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"I WAS reminded this week of the old tale about a Jewish mother taking leave of her son, who has been called up to serve in the Czar`s army against the Turks.

'Don`t exert yourself too much,' she admonishes him, 'Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again…'

'But mother,' he exclaims, 'What if the Turk kills me?'

'Kill you?' she cries out, 'Why? What have you done to him?'

This is not a joke (and this is not a week for jokes). It is a lesson in psychology. I was reminded of it when I read Ehud Olmert`s statement that more than anything else he was furious about the outburst of joy in Gaza after the attack in Jerusalem, in which eight yeshiva students were killed.

Before that, last weekend, the Israeli army killed 120 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them civilians, among them dozens of children. That was not 'kill a Turk and rest.' That was 'kill a hundred Turks and rest.' But Olmert does not understand."

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