Opinion

• Opinion

  Movement Cannot Feed Society on Resistance Alone

  Painful ironies mark the new political landscape of the Middle East, following the shattering defeat of the Fatah movement in last week’s Palestinian Legislative Council elections. One symbolic moment tells the story. As many of their countrymen watched in shock — one Palestinian scholar, who met a group of visiting French Parliamentarians on that very…

  By Eran Lerman

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Europe Should Leverage Aid To Coax Islamists to Moderation

  As Hamas considers what to do with the majority of seats it won in last week’s Palestinian Legislative Council elections, one would expect it to listen particularly well to what the European Union and its member states have to say. After all, they are the ones primarily bankrolling the Palestinian Authority. Last year alone, Europeans…

  By Eric Frey Feb 3, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Whither Hamas, and With It the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

  The day after Hamas’s “Reform and Change” list swept last week’s Palestinian Legislative Council elections, two 20-something Palestinian women staffing our international observer delegation from the National Democratic Institute started peppering me with questions. How quickly could the United States pull the plug on the democracy assistance provided by the National Democratic Institute, the International…

  By Mara Rudman Feb 3, 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 Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

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

  

The Latest

• Letters

  Letter February 3, 2006

  Trustees of Foundation Clearly Upheld Bylaws As a close friend of the late Leslie Keller and his wife, Vera, I read the January 20 article on the lawsuit being pursued by Menachem Kahn with surprise and anger (“Lawsuit Increases Scrutiny of World Jewish Congress”). My family and I had a particularly close relationship with the…

  Feb 3, 2006 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  A Nation of Immigrants

  It was President Kennedy who said that America is “a nation of immigrants.” What else could it be? Unless you are a descendant of one of the native “Indian tribes,” you are either an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant. Despite this obvious truth, immigration has been a perplexing problem in every generation. Repeatedly,…

  By Gus Tyler Feb 3, 2006 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  To Starve Or Feed the Beast

  Surely Nashat Aqtash has one of the more improbable jobs in the world: He is public relations adviser to Hamas; his job is to portray the new majority party of the Palestinians as kinder and gentler than its charter and its history have convinced most of the world it is. Before last week’s elections, Aqtash…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 3, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  You Wouldn’t Know

  Watching President Bush deliver his annual State of the Union address to Congress and the nation this week, it was hard not to notice the subdued, almost chastened tone of his delivery. Gone were the trademark winks and expansive body language that have characterized his public appearances for years. He was, like his message, restrained,…

  Feb 3, 2006 | 3 min read
• Letters

  January 27, 2006

  Memory Under Attack I am very disappointed in the Forward, as well as in many other recent news articles, that seem to take a derogatory tone in their discussions of Elie Wiesel’s intent or that place disproportionate stress on small nuances, changes and minor mistakes in his memoir, “Night” (“Six Million Little Pieces?” January 20)….

  Jan 27, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Is Olmert a Man Of Action?

  George Orwell taught us that the words used by political leaders may not mean what the same words mean in conventional discourse, what they mean according to our dictionaries. (So did Lewis Carroll.) Accordingly, it is worth noting a potential transformation in Israel — where three phrases, it seems, have begun overnight to mean just…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 27, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  In Praise of ‘Civilian’ Leadership

  Can Ehud Olmert fill the vacuum left by the mighty Ariel Sharon? This is the question that Israelis, and indeed, people all around the world, are currently asking. After all, Acting Prime Minister Olmert, likely winner of the upcoming March 28 elections, has no serious military background. And in a country besieged by terrorist, guerrilla,…

  By Uri Dromi Jan 27, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  …Then They Came for Me

  The Justice Department’s investigation of two pro-Israel lobbying officials in Washington, shrouded in mystery for much of the past year and a half, is rapidly gaining some clarity as the case moves toward trial. As the fog lifts and the facts of the case become clear, some of the more paranoid conspiracy theories that have…

  Jan 27, 2006 | 3 min read