Uri Avnery

In a classic American western, there are good guys and bad guys. The good ones are the settlers, who are making the prairie bloom; the bad ones are the Indians, who are blood-thirsty savages. The hero is the cowboy — with a big revolver or two, ready to defend himself at all times.

If God wills, even a broomstick will shoot. That is an old Yiddish adage. One could add now: If God wills, even Ehud Olmert can sometimes tell the truth. The truth, according to the Israeli prime minister’s testimony before the Winograd commission of inquiry into the war in Lebanon, which was leaked to the media recently, is that this was not a spontaneous reaction to the capture of the two Israeli soldiers, but a war planned a long time ago.