Israel Matzav

The Rude Awakening of Professor Aaron Ciechanover

Professor Steven Plaut has some surprising news about Professor Aaron Ciechanower: he's had an epiphany:

Everyone knows that Prof. Robert Aumann, the Nobel Prize wininng Israeli economist who leans to the starboard side (mean, the right), strongly opposed the abandonment of Gush Katif and the Olmert capitulation last summer.

Now another Nobel Prize winner has spoken out. Only this time, it is in some ways more significant. That is because Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, a Technion chemist, in the past paid lip-service to touchy-feely peace making and "converting swords into Technion labs" and things of that sort and has long been well left of center. But on Oct 27, 06, the professor was interviewed in Yediot Ahronot, together with Aumann. The interview is not available on line, but as part of the interview, this
other Nobel Prize winning Israeli said the following:

"Until a few months ago I would not have agreed with Prof. Robert Aumann. Today, even though I have not altered my basic position within the Israeli political spectrum, I must agree with him. Last year I was all in favor of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, which seemed to me an act of unilateral goodwill and generosity towards the Palestinians. I hoped they would respond in kind, but I was wrong.

"After the unilateral withdrawal (by Israel) all we got was terror and more terror. The whole idea of unilateral concessions has gone completely bankrupt and along with it the entire soap bubble of a party that was established on its basis has gone bankrupt (he means Kadima -- SP). True, it is still in power but what message does it have for today? This party and the entire government do not have so much as a shred of an agenda...."

While we are discussing errors in judgment, let me add my own. I had been under the impression that Haifa academics were unaffected by the 4000 katyushas that landed on northern Israel and so the naifs and pipedreamers among them were no smarter than before the war. But at least one important academic has been woken up by the booms of the katyushas.

The English web site of Yediot runs an abridged version of the article in question here but it cuts out the offending passage in which Professor Aaron Ciechanover describes his entrance into the real world.

I asked Steven where he found this, and he told me it was in a weekly Torah portion leaflet. Once he saw it there he tracked down the original article in the print edition and translated it as above. The quote never appeared on the Hebrew web site either. Hmmm.

Update 8:30 AM

You can now find the full interview with Professors Aumann and Ciechanover here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:48 PM