July 8, 2017 I HAVE a unique confession to make: I like Gaza. Yes, I like this far-away corner of Palestine, the narrow strip on the way to Egypt, in which two million human beings are crowded, and which is closer to hell than to heaven. My heart goes out to them. I HAVE spent quite a lot of time in the Strip. Once or twice I stayed there … Read more Uri Avnery: Eyeless in Gaza
April 15, 2017 CUI BONO – “who benefits” – is the first question an experienced detective asks when investigating a crime. Since I was a detective myself for a short time in my youth, I know the meaning. Often, the first and obvious suspicion is false. You ask yourself “cui bono”, and another suspect, who you did not think about, appears. For two weeks now, this question has … Read more Uri Avnery” CUI BONO?
March 11, 2017 IF SOMEONE had told me 50 years ago that the rulers of Israel, Jordan and Egypt had met in secret to make peace, I would have thought that I was dreaming. If I had been told that the leaders of Egypt and Jordan had offered Israel complete peace in return for leaving the occupied territories, with some exchanges of territory and a token return of refugees, … Read more Uri Avnery: Perhaps the Messiah will Come
Given the various inanities and inaccuracies spouted by our President & his friend Bibi, given the disaster we can look forward to if Trump forces the US to abandon the 2-state solution, relocates the US Embassy to Jerusalem under an US Ambassador in cahoots with illegal settlements, given all this, it is useful to go back to the root of the conflict to see how it all started. Uri Avnery … Read more Uri Avnery: How did it Start?
December 24, 2016 DONALD TRUMP has spat in my face. Not only in my own face, but in the faces of at least half the Israeli population. He has appointed a bankruptcy lawyer named David Friedman to the job of US ambassador in Israel. This sounds like a bad joke. But it is brutal reality. It sets a precedent unknown in the annals of international diplomacy. FIRST OF all, … Read more Uri Avnery on David Friedman: “Don’t Send Him!”
[Uri Avnery posted this piece on Shimon Peres on September 24, 2016, thus 2 days before Peres died. I reproduce it here because I think it is a more accurate evaluation of Peres than the various obits that have appeared since last night.] SHIMON PERES is a genius. A genius of impersonation. All his life he has worked on his public persona. The image replaced the man. … Read more The Saga of Sisyphus: Avnery on Peres
September 3, 2016 Civil War SOMETHING STRANGE happens to retired chiefs of the Israeli internal Security Service, Shin Bet. The service is by definition a central pillar of the Israeli occupation. It is admired by (Jewish) Israelis, feared by Palestinians, respected by security professionals everywhere. The occupation could not exist without it. And here is the paradox: once the chiefs of the service leave their jobs, they become spokesmen … Read more Uri Avnery: Civil War
July 30, 2016 SO HERE we are. Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be our next president. “Our”? I am not a US citizen, and have no desire to be one. But I live in a world in which the USA is the sole superpower, in which every decision of the US administration has an impact on the lives of every human being. FOR ME AS a citizen … Read more Uri Avnery: The Orange Man
May 21, 2016 I Was There “PLEASE DON’T write about Ya’ir Golan!” a friend begged me, “Anything a leftist like you writes will only harm him!” So I abstained for some weeks. But I can’t keep quiet any longer. General Ya’ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, made a speech on Holocaust Memorial Day. Wearing his uniform, he read a prepared, well-considered text that triggered … Read more Uri Avnery: On Ya’ir Golan & Avigdor Lieberman
May 14, 2016 A Document with a Mission WHEN DAVID BEN-GURION read out Israel’s declaration of independence (officially: “Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel”) on May 14, 1948, I was in Kibbutz Hulda. My company of the (still unnamed) Israeli army was ordered to make a night attack on the Arab village of al-Kubab, near the town of Ramleh. It was expected to be a hard … Read more Uri Avnery on Israel’s Declaration of Independence