Opinion

• Opinion

  A House Divided

  During his July 20 speech at the annual NAACP convention, President Bush acknowledged his party’s decades-long failure to win support from black Americans. “I understand that many African Americans distrust my political party,” Bush said. “I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African…

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Let Them Go

  The release this week of two Fox News journalists who had been kidnapped in Gaza by Palestinian terrorists is an occasion for joy and relief on the part of their families, their friends and their home governments. The Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority deserves acknowledgment for its role in bringing the two men home….

  Sep 2, 2006 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Quit the Canard That American Policy Advances Israeli Security

  Rejection of hubris has become the defining characteristic of the post-Lebanon war mood and debate in Israel. That is understandable. Israel’s civilians in the north faced a daily dosage of 200 missiles, while the military met a surprisingly well-equipped and trained guerrilla force. The mood has been best captured by the Israeli military’s outgoing commander…

  By Daniel Levy Aug 25, 2006 | 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry A US official just made history in the West Bank — did he imperil prospects for peace?

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Facing Down a Wounded Nation

  Between the inconclusive outcome of Israel’s war against Hezbollah and the widespread perception in Israel that the war was badly managed, it is far from clear that the Olmert government will survive. Most Israelis are in agreement that at no previous time in the country’s history have the two top positions in the government, prime…

  By Shlomo Avineri Aug 25, 2006 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Were Rosen and Weissman Guilty Only of Being Right Too Early?

  Instead of being grounds for prosecution, perhaps the influence Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman were trying to exert — making officials and the public aware of the danger from Iran — should be heralded. Last week, federal judge T.S. Ellis III declared that the law under which the two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee…

  By Michael Berenbaum Aug 25, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  We Are One, But Not the Same

  Relations between Israel and American Jews, by now an old and recurring subject for discussion, have come to the surface again, this time on the editorial page of the Forward (“The Third Front,” August 4). Writing about the conflict in Lebanon, the Forward calls for a greater role for American Jews in Israeli decision-making because…

  By Abraham Foxman Aug 25, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Seeking Visions in a Contradictory Time

  Since the beginning of the second intifada, American Jews have bumped along like an old tin can tied to the back of Israel’s jeep as it veers along the dusty road to who knows where. It’s been hard — but mind you, never as difficult as what Israelis go through — to adjust to the…

  By Bethamie Horowitz Aug 25, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Courage To Be Humble

  Now that the shooting’s over (one hopes), the postmortems, quite literally, begin. And they are already ugly, very ugly. By and large, the growing conviction in Israel is that the entire affair was a costly fiasco. A people accustomed to lightning victory — think the Six Day War of 1967, think the Entebbe rescue in…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 25, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Asking the Right Question

  Angered at the meager results of their latest Lebanon war, Israelis are furiously debating a host of piercing questions this month to understand what went wrong. Was it poor military planning? Inept political leadership? Erosion of their famed army reserve system? A deeper culture of shortcuts and buck-passing? All of these? Why, they ask insistently,…

  Aug 25, 2006 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Mullahs’ Gambit

  Iran’s Islamic leaders, faced with an August 31 United Nations deadline to give up their nuclear program, came back nine days early with a dodge. Tehran insists on its right to develop nuclear power — for peaceful purposes, the mullahs artfully say — but it wants to continue talking about ways of making its plans…

  Aug 25, 2006 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Closing the Door on Moderation, One Seat at a Time

  Senator Joseph Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut’s Democratic primary last week is symptomatic of a larger problem facing those who seek to govern the United States. The shock over a politician as prominent as Lieberman losing a primary for renomination, as well as the depth of feeling over the war in Iraq and the focus on…

  By Sandy Maisel Aug 18, 2006 | 4 min read