We saw all this and continued to meet with the
orchestrators, shake their hands in air conditioned rooms and discuss
this or that agreement with them. We never asked ourselves whether it
was appropriate to conduct negotiations with butchers of human beings,
and whether a deal with such people held any kind of credibility."
"We have to understand
them," said President Shimon Peres once, and he was entirely serious."
"For them, lying is part of the culture." Then we understood. And then
we were surprised to learn that killers and rapists don't honor
agreements. What a shock."
