Shlomo Avineri

The security arrangements seen in the Geneva Initiative may work in a utopian state, but in reality they exist nowhere in the world.

A little-known 1921agreement between anti-Semitic ruler Symon Petliura and Ze'ev Jabotinsky is a complicated and embarrassing episode that teaches us of the complexities that arise in every nationalist movement.

Nowhere in the world is a country entirely demilitarized with no control over its borders. Some observers have made the bizarre comparison to Andora, but that country's very existence is an anachronistic remnant of feudalism.

The proposal to ban commemorating the Palestinian Nakba will only encourage extremism in the Arab public and weaken the groups seeking integration into Israeli society.

Jerusalem's historic heritage and potential for the future captured Herzl's imagination. For him it was clear that there was no Zionism without Zion.

While the finest Israeli writers confront the moral challenge of upholding the justice of the Zionist enterprise while understanding the Palestinians' pain and rights, we hear no comparable moral voice on the other side.

What is happening in the Labor Party is liable to cause despair to anyone who hopes for its revival.

Decentralizing law enforcement and putting it in the hands of dozens of local authorities in a small country like Israel will only create redundancy and undermine efficiency.

George Mitchell would be well-advised to pay closer attention to certain distinguishing features of the local conflict.

Recently, more and more voices have been heard saying that the only way to reach an Israeli-Palestinian accord is by talking to Hamas.

If you make hundreds of media appearances and rock the entire country with a public campaign, it is wrong and immoral to see everything exclusively from your own private point of view.

The fanatics of a right-wing government living in their own bubble will bring disaster and shame not only on themselves, but on all of us. As Yitzhak Rabin once said, we do not have a spare country.

The current system, with all of its faults, has never led us to a constitutional crisis. It should be fixed, but we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

In Altneuland, Herzl named the founder of the Jewish racist party Geyer (which in German means a bird that eats carrion), modeling the character and his ideology after the Viennese anti-Semitic leader Karl Lueger.

Every voter had better recognize that his decision requires him to act responsibly - to consider the kind of government he wants, whom he wants to lead the nation and the policy he would like to see implemented.

Obama needs to invest every effort in finding ways to tone down the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and creating mechanisms to build mutual trust.

The public debate surrounding the appointment of Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, does not relate to her academic qualifications or scholarly achievements, but to her positions. This is a serious development that endangers academic freedom and is reminiscent of the days of American McCarthyism.

Moderate religious Zionism was one of Zionism and Israel's cornerstones and now, with the disappearance of the historic National Religious Party, one component has dropped out of the pluralistic Zionist building.

The fact that the choice in Jerusalem is between an ultra-Orthodox candidate and a politically inexperienced but right-wing candidate is the result of a grave political failure.

Even if it is clear that the current situation will lead to rising unemployment and general stagnation, one should not assume that it will deteriorate to the horrifying proportions of the 1920s and 30s.

The American market and the global economy will recover from the crisis, but it is difficult to suppose that we will soon again see unrestrained and crushing capitalism in the form we have known for the past two decades.

After the communist intermezzo, both Russia and China are returning to the bosom of their history.

After Georgia, will Moscow try to teach Ukraine a similar lesson? Time will tell. But the era of ignoring Russia has come to an end.