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A Formative Attack

(Ha'aretz) Dan Rabinowitz- I lived in Sinai from 1975 to 1979 as a guide in the local field school of the Society for the Protection of Nature. For me, as for many others, the peninsula, with its magical landscapes and its hospitable inhabitants, was for years a window of hope in a hostile Middle East. Sinai was a sanctuary for an entire generation - my generation. The very existence of a calm Arab space as the direct land continuation of Israel was both significant and reassuring. The association that will define Sinai for most of us in the near future was last Thursday. Cut off from magical sunrises, it is now associated to a nightmare. Even those whose resumes don't include the sunrise at Jebel Umm-Shumar or bathing in the Wishwashi cisterns lost the Sinai paradise this week. And at a time of crisis, when every minute determines life or death, the Egyptians were preoccupied with the question of sovereignty.
2004-10-11 00:00:00
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