Uri Avnery's Column


A Stupid War
A DETECTIVE trying to solve a crime always asks "cui bono?" (who would profit?) When we try to solve the crime called the Second Lebanon War, this question must head the list. • More...

An Israeli Love Story
NOT SINCE the resurrection of Jesus Christ has there been such a miracle: a dead body buried in a cave has come to life again. • More...

The Dirty Word
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Saving President Abbas
EHUD OLMERT is the opposite of Midas, King of Phrygia. Everything the king touched turned into gold, according to Greek legend. Everything Olmert touches turns into lead. And that is no legend. • More...

Crocodile Tears
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40 Bad Years
"REST HAS come to the tired / Repose to the toiler / A pale night covers / The fields of the Jezreel valley / Dew below and moon above / From Kibbutz Bet-Alfa to Moshav Nahalal…" • More...

On Generals and Admirals
"NOTHING SUCCEEDS like success," says a typical American adage. The Israeli version, also typical, is: "Nothing succeeds like failure." • More...

"…To the Shores of Tripoli"
THE BLOODY battles that have erupted around the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli in Lebanon remind us that the refugee problem has not disappeared. On the contrary, 60 years after the... • More...

A Swiss Cheese
The Winograd committee of inquiry is not a part of the solution. It is a part of the problem.

Now, after the first excitement caused by the publication of the partial report has died down, it is... • More...

Exercise in Escapism
I HAVE BEEN to many demonstrations in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square, even when it was still called "Kings of Israel Square". • More...

A Hope not Lost
ON THE MORROW of Independence Day, a newspaper reported that an Arab child had refused to stand up while the national anthem was sung. The paper was furious. I was not. In fact, it raised a... • More...

Blood on Our Hands
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Shalom, Shin Bet
RECENTLY, THE CHIEF of the Shin Bet declared that the "Israeli Arabs", a fifth of Israel's population, constitute a danger to the state. • More...

Pussycat
CAN A pantheress turn into a pussycat? Impossible, a zoologist would say. But last week, we saw it happen with our own eyes. • More...

Without Borders
INCREDIBLE! In Palestinian schoolbooks, there is no trace of the Green Line! They do not recognize the existence of Israel even in the 1967 borders! They say that the "Zionist gangs" stole the... • More...

Inshallah
NOT ONLY the Palestinians must be breathing a deep sigh of relief after the swearing in of the Palestinian National Unity Government. We Israelis have good reason to do the same.

This event is a... • More...

Olmert's Truth
IF GOD wills, even a broomstick will shoot. That is an old Yiddish adage. One could add now: If God wills, even Olmert can sometimes tell the truth. • More...

The Book of Esterina
"PATRIOTISM," SAID Dr. Samuel Johnson over 200 years ago, "is the last refuge of a scoundrel." If we substitute racism for patriotism, then we have a perfect match with the Esterina Tartman affair. • More...

"You and I and the Next War"
"WE ARE ready for the next war," a reserve soldier told a TV reporter this week, on the scene of a brigade-size maneuver on the Golan Heights. • More...

TRANSLATIONS TO OTHER LANGUAGES
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Facing Mecca
MUST A Native-American recognize the right of the United States of America to exist? • More...

The Method in the Madness
WHEN A Prime Minister has just lost a war, is dogged by corruption allegations and sees his popularity ratings in free fall - what can he do? • More...

Fatal Kiss
IT SOUNDS like a promo for a second rate soap opera: a 21- year old woman appears with a much older celebrity, who grabs her, forces a kiss on her and pushes his tongue into her mouth. • More...

"If Arafat were Alive…"
"IF ARAFAT were alive…" one hears this phrase increasingly often in conversations with Palestinians, and also with Israelis and foreigners.

"If Arafat were alive, what's happening now in Gaza... • More...

A Freedom Ride
Mahatma Gandhi would have loved it. Nelson Mandela would have saluted. Martin Luther King would have been the most excited - it would have reminded him of the old days. • More...

Kiss of death
Since Judas Iscariot embraced Jesus, Jerusalem has not seen such a kiss.
After being boycotted by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert for years, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was invited to the official... • More...

What Makes Sammy Run?
"I DON'T care about the principles! All that I want is that my wife can live with me and that we can raise a family!" cried out the engaging young man on the TV talk show. • More...

Sorry, wrong continent
A FEW weeks ago, the 15th Asian games, the "Asiad", was held in Qatar.
The Israeli media treated the event with a mixture of derision and pity. Some kind of picturesque Asian circus. Our... • More...

Back to the scene of the crime
WHEN THE Israeli government decided, in the space of a few hours, to start the Second Lebanon War, it did not have any plan.
When the Chief-of-Staff urged the cabinet to start the war, he did not... • More...

Baker's Cake
NO ONE likes to admit a mistake. Me neither. But honesty leaves me no choice.
A few days after the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, I happened to go on a lecture tour in the US. • More...