I like the way he writes.
Just got it in an e-mail from Gush Shalom:

The Good Boy Scout
Uri Avnery
21.7.04

"In a dramatic television broadcast, the Russian president, Vladimir
Putin, called upon the million Russian emigrants in Israel to return at
once to their homeland, in view of the growing danger to their security
there."

That did not happen, of course. But it is easy to imagine what would
have been the reaction in Israel if Putin had indeed made such an appeal.
Or if the president of France, Jacques Chirac, had called upon the French-
speakers in Israel, the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from France
and North Africa, to move to France, where their life is not threatened
by suicide bombers.

The Israeli media would have gone berserk. The Knesset, in an
emergency session, would have denounced the outrageous anti-Semitic
outburst of the president of Russia and/or France. The politicians would
have tried to outdo each other in condemnations of the inadmissible
interference in the internal affairs of Israel. The Foreign Office would
have ordered the return of the ambassador in Moscow and/or Paris for
"consultations".

What happened was, of course, the reverse. It was the Israeli Prime
Minister who called on the French Jews to leave their homeland "as soon
as possible" and come to Israel, in view of the - alleged - anti-Semitic
wave in France. The French government and media reacted exactly as their
Israeli counterparts would have done.

Every tenth Frenchman (and Frenchwoman) is Jewish.

"A deplorable misunderstanding," the official French spokesman
intoned. Meaning, in non-diplomatic language: "Shut up, you bastard!"

Profound commentators all over the world tried to guess the hidden
motive of Ariel Sharon. Was this a veiled warning to France not to vote
in favor of the judgement of the International Court in the UN General
Assembly? (France voted for it anyhow, compelling all of Europe to follow
suit.) Was he doing a favor to President Bush, who detests Chirac?

The truth is much more simple. It is impossible to guess Sharon's
intention, because he had none. It was an inconsequential speech before
an inconsequential audience. Sharon wanted to say something that would
give him five seconds on TV, and he got them. Everybody was satisfied:
the TV stations, the Prime Minister, his audience and the general public.
Everybody, that is, except the French.

In Israeli ears it was an unimportant, routine statement. Israeli
leaders miss no opportunity to call on every occasion upon Jewish
communities to drop everything and come to Israel. If there is a sign of
anti-Semitism anywhere, this is an automatic response.