7 February 2007 A World of Walls By Gwynne Dyer If good fences make good neighbours, then the world is experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of neighbourliness. They used to wall cities. Now they wall whole countries. The latest country to start building a wall — sorry, a “security fence” — is Thailand, which has just […]
18 August 2005 Sharon’s Strategy Succeeds (For Now) By Gwynne Dyer Asher Weisgan, the Israeli settler who murdered three Palestinians at random in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh on Wednesday, was clearly very upset by the forced evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called him a “Jewish
23 March 2006 After the Israeli Election By Gwynne Dyer “It’s a trade-off,” said Dror Etkes, director of the Israeli organisation Settlement Watch, just after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carried out the dramatic withdrawal from the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip last August. “The Gaza Strip for the settlement blocks; the Gaza Strip for
21 November 2005 Israel: The Resurrection of Rabin By Gwynne Dyer Can the old war criminal really want to end his political career by making peace with the Palestinians? Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has broken with the hard-right Likud Party that he helped to found three decades ago and is starting a new centrist
26 September 2005 Israel-Palestine: The Spoilers By Gwynne Dyer Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has had a good couple of months. In August, his policy of forced withdrawal from the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which he imposed on his own Likud party despite bitter opposition, was carried out far faster and with much
18 August 2005 Sharon’s Strategy Succeeds (For Now) By Gwynne Dyer Asher Weisgan, the Israeli settler who murdered three Palestinians at random in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh on Wednesday, was clearly very upset by the forced evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called him a “Jewish
17 July 2005 Israel and Palestine: The End of the “Calm” By Gwynne Dyer Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for a “period of calm” when he took over the late Yasser Arafat’s job in January, and for a while some people allowed themselves to believe that peace was within reach. But that delusion depended on
11 October 2004 Israeli Tail, American Dog By Gwynne Dyer In a US election campaign that is more about foreign policy than any presidential race in decades, one issue is completely off-limits: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. George W. Bush and John Kerry both back Israel one hundred percent, and neither man will offer a single word
16 September 2004 A Curse on Sharon By Gwynne Dyer The way his enemies and even his allies are talking, you’d think that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had suggested giving the country back to the Arabs. In fact, he accused his critics last Wednesday of trying to spark a civil war in Israel, so
11 January 2004 The Fate of Israel By Gwynne Dyer Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders in 1099. The subsequent battles swayed to and fro, but the Crusaders held most of the eastern Mediterranean coast (what is now Israel, Lebanon and Syria) for almost two centuries. Then the local people, overwhelmingly superior in numbers then as