Uri Avnery June 9, 2012 The War of Lies THIRTY YEARS ago this week, the Israeli army crossed into Lebanon and started the most stupid war in Israel’s history. It lasted for 18 years. About 1500 Israeli soldiers and untold numbers of Lebanese and Palestinians were killed. Almost all wars are based on lies. Lies are considered legitimate instruments of war. Lebanon War I (as it was later called) … Read more Avnery on the First War in Lebanon
Avnery’s weekly column for May 5, 2012: A Putsch Against War GENERALS AND secret police chiefs get together for an attack on the politicians. In some countries, they arrest the president, occupy government offices and TV stations and annul the constitution. They then publish Communique No. 1, explaining the dire need to save the nation from perdition and promising democracy, elections etc. In other countries, they do it more … Read more Uri Avnery: A Putsch Against War
As far as poems go, “Was gesagt werden muss / What needs to be said” is a pretty second-rate exercise, & its political analysis is to a good extent inaccurate, but the mass of hysterical & inane responses in Europe (cf. the hundreds of the knee-jerk reactions in the German press) & here (see, for example Bernard Henri Levy’s idiotically pavlovian & totally besides the point response in the Huff … Read more Uri Avnery on Günther Grass
Uri Avnery writes: December 17, 2011 “With Friends Like These…” MY GOD, what a bizarre lot these Republican aspirants for the US presidency are! What a sorry bunch of ignoramuses and downright crazies. Or, at best, what a bunch of cheats and cynics! (With the possible exception of the good doctor Ron Paul). Is this the best a great and proud nation can produce? How frightening the thought that … Read more Uri Avnery on Newt
October 22, 2011 Everybody’s Son THE MOST sensible – I almost wrote “the only sensible” – sentence uttered this week sprang from the lips of a 5-year old boy. After the prisoner swap, one of those smart-aleck TV reporters asked him: “Why did we release 1027 Arabs for one Israeli soldier?” He expected, of course, the usual answer: because one Israeli is worth a thousand Arabs. The little boy … Read more Uri Avnery on Prisoner Swap