Uri Avnery will turn 90 on 10 September. Gideon Levy wishes him "Mazal tov" in a Haaretz piece where he depicts him as a "pioneer of Israeli journalism, a statesman and a prophet". Avnery founded Ha'olam Hazeh, a newspaper that has often challenged both the army and the extremist Arabs.
He fought in Israel's Independence War. He was the first one to coin the term "two states for two people". Although he is a convinced Zionist, he dared meet Arafat when he was an enemy of the Israeli people. For his troublesome initiatives he underwent two assaults, but he never lost his optimism. In an interview with Haaretz a few weeks ago, he said: "If we keep looking at our feet, we will die of sorrow. I always look up".