Where in the world would somebody get the idea to plant a homemade bomb at the door of an ideological opponent?

I'll tell you. In 1952, a bomb was planted at the door of Transportation Minister David Zvi Pinkas. The house was severely damaged and Pinkas, who was home but not directly injured, dies two months later of a heart attack. Police caught radical writer, Amos Keinan, leaving the scene. Keinan stood trial for the bombing and was acquitted for lack of evidence, though he was widely believed to have perpetrated the act along with Shaltiel Ben-Yair.

Keinan's wife, Nurit Graetz, has just written a biography of him, in which she reports that he was indeed guilty. He confessed to her that he bombed Pinkas's house to protest Pinkas's religious world-view.

Keinan was no angry teenager. He has been a prominent spokesman for the radical left in Israel since the founding of the State. He is the toast of the very people who are certain that the very foundations of Israeli democracy are under threat because of the Sternhell ("to know him is to need an alibi") incident.

And, of course, he and Sternhell are no strangers to each other. They were co-signed on a petition to the High Court in 2003, against the appointment of Dan Halutz as Ramatkal, on the grounds that he ordered the bombing of Saleh Shehade in Gaza. The petititioners are an all-star team of pernicious characters, who further appealed to international tribunals to arrest Israeli army commanders.

Unfortunately, Keinan is too senile to offer a sanctimonious condemnation of the Sternhell bombing, but fear not. Yehonatan Gefen has decided that today is just the day to write a glowing testimonial to Amos Keinan, along with an enthusiastic recommendation of Graetz's book.