Opinion

• Opinion

  The Third Front

  Three weeks into Israel’s latest Lebanon War, Israelis and their friends and allies around the world remain united in the certainty that this is a just war. They know that Israel had a right to respond as it did to Hezbollah’s provocations, and they believe that Israel’s future safety requires a clear victory over the…

  4 min read
• Opinion

  In Praise of The Double Standard

  There are real terrorists in our world, people who sow fear and death and exult in what they do. And Hezbollah is prominent, perhaps even preeminent, among them. It has killed Jews in Buenos Aires and U.S. Marines in Beirut and on and on and now, of course, it has launched rockets all over Israel’s…

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

  THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: Sweating Out a European Identity

  Earlier this summer, a group of Israeli academics attended a conference here in Vienna. Half of their visit was spent complaining about the heat. To be fair, the air conditioning system in the newly built conference hall was, in fact, unable to cope with the 90-degree temperatures outside. But given that generations of Viennese had…

  By Eric Frey Aug 4, 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

  History Demands an Uncompromised Home for Shoah Archive

  The world’s largest Holocaust archive, the secretive International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has finally agreed to open its files to researchers and journalists. The long-awaited access follows years of acrimonious contention between the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which manages the repository. The opening of…

  By Edwin Black Aug 4, 2006 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  Fog of War Is No Cover for Causing Civilian Deaths

  The awful bloodshed and intense emotions of war are not conducive to careful moral reasoning. With Hezbollah rockets raining down on northern Israel, an honest reckoning of the conduct of Israeli forces in Lebanon is difficult. Facile arguments and serious misconceptions, like those listed below, are too easily accepted. But given the stakes, it is…

  By Kenneth Roth Aug 4, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Hezbollah Hasn’t Hit Investment in Israel

  Investors throughout the world are worried about the possibility of the war between Israel and Hezbollah spreading across the entire Middle East. That the Israeli market has held up quite strongly in the face of this war, then, points to an impressive maturation of Israeli investors over the last five years. Let’s turn back the…

  By Aaron Katsman Aug 4, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Will Mel Gibson Get Away With His Antisemitic Tirade?

  Will Mel Gibson get away with it? Now that Gibson has been revealed as having ranted against “f—ing Jews” who “are responsible for all the wars in the world,” a debate has erupted over what consequences, if any, he should suffer. In the past, some public figures who have made hostile statements about Jews or…

  By Edward Koch and Rafael Medoff Aug 4, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Time To Talk Detente With Tehran

  Fact is, Iran is sitting in a rather good position right now, and we did a whole lot to put it there. We took the Taliban off of Iran’s eastern border, then got rid of Saddam Hussein to its west. Whether we were justified in doing so is beside the point: We gave Tehran the…

  By Oren Rawls Jul 28, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  An Honorable Exit

  It’s hard not to identify with the congressional Democrats who protested this week against the planned Capitol Hill appearance by the prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi visitor had just gotten through a White House press conference, where he condemned Israel’s anti-terrorist action in Lebanon as an “aggression.” (In Baghdad a week earlier,…

  Jul 28, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Comfort Ye

  Next Thursday, August 3 – the ninth day of the lunar month of Av by the traditional calendar – marks the 2,592nd anniversary of the destruction of King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem by the forces of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia in the year 586 before the current era. By eerie coincidence, or so tradition teaches,…

  Jul 28, 2006 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  No Thanks, Mr. President

  Depend on it: Before long former New York mayor Ed Koch, Rep. Eric Cantor and Republican National Committee head Ken Mehlman will be telling American Jews that we owe George W. Bush a vote of gratitude for his steadfast support of Israel in its current conflict with Hezbollah. And there are doubtless large numbers of…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 28, 2006 | 4 min read