Opinion

• Opinion

  Mazel Tov, Mr. President-Elect! Now Do We Have Some Advice for You …

  Get Your Mideast Priorities Straight By Yossi Alpher Your Middle East agenda is huge. You are going to be preoccupied in the years ahead with Iran and Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These matters will loom much larger for you than will Israel and its immediate and problematic environs. Nevertheless, you…

  7 min read
• Opinion

  Celebration and Healing

  In the end, it turned out, race did not matter. Americans went to the polls and chose a president because of what he could do, not what he looked like. Race has been America’s great shame for two centuries. On November 4, America showed itself and the world that it can face its shame and…

  Nov 6, 2008 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Africa’s Bleeding Heart

  Two Jews meet at a depot on their way out of Europe. This is not the set-up for a joke — far from it. The travelers are the foreign ministers of France and Great Britain, Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband, and they were journeying to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hoping to stop a…

  Nov 6, 2008 | 2 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

• Opinion

  For Conservatives, Exile and Reformation

  Following Barack Obama’s victory, political conservatives are suffering a crisis that could be called psychological but is better described as spiritual. The mood is one of depression, despair, panic. Responding to calls for rebuilding the conservative movement, Rush Limbaugh demands purging it instead: “We had some people abandon the conservative movement, and they need to…

  By David Klinghoffer Nov 6, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  For America, a New Beginning

  There is neither need nor reason to hold back. This is a moment for celebration. I set to the side for the moment, as I believe we are entitled to, the challenges that await president-elect Obama. I set to the side, as well, the challenges he put before us, the people, in his victory speech…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 5, 2008 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Fires on the Nile, Dark Clouds Over Egypt

  This year’s presidential campaign featured vigorous debate over American policy toward Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In contrast, Egypt, a longtime pillar of American foreign policy, has remained completely off the radar. This is worrying, because the Arab world’s most populous country will pose a daunting challenge to the next president. It has been 27…

  By John R. Bradley Oct 30, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Jerusalem, Forgotten

  Anyone coming to Jerusalem these days cannot help but notice the mayoral election campaign going on in the city. The buses carry images of the candidates alongside promises ranging from affordable housing to religious freedom — and, of course, the vow never to divide Jerusalem. This is all well and good, except that Jerusalem was…

  By Uri Dromi Oct 30, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  This Relationship Can Be Saved

  Daniel Shek, a career diplomat who is the Israeli ambassador to France, stood before a highbrow audience assembled in New York’s elegant French Consulate on October 28 and diagnosed the complicated relationship that now defines his professional life. We don’t need historians or political scientists to describe the dynamic between Israel and Europe, he said….

  By Jane Eisner Oct 30, 2008 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  A Crisis of Confidence, and Much More

  Four inaugurals ago, I attended the swearing-in ceremony of William Jefferson Clinton and Albert Gore. My sense, shared by many others, was that we were witness to the end of 24 bleak years in American political history, from Nixon through Carter, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The next day, I wrote, “Rarely have such high…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 30, 2008 | 4 min read
• Letters

  November 7, 2008

  Jewish Women Have ‘Down-Home Charm’ Your October 24 news article “Sarah Palin Hits a Nerve Among Jewish Women, But It’s a Raw One” argues that the “down-home charm that Palin projects in lieu of a focus on nuance or detail is particularly off-putting for many Jewish women, who are likely to be highly educated, urban,…

  Oct 30, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Socialism Smear

  It was sheer desperation that made John McCain and his allies pull out the lethal weapons in the last days of the campaign and start calling Barack Obama a “socialist.” There’s no greater curse. They claimed Obama’s economic proposals — higher taxes for the rich, more aid for the poor, increased intervention in the markets…

  Oct 30, 2008 | 3 min read