Uri Avnery's Column

	The Curse of the Gods THIS WEEK I was strolling through the streets of Athens, at the foot of the Acropolis, when my eye was caught by a sign bearing one single word in Greek letters: Sisyphus. It was the name of a... • 10/12/05 • More...

	The Giant's Daughter A GERMAN poem tells of the giant's daughter, who found a peasant plowing his field and brought him home in her handkerchief to show to her father. But the father said gravely: "The peasant is no... • 03/12/05 • More...

	Two Earthquakes A POLITICAL earthquake is itself a rare event. When two major political earthquakes follow each other in quick succession, this is almost unheard of. One such earthquake was the election of Amir... • 26/11/05 • More...

	Plucking the Daisy LIKE A MAIDEN plucking the petals of a daisy and murmuring "he will…he will not…he will…he will not…" many of our Leftists are trying to divine what their present idol is going to do. Will Ariel... • 19/11/05 • More...

	A Great Miracle NORTH AFRICAN immigrants on the periphery of French cities are torching them. North African immigrants on the periphery of Israel this week carried out a democratic revolution in our country. In... • 12/11/05 • More...

	PERETZ IS NOT PERES "Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of the Labor Party, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof…" If the prophet Amos were living today, one of the chapters of his... • 05/11/05 • More...

	Abbas and the Lame Duck A twenty-minute drive is all that separates the Israeli Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem from that of the Palestinian President in Ramallah. But for all practical purposes, the Muqata'ah in... • 29/10/05 • More...

	War is a State of Mind Lecture in Berlin, 20.10.05 Conference on "Raising Children without Violence" -- Some years ago I talked with a young Israeli writer. I was struck by the fact that in spite of being very... • 22/10/05 • More...

	What Awaits Samira? A few days ago, at a conference in Europe, I met a charming young lady. Intelligent, well educated, versed in several languages, and, well, very attractive. After a few hours of shopping, she was... • 15/10/05 • More...

	Salaam or Salami He is a familiar hero in literature: the compulsive gambler who hits a lucky streak. With every turn of the roulette wheel, the heap of jetons in front of him grows bigger. He could leave the... • 08/10/05 • More...

	The Gladiators The contest between Binyamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon in the Likud Central Committee resembled a duel between two gladiators in the Roman arena. The more so since many of the Committee members... • 01/10/05 • More...

	A New Consensus In "The Second Coming", the Irish poet W. B. Yeats described chaos thus: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot... • 24/09/05 • More...

	Joha's Nail One day Joha, the hero of popular Arab humor, sold his home. The price he demanded was ridiculously low and he had only one condition: "on one of the walls there is a nail that I am much attached... • 17/09/05 • More...

	Who Murdered Arafat? The day before yesterday the Haaretz headline screamed: "Doctors: Arafat died of Aids or poisoning". Aids appeared in first place. For dozens of years, the Israeli media has conducted, with... • 10/09/05 • More...

	The Bang and the Whimper "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: / A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; / A time to break down and a time to build up…" The... • 03/09/05 • More...

	Dear Settlers Dear Settlers -- "Dear" in the most literal sense. At long last it must be spelled out, without hypocritical pity, without "if" and "but". • 27/08/05 • More...

	This Was The Day August 18th, 2005 - a milestone in the history of the State of Israel. This was the day on which the settlement enterprise in this country went into reverse for the first time. • 20/08/05 • More...

	A Miracle of Rare Device A picture engraved in memory: Ariel Sharon in the Knesset. Around him the storm is raging. The Members rush about, shouts ring out from all sides. The Member on the podium waves his arms... • 13/08/05 • More...

	A Massacre Foretold It was all expected: both the massacre and the questions it raised. But behind the easy questions that practically posed themselves, much more difficult and unasked questions are hidden. The... • 06/08/05 • More...

	The Moment of Truth At this moment, Israel resembles a patient before an operation. Like every major operation, it is dangerous. The patient hopes that everything will go well, but knows that there is no guarantee... • 30/07/05 • More...

	The March of the Orange Shirts For some weeks now, a red light has been flickering in my mind, illuminating a word in large Gothic letters: Weimar. As a 9-year old I saw with my own eyes the collapse of the German republic... • 23/07/05 • More...

	"Silence is Filth" So where is the cease-fire? Will Hamas and Islamic Jihad torpedo the withdrawal from Gaza? What is happening to Mahmoud Abbas? Generally, a cease-fire is declared in one of three cases: - When... • 16/07/05 • More...

	The War of the Colors A visitor to Israel at this time may get the impression that the country is in the throes of a contest between two football teams - orange and blue. Thousands of cars are already flying ribbons... • 09/07/05 • More...

	Arik's Horror Show All the world saw the horror on TV: a Palestinian boy lying on the ground, unconscious. An Israeli soldier bending over him, not knowing what to do. A settler coming up from behind and throwing a... • 02/07/05 • More...

	The Day After This week, the country was shocked by a terrifying train accident. A heavy truck was crossing the tracks as a train approached at high speed. The locomotive driver saw the truck but could not stop... • 25/06/05 • More...

	Red Herring The experience was almost surrealistic: I was in a hall in the centre of Gaza, facing some 500 people, all of them bearded men, nearly all of them Hamas militants. • 18/06/05 • More...

	Three in a Bed "The President of the United States and the President of the Palestinian Authority!" intoned the voice, as the two leaders appeared before the journalists during the recent visit of Mahmud Abbas... • 11/06/05 • More...

	Buying Off the Settlers Perhaps there are countries where drivers stuck in traffic jams don't get annoyed. They know they can do nothing about it, so they wait patiently. Think their own thoughts, listen to the radio or... • 28/05/05 • More...

	Wagner at the Memorial What to do on "Herzl Day", the anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Zionist movement - officially celebrated this week for the first time? How to honor the memory of this strange man... • 21/05/05 • More...

	Death of a Myth The uproar has been raging for two weeks so far, and is showing no sign of abating. Israel is shaken to the core - is it the postponed "disengagement plan? Is it the killing of demonstrators... • 14/05/05 • More...