Columnists: Benny Avni

Latest Columns

• 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

• Abbas’ empty ‘win’

  Some West Bankers may still feel this morning as if they’ve just won the $587 million Powerball jackpot — but they’ll soon realize that, despite the dazzle of yesterday’s vote at the United Nations, they had the wrong...   November 30, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• The Mideast menace

  The first Israeli-Palestinian skirmish of the post-Arab Spring era is over, and a much-predicted tectonic regional shift has failed to materialize. Here’s a quick tour of the Mideast after the end of a weeklong Israeli...   November 26, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Terrorists’ political win in Arab world

  Israel may end up reaching its tactical, limited goal as Operation Pillar of Defense nears a close — but Hamas remains on its feet and, indeed, seems strengthened. As Israel and Hamas neared a cease-fire agreement last...   November 21, 2012

  From International

• Israel’s dilemma

  Even as Israel boasted impressive military gains against Hamas in Gaza, it struggled yesterday to maintain the original, limited goals of its operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet approved the...   November 17, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Pure self-defense

  After launching Israel’s first major military campaign of the Arab Spring era, Jerusalem is watching closely for reactions around the region — and in Washington. President Obama, who has so far admirably backed Israel’s...   November 16, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Bam’s next war?

  Never mind President Obama’s vow to end a decade of Mideast wars; America instead soon might find itself embroiled in a new conflict in that region — perhaps even before the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Fact is,...   November 14, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• DC’s Mexico play

  Remember Operation Fast and Furious? Mexicans sure do. And now some are planning to sue their government, and ours, for one of the dumbest maneuvers in the history of warfare — part of a 6-year drug war that has exacted...   November 12, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Israel sends a message

  The before-and-after satellite images said it all: First, the mysterious cargo was there, and then — puff — it was gone, leaving behind just large black holes in the ground. In between, Israeli planes flying in the dark...   November 03, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Hit Iran’s terrorists

  Very soon after Election Day, the winner must figure out the toughest challenge on America’s national-security horizon. He may want to pick up Abraham Soafer’s new book,“Taking on Iran.” Soafer, a Reagan administration...   October 26, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• One Mideast success

  The Obama team’s bumbling response to the fatal Benghazi attack is threatening to obscure the president’s lone success in an otherwise dismal Mideast record. Tuesday’s debate won’t be the last word on Benghazi-gate; the...   October 18, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Hoping it goes away

  In his foreign-policy speech yesterday, Mitt Romney said that as president he’d confront Syria’s Bashar al-Assad: “I will work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our...   October 09, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Hope to oust el loco

  There’s a real chance Hugo “El Loco” Chavez will lose this Sunday’s election in Venezuela. Is President Obama ready to act to protect democracy if Chavez tries to hold onto power anyway? Venezuela’s jails and graveyards...   October 04, 2012

  From Oped Columnists

• Get set for our debate on Bibi’s red lines

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned the UN General Assembly yesterday with a placard depicting a bomb, then using a red marker to draw a line near the top. The crude cartoon, reminiscent of a Wile E Coyote...   September 28, 2012

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