Word: masada
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When John Larew characterizes Americans who support Israel "because it is a Jewish state" as "Zealots," I am reminded of Golda Meir's sharp reply to a critic who asked her if Israel suffered from a "Masada complex" of last-stand heroism. (Masada was the last stand of Palestinian Jews against the Romans in A.D. 73.) "Yes, we do have a Masada complex," she replied. "We have a Masada complex, we have a Chmielnicki [where 100,000 Jews were murdered by Cossacks] complex, we have a Dachau complex...
...crowds to break all records. Foreign visitors would flock to the festivals or the spectacular $12 million staging of Verdi's Nabucco in the 5,000-seat Sultan's Pool. They would sample the rich history of Jerusalem, the flashing, clear waters of Eilat, the archaeological drama of Masada. Bracing for a flood of guests, Hyatt International unveiled a $60 million, 500-room hotel in Jerusalem. Airlines scheduled extra flights, and car-rental agencies planned to plump up their fleets. Israeli tourist officials, anticipating 1.5 million visitors and record revenues of more than $2 billion, launched an ad campaign saying...
Novelist Andre Brink (Knowledge of the Night), some of whose work has been banned in South Africa, agrees: "If faced with the ultimate choice between sharing and going under, the Masada complex need not prevail. There is still a chance -- small and diminishing rapidly -- of entering into the kind of dialectic with the present which may open up the future." Frederik van Zyl Slabbert was leader of the official opposition, the Progressive Federal Party, until he resigned in disgust last year, so his criticisms are hardly new. But he is also a former professor of sociology and thus well tuned...
...skit, Labor chastised Likud for seeming to claim that nothing had been accomplished in Israel before Begin came to power in 1977. "Did you hear, the Likud built Masada?" a comedian asked in a reference to the fabled mountain fortress at which Jewish warriors held off the Romans in the 1st century A.D. The Likud gave as good as it got by poking fun at Peres' ambiguous views. Imitating the Labor leader's voice, the jester answered one question...
Israel's illegal pre-independence army, Yadin used his knowledge of biblical history and ancient fortifications to help construct modern battle plans. Two decades later, after gaining acclaim for obtaining the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts, he led the excavations at the fortress of Masada, where he proved that nearly 1,000 Jewish defenders committed suicide in A.D. 73 rather than surrender to the Romans...