Showing 1 - 10 of 60
The case of the disappearing senior generals
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/02/2026
» Armies can be used against both against foreigners abroad and against citizens at home, but the two roles require quite different equipment and tactics. The same applies to their commanders: you need a different kind of general if you think that the primary task of their troops will be controlling dissent at home.
Bibi's strategy to keep justice at arm's length
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/12/2025
» Israel's prime minister, Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, has just asked the country's president, Isaac Herzog, to "fully pardon" him of all three charges -- bribery, fraud and breach of trust -- that he has been on trial for since 2020. And the question is: Why did he only ask for it now?
Iran: Drought, incompetence, revolution?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/11/2025
» Twenty years of strict sanctions on Iran by both the United States and the United Nations did not bring down the regime of the ayatollahs. Half a dozen major waves of non-violent protest involving several thousand deaths have not brought it down either. Even last June's massive bombing campaign by Israel and the US did not bring it to heel.
Unpunished crimes, except Duterte's maybe
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/03/2025
» Everybody has heard the saying: "The mills of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine". The saying is a promise that all crimes will eventually be punished -- but it is a lie.
Gaza ceasefire under pressure from all sides
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2025
» In the 80 hours between Wednesday, Jan 15, when the Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced, and Sunday, Jan 19, when it went into effect, Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 123 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said it had tried to avoid civilian casualties, but it had to kill the "terrorists" of Hamas wherever they were.
Will he? Won't he? What will Netanyahu do?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/10/2024
» Will Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, really launch a full-scale war against Lebanon-based Hezbollah when Israel is still fighting Hamas in Gaza? Of course he will.
Netanyahu did not do enough to save hostages
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/09/2024
» Six Jewish hostages were murdered by Hamas last week just before the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reached them, and a controversy has erupted in Israel about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have done more to save them, but only among the ignorant and the credulous, because everybody else knew he never intended to save them. If your child is kidnapped and you get a ransom note, do you:
Palestinians are pawns in a deadly game
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/07/2024
» The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip since last October's Hamas attacks on Israeli settlements will reach 40,000 people in the next week or so. (It's back up around 50-100 civilians dead per day.)
Rambling Joe Biden officially a lost cause
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/07/2024
» It really doesn't matter whether Joe Biden is in peak condition intellectually during a second term as president. He did some useful things in his first term, but his main job now is to stop Donald Trump from coming back. If he succeeded in doing that and went gaga immediately afterwards, the ship of state would carry on regardless.
Second chance beckons for South Africa?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/06/2024
» Cyril Ramaphosa is the president of South Africa again, but everything else is different. He got his job back in a vote late on Friday, but only because at the last moment he managed to cobble together a coalition that has a majority in parliament. It's so new that the coalition partners still haven't agreed on who does what in the new government.