Articles by Uri Avnery
We found 223 results.
Who the Hell Are We?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2018
4 Aug 2018 – The new Nation Law, by its clearly semi-fascist nature, shows us how urgent this debate is. We must decide who we are, what we want, where we belong. Otherwise we will be condemned to a permanent state of impermanence.
→ read full articleAdolf and Amin
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2018
28 Jul 2018 – Binyamin Netanyahu is a perfect diplomat, a clever politician, a talented leader of the army. Lately, another jewel has been added to his crown: he is also a gifted story-teller. He has provided an answer to a question that has perplexed historians for a long time: When and how did Adolf Hitler decide to exterminate the Jews? There was no agreed-upon answer.
→ read full articleThe March of Folly
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2018
21 Jul 2018 – It has been said that a clever person is able to extricate himself from a trap into which a wise person would not have fallen in the first place. Stupid people do not extricate themselves. They are not even aware of the trap.
→ read full article“Not Enough!”
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2018
14 Jul 2018 – The State of Israel has no oil wells. It has no gold mines. What has it got? It has the ownership of the remembrance of the Holocaust.
→ read full articlePrincely Visits
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
30 Jun 2018 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, second in line to the British throne, visited Israel this week. He seems a likable person. He looked like a prince should look, did all the right things, said all the right things, and even ate a watermelon with our mayor on the sandy shore of Tel Aviv.
→ read full articleTwo Souls
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2018
“As long as in the heart, within, a Jewish soul is yearning…” thus starts the official translation of Israel’s national anthem. But is there a Jewish Soul? Is it different from the souls of other people? And if so, what is the difference?
→ read full articleThe Siamese Twins
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2018
16 Jun 2018 – After commenting on most of the episodes on the first Israeli Prime Ministers in Raviv Drucker’s TV series “The Captains”, I must come back to the one whose episode I have not yet covered: Yitzhak Rabin.
→ read full articleAre YOU Brainwashed?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2018
9 Jun 2018 – It’s frightening. Unprincipled psychologists, in the service of a malignant regime, use sophisticated techniques in order to control the mind of a person from afar. During the last few weeks we have been seeing a perfect example of this mechanism. The events on the Gaza Strip border have activated a mechanism of brainwashing that dictatorial regimes in the world can only envy.
→ read full articleStrong as Death
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
2 Jun 2018 – Oh, Gaza. Strong as death is love. Truth is that the Israeli army has no answer to non-violent resistance. In such a campaign, all the cards are in the hands of the Palestinians. World public opinion condemns Israel and praises the Palestinians. Therefore, the army’s reaction is to open fire, in order to induce the Palestinians to start violent actions. With these the army knows how to deal. Non-violent resistance is a very difficult method. It demands enormous willpower, strict self-control and moral superiority.
→ read full articleThe Luck of the Gambler
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2018
26 May 2018 – We all know the picture from the books and the movies: a gambler sits at the roulette table in a casino. He has luck. A lot of luck. In front of the gambler the pile of chips is growing. Higher and higher. Every spin of the roulette wheel adds to the heap. Binyamin Netanyahu resembles this man. He has luck. A lot of luck. It is uncanny.
→ read full articleThe Day of Shame
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
19 May 2018 – On bloody Monday this week, when the number of Palestinian killed and wounded was rising by the hour, I asked myself: what would I have done if I had been a youngster of 15 in the Gaza Strip? My answer was, without hesitation: I would have stood near the border fence and demonstrated, risking my life and limbs every minute. I did the same when I was 15 as a member of the National Military Organization (the “Irgun”), an armed underground group labeled “terrorist”.
→ read full articleWho Is the Vassal?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
12 May 2018 – If you are living in Israel, these days, you get the impression that the huge State of Israel is dictating to its American vassal what to do about Iran. President Donald Trump listens and complies. Bibi the Great tells him to tear up the Iranian deal for no obvious reason, and he obeys. He has no choice, poor man.
→ read full articleThat Woman
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
5 May 2018 – Ben-Gurion said about her: “The only thing Golda knows how to do is to hate!” Golda Meir did not hate me. That would be an understatement. She detested me. The way I speak, the way I dress, the way I look. Everything.
→ read full articleThe Real Victor
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
28 Apr 2018 – On the fifth day of the six-day war in 1967, I published an open letter to the Prime Minister, Levy Eshkol. The Israeli army had just conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, and I proposed that Eshkol immediately offer the Palestinian people to establish the State of Palestine there, in return for peace with Israel.
→ read full articleThe Great Day
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
21 Apr 2018 – Two days ago, the State of Israel celebrated its 70th birthday. For days we heard about nothing else. Innumerable speeches full of platitudes. A huge festival of kitsch.
→ read full articleEyeless in Gaza
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 – Write down: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief. We don’t belong to the same army, or to the same state. We hardly belong to the same human race.
→ read full article
A Song Is Born
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
Ahed, the girl covered with blond hair, her blue eyes shining like a lighthouse. Ahed the saint. Ahed the savior. The Palestinian Jeanne d’Arc, the national symbol. The story of Ahed al-Tamimi happened in the West Bank. But it resounded in the Gaza Strip, too. For most Israelis, the Gaza Strip is something else. It is not occupied territory. It does not concern us. But the situation of the Gaza Strip is even worse than straight occupation. The strip is completely surrounded. North and east is Israel, west is the sea, where the Israeli navy shoots at everything except for fishing boats close to the shore. The south belongs to Egypt, which behaves even worse than the Israelis and in close cooperation with them.
→ read full article“Pour Out Your Wrath”
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
31 Mar 2018 – I am writing this on Friday night, the eve of Passover. At this moment, all over the world, millions of Jews are gathered around the family table, observing the Seder, reading aloud from the same book: the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
→ read full articleSon of a Dog
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
24 Mar 2018 – This week Abbas spoke about the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and called him a “Son of a Dog”. This sounds in Arabic slightly less offensive than in English, but is hardly diplomatic. It is hard to say that Friedman does not deserve it, though I would have wished, as a dog-lover, that Abbas had chosen another animal.
→ read full articleThe Fake Enemy
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
17 Mar 2018 – The thought that Iran could possibly attack a nuclear power like Israel and risk its own annihilation is ludicrous. Iran is the heiress to one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, almost as ancient as Egypt. Compared to it, Jewish civilization is a younger sister. Indeed, many experts believe that the Jewish religion is heavily indebted to the Iranian civilization.
→ read full articleThe Great Conspiracy
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2018
10 Mar 2018 – In the Autumn of 1948, after some eight months of continuous fighting, I was promoted to the lofty rank of corporal. After taking part in a crash course for squad leaders, I was allowed to choose my new soldiers – new immigrants from Poland or Morocco.
→ read full articleBecause There Is Nothing
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2018
3 Mar 2018 – The flood of corruption affairs that is now engulfing the Netanyahu family and its assistants and servitors does not seem to diminish his popularity among those who call themselves “the People”. On the contrary, according to the opinion polls, the voters of the other nationalist parties are rushing to the rescue of “Bibi”.
→ read full articleGo in Peace!
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Feb 2018
I Love Israel. My comrades and I created it and paid for it with our blood (literally). My heart aches when I see what is happening. But I remain an optimist. I continue to believe that somehow, somewhere, salvation will come. New political forces will emerge and come to the fore. As our Muslim friends would say: inshallah (God willing).
→ read full articlePity the Almond Tree
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Feb 2018
17 Feb 2018 – Pity the almond tree, especially when it is in full bloom. The bloom of the almond is, in German, Mandelblüt. That is also the name of Israel’s chief legal official, called “the Legal Advisor of the Government”.
→ read full articleWhat the Hell?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Feb 2018
10 Feb 2018 – What the hell am I? An Israeli? A Jew? A peace activist? A Journalist? An author? An ex-combat soldier in the Israeli army? An ex-terrorist? A…? All of these and more. OK. OK. But in what order? Which is the most important component?
→ read full article“Not Enough!”
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Feb 2018
3 Feb 2018 – The Polish parliament decreed that anyone who uses the words “Polish extermination camps” is committing a crime punishable by three years in prison. The right description, according to the Poles, is “Nazi extermination camps in Poland”. The rectification is quite correct. But in Israel, a storm broke out. What?! The Poles deny the Holocaust?
→ read full articleThe Jumping Parliament
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jan 2018
27 Jan 2018 – This is going on now, a rising tide, an Israeli voice that has not been heard for a long time. A voice that has been mute for so many years, the voice of my Israel, the voice of yesterday’s Israel – and hopefully tomorrow’s. There was a time when I could be proud to be an Israeli. Perhaps this time is returning.
→ read full articleMay Your Home Be Destroyed
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Jan 2018
20 Jan 2018 – My first impression of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) was that he was the exact opposite of Arafat. He looked like a schoolmaster. Arafat was an outgoing type, who liked to embrace and kiss people and to establish close relations from the outset. Abu Mazen was much more reserved and withdrawn. Yet I liked his personality.
→ read full articleBibi’s Son or: Three Men in a Car
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Jan 2018
13 Jan 2018 – NO, I don’t want to write about the affair of Ya’ir Netanyahu. I refuse adamantly. No force in the world will compel me to do so. Yet here I am, writing about Ya’ir, damn it. Can’t resist. And perhaps it is really more than a matter of gossip. Perhaps it is something that we cannot ignore… Tell me who your son is, and I’ll tell you who you are.
→ read full articleWhy I am Angry
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jan 2018
6 Jan 2018 – I AM angry with the Mizrahi elite. Very angry indeed. Mizrah is the Hebrew word for East. Eastern Jews are those who lived for many centuries in the Islamic world. Western Jews are those who lived in Christian Europe.
→ read full articleThe Man Who Jumped
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Jan 2018
30 Dec 2017 – Nobody described the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict better than the historian Isaac Deutscher. A man lives in a house that catches fire. To save his life, he jumps out of the window. He lands on a passer-by in the street below and injures him grievously. Between the two a bitter enmity arises. Who is to blame?
→ read full articleCry, Beloved Country
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Dec 2017
23 Dec 2017 – Anyone proposing the death penalty is either a complete fool, an incorrigible cynic or mentally disturbed – or all of these. There is no effective therapy for any of these defects. I wouldn’t even try.
→ read full articleChildren of Stones
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Dec 2017
16 Dec 2017 – For god’s sake, are they crazy? They congregate in the marketplace, boys of 15, 16 years, take stones and throw them at our soldiers, who are armed to the teeth. The soldiers shoot, sometimes over their heads, sometimes straight at them. Every day there are wounded, every few days there are dead. What for? They do not have the slightest chance of changing the policy of the Israeli occupation. Only very rarely do the boys hit a soldier and cause him a slight injury. Yet they go on. Why?
→ read full articleFrom Barak to Trump
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Dec 2017
9 Dec 2017 – The latest decisions of Trump concerning Jerusalem are – to put it mildly – idiotic. Arabs are furious, Israelis don’t really care, America’s Arab stooges, princes and all, are deeply worried. If disturbances erupt, they may well be swept away. Jerusalem is holy to three world religions, and one cannot argue with holiness.
→ read full articleKing and Emperor
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Dec 2017
2 Dec 2017 – Zionism is an anti-Semitic creed. It was so right from the beginning. Already the founding father, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese writer, penned some pieces with a clear anti-Semitic slant.
→ read full articleA Terrible Thought
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Nov 2017
25 Nov 2017 – Israel claims to be a “Jewish State”. Jews have been persecuted refugees for centuries. But now the government has decided not only to stem the flow, but to pay to dispose of the refugees who are already here: paying the government of Rwanda 5000 dollars for every refugee they accept from us. The refugees themselves will also get 3500 dollars each if they go voluntarily. If they refuse, they will be put in a real prison indefinitely. Deported? Imprisoned? In a “Jewish” state? Incredible. God save us!
→ read full articleA History of Idiocy
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Nov 2017
18 Nov 2017 – The older I get, the more convinced I am that sheer stupidity plays a major role in the history of nations. Great Thinkers, compared to whom I am a mere intellectual dwarf, have pursued other factors to explain what has turned history into a mess.
→ read full articleTwo Meetings
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Nov 2017
11 Nov 2017 – During the last few days, I met with two old friends: Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin. Well, the term “friends” may not quite be appropriate. Certainly, Arafat called me “my friend” in a recorded message for my 70th birthday, but Rabin called nobody “friend”. That was not his character.
→ read full articleWho Is Afraid of the Iranian Bomb?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Nov 2017
4 Nov 2017 – I hate self-evident truths. Ideals may be self-evident. Political statements are not. When I hear about a self-evident political truth, I immediately doubt it. The most self-evident political truth at this moment concerns Iran. Iran is our deadly enemy. Iran wants to destroy us. We must destroy its capabilities first.
→ read full articlePickled Cucumbers
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Oct 2017
28 Oct 2017 – HALLELUJAH! AT long last I have found a point on which I agree with Binyamin Netanyahu. Really!
→ read full articleThe Terrible Problem
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Oct 2017
14 Oct 2017 – This formula appears in the “Arab Peace Plan” devised by Saudi Arabia and officially accepted by the entire Muslim world. How would this look in practice? It means that every refugee family would be offered a choice between actual return and adequate compensation. Return – where? In a few extraordinary instances, their original village still stands empty. I can imagine some symbolic reconstruction of such villages – say two or three – by their former inhabitants.
→ read full articleSeparation is Beautiful
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Oct 2017
7 Oct 2017 – The Knesset is busy with enacting the Nation Law, intended to make clear that the Jewishness of the Jewish State takes precedence over democracy and human rights. Israel has no constitution, but until now it was assumed that Israel was equally “Jewish” and “democratic”. The new law is about to abolish that notion. As usual, we are one or two centuries behind world history.
→ read full articleA Tale of Two Stories
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Oct 2017
29 Sep 2017 – This is the story: at 7 o’clock in the morning, an Arab approached the gate of Har Adar, took out a loaded pistol and shot three of the guards in the head at close range. But there is another story, too. The story as seen by the man himself.
→ read full articleThank you, Smotrich
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Sep 2017
Another Zionist poet once wrote that we will not become a normal nation until we have Jewish criminals and Jewish whores. Thank God we now have plenty of both. And now we also have at least one bona fide Jewish fascist.
→ read full articleDespair of Despair
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Sep 2017
16 Sep 2017 – How can I be an optimist in view of what’s happening here every day in Israel? The practical annexation of occupied territories? The mistreatment of the Arabs? The implantation of poisonous settlements? But optimism is a state of mind. It does not falter in the face of evil. On the contrary, evil must be fought. And you cannot fight if you do not believe that you can win. There is nothing to despair of but despair itself.
→ read full articleA Confession
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Sep 2017
9 Sep 2017 – Today is the last day of the 93rd year of my life. Ridiculous. Am I moderately satisfied with my life until now? Yes. I am. If by a miracle I could be returned to, say, 14, and travel all this long way again, would I like that? No, I would not. Enough is enough.
→ read full articleCrusaders and Zionists
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Sep 2017
2 Sep 2017 – A few days ago I found myself in Caesarea, sitting in a restaurant and looking out over the sea. Caesarea was built by King Herod some 2000 years ago and named after his Roman master, Augustus Caesar. It once again became an important town under the Crusaders, who fortified it.
→ read full articleKaya, the Royal Dog
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Aug 2017
26 Aug 2017 – The spectacle is almost bizarre: a political party refuses to accept new members. And not just a few individuals, but tens of thousands. And not just any party, but the Likud (“Unification”), the main force in Israel’s governing coalition. Strange? But there is method in this madness.
→ read full articleThe Egg of Columbus
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 Aug 2017
19 Aug 2017 – I don’t know when the wheel was invented, or who invented it. However, I have no doubt that it was invented again and again, with many happy inventors sharing the glory. The same is true for the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. From time to time it appears in public as a brand-new idea, with another group of inventors proudly presenting it to the public.
→ read full article“Anyone but Bibi”
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Aug 2017
12 Aug 2017 – The vultures are circling. They can see the wounded man on the ground, and are waiting for his end. So are the human carnivores – the politicians… Like every clever (and unsure) leader, Bibi has destroyed every likely rival along the way. Now there is no obvious heir around. But many people are now repeating a slogan: “Anyone, Just Not Bibi!”
→ read full articleWistful Eyes
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Aug 2017
From whatever angle one looks at it, the death sentence is a barbaric and stupid measure. Whenever I think about this subject, the immortal lines of Oscar Wilde in his “Ballad of Reading Gaol” come to my mind. Observing a fellow prisoner, a convicted murderer, awaiting his execution, Wilde wrote: I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon the little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky…
→ read full articleThe March of Folly
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jul 2017
One of my friends said this week: “There is no need to put cameras on the Temple Mount, as is now suggested. We should put the cameras in the cabinet room, because that is the source of the greatest danger to the future of Israel. Amen.
→ read full articleSoros’ Sorrows
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Jul 2017
22 Jul 2017 – George Soros, the American multi-billionaire, is causing Binyamin Netanyahu a lot of trouble. At this particular moment, Netanyahu does not need any more trouble. Soros is a Hungarian Jew, a Holocaust survivor.
→ read full articleAbe, Izzy & Bibi
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Jul 2017
Does Netanyahu really believe (as I think he does) that this part of Biblical legend is history? If so, he has the mind of a 10 year old. If he does not, he is a cheat. In any case, he is a very able demagogue. But he is not alone. Far from it. The President of Israel, a very nice gentleman, reiterated Netanyahu’s accusations against UNESCO. So did the speaker of the Knesset, an immigrant from the Soviet Union.
→ read full articleEyeless in Gaza
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Jul 2017
8 Jul 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.
→ read full articleThe Bizarre Case of Bashar
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Jul 2017
1 Jul 2017 – I am a professional investigative journalist. For 40 years of my life I was the editor-in-chief of an investigative weekly magazine, which exposed nearly all of Israel’s major scandals during those years. I have never lost a major libel suit, indeed I have rarely been sued at all. I am mentioning this not to boast, but to lend some authority to what I am going to say. It concerns the evil deeds of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, who bombed his own people with Sarin, a nerve gas, causing gruesome deaths of the victims.
→ read full articleThe Four-Letter Word
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Jun 2017
24 Jun 2017 – When a Briton or American speaks about a “four-letter word”, he means a vulgar sexual term, a word not to be mentioned in polite society. In Israel we also have such a word, a word of four letters. A word not to mention. This word is “Shalom”, peace. For years now this word has disappeared from intercourse (except as a greeting). Every politician knows that it is deadly. Every citizen knows that it is unmentionable.
→ read full articleThe New Wave
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Jun 2017
We need a principled leader like Corbyn or Sanders. A young and idealistic person like Macron. Somebody who will smash all the existing occupation-era parties and start right from the beginning. To adapt Macron’s slogan: Forward, Israel!
→ read full articleWhoso Confesseth and Forsaketh
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
The vote of the “peace activist Uri Avnery” for the “unification” of Jerusalem was a huge mistake. I am taking this opportunity to apologize for it again. I request for the application of the Biblical verse (Proverbs 28.13): “But whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy”.
→ read full articleGreetings for Diana Buttu
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2017
3 Jun 2017 – A few days ago, a not so well-known Palestinian woman received an unusual honor. An article of hers was published on top of the first page of the most respected newspaper on earth: New York Times.
→ read full articleThe Visitation
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 May 2017
There were two Donald Trumps this week. One of them was touring the Middle East, being feted everywhere. The second was in Washington, where he was battered from all sides, denounced for incompetence and even threatened with impeachment in the future. Against the background of his troubles at home, Trump’s Arabian Nights were fantastic.
→ read full articleOne, Two, Three – Rejoice!
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
This year’s Independence Day, last Tuesday [2 May], was not a very happy affair. The holiday was subdued, even sad. Old-timers felt that “this is not our state anymore”, that “they” have stolen Israel”. “They” – the rightists. One of the reasons may be that there is no real unity any more. Israeli society has fallen apart into a number of sub-societies, which have less and less in common.
→ read full articleThe Israeli Macron
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
Emmanuel Macron (Emmanuel is a Hebrew name, meaning “God is with us”) has won the first round, and there is a strong possibility that he will win the second round, too. This is not just a French affair. It concerns all mankind. First of all, it has broken a spell.
→ read full articlePalestine’s Nelson Mandela
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
22 Apr 2017 – I have a confession to make: I like Marwan Barghouti. I have visited him at his modest Ramallah home several times. During our conversations, we discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace. Our ideas were the same: to create the State of Palestine next to the State of Israel, and to establish peace between the two states, with open borders and cooperation. I am waiting for the day when I can visit Marwan again as a free man in his home in Ramallah. Even more so if Ramallah is, by that time, a town in the free State of Palestine.
→ read full articleCui Bono?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
“Who benefits?” – is the first question an experienced detective asks when investigating a crime. In Syria, the civilian population in a rebel-held town called Idlib was hit with poison gas. Dozens of civilians, including children, died a miserable death. Within a few minutes (literally) the New York Times and a host of excellent newspapers throughout the West proclaimed without hesitation: Assad did it! No need for proof. No investigation. It was just self-evident.
→ read full articleThe Tunic of Nessus
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
8 Apr 2017 – In A few weeks, Israel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War. Millions of words, most of them hollow, will be poured out. As usual. But the event deserves better. It is a drama unique in human history. Only a biblical writer could do it justice. William Shakespeare could have turned his hand to it.
→ read full articleUniversity of Terror
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
So for year after year, century after century, society has sent its criminals to Crime University, where they learn to become better and more professional criminals. Tuition with full board, all expenses paid by the state. And, of course, a huge army of prison personnel, policemen and women, experts and academics depend on this system for their livelihood. Everybody happy.
→ read full articleThe Israeli National Riddle
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
It’s a national riddle. The whole country is absorbed by it. The Prime Minister announces that he will “go to the very end” to achieve his end. Which end? I don’t know. I am not sure that he knows. Nobody I know knows. He threatens the worst. If he does not get his way – whatever it is – he will do something absolutely awful: announce new elections. Let the people decide whether they want the authority or the corporation. Whatever they are.
→ read full articleThe Most Moral Army
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
Killing a wounded or captured enemy is a war crime. Why? For many people, this is a mystery. War is the realm of killing and destroying. Soldiers are decorated for killing. So why is it suddenly a crime to kill a wounded enemy? How is it possible to talk about a law of war when war itself breaks all laws? An army that trains its soldiers to kill, how can it demand from them to show mercy?
→ read full articlePerhaps the Messiah Will Come
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
The only real solution is the much-maligned “Two States for Two peoples”, the one declared dead many times. It’s either that solution or the destruction of both peoples. So how do Israelis face this reality? They face it the Israeli way: by not facing the reality.
→ read full articleThe Cannons of Napoleon
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Napoleon came to a German town and was not welcomed with the traditional artillery salute. Furious, he summoned the mayor and demanded an explanation. The German produced a long scroll of paper and said: “I have a list of 99 reasons. Reason No. 1: we have no cannon.” “That’s enough'” Napoleon interrupted him, “You can go home!” I was reminded of this story some two weeks ago, when I read Yitzhak Herzog’s 10-point peace plan.
→ read full articleHow Did It Start?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
18 Feb 2017 – So how the hell did it all start? I have seen this many times. Every serious debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raises the question: “When did it start?” Each side has its own date, proving that the other side started it.
→ read full articleThat’s How It Happened
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2017
The writers, who (I suppose) were born after the events, accuse the Zionists of starting the 1948 war in order to expel the Arab population. Since I took part in the events – I was 24 years old at the time – I feel that it is my duty to describe what really happened, as truthfully as possible. (I have written two books about it, one during the war and one immediately after.)
→ read full articleRespect the Green Line!
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
We did not declare a boycott on Israel. And not only because it is rather awkward to boycott oneself. The main object of our boycott was to teach Israelis to differentiate between themselves and the settlements. We published and distributed many thousand copies of the list of companies located and products produced outside the Green Line. Many people are upholding the boycott.
→ read full articlePresident Kong
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jan 2017
28 Jan 2017 – I knew he reminded me of somebody, but I couldn’t quite place it. Who was it who pounded his chest with such vigor? It was the hero of a movie that was produced when I was 10 years old: King Kong, the giant primate with the heart of gold, who scaled huge buildings and downed airplanes with his little finger. Wow. President Kong, the mightiest being on earth.
→ read full articleBeing There
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2017
21 Jan 2017 – Perhaps he is lying all the time. Perhaps he is a very shrewd manipulator, who has led us all into believing that he is a megalomaniac simpleton. Well, today is President Donald Trump’s first day in office. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP – we must get used to these three words.
→ read full articleConfessions of a Megalomaniac
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2017
14 Jan 2017 – I was invited by Mahmood Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority to take part in joint Palestinian-Israeli consultations in advance of the international conference in Paris. Since Binyamin Netanyahu has refused to take part in the Paris event side by side with Mahmood Abbas, the Ramallah meeting was to demonstrate that a large part of Israeli society does support the French initiative.
→ read full articleYes, We Can
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2017
Once, a genius at the propaganda ministry devised a poster: “Who is afraid of the German Luftwaffe?” When it was posted at one of the Royal Air Force bases, an anonymous hand penned underneath: “Sign here”. Within hours, all the airmen had signed. If somebody today were to devise a poster asking “Who is afraid of the settlers?” I would be the first to sign. I am afraid. Not for myself. For the State of Israel. For everything we have built during the last 120 years.
→ read full articleAnti-Semitic Zionists
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2017
President Barak Obama, at the very end of his presidency, dared to challenge the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, a person he detests with all his heart. And so, after years of frustration, the highest international body could adopt a resolution on Israel according to its convictions. No wonder they behaved like schoolchildren let out for vacation. A vacation that may, alas, prove to be short.
→ read full articleThe Arabs Did It
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
When my parents married in Germany, just before World War I, among the gifts was a document attesting that a tree had been planted in their name in Palestine. Popular Jewish humor in Germany at that time had it that “a Zionist is a Jew who wants to take money from another Jew in order to settle a third Jew in Palestine.” My father certainly was not planning to go to Palestine himself.
→ read full articleThe Call of the Mu’ezzin
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2016
Lovers of the Bible may find some amusement in the words of Pharaoh (Exodus 1) about the Children of Israel: “When there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us.” By a curious turn, now we are Pharaoh, and the Arabs are the new Children of Israel. So what is the situation of Israel’s Arab citizens?
→ read full articleOh My God, Trump!
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2016
Let us be fair. Miracles do happen. President Trump may turn out quite a different person than the nasty candidate. He may be pragmatic in the good sense of the word, learn quickly, govern sensibly. As our Muslim friends say: Inshallah, if Allah wills it.
→ read full articleThe Israeli Trumpess
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2016
29 Oct 2016 – Donald Trump has already declared that he will recognize the results – but only if he wins. That is far from being a joke because Trump represents tens of millions of Americans, who belong to the lower strata of the white population, which the white elite used to call “white trash”. In more polite language they are called “blue collar workers”, meaning manual workers, unlike the “white collar workers” who occupy the offices.
→ read full articleThe Funeral Ruckus
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
Shimon Peres would have enjoyed it. A public battle about his funeral. The Arab members of the Knesset did not attend. So what? I did not attend, either. We never liked each other, and my attendance would have been sheer hypocrisy. I don’t like hypocrisy… One thing is quite certain: there will be no change for the better in Israel, no change of government and policy, unless the Arab citizens and their representatives become an integral part of the new peace force without which there is no hope.
→ read full articleThe Kissinger Story
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2016
14 Oct 2016 – I am writing this (may God forgive me) on Yom Kippur. Exactly 43 years ago, at this exact moment, the sirens sounded… The Yom Kippur war cost many thousands of lives, Israeli, Egyptian and Syrian. Kissinger achieved his goal. The Soviets lost the Arab world to the United States. Until Vladimir Putin came along.
→ read full articleAbu-Mazen’s Balance Sheet
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Oct 2016
In a nonviolent struggle of civil disobedience, many Palestinians will get killed; the general suffering will increase a lot. But such a struggle will win. It always did when applied anywhere. The world, which is expressing deep sympathy with the Palestinian people while cooperating with the occupation regime, will be compelled to intervene. The Israeli public, which is now looking at what is happening a few dozen miles from their homes as if it was happening in Honolulu, will wake up. The best of our people will join the political struggle. The weak peace camp will become strong again.
→ read full articleThe Saga of Sisyphus
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
Shimon Peres is a genius. A genius of impersonation. All his life he has worked on his public persona. The image replaced the man. Almost all the articles written about him since he fell ill are about the imagined person, not the real one. As the Americans like to say: He is so phony he is real.
→ read full articleIt Can Happen Here
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Sep 2016
Some kind of free association, call it confederation or federation, is a sheer necessity. Setting it up and keeping it up needs a spirit of reconciliation. Not just a negative peace, the absence of war, a cold peace of recriminations and mutual animosity, but a positive peace, a real peace, with each side understanding the basic motives of the other side, its historical narrative, its hopes and fears. Is this possible? Well, it happened between Germany and France after many centuries of conflict, including two World Wars.
→ read full articleThe Great Railway Scandal
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
Merkel did something that was completely opposed to her political interests. She opened the gates of Germany to almost a million refugees, mostly Muslims, many from war-torn, bleeding Syria. No people, not even a people of Angels or Angelas, can absorb a million foreigners without some misgivings. Yet Merkel had the moral and political courage to take the risk. Now she is suffering the consequences.
→ read full articleOlympic Jews?
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2016
20 Aug 2016 – The scene at Ben-Gurion airport this week was rather astonishing. More than a thousand young male fans came to welcome the two Israeli Judo fighters who had won a bronze medal each at the Olympic games in Rio. Yet judo is not a very popular sport in Israel. So Israeli crowds suddenly became judo fans (some called it “Jewdo”). People who did not go wild with enthusiasm were considered traitors.
→ read full articleThe Future Belongs to the Optimists
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
The two-state solution is not ideal, but real. It means that each of the two peoples can live in a state it calls its own, under its own flag, with its own elections, parliament and government, police and education system, its own Olympic team. The two states will, by choice or necessity, have joint institutions, that will evolve in the course of time and by free will from the necessary minimum to a much wider optimum. Perhaps it will come close to a federation, as mutual relations widen and mutual respect deepens.
→ read full articleThe Shot Heard All Over the Country
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Aug 2016
The crew of an Israeli ambulance was treating the wounded soldier, ignoring the seriously wounded Arab who was lying on the ground. Several Israeli soldiers were standing around, also ignoring the Palestinian. About 10 minutes later Sergeant Elor Azaria, a medic, appeared on the scene, approached the wounded Palestinian and shot him point-blank in the head, killing him.
→ read full articleThe Orange Man
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 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 of Israel, this impact is much greater than for most and much more immediate.
→ read full articleWelcome! Bienvenue!
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
16 Jul 2016 – For me, France is the land of liberty. When I was just 10 years old, I fled with my family from Nazi Germany to France, on our way to Palestine. We were afraid of being detained at the border. When our train crossed the Rhine, leaving Germany behind us and entering France, I breathed deeply. From tyranny to liberty, from hell to paradise.
→ read full articleHatred Unlimited
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
In Israel, everyone spoke about a “benevolent occupation”. The first military governor was a very humane person, Chaim Herzog, a future President of Israel and the father of the present chairman of the Labor Party. Within a few years, all this had changed. The Palestinians realized that the Israelis did not intend to leave, but that they were about to steal their land, quite literally, and cover it with their settlements.
→ read full articleJust a Trick
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Jun 2016
Israel does not really depend on American financial aid. This aid is a luxury, not more. It needs the US veto against hostile proposals in the UN, but it can – and does – generally ignore the UN. Yet, taken all in all, Israel’s worsening international standing is worrying. Even Netanyahu is worried. Slowly but surely the world is accepting the State of Palestine as a fact of life and as a condition for peace. So Netanyahu is looking around for a new trick. And what does he see? Egypt!
→ read full articleThose Funny Anti-Semites
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2016
Until world-war II, Hitler could not dream of killing the Jews en masse. He had to be satisfied with driving them out of Germany, or out of Europe, as had happened several times before – in Spain, in England and in many other places. The obvious destination was Palestine, but Palestine was ruled by Great Britain, which let only a handful of Jews in, for fear of Arab reactions. At the time another possibility gained popularity with the Nazi leadership: transport all the Jews to Madagascar, which was part of the French empire.
→ read full article“Us” and “Them”
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 May 2016
NO. It’s not “us” and “them”. Not “us” – the good ones, the moral ones, the righteous ones. Or, to put it bluntly, the magnificent ones. The Jews. And not “them” – the bad ones, the evil ones. To put it bluntly again: the despicable ones. Yes, the Arabs. We, who were chosen by God, because we are so special…. “Arab lovers”? Yes. “Jew lovers”? Sure. But above all life-lovers, peace-lovers, lovers of this country.
→ read full articleThe Case of Soldier A
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Apr 2016
Under Israeli army orders, soldiers are not allowed to kill enemy attackers once they no longer constitute a danger. On the other hand, many politicians and army officers believe that “a terrorist should not be allowed to stay alive” after an attack. This was an informal order by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (himself an outstanding former terrorist).
→ read full articleUnder the Lime Trees
Uri Avnery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Apr 2016
Since the foundation of the Zionist movement, and most certainly since the creation of the State of Israel, Israelis have dreamt of overcoming Arab resistance and inducing the Arab world to accept the “Jewish and democratic” State of Israel as a legitimate member of the region.
→ read full article