In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Opinion Presumed Innocent
Just when it seemed that the shockwaves caused by Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud had subsided, came word of a new and much longer list released as part of his firm’s bankruptcy-court proceedings. Go, search it online. The famous names are there — Spielberg, Wiesel, Koufax, even a former Miss America, even Zsa Zsa…
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Opinion What Happened to Israel’s Center?
Nobody won the Israeli elections. Tzipi Livni’s Kadima managed to overcome the initial lead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud by siphoning off left-wing voters from Labor and Meretz. Kadima, however, would have great difficulty setting up a coalition. Likud lost many voters to Avigdor Lieberman’s more strident Yisrael Beiteinu party, but the right-wing and religious bloc…
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Opinion A Sect’s Unholy Views on Jews
Pope Benedict XVI’s decision last month to revoke the excommunications of several renegade bishops from the Society of St. Pius X sparked outrage on the part of Jews and concerned Catholics alike. Most of the news reports on the controversy have focused on the Holocaust-denying comments of Bishop Richard Williamson, as well as similar remarks…
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Opinion Scrambled Electoral Eggs
Would-be peacemakers might want to wait before they start popping champagne corks in the wake of Kadima’s election victory. The outcome of the Israeli election has further complicated an already-muddled outlook for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Now, in addition to a Palestinian house divided against itself, we have a divided and dysfunctional Israeli house. Weak…
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Opinion America Turns a Page, and Israel, Well…
The contrast could hardly be more stark. In America, after a rough-and-tumble (and incredibly long) presidential campaign, a page has been turned. No, more than that: Volume 43 has been closed, shelved out of sight, while Volume 44, its newness discernible to touch and to smell, sits open, inviting, only a couple of pages so…
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Culture The manosphere says women owe their husbands sex — Judaism says the opposite
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Fast Forward Georgia’s Jewish senator called his newly minted GOP opponent an antisemite. Why?
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Fast Forward Alex Bores’ supporters disagree on Israel. They agree on him.
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Fast Forward Organizers of London Israeli real estate fair apologize after West Bank properties surface despite denials