David Bogner has crafted a simply devastating indictment of Ehud Olmert's orchestrated assault last week against Amona and its origins in Sharon's 2003 Herzliya Conference speech. Most impressively, he's tied it to The Four Sons of the Passover Haggadah in a way that, for me at least, gives new and clearer meaning to that allegory. It's also forced me to rethink some of what I said about Amona, here.
An excerpt:
Ehud Olmert assumed (correctly, in my opinion) that the majority of Israeli voters hate the settlers far more than they do Hamas. So in the wake of being caught completely flat-footed by Hamas' win in the PA elections, he opted to regain his composure by playing out the only scenario where he was guaranteed to be perceived as both strong and decisive: He decided to beat Israel's 'wicked son' like a rented mule.
In the aftermath of the violence, a television crew that was stationed at a Jerusalem hospital recorded an exchange that took place between a police officer and the parents of a teenager who was in serious condition after having his skull fractured by a policeman's metal club. Unprovoked, the policeman approached the mother and said "It's a shame he didn't die". When the parents demanded the policeman's identity so they could file a complaint (something that by law is supposed to be displayed and/or offered upon demand), the policeman refused... and another policeman physically dragged the parents away from the scene.
Not surprisingly the public outrage that would have erupted had the para-military action in Amona instead been carried out against any of the thousands of illegal Arab building projects, has failed to materialize.
I hope David's essay will get the widespread attention it deserves. In the meantime, please read the rest of it, now.
