Spyer on Changing Times
Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, aka “Israel’s head of security” and “the nation’s de facto leader,” according to White
Jonathan Spyer describes the errors appearing in a Sunday Times interview with Tony Blair by Lesley White:
Lunch with Blair, we are told, takes place under parasols which overlook “east Jerusalem’s temples and mosques.” I have lived in Jerusalem for just under two decades. It does contain quite a large number of mosques. Temples, however, are conspicuous largely by their absence. The clue is that religions worshipping in temples – Hindus, Buddhists – have scant regard for Jerusalem, and hence don’t bother to build facilities for worship in it. . .
Lesley White mentions the “Palestinians I spoke to” in her article. These, however, do not seem to have been offset by any Israelis that were “spoken to” – at least they appear nowhere in the text. This perhaps explains another, more interesting error. Lesley White refers to a person described as Israel’s “head of security.” This person, apparently, is called Gabi Ashkenazi, and he is, Lesley White tells us, “considered by many the nation’s de facto leader.”
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