Who Is Afraid of a Real Inquiry?
Uri Avnery
2010-06-21 02:00
If a real Commission of Inquiry had been set up (instead of the pathetic excuse for a commission), here are some of the questions it should have addressed:
1. What is the real aim of the Gaza Strip blockade?
2. If the aim is to prevent the flow of arms into the Strip, why are only 100 products allowed in (as compared to the more than 12 thousand products in an average Israeli...
Count Me Out
Uri Avnery
2009-10-31 14:50
A YEAR before the Oslo agreement, I had a meeting with Yasser Arafat in Tunis. He was full of curiosity about Yitzhak Rabin, who had just been elected Prime Minister.
I described him as well as I could and ended with the words: “He is as honest as a politician can be.”
Arafat broke into laughter, and all the others present, among them Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Abed-Rabbo...
The 155th Victim
Uri Avnery
2006-09-26 15:00
Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes.
Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306--exactly 1700 years ago--encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine . Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a...
The 155th Victim
Uri Avnery
2006-08-20 15:00
WITH A few words, a Lebanese army officer destroyed, the day before yesterday, the illusion that Israel had achieved anything in this war.
At a televised Lebanese army parade that was also broadcast on Israeli TV , the officer read a prepared text to his assembled troops, who were about to be deployed along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
From Mania to Depression
Uri Avnery
2006-08-16 15:00
THIRTY THREE days of war. The longest of our wars since 1949.
On the Israeli side: 154 dead - 117 of them soldiers. 3,970 rockets launched against us, 37 civilians dead, more than 422 civilians wounded.
On the Lebanese side: about a thousand dead civilians, thousands wounded. An unknown number of Hizbullah fighters dead and wounded.
More than a million refugees on both sides.
So what has...
Junkies of War
Uri Avnery
2006-08-06 15:00
FOR ME it was a moment of shocking revelation.
I was listening to one of the daily speeches of our Prime Minister. He said: "We are a wonderful people!" He said: We have already won this war, it is the greatest victory in the history of our state. He said: We have changed the face of the Middle East . And more to that effect.
Well, I told myself, that's Olmert.
In the Gunsight: Syria
Uri Avnery
2006-07-30 15:00
IT IS the old story about the losing gambler: he cannot stop. He continues to play, in order to win his losses back. He continues to lose and continues to gamble, until he has lost everything: his ranch, his wife, his shirt.
Is Beirut Burning?
Uri Avnery
2006-07-23 15:00
"IT SEEMS that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut , where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker.
An interesting formulation. A few hours after the bombing, Nazrallah had given an interview to Aljazeera television. Not only did he look alive, but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment -...
The Real Aim
Uri Avnery
2006-07-20 15:00
THE REAL aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government.
That was the aim of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it.
As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the U.S.
As then, there is no...
A One-Sided War
Uri Avnery
2006-07-09 15:00
THAT'S IT. Tomorrow the World Cup games come to an end. We can congratulate the new champions and wish them arrivederci or au revoir, as the case may be.
Now the public can return to less important matters, such as the daily killing and destruction, the captured soldier, the launching of Qassam rockets and everything else connected with our invasion of Gaza .
THE VERY definition of the...
Agatha in the Rain
Uri Avnery
2006-06-30 15:00
"ISRAEL HAS declared war on the Palestinian people! The Palestinian people will answer in kind! The Palestinian rebellion will go on! The Palestinian fighters are steadfast in the service of the nation! Down with the Nazi-Zionist occupation! Out with the unclean infidels from the Holy Land ! Destroyed Rafah - we shall build you anew! Long live the Palestinian revolution! Long live the State of...
...Shall We Not Revenge?'
Uri Avnery
2006-02-05 16:00
'...Shall We Not Revenge?'
by Uri Avnery
IF ONE wants to understand what the Palestinians did on election day, one has to see the film "Paradise Now", which has been nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign film, after collecting several prestigious international prizes. It explains better than a million words.
With Friends Like These...
Uri Avnery
2006-01-17 16:00
JUDAS ISCARIOT is headed for a makeover. According to news reports, cardinals close to the new pope recommend a change in the Catholic Church's attitude towards him: exit the treacherous Jew who turns the messiah over to the cohorts of the evil High Priest - enter the apostle who simply fulfilled his role in the divine design. After all, it was God who decided that his son should die on the cross...
A Napoleon, Made in Israel
Uri Avnery
2006-01-09 16:00
He was an Israeli Napoleon.
From early youth, he was totally convinced that he was the only person in the world who could save the State of Israel. That was an absolute certainty, free of any doubt. He just knew that he must achieve supreme power, in order to fulfill the mission that fate had entrusted him with.
The Pied Piper
Uri Avnery
2005-12-18 16:00
SOME 721 YEARS ago, the town of Hamelin in Germany was suffering from a plague of rats. A citizen called Bunting offered to get rid of them for an agreed fee. When he played on his flute, the entranced rats came out of their holes and followed him to the river where they drowned. But when the piper presented his bill to the town fathers, they wouldn't pay him.
War Is a State of Mind
Uri Avnery
2005-10-18 15:00
Some years ago I talked with a young Israeli writer. I was struck by the fact that in spite of being very successful and acclaimed by the critics, and that at a relatively early age, she somehow exuded an air of insecurity.
What Awaits Samira?
Uri Avnery
2005-10-16 15:00
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 as elegant as a model, dressed in the very latest fashion. She happens to be a Shiite from Baghdad , where she has now returned. Let's call her Samira.
What struck me most about Samira was her...
The Gladiators
Uri Avnery
2005-10-02 15:00
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 behaved like the Roman rabble who screamed, rioted and demanded blood.
Joha's Nail
Uri Avnery
2005-09-19 15:00
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 to. I don't want to sell it." The buyer readily agreed. Who cares about a nail?
Who Murdered Arafat?
Uri Avnery
2005-09-11 15:00
The day before yesterday the Haaretz headline screamed: "Doctors: Arafat died of AIDS or poisoning." AIDS appeared in first place.
The Bang and the Whimper
Uri Avnery
2005-09-04 15:00
"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 book of Ecclesiastes has no truer follower than Ariel Sharon.
Witness, Sharon himself set up the settlements in the Gaza Strip, and now he has destroyed them with his own hands. He created the...
Dear Settlers
Uri Avnery
2005-08-28 15:00
August 18th, 2005 --a milestone in the history of the State of Israel.
Dear Settlers --
"Dear" in the most literal sense.
At long last it must be spelled out, without hypocritical pity, without "if" and "but."
This Was the Day
Uri Avnery
2005-08-21 15:00
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.
True, the settlement activity in the West Bank continues at full speed. Ariel Sharon intends to give up the small settlements in the Gaza Strip in order to secure the big settlement blocs in the West Bank .
Red Herring
Uri Avnery
2005-06-20 15:00
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.
The Hamas movement officially opposes the very existence of the State of Israel, and here I stand on the podium speaking in Hebrew about peace between Israel and the future State of Palestine.
Did they protest? On the contrary,...
Arik's Horror Show
Uri Avnery
2005-06-20 15:00
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 stone at the head of the injured Palestinian. Another settler dropping a big stone on him at point-blank range. A bearded medic, also a settler, approaches the wounded boy, hesitates, and then goes away...
The Bogyman
Uri Avnery
2005-06-05 15:00
While the new Chief-of-Staff, Air Force general Dan Halutz, was assuming his new job, I stood with a group of demonstrators at the gate of the General Staff building, to protest against his appointment. Our slogan was: "You have blood on your wings!" -- a reminder of his remarks when the Air Force dropped a one-ton bomb on a residential area in Gaza, in order to kill Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh....
Buying Off the Settlers
Uri Avnery
2005-05-30 15:00
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 read until the jam disperses.
We Israelis are not like that. We are a nervous lot. We have no patience. When we are stuck in a jam, we curse the world and the government, demanding a solution, perhaps a...
Wagner at the Memorial
Uri Avnery
2005-05-22 15:00
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, who still has such an enormous impact on our lives?
The day found me in Berlin . I took a look at what was on in the city and discovered the perfect solution: on the same day, the renowned Staatsoper, the...
Death of a Myth
Uri Avnery
2005-05-11 15:00
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 against the Wall? No, it's a song.
Like a devout Christian, Naomi Shemer confessed, on her deathbed, to the greatest sin of her life: Her immortal song "Jerusalem of Gold" is a copy of a Basque lullaby she...
Aren't You Ashamed?'
Uri Avnery
2005-05-08 15:00
The car stopped for a moment. An elderly lady pushed her head out of the window and shouted; "Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? Today is Holocaust Day, and you are demonstrating for Arabs?!"
The cause of her anger was a large group of demonstrators opposite the Ministry of Defense in Tel-Aviv, last Thursday, the official Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel . Many things happened on that day.
A Tale of Two Demonstrations
Uri Avnery
2005-05-01 15:00
The day before yesterday, two demonstrations were held, just a few dozen kilometers apart.
One took place at the Homesh settlement, not far from Jenin. Tens of thousands of settlers and their sympathizers came to demonstrate against the planned evacuation of this settlement. The demonstrators swore to sabotage the decisions of the government and the Knesset. One of them declared that they could...
For Whom the Bells Toll
Uri Avnery
2005-04-25 15:00
An Iranian technician named Jalal-a-Din Taheri, who had been working at the nuclear reactor at Bushehr, managed to defect to Europe , where he disclosed the Ayatollahs' plans for producing nuclear bombs.
Taheri was acclaimed a hero throughout the world. A number of organizations nominated him for the Nobel Peace Price. President Bush praised his courage. Ariel Sharon invited him to come and live...
Don't Shoot the Croupier!
Uri Avnery
2005-04-10 15:00
As a decent person, I am supposed to feel compassion for the Gush Katif settlers. To embrace them. To shed a tear for their plight.
And indeed, there are grounds for compassion. Human beings uprooted from the soil where they have been living for decades. Middle-aged people compelled to start their lives all over again. Children born there obliged to move to schools in other places. People who...
Paved With Bad Intentions
Uri Avnery
2005-03-27 15:00
Last week, the mainstream peace organizations held a demonstration in support of Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. I agonized for days about whether to take part or not. The question continues to bother me, and the discussions on this subject are still going on ' with crucial votes due in the Knesset this week.
Perhaps the best way to find an answer is to set out the pros and cons.
Let's start...
Bush's Guru
Uri Avnery
2005-03-09 16:00
An American and a Soviet soldier meet in Berlin in 1945 and get into an argument about which of their countries is more democratic.
'Why,' the American said, 'I can stand in the middle of Times Square and shout 'President Truman is a scoundrel' and nothing will happen to me!'
'Big deal,' the Russian retorted, 'I can stand in the middle of Red Square and shout 'Truman is a scoundrel' and nothing...
The Next Crusades
Uri Avnery
2005-03-06 16:00
Many years ago, I read a book called The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in Vietnam . He has no idea about the complexities of that country but is determined to right its wrongs and create order. The results are disastrous.
Finger After Finger
Uri Avnery
2005-03-01 16:00
Seven words uttered by President Bush in Brussels have not been paid the attention they deserve.
He called for the establishment of 'a democratic Palestinian state with territorial contiguity' in the West Bank , and then added: 'A state on scattered territories will not work.'
It is worthwhile to ponder these words. Who did he point the finger at? Why did he say this in Brussels , of all...
Beware of the Dog!
Uri Avnery
2005-03-01 16:00
It is not very flattering to be paraded like a Rottweiler on a leash, whose master threatens to let him loose on his enemies. But this is our situation now.
Vice President Dick Cheney threatened a few weeks ago that if Iran continues to develop its nuclear capabilities, Israel might attack her.
?Sharm-al-Sheikh, We Have Come Back Again??
Uri Avnery
2005-02-13 16:00
Nobody called it the 'Ophira Conference.' Not even the papers of the extreme right. Who today even remembers the name Ophira, which was given to Sharm-al-Sheikh during the Israeli occupation, as a first step to its annexation?
Dunam After Dunam
Uri Avnery
2005-02-07 16:00
What would we say if an American institution, holding a seventh of all the land in the United States , adopted statutes that allowed it to sell or rent land only to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants?
We would not believe it. And it is, indeed, impossible.
But that's the way things are in Israel . This us now the subject of a stormy public debate.
The Stalemate
Uri Avnery
2005-01-31 16:00
Perhaps the second intifada has come to an end. Perhaps the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip will develop into a general, mutual cease-fire.
Who Envies Abu-Mazen?
Uri Avnery
2005-01-18 16:00
Now it's official: 'the First Democracy in the Arab World' or 'the Second Democracy in the Middle East ' has been born.
The Palestinian elections have impressed the world. Until now, if elections were held in any Arab country at all, there was only one candidate, and he received 99.62% of the vote. Yet here there were seven candidates, there was a lively election campaign and the winning...
How the Hell Did This Happen?
Uri Avnery
2005-01-09 16:00
How the hell did I get into this goddamned mess? I wake up in the morning and can't believe it. What, I, Arik Sharon, am waging a war against the settlers? I, who put them there in the first place? I, who drafted the map of the settlements long before the settlers themselves ever dreamed of it?
How, for God sake, did this start? What did I want, after all?
A Wreath for Blair
Uri Avnery
2004-12-28 16:00
'The curious incident is the barking of the dog,' Sherlock Holmes remarked.
'But the dog did not bark!' exclaimed Dr. Watson.
'That is the curious incident!'
This week's curious incident concerns the wreath of Tony Blair. The wreath that he did not lay on the grave of Yasser Arafat. Elementary, dear Watson.
Blair did go to the graveside. But he omitted the natural and customary thing: laying...
The Mountain and the Mouse
Uri Avnery
2004-12-19 16:00
Ariel Sharon's speech at the 'Herzliya Conference,' an annual gathering of Israel 's financial, political and academic aristocracy, proved again his wondrous ability to conjure up an imaginary world and divert attention away from the real one. Like every successful con-man, he knows that the audience desperately wants to believe good tidings and will be happy to ignore bad ones.
It was an...
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Uri Avnery
2004-12-12 16:00
When the fruit sellers at the Tel Aviv market shout, 'The boss has gone crazy!', they mean that they are selling their merchandise at ridiculously low prices.
In the world's capitals, a similar cry is now being heard: 'The boss has gone crazy!' ' but it is not about the price of tomatoes. It refers to the new situation, after the reelection of George W. Bush for four more years.
In many places...
Who"s Next?
Uri Avnery
2004-11-21 16:00
George W. Bush is a product of the Wild West myth. He sees himself as the fast-drawing sheriff who kills the bad guys and maintains order in town.
But in fact he is much more like another stock figure of the Westerns: the top-hatted vendor of the patent medicine which heals everything: tooth-ache and belly-ache, cholera and impotence, gunshot wounds and heart attacks.
Bush's patent medicine is...
Rejoice Not...
Uri Avnery
2004-11-14 16:00
'Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him.' This biblical injunction (Proverbs 24:17) is one of the most profound Jewish moral tenets.
In this connection, Israel is very far from being a 'Jewish State,' as it likes to define itself. The disgusting filth poured out over Yasser Arafat during the last few...
On the Road to Civil War
Uri Avnery
2004-10-24 15:00
Everybody in Israel is talking about the Next War. The most popular TV channel is running a whole series about it.
Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran . Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the Palestinians.
The talk is about the coming civil war.
Only a few months ago, that would have sounded preposterous. Now, suddenly, it has become a possibility, and a...
Thank You, Dubby
Uri Avnery
2004-10-18 15:00
What really is important is not what he said or why he said it, but the world-view that animates him.
By now, everybody has had a go at analyzing the interview with Dov ('Dubby') Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's most intimate confidant. But there is precious little to analyze. His statement is crystal clear: the 'redeployment plan' was designed to 'freeze' the peace process for decades, to put all...
Reprint Rights
Recent comments by Uri Avnery
This user hasn't posted any comments yet.