Opinion

• Opinion

  Arafat Died an Uncontrite Terrorist

  Terrorism certainly didn’t begin with Yasser Arafat. It has its roots deep in history, from the Jewish Zealots-Sicarii during the Roman occupation, to the Hindu Thugees who strangled their enemies over the centuries, to the medieval Islamic Hashishins who prepared for assassinating political opponents by smoking hashish. But Arafat changed the nature of terrorism forever,…

  By Alan M. Dershowitz

  4 min read
• Letters

  November 19, 2004

  Ginsburg’s Roots Just As Just as Bush Picks As a Jewish Republican, I often hear from my Democratic friends that they are concerned President Bush will nominate religious conservatives to the Supreme Court. They tell me they are afraid Bush will ignore the law and instead follow his own religious beliefs. Yet the Forward saw…

  Nov 19, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  What It Takes To Be a State

  ‘Look, Ma, I’m a State!” is not the way it works. You may wake up one morning a-tingle with statehood, bursting with national fervor, impatient for a prize too-long deferred, even with your flag ready to be raised and your anthem to be sung, but all that doesn’t mean you’re ready — not, at any…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 19, 2004 | 4 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 Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Rice’s Mission

  If there were any doubts about President Bush’s inclination to learn from the foreign-policy mistakes of his first term, he seemed to lay them to rest this week with his nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. True to form, the president is not looking back but steaming forward, and critics be damned. Coming…

  Nov 19, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Palestinian Moment

  More abruptly than anyone could have predicted, the death of Yasser Arafat has cleared the path for a new beginning in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, if the key players know how to read the signs and seize the opportunities. On the Palestinian side, Mahmoud Abbas, the longtime Arafat lieutenant known as Abu Mazen, has moved with unexpected…

  Nov 19, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The New Face of Palestinian Diplomacy

  In the wake of Yasser Arafat’s death, the world’s attention has justifiably been focused on who will fill the outsized shoes of the father of Palestinian nationalism. Clearly, any potential for peace hinges on whether the society he left behind will be ruled by the Palestinian Authority or by anarchy. But as the Palestinian power…

  By Roger Zakheim Nov 19, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  How the GOP Won the Orthodox Vote

  In the 2000 presidential election, 70% of Orthodox Jews voted for the Democratic ticket; in the 2004 presidential election, 70% of Orthodox Jews voted for the Republican ticket. While most of the American Jewish community remains stalwart in the Democratic camp, second only to African Americans, the Orthodox segment is clearly a swing vote. Despite…

  By Nathan J. Diament Nov 12, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Value Of Opposition

  The moaning and groaning is neither helpful nor appropriate. There is every reason for concern, but none for despair. Beyond the fact that Senator John Kerry received more votes than any candidate for the presidency in American history — except, of course, George W. Bush — there is a mine of provocative data buried in…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 12, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  How the Jews Vote

  There were two big myths that dominated public discussion of the Jewish vote during this election season, and both of them proved in the end to be wrong. One was that the Jewish vote no longer existed, that Jews had become either too divided, too few in number or too distant from Jewish group concerns…

  Nov 12, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  After Arafat

  In thinking about how to address Yasser Arafat’s departure and its meaning for the Middle East, friends of Israel would do well to follow the lead set by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon in the past week, when he ordered his ministers to maintain a dignified silence despite their dislike for the man. Arafat was an…

  Nov 12, 2004 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  How the Democrats Lost the Youth Vote

  On Election Day, I and my fellow “Gen Yers” were expected to carry John Kerry to the White House, but by late evening it was obvious we had failed to vote in numbers large enough to deliver the election for the senator. “The youth vote is bunk,” conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg declared gleefully. The thing…

  By Ethan Porter Nov 12, 2004 | 3 min read