Avi Shlaim - openDemocracy

The neophyte president, Netanyahu, and Palestine

Trump is unencumbered by any knowledge of the Palestinians, their history, their politics, or their legitimate struggle for statehood.

By Avi Shlaim

/ 22 Feb 2017

The Labour Party, Israel, and antisemitism

The key question, given that antisemitism along with other forms of racism has had a continuing presence in British political life, is why now? Much hangs on this.

By Avi Shlaim and Gwyn Daniel

/ 7 May 2016

The perils and pitfalls of patriotic history

War is said to be too serious a business to be left to the soldiers. By the same token, military history is too serious to be left to the politicians. When politicians pontificate about the past it is rarely in the disinterested pursuit of a complex truth.

By Avi Shlaim

/ 7 Feb 2014

Ariel Sharon’s legacy

Sharon was the unilateralist par excellence. His main aim when he came to power in 2001 was to eliminate the two-state solution and to determine unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel. Five years later, he had gone some way towards achieving this aim.

By Avi Shlaim

/ 14 Jan 2014

Ariel Sharon’s legacy

Sharon was the unilateralist par excellence. His main aim when he came to power in 2001 was to eliminate the two-state solution and to determine unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel. Five years later, he had gone some way towards achieving this aim.

By Avi Shlaim

/ 14 Jan 2014

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Please take a few moments to reflect on the relations between the United States and Israel in the light of a recent incident

By Avi Shlaim

/ 28 May 2010

Israel’s “new history” and the Palestinians

A rethinking by Israeli historians enlarges understanding of the bitter events of 1948, including the Palestinian "nakba" (catastrophe). It thus creates a foundation for addressing their consequences in the present, says Avi Shlaim.

By Avi Shlaim

/ 4 Nov 2009

Israel and Gaza: rhetoric and reality

The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. The establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948

By Avi Shlaim

/ 7 Jan 2009

Israel at 60: the “iron wall” revisited

In 1923, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of revisionist Zionism, published an article entitled On the Iron Wall. He argued that Arab nationalists were bound to oppose the establishment

By Avi Shlaim

/ 8 May 2008

Israel, free speech, and the Oxford Union

Israel is often portrayed by its supporters as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. But these very same supporters, in their excessive zeal for their cause, sometimes

By Avi Shlaim

/ 13 Nov 2007