Showing 1 - 10 of 21
Fanatics, an obsessive, and a belligerent fool
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2026
» We don't have to look very far to find a useful historical analogy for the current crisis in the Middle East. In 1967, Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, and Israel replied with a surprise air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground.
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?
Could Ukraine actually end up winning?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/09/2025
» Last February, Donald Trump and his heir apparent JD Vance launched a televised frontal attack on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, telling him that Ukraine had "no cards". Mr Zelensky should let Russia keep the conquered territories (about 20% of Ukraine) in return for peace.
The Trump melodrama: Relief is at hand
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/08/2025
» Nobody had been bothering for the past three years, but then along came Donald Trump, determined to shape a "peace deal" between two countries about which he knows little and cares less. Why? Just to win a bauble called the Nobel Peace Prize, because Barack Obama got it first and that wasn't fair.
Gaza impunity: Israel and the Great Eviction
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/05/2025
» Israel may or may not have God on its side (opinions vary), but it certainly has the US government, and that seems to be enough. It has just attacked an unarmed civilian ship called Conscience with armed drones near Malta in the central Mediterranean, almost 2,000 kilometres from Israel -- and nobody has said "boo".
With Israel and Iran it's tit for tat for tit for tat...
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/10/2024
» It's more like a courtship ritual between exotic birds than a 21st-century war. First the Israelis assassinate Revolutionary Guard generals in an Iranian embassy on foreign soil. Tag. You're it.
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:
The lost cause of the 'Catalan Pimpernel'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/08/2024
» Carles Puigdemont, the self-exiled leader of the Catalan separatist movement, aspires to become the new Scarlet Pimpernel. Last week he left Belgium, where he has lived as an unwelcome guest since he led a failed attempt to secede from Spain seven years ago, and had himself smuggled back to Barcelona, the capital of the region of Catalonia.
FGM and the need for Islamic scholars
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/07/2024
» There was a small victory in The Gambia this week when a proposed law to legalise female genital mutilation (FGM) was defeated by human rights campaigners. It was quite a small victory, however, because the great majority of little girls in The Gambia are still being mutilated by the professional "cutters" who move from village to village.
The frog, the scorpion and Hamas
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/11/2023
» Stop me if you've heard this story before. Or rather, don't, because it's relevant to the current situation, and we have to bring the people who don't know the story up to speed first.