voices calling for unity and cooperation between the Zionist immigrant community trying to wrest out a homeland and the native Palestinians, among whom he saw another oppressed community akin to his own. Despite his desire for a Semitic alliance between the Jewish and Arab communities (he proposed an essentially formal alliance of a Semitic region), he joined the army at the onset of the Israeli War of Independence, the Palestinian Nakba.
Although always a Zionist in the sense that he adheres to the idea of a Jewish nation state, Avnery continued his quest for peace and mutual respect between the two peoples now inhabiting the historic land of Palestine, predicated on the idea of two states-Palestinian and Israelias Semitic allies. This idea of a Semitic alliance forms an essential part of Avnery's views on Zionism. He considers himself a post-Zionist, a term he coined to describe those in favor of a Jewish nation state in the context of being part of a regional Semitic whole, secular with a culturally Jewish character, as opposed to early Zionism, which saw the Jewish nation state as an essentially European state, a bulwark against the barbarous hordes as expressed in Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky's article "The iron wall," which Avnery discusses in his October 2007 article in this volume, "The mother of all pretexts." In his essay "Omelets into eggs," included here, Avnery presents his views on Zionism; for a full discussion of Avnery's theory, see his book, Israel Without Zionists: A Plea for Peace in the Middle East (Macmillan, 1968). In addition to his participant/eyewitness perspective, it is this post-Zionism-his Jewish nationalism coupled with his ardent support of Palestinian rights and nationalism-that makes Avnery's voice so unique.
In beginning the collection with essays focused on Judaism, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, I have tried to place Avnery within the context of the thought that shaped him, and even now is at the root of his fundamental belief system. He has completely internalized the concept synonymous with post-Holocaust Zionism-"never again"as, of course, all peoples and governments should. He is in the minority, though, through his inclusive interpretation of "never again." He means never again for anyone, not just a select few.
Seen through Avnery's Israeli eyes, his graphic depiction of Israel's occupation of Palestine is striking. In his inimitable forthright style, Avnery tells it like he sees it-bleak, cruel, corrupting, even sadistic. Avnery does not mince words to spare his country, but neither does he spare Palestinians from censure. Any person, with no previous knowledge of the situation in Israel and Palestine, could read Avnery and absorb a good sense of the nature of the issue, without the usual spin of either narrative. That is one reason his voice is so important. Even