Opinion

• Opinion

  Wonder Upon Wonder

  Here are some reasons, even in these gloomy times, to feel good. In Haifa, there’s a man named Hossam Haick. He’s all of 33 years old, and he is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Last September, he was honored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  A Gloomy Assessment

  The crisis in the world economy and the decline of America’s global dominance could be paving the way to a new, multi-polar world order in which powers like Russia, China and India share control with the United States — or compete for it in a global free-for-all. It would be a world in which human…

  Feb 25, 2009 | 2 min read
• Letters

  March 6, 2009

  Israel’s Electoral House Isn’t ‘Divided’ Aaron David Miller writes that, following the Israeli elections, “we have a divided and dysfunctional Israeli house” (“Scrambled Electoral Eggs,” February 20). How is this so? Israel’s elections produced 65 seats for the right-of-center parties, against a mere 44 seats for the left-of-center parties. This suggests that around 60% of…

  Feb 25, 2009 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman Charlie Kirk and Alan Berg: 2 murders, 41 years apart, show the painful perils of polarization

  

• Nora Berman ‘A long record of failure’: Is it time to put the two-state solution to rest?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s strike in Qatar: An audacious bid for victory, or just another foolhardy provocation?

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

• Letters

  February 27, 2009

  Conservative Judaism’s Intermarriage Thing J.J. Goldberg provides fascinating and insightful analysis of the challenges facing any future Conservative movement leadership (“Conservative Movement’s ‘Vision Thing,’” February 20). However, I found it equally interesting for what was not mentioned. Nowhere in his piece does the topic of intermarriage appear, even when pointing out that the movement’s slide…

  Feb 18, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Obama’s Faith in ‘Non-Believers’

  Last spring, dogged by looping video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright howling “Not ‘God bless America,’ God damn America,” presidential hopeful Barack Obama cracked open the tense discussion of race in this country with his groundbreaking speech in Philadelphia. He drew on his personal history — “I am the son of a black man from…

  By Michael Felsen Feb 18, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Washing Our Dirty Linens on Capitol Hill

  How far can an ardent and lifelong American supporter of Israel go in articulating the belief that Israel carries some of the blame for its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians? The rule of thumb has historically been: not very far at all. But that may now be changing, if only just a bit. Even before…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 18, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Chavez and the Jews

  Voters in Venezuela decided in a referendum earlier this month to extend their country’s decade-long flirtation with autocratic rule. Voting to abolish presidential term limits, they cleared the way for their stormy left-wing president, retired general Hugo Chavez, to run for a third six-year term in 2012 — and, presumably, as many more as he…

  Feb 17, 2009 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Confronting Our Demagogue

  The apologists and the excuse-makers in the American Jewish community have begun their work. No need for concern, they say. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Israel’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, is not really an extremist. He may have some unconventional ideas and have said some unfortunate things, but he is basically a mainstream politician who poses no…

  By Eric Yoffie Feb 17, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Louisiana vs. Darwin

  Three years ago, when U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ruled that a Pennsylvania school board’s mandate to present “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution was unconstitutional, there was good reason to believe that the latest attempt to pass off creationism as science was decisively defeated. Not so. It just relocated. Now…

  Feb 16, 2009 | 2 min read
• Letters

  February 20, 2009

  The ‘Hard Decisions’ Israel Needs To Make Abraham Foxman writes that the Obama administration should “create new realities that will give Israelis incentives to consider making hard decisions” (“Beyond Evenhandedness,” February 13). He lists these realities as making “Palestinian leaders behave differently, providing mechanisms to reduce the ability of Hamas to make trouble, and creating…

  Feb 12, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Missing Mandate

  Israel’s parliamentary elections have created a political landscape more confused and indecisive than anything the Jewish state has seen in decades. With two major parties evenly balanced, one eager for a negotiated peace with Israel’s neighbors, the other reluctant, the stage is set for weeks of horse-trading and intrigue. No party won a clear mandate…

  Feb 12, 2009 | 2 min read