Uri Avnery, Author at Antiwar.com

A Bruised Reed

In the year 701 B.C., the Assyrian king Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. The Bible records the words that the Assyrian general, Rabshakeh, addressed to Hezekiah, king of Judah: "Now, behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce … Continue reading

The Language of Force

Soon after coming to power, Ariel Sharon started to commission public opinion polls. He kept the results to himself. This week, a reporter of Israel’s TV Channel 10 succeeded in obtaining some of them. Among other things, Sharon wanted to know what the public thought about peace. He did not dream of starting on this … Continue reading

Stumbling Toward Another War

Introducing Miss Calculatsia, that fashionable foreigner, the new star in Israeli discourse. To a Hebrew ear, she sounds like a young beauty, like “Miss Israel.” But Miss-Calculatsia, the Hebrew version of “miscalculation,” is neither young nor beautiful, nor even female: just another pretentious foreign word taking the place of a perfectly good Hebrew one. (In … Continue reading

Oslo Revisited

On these hot, sticky days of the Israeli summer, it is pleasant to feel the coolness of Oslo, even if the visit is only virtual. Fourteen years after the signing of the Oslo agreement, it is again the subject of debate: was it a historical mistake? In the past, only the Right said so. They … Continue reading

White Elephants

The king of Siam knew how to deal with domestic opponents: he would present them with a white elephant. White elephants are rare in nature, and therefore sacred. Being sacred, they may not be put to work. But even a sacred elephant does eat, and eat a lot. Enough to turn a rich man into … Continue reading

A Warning to Tony Blair

Last week, James Wolfensohn gave a long interview to Ha’aretz. He poured out his heart and summed up, with amazing openness, his months as special envoy of the U.S., Russia, the EU, and the UN (the "Quartet") in this country – the same job entrusted now to Tony Blair. The interview could have been entitled … Continue reading

A Trap for Fools

In a classical American Western, the difference is as glaring as the midday sun in Colorado: there are Good Guys and Bad Guys. The good ones are the settlers, who are making the prairie bloom. The bad ones are the Indians, who are bloodthirsty savages. The ultimate hero is the cowboy, tough, humane, with a … Continue reading

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. The "Jordanian Option" gave up its ghost almost 20 years ago. Even before that, it never was very healthy. But in 1988, some time after the outbreak of the first … Continue reading

Occupation? What Occupation?

There never was a darker Middle East summit meeting. The darkest there can be. The four leaders at Sharm-el-Sheikh did not sit together at an intimate round table. Each one sat alone behind a huge table of his own. That ensured a striking separation between them. The four long tables hardly touched. Each one of … Continue reading

Crocodile Tears

What happens when one and a half million human beings are imprisoned in a tiny, arid territory, cut off from their compatriots and from any contact with the outside world, starved by an economic blockade and unable to feed their families? Some months ago, I described this situation as a sociological experiment set up by … Continue reading