20 Friday, February 4, 1983
THE 'DE11104" JEWISH NEWS
Peretz Presents a Personal Criticism of Timerman
"Solipsistic" means the
theory that only the self
exists or can be proven to
exist. That's the definition
in Random House Dictio-
nary of the English Lan-
guage.
This is the term that was
applied to Jacobo Timer-
man by Martin Peretz,
editor-in-chief of the New
Republic. In an editorial
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note in the current issue of
New Republic, Peretz
wrote:
"I've known Jacobo
Timerman ever since he
was sprung from Argentina.
We met in Washington,
New York, Israel; one of his
sons visited my family for
some days in Cambridge. I
liked him, the way one
sometimes likes a rogue,
but I did not trust him.
"He was self-indulgent,
solipsistic; his speech was
too rotund. I see that now
almost no one trusts him,
not even the book reviewer
in the Village Voice, which
is saying a lot.
"Near the beginning of
his new book, The Longest
War,' Timerman tells of a
lunch he shared with politi-
cal philosopher and TNR
contributing editor Michael
Walzer at the Institute for
Advanced Study:
" 'I suggested to him that
if the two of us decided to
commit suicide and ex-
plained in our wills we were
killing ourselves to stop
Sharon's War, perhaps we
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will Walzer. But some inno-
cent soul might just be per-
suaded to take up his pro-
position. You can be sure of
one thing: there'll only be
one corpse, and Timerman
will write a eulogy for the
deceased in the New
Yorker, amid the ads for
fraises des bois.
JACOBO TIMERMAN
could succeed in stopping it.'
"He does not say how
Walzer responded because
Walzer didn't respond; he
was merely embarrassed.
But Walzer's silence did not
silence Timerman, or em-
barrass him. 'We cut pathe-
tic and ridiculous figures,
Michael Walzer and I,' and
the reader wishes Timer-
man would speak only for
himself.
" 'Even if we had killed
ourselves ... moving the
conscience of mankind
by the generous giving of
(our) own lives ... what
would the world, or Is-
rael, or General Sharon
himself have done with
our two bodies?'
"Don't worry: Timer-
man's not about to kill him-
self; he's not the type. Nor
"The last time I saw
Timerman was on the day
he spent in Lebanon. We
embraced, Latin style.
There we were, standing not
exactly surrounded by the
stench of death, but close to
instruments of killing, and
he began:
" Peretz, Peretz, why did
we Jews come to this coun-
try?"Jacobo, which coun-
try?' I ask, 'Lebanon or Is-
rael?' Not Lebanon, but Is-
rael, Israel,' he answers,
and I expect a long cosmic
kvetch about Jewish de-
stiny or Zionism or the
Diaspora or the elephant
and the Jewish problem —
at any rate, something
weighty.
" 'What do you mean,
Jacobo?' Don't you
understand, Peretz, my
wife and I, we have been
looking for a house, a lit-
tle house with a nice
piece of land on the
Mediterranean. We have
been looking for months
for such a house and
some land on the sea and
Early Elections May Result
If Navon Declines Second Te
JERUSALEM (JTA) — at least for the time being.
President Yitzhak Navon's
If elections are held, pos-
announcement that he will sibly next November, the
not seek a second term has Labor Party will not have
renewed speculation that had time to resolve the
early elections may be internal power struggle be-
called- for.
tween Shimon Peres and
Political pundits reason Yitzhak Rabin by inviting
that Likud may want to Navon to run for premier,
take advantage of Premier the political observers say.
Menahem Begin's current
But Likud's coalition
popularity with the electo- partner, the National
rate and the fact that Na- Religious Party, poses an
von, also an extremely obstacle to early elec-
popular public figure, in- tions. The NRP lost half
tends to stay out of politics, - its Knesset mandates in
the last elections and is
not anxious to go to the
polls this year, especially
since it too is riven by
internal strife.
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Without the NRP, the
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its Knesset majority.
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pressed hope that if Interior
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by Education Minister
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Yehuda Ben-Meir.
This could spell trouble
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return to the middle-
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we have found nothing.'
"Right there with grimy-
faced, battle-weary soldiers
around us. On the only day
he troubled to look at the
war he was writing a book
about. Such a man will
never kill himself.
Don't
Assimilate
Re-Jew-
Venate
see page 27
JUDEA-SAMARIA, Some Call "West Bank"
"And the truth is that a millenia ago there was
a Jewish kingdom in Judea and Samaria where
our kings knelt to God, where our Prophets
brought forth the vision of eternal peace, where we
developed a rather rich civilization which we took
with us, in our hearts and in our minds, on our long
trek for over 18 centuries; and, with it, wexame
home . . ." Menachem Begin, Sept. 5, 1982
The
names Judea and Samaria have been in
continuous use for some 3,000 years. As a matter
of course, they appear in books and documents
issued during the British Mandate. In fact, the UN
itself, in its uncorrupt younger days used precisely
these names in its deliberations and documenta-
tions . . .
3 After Jordan seized Judea and Samaria in
1948, they killed all Jews of the farms and villages
in the Judean hills and expelled all the Jewish
surivivors in Jerusalem's Old City. Jordan re-
named the area "West Bank" . . .
Under Jordanian law, Jews can neither be
citizens or residents and it is a crime punishable
by death to sell land to a Jew. During Jordan's 19
year occupation, they tried to destroy every trace
of Jerusalem's ancient Jewish history. From this
territory jutting into Israel's coastal plain, terrorist
attacks were made against Israeli civilians. And
from this territory on June 5, 1967, King Hussein's
forces opened fire on West Jerusalem and joined
with Egypt and Syria in a multi-front war to destroy
Israel. Jordan's attack was repulsed and they
were driven back across the Jordan River, liberat-
ing Judea and Samaria.
As is said in First Book of Maccabbees, 15:33-35.
"We have neither taken other men's land nor
are we in possession of other men's property,
but of the inheritance of our forefathers: It was
wrongfully seized by our enemies at one time,
but we retrieved it . . ."
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