MK Michael Eitan of the Likud made a blistering verbal attack on several Arab MKs this morning. When Arab MK Ahmed Tibi heckled and interrupted him in the middle of his speech, Eitan told him from the Knesset podium, "MK Tibi, you don't determine anything here... I see you as someone who endangers my existence here, someone who aids terrorism..." Tibi was in fact a top aide to PLO terrorist chieftain Yasser Arafat in the past. Eitan then continued, "Dr. Tibi, Dr. Zchalke [referring to a new Arab MK] - how did [you] become doctors? In the merit of the State of Israel and its educational system, and its universities, and the Knesset and the democracy here - and yet you open your mouths and vilify it..."



Eitan's timing was a bit off, however. It ironically turns out that just yesterday, Dr. Tibi - a gynecologist by profession - helped save the life of a Knesset guest. Baruch Desta, a former IDF combat officer and an immigrant from Ethiopia, arrived with his wife at the Knesset to take part in a luncheon for those to be given the honor of lighting a torch at the official Independence Day ceremony tomorrow night. Mr. Desta fainted shortly after receiving his award - and Dr. Tibi was called to the scene and prevented him from swallowing his tongue.



To be fair, however, it should be noted that in addition to his former official position as Arafat-aide, Tibi has been tried, or nearly tried, more than once on charges of violence. In 1987, it was reported that Tibi was fired as a doctor in Hadassah Hospital after he "hit a security guard with his briefcase on the skull," according to a hospital spokesman, "and left him lying on the floor bleeding. [The guard] needed several stitches." In 1998, Tibi was involved in an incident with a Druze Border Guard policeman, in which Tibi allegedly struck and humiliated him; the charges were dropped after Tibi was elected to the Knesset. In July 2001, Yehuda Levinger of Jerusalem filed a police complaint charging that Tibi had punched him during a Knesset committee session. Several months earlier, a Jerusalem court found that Tibi was not telling the truth when he accused three Kach activists of assaulting him.



In the Knesset this morning, MK Eitan had been in the midst of responding to remarks made by Labor MK Avraham Shochat when heckled by Tibi and Zchalke. Shochat, a former Finance Minister, had said that the only economic plan with a chance to succeed is the plan known as the Road Map [which calls for a Palestinian state on the areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza]. Eitan took exception to this, saying, "Can it possibly be that you think that the State of Israel cannot solve its economic problems unless the Palestinian Authority condescends to agree to stop its terrorism against Israel?!" MK Eitan said he was surprised at Shochat, "whose family has a long history of settling the Land of Israel... We came here decades ago to a desolate land--" at which point the Arab MKs began angrily protesting his remarks.