Why Does the Leopard Hide his Spots?
by Uri Avnery

So why did I prefer Netanyahu?

Because Netanyahu is an unprincipled politician, ready to change his positions any time. He reminds me of Groucho Marx, who once declared: "These are my views. If you don't like them, I have others, too." He could easily exchange his rightist slogan for leftist ones.

Sharon is very different: he has a rigid outlook, which he has not changed for decades. He resembles an IDF bulldozer in Jenin, destroying walls on his way and demolishing houses on top of their inhabitants. His aim in life is to destroy the Palestinian entity and imprison the Palestinians in isolated enclaves, until the time is ripe for their expulsion from the country altogether. Nowadays he hides his unwavering attachment to this plan behind the mask of a benevolent, moderate grandfather, who has settled down and wants nothing more than to crown his career by making peace.

I prefer at the head of the Likud an unprincipled politician to a disguised true believer. He would have been easier for Mitzna to defeat.
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The infrastructure of terror

The facts are well known: In the past eight months, the IDF has won, and has reoccupied the territories of the West Bank that had been under full control of Arafat and his underlings. Full security authority in the Palestinian cities, from Jenin to Hebron, was wrested away from the Palestinian security organizations, which were dismantled after failing to fulfill their role in curbing terror, and passed over to the Israeli defense establishment.

Every day since then, curfews and full closures are imposed on an alternating basis on the cities and villages of the West Bank, where life has been nearly paralyzed. Each day, leaders of military factions and those responsible for dispatching suicide bombers are captured or liquidated; and every week, we are informed of the discovery of explosives laboratories and the rounding up of wanted men. Nevertheless, it is clear that the infrastructure of terror in the occupied West Bank has not been impaired. Perhaps, it has even expanded.
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thanks to Aron's Israel Peace Weblog