Netanyahu Returns  Since my wife began writing screenplays, I
get a lesson in the mechanics of a film each time we watch one
together. First lesson: Pay rapt attention to the opening
moments. Character is being revealed; the entire plot is being
laid out, though we may not yet understand how. Take the
monologue at the start of Michael Clayton, where in a manic
voiceover, a lawyer insists he's not insane but rather, that his
firm's work has left him covered in excrement from which he
cannot cleanse himself. Yes, we will learn, this madman is the
sole compass of sanity in a world where the law is utterly
befouled. It's all there, the whole story.  I suggest watching
the opening scenes of Benjamin Netanyahu's return to power --
call it Bibi II -- in the same way. It's not just that the
Netanyahu Cabinet, which met for the first time this Sunday, is
the largest in Israel's history or that key positions are held
by politicians manifestly unqualified to deal with the crises
that Israel faces. What's revealing is ho