Opinion

• Opinion

  Where the Buck Stops

  Of all the shocking things we have learned this month about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps the most appalling is this: that he knew about the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison months ago but did not think them a high priority. “I failed to recognize how important it was to elevate a matter of such…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  No Ifs, Yets or Buts: Hold America to a Higher Standard

  The way some of my fellow conservatives have been discussing the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, in which American military guards snapped photos of naked Iraqis being humiliated in various ways, calls to mind a rule of rhetoric known to all writers. If you’ve got a pair of sentences linked by a word like “but”…

  By David Klinghoffer May 14, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Privatization of the Democratic Party

  The Democratic establishment is concerned about where presumptive presidential candidate John Kerry stands as his campaign moves toward summer. The Bush re-election effort has spent some of its fortune establishing a formidable field operation in the battleground states, where in some cases the Kerry campaign has yet to even designate state coordinators. In Ohio, to…

  By Harold Meyerson May 14, 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 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

• Opinion

  Beating Around The Bush Won’t Make U.S. Safe

  Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s address to the Anti-Defamation League on May 3 was interesting, both in what he said and what he did not say about Israel, the Middle East and the war on terrorism. It reflected his by now familiar practice of vague assurances and lack of clarity and consistency in his…

  By Kenneth Bialkin May 14, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Jewish Faces in a Changing America: The Numbers Speak for Themselves

  America is changing rapidly. If American Jews don’t grasp the significance of these changes, then we just might be left in the dust one day, notwithstanding our remarkable success to date. America has played a unique role in the life of the Jewish people, particularly in the postwar era. That role, simply put, is irreplaceable,…

  By David Harris May 14, 2004 | 4 min read
• Letters

  May 14, 2004

  O.U. Firm in Position An April 30 article on the New York City “Equal Benefits Bill” suggests that Agudath Israel of America is about to compromise its position on homosexual relationships in order to remain eligible for city funding (“Orthodox Group Opens Door to Same-Sex Benefits,” April 30). That is nonsense. We would never trade…

  May 14, 2004 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  Abortion Rights And Wrong

  Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flocked to Washington, D.C. on April 25 for a rally in support of legal abortion. Thousands of the participants attended as members of an assortment of Jewish organizations. And many of those Jewish participants nurtured a deep conviction that their stance expressed a deeply Jewish value. They were wrong. To…

  May 7, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Sharon’s Blunder

  By all accounts, Ariel Sharon figured he had a sure thing going when he announced his plan for a Likud party referendum on disengaging from Gaza. His assumption, it seems, was that his legendary rapport with the grass roots would yield a landslide endorsement, cowing his right-wing opponents and giving him a free hand to…

  May 7, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  An Unseemly Silence

  As President Bush attempted to sell the American public and the international community on the need for a war in Iraq, America’s most important Jewish organizations rallied as one to his defense. In statement after statement community leaders stressed the need to rid the world of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Some…

  May 7, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  High Noon at Sycamore Ranch

  Last weekend’s Likud party defeat of Prime Minister Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal proposal has thrown Israeli politics into confusion. With no road map to go by, the country is busy trying to guess the wily old general’s next move. Sharon has already dismissed calls for him to resign or to withdraw the plan. Instead, he will…

  By Barry Rubin May 7, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  When Unemployment Doesn’t Work

  As the election-year debate proceeds over what policies can best promote the creation of new jobs, there remains a simple, inexpensive step the federal government can take right now to help many of the people hit hardest by the poor job market. That step, endorsed by public officials from Senator Hillary Clinton to the chairman…

  By Isaac Shapiro and John Springer May 7, 2004 | 4 min read