Uri Avnery

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.

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.

My immediate reaction to Marwan Barghouti's registration as a candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority was positive. First of all, I am always in favor of the underdog. And who could be more of an underdog than a prisoner?

For the next four years, the new mantra in Washington may well be: Democracy for the Middle East.

Wherever he may be buried when he passes away, the day will come when his remains will be reinterred by a free Palestinian government in the holy shrines in Jerusalem.

Adalet Bakanı Tommy Lapid, "Arap teröristler değil Yahudi Kralları Kudüs'e gömülür " açıklamasıyla, bayağılıkta yeni bir düzeye erişti. Evet Menahem Begin, krala dönüşüp Kudüs'e gömülmüş olan bir terörist için iyi bir örnek teşkil edebilirdi.

How the Settlers' Movement Have Infiltrated the IDF

The world-view of Sharon, which at first appears so realistic, is the very opposite of realism. It is a view that will lead us to disaster.

There is one thing I regret: Having been the cause of his losing the Israel Prize. The Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, which I helped to found, was holding a debate in a large hall. I was afraid that a colloquium on peace wouldn't draw a large crowd, so I suggested that Prof.

What unites them is a primitive, atavistic morality that says that "we" are a superior race, God's chosen people, a master race etc., while "they" are inferior races, untermenschen.

For all I care, they can starve to death!" announced Tzahi Hanegbi, after Palestinian prisoners declared an open-ended hunger strike against prison conditions. Thus the Minister for Internal Security added another memorable phrase to the lexicon of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The basic assumption is that no candidate for the White House would dare to provoke the American Jewish voters at election times. They are an extremely well organized and highly motivated political bloc, ready to donate heaps of money, which gives them political clout well beyond their numbers.

In Jewish tradition, there is a searing phrase: "The Temple was not destroyed but for gratuitous hatred." It sums up the events in beleaguered Jerusalem, in the year 70 AD, when the town was surrounded by the Roman legions.

One of the Israeli newspapers, Haaretz, put the two events on the front page: the 100th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, and the judgement of the International Court of Justice, which declared the Israeli Separation Wall illegal.

In a week the International Court of Justice will deliver its decision on the wall and the matter will return to the UN. There the Israeli and American representatives will argue that the Israeli court has already rectified the inequities that needed to be addressed

The European Union with its 25 member-states, the government of the Russian Federation and the organization that represents the entire world have humbly accepted the edict of Bush, the dictator of the world, who is himself a captive of Sharon.

I thought it was terrible. I was wrong. It is far, far worse! - These words sum up my feelings at that moment.

Perhaps Abe Lincoln was right that you can't fool all the people all the time, but a lot of people can surely be fooled for a long, long time. Just look at Ariel Sharon.

Ne kadar güçlü olursa olsun, düzenli bir ordu ümitsiz bir halkın desteklediği gerilla savaşçılarına karşı koyamaz. Tam tersine, ordu ne kadar güçlüyse, kazanma şansı o derece düşüktür. Gerilla savaşı ancak uzlaşmayla ve barışçı bir çözümle sonlandırılabilir.

The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the country, has attacked a small Palestinian township on the margin of the destitute Gaza Strip.

In Jewish legend, the Golem was a man-made creature endowed with enormous strength. Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, also know as the Maharal, created him of clay and gave him life by putting a piece of paper with the secret name of God under his tongue.

Five hundred black- and white-bearded Hamas members were sitting opposite me. Venerable sheikhs and young people. On the side, some rows were occupied by women. I was standing on the stage, talking in Hebrew, with the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine on my lapel

A Hungarian Joke: During the June 1967 war, a Hungarian meets his friend. "Why do you look so happy?" he asks. "I heard that the Israelis shot down six Soviet-made MiGs today," his friend replies.

It was vital for him to stick to the exact wording, since it was an encoded text. It is impossible to decipher it without breaking the code. And it is impossible to break the code without knowing Ariel Sharon very well indeed.

Ariel Sharon needs to divert attention. His popularity has dropped in recent opinion polls. The Geneva initiative has captured the national and international agenda.

Çağdaş Siyonist hareketin kurucusu Theodor Herzl 1897'de Basel'deki Birinci Siyonist Kongresi'nden sonra günlüğüne söyle yazmıştı: "Basel'de Yahudi Devleti'ni kurdum." Oysa ömründe Filistin'e gitmemişti ve orada kimin yaşadığına dair hiçbir fikri yoktu...

In the Six-Day War, hundreds of Israeli soldiers were murdered while storming the Sinai desert, the West Bank and the Golan heights.

Yargılanan Fetih lideri Marvan Barguti mahkemedeki final konuşmasında, büyük yankı bulan bir uyarı yaptı: Eğer İsrailliler İki Devlet Çözümünü derhal kabul etmezlerse, İsrail yok olacak. Tüm yurt bir devlet haline gelecek ve bu devlet içinde Filistinliler çoğunluğu oluşturacaklar.

Kararın açıklanması ile İsraillilerin ve uluslararası kamuoyunun bu fikre alışması amaçlanıyor.

So now it is official: the government of Israel has decided to assassinate Yasser Arafat.