Sorry to continue with Winograd, but this is priceless. Amir Peretz, the defence minister, who was harshly criticised by Winograd, thinks they were complimenting him. He sent out an e-mail showing how good he is.

* “It must be granted in the defense minister’s favor that if he had had enough time, he would have acquired the necessary qualifications” (clause 159)

Nobody argues that given enough time an infinite number of monkeys could write the entire works of Shakespeare (Actually people do argue, but that is a different matter). So because he knows nothing, was totally unsuitable for the post, and had no experience, we should be grateful that eventually he would have learned???

* “The minister asked fundamental questions, displayed fast understanding, judgment and straight thinking” (clause 143)

How fundamental? What is a war? Do we have an army? Where is Lebanon? These are all very good fundamental questions, but it is not so good for the man in charge of the entire operation to be asking fundamental questions.

* “The defense minister sometimes showed insights which more experienced persons than him did not discover, and he significantly contributed to discussion and decisions on the targets of the offensives” (clause 146).

Sometimes showed insights. Needs no comment. Contributed to discussions and decisions – with no military background, or knowledge (though given time and enough fundamental questions he would have figured out that he was playing ‘war’ not monopoly!)

Wake up and smell the coffee boys! The writing is on the wall!

This is what the verse means “The heart of kings is in the hand of G-d”. Our leaders lose their free choice at a certain point. They direct the nation in the way that G-d wants it to go.
So really it is our fault, not his. Peretz is the golem who G-d put in place to teach us to do teshuva.

So I say to myself – ‘wake up and smell the coffee’. If the emporor has no clothes it is because I (and everyone else) have failed to see the truth, refused to recognise that G-d runs the show, and instead gone along with the pretence that it is a very beautiful suit that he wears.

Chatanu, Pashanu, Avinu.