Opinion

• Opinion

  Which Comes First?

  The latest twist in the never-ending tragicomedy of Middle East diplomacy is a debate between America and Europe over whose recipe for peacemaking is more wildly unrealistic. The cynics among us will call it a draw. The debate revolves around President Bush’s new Greater Middle East Initiative, which aims to promote democratic reforms in the…

  2 min read
• Letters

  March 5, 2004

  After Gaza, What’s Next? Yuval Steinitz, a Likud Knesset member and chairman of the body’s foreign affairs and defense committee, was quoted by the Forward as saying that he might support a pullout from Gaza if “it will enable us to strengthen our position vis-à-vis the Palestinians in a few years time, and if it…

  Mar 5, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Mel Gibson’s Cross of Vengeance

  I have often thought but kept to myself what a gruesome thing they are, traditional crucifixes, each one with the likeness of a mangled, agonized body affixed cruelly to it. I sometimes wondered, even as a child, what kind of a religion would want children to look at an image of a suffering, dying or…

  By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Mar 5, 2004 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important

  

• Dan Perry How Israel became a country where teenagers murder each other in cold blood

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  The Bishops’ Cop-Out

  I n April 2003, I was invited, along with four Roman Catholic and two other Jewish scholars, by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs to offer a confidential assessment of a script for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” that was to be sent to the filmmaker. There was concern at…

  By Michael J. Cook Mar 5, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Making Trade Work for Workers

  To the surprise of many observers, trade and its impact on American workers emerged as a central issue in this year’s Democratic primaries. The apparent Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, would do well to carry this focus over into the general election, because when it comes to the challenges that the global economy presents…

  By Harley Shaiken Mar 5, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  A Matter of Comfort or Right? Gay Marriage: An Exchange

  In his February 13 column “Communal Confusion,” the Forward’s David Klinghoffer took aim at Jewish groups that back gay marriage. Klinghoffer argued that the Torah’s disapproval of homosexuality is clear, and that on gay issues these Jewish groups have privileged an alternative set of values over Judaism. “The reigning value of the Jewish organizations you…

  Feb 27, 2004 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  New Podhoretz Reader Puts His Famed Volte-Face in Perspective

  Since disclosures of interest are expected from reviewers these days no less than from politicians and financial analysts, I’ll make mine at the start. For the last three-and-a-half decades I have written frequently for Commentary, a monthly magazine that was as closely associated with Podhoretz for over a generation as was The New Yorker with…

  By Hillel Halkin Feb 27, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Back to the Middle Ages?

  As other explanations for America’s invasion of Iraq have been cast into doubt, a new dawn for human rights has become one of the rationales invoked by the Bush administration to justify the war. So it’s not surprising that the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority would boast of its efforts to improve the lot of Iraqi…

  By Kathleen Peratis Feb 27, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Israel’s Right to Self-Defense on Trial

  Israel’s right to defend itself against suicide bombers is on trial. On Monday, the International Court of Justice at The Hague began a hearing on whether Israel has the right to build a security fence to try and keep out the terrorists. This case is being brought to the court by the Palestinians and anti–Israel…

  By Eliot Engel Feb 27, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Passion and Redemption

  Amid all the boiling passions awakened by Mel Gibson’s “Passion,” it’s been mostly overlooked that this movie is a critical landmark in Gibson’s personal journey as an artist. Of the 40 films with which he’s been associated over a 25-year career as actor, director, producer and writer, only three have been described as labors of…

  Feb 27, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Don’t Rush Rebuilding of Iraqi Military

  Improving security may be the single most important objective for U.S. officials in Iraq, but current American efforts to promote security risk jeopardizing Iraq’s eventual chances of becoming a democracy. Iraqis walk along dangerous streets, with murder and robbery common. An ongoing insurgency claims American lives almost daily, and kills Iraqis even more frequently. The…

  By Daniel Byman Feb 27, 2004 | 4 min read