Opinion

• Opinion

  Don’t ask if Trump’s plan ends the occupation – ask if it shrinks it

  Trump’s forthcoming peace plan for Israel and Palestine will not look like what you expect a peace plan to look like. There will be no handshake in the White House Rose Garden, at least not between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. There will be no flowery words about turning swords into ploughshares, and no promise of…

  By Eylon A. Levy

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  What the Torah can teach us about Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month this February

  February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month. On Feb. 4, several hundred people will gather on Capitol Hill for the 10th annual Jewish Disability Advocacy Day. Jews across the religious spectrum — Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox — will gather to create a more just and compassionate world and to advance our values, beginning…

  By Deborah Waxman Jan 28, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The goal of Trump’s ‘peace deal’ has always been to get us Palestinians to reject it

  After three years of constant procrastination, President Trump’s Middle East team suddenly announced this week they were ready to reveal their “peace proposal” by Tuesday. The plan, which is reported to greenlight major Israeli annexations in the West Bank, is viewed by most analysts as a clear political stunt, an attempt to boost Netanyahu’s chances…

  By Muhammad Shehada Jan 24, 2020 | 2 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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Trump’s ‘peace plan’ forces Americans to choose: a Jewish state or a democratic one?

  This week, President Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his chief political rival, Kachol Lavan leader Benny Gantz, to come to the White House next week for the release of his administration’s long-awaited Israel-Palestine plan. This “peace plan” (and I use the term loosely) promises to accelerate a long-delayed reckoning with what it means…

  By Joel Swanson Jan 24, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Give Trump’s peace plan a chance

  After much delay, the Trump Administration this week announced that its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, the “deal of the century,” is finally set for release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his prime political antagonist, Benny Gantz, have been summoned to Washington, D.C. for the occasion. The plan, spear-headed by President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared…

  By Ari Hoffman Jan 24, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Putin’s new propaganda campaign turns Jews into a prop

  The use and abuse of the memory of the Holocaust for political aims, however shocking, is not new. Few seem able to resist the pull of such a stark morality tale of good vs. evil when constructing their own histories. Until recently, though, Russia was one of the few players in WWII who had managed…

  By Izabella Tabarovsky Jan 24, 2020 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is theater of the absurd

  In one of the strangest spectacles in diplomatic history, President Donald Trump is convening a summit in Washington next week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli opposition chief Benny Gantz to discuss his oft-delayed and long-awaited plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The exercise is strange for a few reasons. In what surely must be…

  By Michael Koplow Jan 24, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The use and abuse of the Holocaust: a new international pastime

  “So I was hiding out in the heap of dead bodies because in the last week when the crematoria didn’t function at all, the bodies were just building up higher and higher. So there I was at nighttime, in the daytime I was roaming around in the camp, and this is where I actually survived,…

  By Alex Zeldin Jan 24, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi | Trump has normalized bigotry. We must fight back.

  It feels like we have taken a giant step back in time. There is a palpable hatred and distrust in America for those who are different. If my parents were arriving in the U.S. today from India, how would they be treated? Would they be respected as global citizens or denigrated as “others”? With each…

  By Raja Krishnamoorthi Jan 23, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Russia is spreading lies about the Holocaust

  The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on January 27 will be marked with a ceremony at its gate, close to the ruins of gas chambers, crematoria and prisoners’ barracks. This anniversary may be the last one when some two hundred of the former camp prisoners will be able to come; with…

  By Dariusz Stola Jan 23, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Holocaust education at my high school is atrocious. No wonder anti-Semitism is surging.

  On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center released a new study that examined what the American people know about the Holocaust. What they found was disappointing, but unfortunately, not surprising: While the majority of Americans have a baseline understanding of the Holocaust, many still have large gaps in knowledge — especially young people. Despite the fact…

  By Jack Elbaum Jan 22, 2020 | 3 min read