Opinion

• Opinion

  Moving the Embassy To Jerusalem Makes Me Giddy – Until I Remember Who’s Doing It

  Jerusalem. It has been the center of Jewish prayer, longing, and hope for over 2,000 years. It is where every generation of Jews has turned to, what all of our exiled people have dreamed of, and to where we finally returned as a free nation from the four corners of the world, battered but alive,…

  By Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Is Israel Justified In Shooting Protestors On Gaza Border?

  For the past six weeks, social media has been ablaze with the spectacle of thousands of Palestinians moving towards the border fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel. Departing from six separate tent encampments built a few hundred meters from the border, the “Great Return March” has led to violent clashes, the loss of lives,…

  By Yuval Shany May 14, 2018 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  How Racism Marred The Jerusalem Embassy Celebration

  For more than a century, Palestinians have tried to convince the world (wrongly, in my view) that Zionism is inherently racist. Now they have a powerful new ally: Donald Trump. Consider the bigots that Trump has assembled to celebrate the move of America’s embassy to Jerusalem. Among the Americans in attendance were Trump’s ambassador to…

  By Peter Beinart May 14, 2018 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz As editor-in-chief, I’m finding my way Forward (and back)

  

• Rob Eshman The real reason for the US war with Iran may have nothing to do with Israel

  

• Dan Perry Why war with Iran puts the US-Israel alliance at risk

  

• Emily Tamkin Gavin Newsom just confirmed the demise of the Democratic party’s support for Israel

  

• Jay Michaelson We are talking past one another on Zionism

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  No, Jordan Peterson Is Not An Anti-Semite

  Jordan Peterson and unlikely cult figure in the anti-“political correctness” counterculture on the Internet, has been the subject of much discussion lately—including harsh critiques accusing him of authoritarian tendencies. But probably none have generated as much controversy and backlash as the Forward piece by Ari Feldman with the incendiary title, “Is Jordan Peterson Fueling Jew…

  By Cathy Young May 13, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  For Palestinians, The Nakba Is Not Just A Tragedy But A Triumph

  In 1948 my mother was three years old and living in the middle-class Ajami neighborhood on Jaffa’s coast. In April, Hagana and Irgun forces began mortaring the city, pushing Palestinians further and further towards the sea. My mother and her family rushed on to their fishing trawler and sailed north, first to Beirut, then to…

  By Maha Nassar May 13, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Israel Is Right To Expel Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir

  When Israeli authorities revoked the work permit of Human Rights Watch Israel/Palestine director Omar Shakir on May 7 and ordered him to leave the country within two weeks, they presumably anticipated the furious backlash that promptly ensued. After all, already last year, Israel denied Shakir a work permit, only to backtrack quickly in the face…

  By Petra Marquardt-Bigman May 11, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  My Zionism Is Fading, One Expulsion At A Time

  I feel like I am standing on a melting ice floe. For decades, I have loved Israel. I want it to thrive as a shining, rights-abiding country. And yet, increasingly, I find I can envision a day when I (or maybe my children) will not want to go there anymore. My Jewish life, which began…

  By Kathleen Peratis May 11, 2018 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel May Love Trump’s Policies. But They’re A Challenge To American — And Jewish — Values

  In the span of less than a week, President Donald Trump will have upended American foreign policy in the Middle East and delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu everything he’s ever wanted from a White House. By announcing last Tuesday that he is shredding the Iran nuclear deal, and by unilaterally moving the American…

  By Jane Eisner May 11, 2018 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel’s Airstrikes In Syria Were A Message

  Israel’s bombing campaign against dozens of Iranian, Hezbollah and Syrian Army targets across Syria last night was the most extensive Israeli operation in Syria in over 40 years. Through these strikes, Israel is signaling to Tehran that it will not accept Iranian entrenchment in Syria and attempting to compel the Assad regime to rein in…

  By Elizabeth Tsurkov May 10, 2018 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Who’s Most Endangered By Trump’s Iran Deal Exit? Israel, Say Its Army Chiefs

  After months of intense, worldwide speculation, Donald Trump finally pulled the trigger on U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal with his May 8 statement decertifying the deal and restoring sanctions on Iran. He’d been begged by the top leaders of America’s European allies to compromise, to let the deal’s framework stand and give them…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 8, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Abandoning Iran Deal, U.S. Joins Israel In Axis Of Escalation

  After 9/11, a colleague turned to me and said, “We’re all Israelis now.” Listening to Donald Trump announce that the United States will brazenly violate its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal, I had a similar thought. In the outlooks of their governments, Israel and the United States are now one. Ideologically, it no longer…

  By Peter Beinart May 8, 2018 | 2 min read