Columnists: Benny Avni

Latest Columns

• Surprise UN attack: Germany v. Israel

  For the first time ever, Israel has a real shot at a seat on the UN Security Council — but the Germans, of all people, may prevent it. Mind you, Germany — and, before reunification, West Germany — has been Israel’s most...   May 16, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Kerry: A pavlovian peace-processor

  That sure didn’t take long. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Moscow counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, launched a new peace initiative for Syria on Tuesday; on Wednesday, Russia — ouch — undermined President Obama’s...   May 13, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Israeli bombs — a lesson for Bam

  For two years, since the Syrian revolt erupted, President Obama has tried to lead from behind the United Nations, the Europeans, the Arab League. How about Israel? Yesterday, for the second time in three days, the...   May 06, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Facing terror facts

  At last week’s funeral for MIT Police Officer Sean Collier last week, Vice President Joe Biden defiantly said, “On every frontier, terrorism as a weapon is losing, it is not gaining adherents.” Huh? Whether small-scale...   April 29, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Bam’s Mideast strategy — at last

  With a bit of luck and good implementation, President Obama’s emerging Mideast strategy — build a coalition of pro-US forces in the region to oppose the radicals — could erase the errors that tarred his first four years...   April 22, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Stealing Venezuela

  The government stole the election right from the start, but for now a politician who wants to save Venezuela from its ruinous path won’t concede defeat, so things may get ugly quickly. Sadly, ugly is likely the only way...   April 16, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Idle America makes for Mideast mess

  For a sense of why the Middle East is sliding into a new dark night, look at Yemen — where everybody and his brother is meddling, while America mostly stays away. Yemen is a long way away from its glorious Queen of...   April 12, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• The next Vladimir?

  Following Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan these days is like watching a chameleon. You never know which color he’ll turn next. But through all the shifts,a strategic goal emerges: He wants to Putinize Turkey...   March 28, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Bam’s chemical test

  President Obama’s fast-fading Syrian red line is raising eyebrows across the Mideast, where he completed a mostly successful visit yesterday. Was an American line crossed this week? Were chemical weapons used in Syria?...   March 23, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• A different path to peace

  President Obama says he hasn’t brought any new American peace plan with him on his Middle East trip. Everybody assumes he means “yet” — but if he really is over there to listen, he might want to hear what a few...   March 20, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Right way to retreat

  The fighting season in Mali ends in three weeks and France, which has shouldered the brunt of the counter-terrorism war there, is looking for an exit strategy. So now what? Some 4,000 crack French troops have been...   March 16, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Castros are Venezuelan kingmakers

  The relationship between Venezuela under Nicolas “I Am Chavez” Maduro and Cuba is bound to tighten — and that’s bad news for America.  Sworn-in Friday as Venezuela’s interim president, Maduro is often described as “hand...   March 11, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Freakshow lessons from the Rodman-Kim show

  ‘Guess what, guess what,” Dennis “The Worm” Rodman said time and again Sunday, as he tried to describe his North Korean excellent adventure to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Guess what: Some Americans believe that, as...   March 05, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Playing with fire

  Mahmoud Abbas wants President Obama’s attention — and to get it, he’s apparently willing to risk setting the West Bank ablaze. Obama is headed to the region March 20, but the White House says he’ll focus on bigger...   February 26, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Why Europe won’t name terrorists

  Under pressure from Washington, Europe is finally edging toward calling one of the world’s leading terrorist organizations a . . . well, terrorist organization. Yesterday Bulgaria’s foreign minister, Nikolay Mladenov,...   February 19, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Empty tough talk

  Mere hours after North Korea seemingly carried out an underground nuclear test Tuesday morning, our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, vowed to take “swift” and “significant action” against Pyongyang’s rogue regime at the...   February 16, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Tehran’s booming Latin alliance

  Nearly two decades after a car bomb destroyed a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, killing 85, Argentina is forming a “truth commission” with Iran to investigate the case. Yeah, and OJ is still looking for the real...   February 12, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Syria: false hopes

  How long will the West keep falling for dead-on-arrival Syrian “peace initiatives” that ignore the facts on the ground?  The latest came last weekend, when Moaz al-Khatib, the titular head of Syria’s most widely...   February 07, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Why Israel struck

  After sitting on the sidelines for two years of regional turmoil, the Israeli Air Force reportedly attacked military targets near the Syrian-Lebanese border in the wee hours yesterday. Breaking long hours of silence,...   January 31, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• When America opts to be absent

  “When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, our interests suffer and our security at home is threatened.”  Funny: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...   January 29, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• An Israeli surprise

  Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beteinu party took a beating in yesterday’s elections — but he’s still likely to head the next Israeli government, and stick to his tough stance toward Iran and other foreign policies. But...   January 23, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• O’s electioneering

  In the final days before Tuesday’s Israeli elections, Topic A over there is President Obama’s dim assessment of the Jewish state’s ability to handle its own affairs. Israeli polls consistently show that a right-wing...   January 18, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• France stands tall

  French President François Hollande just decided to overrule all the skeptics in Paris and abroad, end-run the United Nations and draw a line in the Sahara sands.  Months ago, a band of cruel, ruthless and decisively...   January 15, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Venezuela crisis: weekend at Hugo’s?

  Whether Venezuela’s power crisis materializes by Thursday or later on, it’s coming. America will have a role to play, and better choose the right side this time. President Hugo Chavez won re-election in October; he’s...   January 08, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• ’Nam syndrome II

  The Taliban seem to believe all they need to do now is wait ’til America hightails it out of Afghanistan (coming soon), then take the country back and remake it into the jihadi haven that Allah always intended it to be....   January 04, 2013

  From Oped Columnists

• Christians Besieged

  The Christmas season’s become a time to reflect on the fate of Christians around the world, from the besieged ancient communities of the Middle East to the tyrannized worshippers in China. But let us not ignore the...   December 24, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Asia’s ticking time bombs

  East Asia is in flux: Japan elected a new, more nationalist prime minister over the weekend. China’s new leadership is settling in, as is North Korea’s hereditary Stalinist dictator. And South Korea may elect its first...   December 18, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Making us miss Rice

  The White House, which for months hung the beleaguered UN Ambassador Susan Rice out to dry, finally let her fall on her sword. Memo to her detractors: Be careful what you wish for.  By all accounts, Rice was President...   December 15, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Psy & America-hate

  What a turnaround: Sunday, just two days after news broke of Psy’s early anti-American ranting, the YouTube sensation entertained the Obamas and Veep Joe Biden at Washington’s premier holiday event. Psy, the 34-year-old...   December 11, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• The President’s fading red lines

  Red lines aren’t what they used to be.  President Obama warned beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad on Monday against using Syria’s chemical weapons. Problem is, Assad’s apparently already violated an earlier Obama...   December 05, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Photos
• Videos
• Blogs