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Uri Avnery is a longtime Israeli peace activist. Since 1948 has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with PLO leadership. In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yassir Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut. He served three terms in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc). Visit his Website.
Friday, February 10, 2012 Storm over Hebron (9 comments)
Shortly after the occupation of the West Bank in the Six-day War, a group of fanatical messianic Jews infiltrated Hebron by stealth and founded the first Jewish settlement. This grew into a veritable nest of extremism, including some out-and-out fascists.
Saturday, January 28, 2012 Hurrah for Egypt!
A revolution reflects the character of its people. I always had a special liking for the Egyptian people, because they are -- by and large -- devoid of aggressiveness and violence. They are a singularly patient and humorous lot. You can see this in thousands of years of recorded history and you can see it in daily life in the street.
Saturday, January 21, 2012 The Blockbusters
"ISRAEL HAS no foreign policy, only a domestic policy," Henry Kissinger once remarked. This has probably been more or less true of every country since the advent of democracy. Yet in Israel, this seems even truer. (Ironically, it could almost be said that the US has no foreign policy, only an Israeli domestic policy.)
Saturday, January 14, 2012 The Shining Torch (1 comments)
I fervently hope that a different kind of new political force will emerge -- a center-left party with a clear and inclusive message: social reform, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, the two-state solution, peace with the Palestinians and the end of the occupation. The next few months will tell whether the Shining Torch will continue to shine -- and on what exactly.
Friday, January 6, 2012 The Stolen War
If Israel attacks alone,it will make no difference. Iran will consider it an American action, and close the strait. That's why the Obama administration put its foot down, and hand-delivered to Netanyahu and Ehud Barak an unequivocal order to abstain from any military action. That's where we are now. No war in Iran.
Friday, December 30, 2011 Shukran, Israel (2 comments)
IF ISLAMIST movements come to power all over the region, they should express their debt of gratitude to their bête noire, Israel. Without the active or passive help of successive Israeli governments, they may not have been able to realize their dreams.
Friday, December 23, 2011 The Duke of Nablus
THE NAME of Munib al-Masri has recently come up as a possible candidate for Prime Minister of a Palestinian national unity government. Not being a member of either Fatah or Hamas, he is acceptable to both. Al-Masri himself denies any such ambition. He says that he is too old (77), and that a younger generation of Palestinians should take over.
Saturday, December 17, 2011 "With Friends Like These"
It would certainly be ironic if the members of the "invented" Palestinian nation were expected to ask for recognition from the members of the "invented" Jewish/Israeli nation, at the demand of a member of the "invented" American nation, a person who, by the way, is of mixed German, English, Scottish and Irish stock.
Sunday, December 11, 2011 The Fearmongers (1 comments)
Faced with such petrifying danger, nobody asks the relevant question: why would any Iranian leader attack a country that has plenty of nuclear bombs of its own and the ability to devastate all of Iran in a "second strike"? Let's overcome our fear of fear itself. And, while we are at it, let's kick the fearmongers out.
Saturday, December 3, 2011 The King's Speech
At some time, when international conditions are opportune -- some huge international disaster that rivets attention to some other part of the world, a big war, or such -- the government will drive out the non-Jewish population. Where to? Geography dictates the answer: to Jordan. Or, rather, to the future State of Palestine in what was once Jordan.
Saturday, November 26, 2011 A Day in November -- A Day to Remember (3 comments)
THE 1947 partition plan was an exceptionally intelligent document. Its details are obsolete now, but its basic idea is as relevant today as it was 64 years ago. On the 64th anniversary of this historic event, we must go back to its basic principle: Israel and Palestine, Two States for Two Peoples.
Friday, November 18, 2011 Weimar Revisited -- It Can Happen HERE (1 comments)
ISRAELI DEMOCRACY is under siege. No one can ignore this anymore. It is the main topic in the Knesset, which is leading the attack, and the media, who are among the victims.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 "YOU are Fed Up?" (1 comments)
In spite of the general assumption of mendacity, it is not good for a leader to be branded as a habitual liar. When leaders meet personally, in private and face to face, they are supposed to tell each other the truth, even if not necessarily the whole truth. Some personal trust is of great advantage. If a leader loses it, he loses a precious asset.
Friday, November 4, 2011 "Hold Me Back!" (1 comments)
Iran is about to produce a nuclear bomb. We cannot allow this. So we shall bomb them to smithereens. Binyamin Netanyahu says so in every one of his countless speeches, including his opening speech at the winter session of the Knesset. Let's be serious for a moment. ISRAEL WILL not attack Iran. Period.
Friday, October 28, 2011 A View From the Villa
THE OBAMA administration was clever enough to jump on the bandwagon of the Arab revolutions, though at the very last moment. We Israelis did not have this sense. Our Islamophobia has caused us to miss a golden opportunity for a new image among the young Arab revolutionaries.
Saturday, October 22, 2011 Everybody's Son
How to thwart the efforts to capture more soldiers? There is only one alternative: to open a credible way to have them released by agreement.
Such as by peace, if you can excuse the expression.
Sunday, October 16, 2011 The Second Herzl
It is far more than a matter of politics, to substitute one party for another. It is even far more than making peace with the Palestinian people, ending the occupation, evacuating the settlements. It is to effect a basic change of the national consciousness, the consciousness of every Israeli man and woman. Can it be done? I think so. I certainly hope so.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 The More Enemies, The More Honor
There is no national debate, only a vague desire to keep everything. Rightist Zionists want to hold onto all of historical Palestine, leftist Zionists want to hold on to as much of it as possible. That's as far as the thinking goes.
Saturday, October 1, 2011 Mutiny on the Titanic (2 comments)
There is the moral question: can you really chant "the People Demand Social Justice" and ignore the daily oppression of four million Palestinians in the occupied territories? When you abandon your principles on the way to power, what are you likely to do with that power?
Friday, September 23, 2011 Abu Mazen's Gamble (1 comments)
The Palestinians, of course, should have a state of their own. Sure, sure. But they must not be pushy. They must not embarrass the US. They must not come to the UN. They must sit with the Israelis, like reasonable people, and work it out with them. The reasonable sheep must sit down with the reasonable wolf and decide what to have for dinner. Foreigners should not interfere.
Saturday, September 17, 2011 Sad and Happy (1 comments)
Three days ago, Binyamin Netanyahu told Cathy Ashton, the pathetic "foreign secretary" of the European Union, that he would agree to anything short of Palestinian statehood. That may sound strange, in view of the "historic" speech he made less than two years ago, in which he expressed his support for the Two-State Solution. (Perhaps he was thinking of the State of Israel and the State of the Settlers.)
Friday, September 9, 2011 Daphne and Itzik
Israel is becoming more and more isolated. Just before stepping down, the US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, warned that Netanyahu is "endangering Israel." The Palestinian application to the UN for recognition of the State of Palestine may lead to a severe crisis; the conflict with Turkey is becoming more dangerous by the day; in Egypt and other awakening Arab countries, anti-Israeli sentiments are reaching new heights.
Friday, September 2, 2011 Dogs of War (2 comments)
The fact remains that the settlements are by far the main obstacle to peace and the welfare state. Not just because of their cost, not just because of the pogroms their inhabitants carry out from time to time, not just because of the way they dominate the political system. But because of their very existence.
Monday, August 29, 2011 To The Shores of Tripoli
Though the Bible tells us 'Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth' (Proverbs 24:17), I could not help myself. I was happy.
Saturday, August 27, 2011 To The Shores of Tripoli (5 comments)
I have this irrational abhorrence of bloody dictators, of genocidal mass-murderers, of leaders who wage war on their own people. And at my advanced age, it is difficult for me to change.
Saturday, August 20, 2011 The Return of the Generals (2 comments)
The youngsters in the tents joked that "Bibi" could not change his opinions, because he has none. But that is a mistake -- he does indeed have very definite opinions on both the national and the social levels: "the whole of Eretz Israel" on the one, and Reagan-Thatcher economic orthodoxy on the other.
Friday, August 12, 2011 Dichter's Law
It is impossible to describe the sheer energy emanating from this crowd, consisting mostly of 20-30-year-olds. History, like a gigantic eagle, could be felt beating its wings above. It was a jubilant mass, conscious of its immense power.
Friday, August 5, 2011 "How Goodly Are Thy Tents" (1 comments)
This has now become the center of Israeli life. The Rothschild tent city has assumed a life of its own -- a cross between Tahrir Square and Woodstock, with a touch of Hyde Park corner thrown in for good measure. The mood is indescribably upbeat, masses of people come to visit and return home full of enthusiasm and hope. Everybody can feel that something momentous is happening.
Friday, July 22, 2011 The Charge of the New York Times or - Baksheesh for the Doorkeeper (1 comments)
The NYT is, perhaps, the most "pro-Israel" paper in the whole world, including Israel itself. Anti-Semites call it the Jew York Times. But this week, the NYT published a blistering editorial criticizing Israel. Perhaps -- just perhaps! -- even the New York Times could be starting to report on the reality of our country.
Saturday, July 16, 2011 It Can Happen Here!
A small group of minor parliamentarians is terrorizing the Knesset majority and can pass any law at all. The power of the settlers is immense, and moderate right-wing members are rightly afraid that, if they are not radical enough, they will not be re-elected by the Likud Central Council, which selects the candidates for the party list.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 Instilled Memory (3 comments)
Binyamin Netanyahu has affirmed our unshakable determination to defend our country: We shall not let anyone break the blockade to smuggle rockets to the terrorists in Gaza, who will then launch them to kill our innocent children. This is a kind of record even for Netanyahu -- not a single word is true.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 The Jewish Ayatollahs (1 comments)
The entire religious community, with all its diverse factions, now belongs to the rightist, ultra-nationalist camp (except for pitiful little outposts like Reform and Conservative Jewry, who are the majority among American Jews). Transforming Israel into a Halakha state means castrating the democratic system and turning Israel into a second Iran governed by Jewish ayatollahs.
Saturday, June 25, 2011 Sacred Mantras (1 comments)
The Palestinians must be condemned for their impertinent effort to resort to "unilateral" action. Binyamin Netanyahu says so. Barack Obama says so. Hillary Clinton says so. Angela Merkel says so. It has become a mantra. One more mantra. It might have been thought that the Israeli-Palestinian arena is so full of mantras, that there is no room for more. But there always is.
Sunday, June 19, 2011 Deny! Deny! (1 comments)
Herzl himself did not dream of a state that belongs to all the Jews in the world. his vision was that all real Jews would go to the Judenstaat (whether in Argentina or Palestine, he had not yet decided). They -- and only they -- would thenceforth remain "Jews." All the others would become assimilated in their host nations and cease altogether to be Jews.
Saturday, June 11, 2011 A Brown-haired Young Man (1 comments)
Instead of countering the protesters with effective non-lethal means, Israeli soldiers kill people. This will, of course, intensify the protests, mobilize masses of refugees and put the "refugee problem" squarely on the table, in the center of the table, before negotiations have even started.
Friday, June 3, 2011 RACHEL Avnery; a Memorium (4 comments)
A touching, poignant obituary for Rachel Avnery, Urin Avnery's wife for 58 years.
IN EARLY 1993, when Yitzhak Rabin deported 215 Islamic activists across the Lebanese border, protest tents were erected opposite his office. We camped out for 45 wintry days. Rachel, the only woman who was there the whole time, In these tents, we founded Gush Shalom. For her, the injustice done to the Palestinians was intolerable.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Bibi and the Yo-Yos (4 comments)
There is a good chance that Obama will pretend that the spittle on his cheek is rainwater. His promise to prevent a UN General Assembly recognition of the State of Palestine deprived him of his main leverage over Netanyahu.
Saturday, May 14, 2011 Rubber Man
At that time Peres realized that peace, as an abstract idea, was good for him. He became the prophet of "the New Middle East," endlessly talking about it, doing nothing for it. When Yasser Arafat initiated what became the Oslo Agreement, Peres embraced it enthusiastically and claimed sole authorship.
Saturday, May 7, 2011 "Rejoice Not ..." (2 comments)
Bin Laden's villa was bound to attract the attention of neighbors and other people. They would have been curious about this mysterious stranger in their midst. Actually, he should have been discovered long ago. He was unarmed and did not put up a fight. The decision to kill him on the spot and dump his body in the sea was evidently taken long before.
Friday, April 29, 2011 One Word
Netanyahu and his band of peace saboteurs want to prevent Palestinian unity at all costs. They do not want peace, because peace would prevent Israel from achieving the Zionist goals, as they conceive them: a Jewish state in all of historical Palestine, from the sea to the Jordan River (at least). The conflict is going to last for a long, long time to come, and the more divided the enemy, the better.
Saturday, April 23, 2011 Tahrir Square, Tel Aviv (2 comments)
A movement that appears out of nowhere, a movement that carries the future in its womb, cannot speak the language of yesterday. It must bring with it a new language -- a new terminology, new slogans. Such a language is not born in a public relations agency. Those who copy the language of their predecessors are condemned to continue on the path of their predecessors.
Sunday, April 17, 2011 The Settler State
If it is true that the US Congress is controlled by the Israel lobby, then this lobby is controlled by the Israeli government, which is controlled by the settlers. (Like the joke about the dictator who said: The world is afraid of our country, the country is afraid of me, I am afraid of my wife, my wife is afraid of a mouse. So who rules the world?)
Saturday, April 9, 2011 The Gold and the Stone
Goldstone, the Man of Stone, has become Goldstone, the Man of Gold. A man of conscience! A man to be admired!It was, of course, Binyamin Netanyahu who had the final word. Goldstone's recantation, he summarized, has confirmed once again that the IDF is the Most Moral Army in the World.
Friday, April 1, 2011 Napoleon's Dictum (3 comments)
In Hebrew we say: He who starts doing a good deed must finish it. Qaddafi must be removed, the Libyan people must be given a decent chance to take their fate into their own hands. So, too, the Syrian people, the Yemenites, the Bahrainis and all the others. I don't know where it will lead them -- each of them in their own country. I can only wish them well -- and hope.
Saturday, March 26, 2011 Who is annexing Whom?
But the law is not only anti-democratic and discriminatory, it is also blatantly annexationist. By a simple semantic trick, in less than a sentence, the lawmakers do what successive Israeli governments did not dare to do: they annex the Palestinian occupied territories to Israel.
Sunday, March 20, 2011 A Dirty Word (4 comments)
Centuries ago, it was accepted that every nation is responsible for the capture and trial of pirates, irrespective of where and against whom their crimes were committed. This principle should be applied now to crimes committed by regimes against their citizens. Muammar Qaddafi should be caught and put on trial.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 The Dwarfs
After peace, with the free and sovereign State of Palestine becoming a full member of the UN, a reformed regional structure, including Israel, perhaps Turkey and, even Iran, will move into the realm of reality. It will not happen as long as our political and intellectual life is dominated by Netanyahu, Lieberman, Barak, Eli Yishai, Tzipi Livni, Shimon Peres and their ilk. The stage must be cleared of this whole crop of dwarfs.
Saturday, March 5, 2011 Wrong Side
It was been leaked that Netanyahu is going to give a historic speech -- another one -- very soon. Not in the Knesset, whose importance is approaching nil, but in the really important forum: AIPAC, the Jewish lobby in Washington. There he will unfold his Peace Plan, whose details have also been leaked. A wonderful plan, with only one minor defect: it has nothing to do with peace.
Monday, February 28, 2011 A Crazy Prophet (3 comments)
Much has been said about the part played by the social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, in the revolutions that are now turning the Arab world upside down. But for sheer influence, Aljazeera trumps them all. During the last decade, it has changed the Arab world beyond recognition. In the last few weeks, it has wrought miracles.
Saturday, February 19, 2011 The Genie is out of the Bottle (1 comments)
The Arab Awakening is not a matter of months or a few years. It may well be a prolonged struggle, with many failures and defeats, but the genie will not return to the bottle. The images of the 18 days in Tahrir Square will be kept alive in the hearts of an entire new generation from Marakksh to Mosul, and any new dictatorship that emerges here or there will not be able to erase them.
Saturday, February 12, 2011 Tsunami in Egypt
Mubarak's pathetic speech on Thursday was the straw that broke the back of the Egyptian camel. It showed that he had lost contact with reality or, worse, was mentally deranged. But even an unbalanced dictator would not have made such an atrocious speech had he not believed that America was still on his side.
Friday, February 4, 2011 Villa in the Jungle?
When Egypt moves, the Arab world follows. Whatever transpires in the immediate future in Egypt -- democracy or an army dictatorship -- it is only a matter of (a short) time before the dictators fall all over the Arab world, and the masses will shape a new reality, without the generals.
Friday, January 28, 2011 The Aljazeera Scandal
THE ALJAZEERA disclosures are inopportune. Such delicate negotiations are better conducted in secret. The idea that "the people should be part of the negotiations" is naïve. The people should certainly be consulted, but not before a draft agreement lies on the table and they can decide whether they like the whole bundle or not.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 Gush on Disclosures
Release of the Palestine Papers revealed many side issues, but the one -- the only -- critical issue is who actually has a partner for peace.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 The World is no Golem
That is the writing on the wall. The present Israeli government is leading us towards disaster. But this week this government was shored-up even more, when Ehud Barak, the pocket Napoleon, finally abandoned all pretense of belonging to the social-democratic left and set up a clearly rightist party, something like Likud II, that will be a loyal partner of Netanyahu and Lieberman.
Saturday, January 15, 2011 The Crown and the Coals
The present crisis started with the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the Sunni Prime Minister, whose place was filled by his son, Saad al-Din Rafiq al-Hariri. An international investigation was set in motion. To forestall the report, Hezbollah and its allies this week brought down the coalition government.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 Hi, Joe! (1 comments)
If a serious inquiry committee investigates the financing of the extreme right, it will discover that much of it comes straight from the pocket of the American taxpayer. That is one of the great scandals: the US government is financing many of the settlements. Mr. Binyamin Netanyahu, sir, have you no sense of decency left?
Saturday, January 1, 2011 Interim Forever! (3 comments)
Netanyahu, of course, has no peace plan. His declared position is that the Palestinians must return to direct negotiations without prior conditions, but only after they officially recognize Israel as "the state of the Jewish people" (or, in another version, as a "Jewish and democratic state.") It is clear that the Palestinians cannot be expected to agree to any such prior condition.
Saturday, December 25, 2010 "The Darkness to Expel!" (2 comments)
The situation here is now moving in the opposite direction: the country is embracing the racist demon. After millennia as the victims of racism, it seems as if Jews here are happy to be able to do unto others what has been done to them. It is impossible to ignore the central role played by rabbis in this filthy mess. They ride the wave and assert that this is the spirit of Judaism. They quote the holy texts at length.
Sunday, December 19, 2010 Ship of Fools 2 (1 comments)
The sky is the limit for our achievements. In several rounds we have thrown Barack Obama on the boards. The frantic scurrying around of Hillary Clinton and George Mitchel is simply pathetic. The settlement construction, which has not really stopped for a moment, is gathering even more momentum. The Israeli government rules Washington DC more firmly than ever.
Monday, October 25, 2010 Is Israel on the Verge of a Fascist Takeover? (2 comments)
In almost every country there are demagogues who build their careers on incitement against the weak and helpless, who advocate the expulsion of "foreigners" and the persecution of minorities. In the past they were easy to dismiss, as was Hitler at the beginning of his career. Now they must be taken seriously. ...Israel's very existence is threatened by fascism. It can lead our state to destruction.
Saturday, October 9, 2010 Bibi; His Father's Boy
Netanyahu will never agree to be responsible for the establishment of the State of Palestine, will never conduct serious peace negotiations -- unless under extreme duress. That is all there is to it, everything else is hollow talk.
Sunday, September 5, 2010 On the Way to Washington: Damage Control
Can one rely on Obama? They say that after the elections in November he will be free of Jewish pressure. But then he will already start to think about the presidential election in two years' time. Only if he is reelected -" and I am not at all sure that this will happen -" will he be able to act without fear of AIPAC.
Saturday, August 28, 2010 Red and Green (1 comments)
Channel 10, one of Israel's three TV channels, aired a report this week that surely frightened a lot of viewers. Its title was "Who is Organizing the World-wide Hatred of Israel Movement?," and its subject: the dozens of groups in various countries which are conducting a vigorous propaganda campaign for the Palestinians and against Israel.
Saturday, August 21, 2010 When You Say No, Or -- Poisonous Mushrooms (12 comments)
In the mouths of our new mini-McCarthys, it has become a simple denunciation. A post-Zionist is a traitor, an Arab-lover, a lackey of the enemy, an agent of the sinister world-wide conspiracy to destroy the Jewish State.
Sunday, June 20, 2010 A Flash of Lightning (7 comments)
For two generations, our foreign policy used the Holocaust as its main instrument. The bad conscience of the world determined its attitude towards Israel. The (justified) guilt feelings -" either for atrocities committed or for looking the other way -" caused Europe and America to treat Israel differently than any other nation -" from nuclear armaments to the settlements.
Saturday, June 5, 2010 Kill a Turk and Rest (1 comments)
It is clear that we, the Jews, are the victims. Always. That applies to Jewish soldiers, too. True, we storm a foreign ship at sea, but turn at once into victims who have no choice but to defend ourselves against violent and incited anti-Semites.
Saturday, May 29, 2010 A Day in November (2 comments)
AIPAC is blackmailing Obama and, until now, it has been successful. It will go on doing so after November. Obama should face up to the idea and decide: this is it -- no more. Will he have the courage to do so? I don't know. I hope.
Saturday, May 22, 2010 Hallelujah, The World Is Against Us! (3 comments)
81-year old Noam Chomsky arrived at the Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River on his way from Amman to Birzeit University near Ramallah. The Israeli authorities knew in advance of his coming. A young official asked him questions, contacted his superiors and returned to ask more questions, contacted his superiors again, then stamped his passport: "Entry Denied."
Thursday, April 8, 2010 "Hold Me Back!" (2 comments)
Whatever the rantings of Ahmadinejad, the real rulers of the country, the clerics, conduct a cautious and sober policy, and have never attacked another country. They have many important interests, and Israel is not among them. The idea that they would sacrifice their own glorious homeland in order to destroy Israel is ludicrous.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 A Matter of Timing (5 comments)
As the saying goes: when you spit in the face of a weakling, he pretends that it is raining. Does this apply to the president of the most powerful country in the world? Biden and Obama did not give much cause for hope. They wiped the spit off their faces and smiled politely.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Federation? Why Not? (3 comments)
The more trust between the parties develops, the easier it will be to deepen the partnership and to widen the powers of the joint institutions. Perhaps, at this stage, conditions may be ripe for the founding of a wider association of the entire region, on the lines of the European Union.
Saturday, October 3, 2009 A Story of Betrayal (2 comments)
Gilad Shalit is a prisoner of war. The denial started at the first moment. The Israeli government refused to call the capture by its proper name and insisted that it was an “abduction” or even “kidnapping.”
Saturday, July 25, 2009 Mr. Obama: Yes, You Can! (1 comments)
A historic responsibility rests on the shoulders of Barack Obama: not to fold, not to give in, not to "compromise". To insist on the total freeze of the settlements, as a first and necessary step towards peace. For his sake, and for ours too.
Sunday, June 28, 2009 Between Tel Aviv and Tehran (20 comments)
In many revolutions, the decisive moment arrives when the crowds in the street confront the soldiers and policemen, and the question arises: will they open fire on their own people? When the soldiers refuse, the revolution wins. When they shoot, that is the end of the matter.
When Boris Yeltsin climbed on the tank, the solders refused to shoot and he won. The Berlin wall fell because one East-German police officer refused
Sunday, June 7, 2009 The Tone and the Music; Reaction to Obama's Cairo Speech (21 comments)
Avnery, the Israeli peacenik despised and reviled by Israeli rightwingers, who is usually highly critical of Israeli and US policy, offers some surprising observations.
Monday, May 11, 2009 Does Iran Resemble Nazi Germany? (19 comments)
Like a traveling salesman offering a counterfeit product, Peres is now peddling the merchandise called Binyamin Netanyahu. He presents to the world a Netanyahu we have never known: a peacemaker, the epitome of truthfulness, a man with no other ambition than to go down in history as the founder of the State of Palestine.
Saturday, January 24, 2009 On the Wrong Side (6 comments)
Between Israel and the US, a gap has opened this week, a narrow gap, but it may widen into an abyss. Israeli leaders are now boasting about their part in the Gaza War, in which unbridled military force was unleashed intentionally against a civilian population, men, women and children, with the declared aim of "creating deterrence." In the era that began last Tuesday, such expressions can only arouse shudders.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 King of the Planet (2 comments)
THE PRESIDENT of the United States is the king of this planet. I live on this planet. Therefore, the election of the President concerns me, too.
Saturday, March 22, 2008 TWO AMERICAS; Israeli lefty peacenik Uri Avnery on Obama (5 comments)
I spent some years struggling against Golda Meir, the worst Prime Minister Israel ever had. Almost all recent female leaders of countries have started wars: Margaret Thatcher started the Falklands War, Golda Meir bears the responsibility for the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Indira Gandhi made war on Pakistan, the current presidents of the Philippines and Sri Lanka are conducting internal wars.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 The Clash of Civilizations; Mother of All Pretexts (2 comments)
When I hear mention of the "Clash of Civilizations" I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.
To laugh, because it is such a silly notion.
To cry, because it is liable to cause untold disasters.
To cry even more, because our leaders are exploiting this slogan as a pretext for sabotaging any possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. It is just one more in a long line of pretexts.
Sunday, July 22, 2007 A Trap for Fools; Cowboy Philosophy in the Middle East
George Bush, who grew up on the American Western, Good Guy-Bad Guy myth, sticks to it even now, when he is the leader of the world's only superpower. In this western - or, rather, middle eastern - The good Guys are the "moderates", who are the allies of the US in the Middle East - Israel, Mahmoud Abbas and the pro-American Arab regimes. The bad ones are Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran, Syria and al-Qaeda.
Monday, July 2, 2007 The Dirty Word Never Said: Occupation (2 comments)
THERE NEVER was a darker Middle East summit meeting. The darkest there can be.
Saturday, June 16, 2007 Crocodile Tears for Gaza (9 comments)
In the eyes of Hamas, the attack on the Fatah strongholds in the Gaza Strip is a preventive war.
How could the American and Israeli generals miscalculate so badly? They are able to think only in strictly military terms: so-and-so many soldiers, so-and-so many machine guns. But in interior struggles in particular, quantitative calculations are secondary. The morale of the fighters and public sentiment are far more important.
Saturday, April 21, 2007 The Bed of Sodom
Relations between the [Israeli] settlers and the Palestinians are in many ways reminiscent of apartheid; and even in Israel proper, the Arab citizens are far from real equality.
Saturday, January 13, 2007 Murder in Broad Daylight; Manara Square, Ramallah (1 comments)
As always, the place was teeming with people. Manara Square is the heart of Ramallah, full of life, both walking and driving. When people realized what was going on, they started to throw stones at the soldiers. These responded by shooting wildly in all directions. Four bystanders were killed, more than 30 wounded.
Saturday, November 25, 2006 An Evening in Jounieh
The one way Israel can win a war in Lebanon.
DURING THE first Lebanon war, I visited Jounieh, a town some 20 km north of Beirut. At the time, it served as a port for the Christian forces. It was an exciting evening.
In spite of the war raging in nearby Beirut, Jounieh was full of life. The Christian elite spent the day in the sun-drenched marina, the women lounging in bikinis, the men slugging whisky...
Sunday, October 29, 2006 Who is Afraid of the Iranian Bomb? (1 comments)
The nuclear genie is out of the bottle, and is spreading throughout the world.
Monday, October 16, 2006 The Great Experiment (1 comments)
How can a population that is starving, that lacks the basics for its primitive hospitals and is bombarded by attacks on land, from sea and from the air, hold out?
Thursday, October 5, 2006 Peace with Syria - Lunch in Damascus (1 comments)
Once while, traveling in a taxi, I had an argument with the driver--a profession associated in Israel with extreme right-wing views. I tried in vain to convince him of the desirability of peace with the Arabs. In our country, which has never seen a single day of peace in the last hundred years, peace can seem like something out of science fiction.
Thursday, September 28, 2006 A Leadership Vacuum and the Threat of Fascism
Calls in Israel for a more US-style government, with a President with a four year term, who cannot be voted out by Parlaiment are based on a feeling of defeat, a climate of distrust and are really a disguised call for an all-powerful leader. Vigilance is necessary to prevent fascism.
Monday, September 25, 2006 Pope Benedict XVI in the service of George W. Bush (7 comments)
Muhammad's sword; There have been times when Emperors and Popes have been at peace, or have been antagonists. Now is a time when a wonderful harmony exists between George Bush, II and Pope Benedict XVI. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a worldwide storm, went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism", in the context of the "clash of civilizations". Here's a bit of history to pu the Pope's words in context.
Saturday, September 16, 2006 Help! Peacemongers!
GUESS WHOSE words these are: "Starting this war was a scandal...It was possible to solve the problem of the missiles in South Lebanon by diplomatic means...The offensive of the last two days of the war, in which 33 soldiers were killed after the cease-fire resolution had already been accepted, was a spin of the Prime Minister...The Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense and the Chief-of-Staff must resign..."
Monday, September 4, 2006 When Napoleon Won at Waterloo (1 comments)
Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo. The German Wehrmacht won World War II. The United States won in Vietnam, and the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Zealots won against the Romans, and Ehud Olmert won the Second Lebanon War. You didn't know that?
Saturday, August 26, 2006 America's Rottweiler (1 comments)
IN HIS latest speech, which infuriated so many people, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uttered a sentence that deserves attention: "Every new Arab generation hates Israel more than the previous one."
Of all that has been said about the Second Lebanon War, these are perhaps the most important words.
Saturday, August 19, 2006 The 155th Victim
WITH A few words, a Lebanese army officer destroyed, the day before yesterday, the illusion that Israel had achieved anything in this war.
Sunday, August 13, 2006 What the hell has happened to the Israeli army? (1 comments)
Defeat can be a great blessing for an army. Even a strong army cannot defeat a guerilla organization, because the guerilla is a political phenomenon. Our conflict - in the North, the Center and the South - is a political conflict, and can only be resolved by political means.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006 Who? Me?
This war is being fought on the backs of the weak, who cannot afford to "evacuate themselves" from the rockets' area. The rich and well-to-do have got out long ago - in Israel as well as in Lebanon. The poor, the old, the sick and the handicapped remain in the shelters. They are the main sufferers.
Wednesday, August 2, 2006 The Knife in the Back (1 comments)
THE DAY after this new mideast war will be the Day of the Long Knives.
Everybody will blame everybody else. The politicians will blame each other. The generals will blame each other. The politicians will blame the generals. And, most of all, the generals will blame the politicians.
