Word: aretz
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...Okamoto, the only survivor of the three-man Japanese murder team that carried out last year's massacre at Lod. His two companions were killed; Okamoto was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Israeli court. (At the time, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz made a disturbingly prophetic argument for executing Okamoto: "As long as the Japanese murderer is in Israeli hands, he becomes an operational objective, an invitation for murder and extortion against Israel and its citizens." In light of Israel's long-established practice of not yielding to blackmail, Okamoto...
...never had it so good," Israel's prestigious newspaper Ha'aretz told its readers last week as it editorially noted the second anniversary of the Suez Canal ceasefire. Few Israelis would disagree. Not only has there been no shooting along the canal, but terrorism by Arab fedayeen is down sharply, and, most important, the threat of a confrontation with Russia was removed when Soviet forces withdrew from Egypt. For the first time in all of its 24 years, Israel had no challenger in the Middle East-and in many ways was finding the new situation more difficult...
Israel's liberal, independent newspaper, Ha'aretz, last week headlined the court's decision: OKAMOTO WILL NOT BE A STAR IN ORION. Instead he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Prosecutor David Israeli, citing "the moral weakness of the defendant and those who sent him" and "our own moral strength," had asked for restraint, and the court agreed. In words intoned slowly to allow simultaneous translation into Japanese, Court President Abraham Frish said: "There is no punishment befitting the seriousness of the crime you have committed. This crime imprints the mark of Cain upon...
Reactions to the verdict were mixed. Okamoto was visibly disappointed. He wrote a request-later handed to Japanese Ambassador Eiji Tokura-that was scarcely likely to be granted: extradition to Japan, retrial, and the death penalty there. Some editorialists applauded Israeli justice, but Ha'aretz's military commentator, Ze'ev Schiff, pointed out a disturbing argument for executing Okamoto after all: "As long as the Japanese murderer is in Israeli hands, he becomes an operational objective, an invitation for murder and extortion against Israel and its citizens. In order to free Okamoto the Red Army is liable...
...bombers. No official totals have been mentioned, but knowledgeable estimates put the figure at 40 Phantoms and 80 Skyhawks. Both sides insist that Israel had given nothing in exchange, which seemed hard to believe. "Official denials do not have a very convincing ring," said the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz...