Sharp pen, cruel tongue

Israel has fueled hundreds of columns that he published from 1963 on, in hundreds of American newspapers, together with Rowland Evans and without him. Over the course of 25 years, the Israeli-Arab conflict engaged the "Crossfire" program on CNN, on which he would duel with a liberal rival. During that whole long period, Robert (Bob) Novak, the (former) Jew in the most famous duo of commentators in the world - Evans and Novak - never set foot in Israel.

In an interview with him during the intermediate days of Passover, at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem, Novak relates that Israel aroused Evans's enthusiasm and, in fact, of the two, it was Evans who held the Israel "portfolio." Even after Evans retired in 1993 (he died in 2001), Novak was in no hurry to visit Israel. He came here for the first time only last spring. The initiators of the visit were his good friend Dr. Deal Hudson, the director of the Morley Institute for Church and Culture, and Crisis Magazine. They invited Novak to look into the situation of their Christian brethren in the Holy Land.

This year he came for the second time, again with Hudson and the people from the magazine.