SEEING HER face on the TV screen, one is struck by her beauty. It is the face of an angel, pure and innocent. Then she opens her mouth, and what pours out is vile and ugly, the racist message of the extreme right. Like seeing a cherub parting its lips and revealing the teeth of … Read more
CAN A country boycott itself? That may sound like a silly question. It is not. At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the “Giant of History” as Barack Obama called him, Israel was not represented by any of its leaders. The only dignitary who agreed to go was the speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, … Read more
SO HERE comes John Kerry again, for the umpteenth time (but who is counting?) to make peace between us and the Palestinians. It is a highly laudable effort. Unfortunately, it is based on a false premise. To wit: that the Israeli government wants peace based on the two-state solution. Unwilling – or unable – to … Read more
THE GREATEST danger to Israel is not the putative Iranian nuclear bomb. The greatest danger is the stupidity of our leaders. This is not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. A great many of the world’s leaders are plain stupid, and always have been. Enough to look at what happened in Europe in July 1914, when an … Read more
The Tel Aviv Journalists’ Association awarded me the “Lifetime Achievement Prize”. The ceremony took place in Eilat before an audience of almost 1000 journalists. Here follows my acceptance speech: THE WORDS “lifetime achievement” have a certain undertone. There is a hint that the work is finished. I have just been told that the 90-year-old Shimon … Read more
THIS IS not merely a fight between Israel and the US. Nor is it only a fight between the White House and Congress. It is also a battle between intellectual titans. On the one side there are the two renowned professors, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. On the other, the towering international intellectual Noam Chomsky. … Read more
FROM THE first moment, I did not have the slightest doubt that Yasser Arafat was assassinated. It was a matter of simple logic. On the way back from the funeral, I happened upon Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Knesset for the nationalist Arab Balad party, who is a highly qualified doctoral pharmacist. We exchanged … Read more
ON MY 16th birthday, in 1939, I rushed to the district registration office of the Government of Palestine to change my name officially. I shed the German name I was given at birth and adopted the Hebrew first and surname I had chosen. It was more than a mere change of names. It was a … Read more
On the occasion of my 90th birthday, a panel discussion of eminent historians took place in Tel Aviv’s Tsavta hall on the question: “Will Israel Exist in Another 90 Years?” There follows a slightly shortened version of my own remarks. A full video of the discussion with English translation will be published as soon as … Read more
IS ISRAEL an apartheid state? This question is not going away. It raises its head every few months. The term “apartheid” is often used purely for propaganda purposes. Apartheid, like racism and fascism, is a rhetorical term one uses to denigrate one’s opponent. But apartheid is also a term with a precise content. It applies … Read more