Opinion

• Opinion

  Why Is Bibi Aligning Israel With An Anti-Semitic Populist Who Demonizes George Soros?

  When Benjamin Netanyahu begins an official visit to Hungary today, he will mark one of the most remarkable alliances in world politics: The alliance between a prime minister of the Jewish state and a group of would-be authoritarians who exploit anti-Semitism for political gain. Welcoming Netanyahu in Budapest will be Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who…

  By Peter Beinart

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jane Looking Forward: From Gaza To Shoes And Shakespeare

  Gaza. It’s the four-letter word of the Middle East. Nobody wants to say it. Nobody wants to think about it. Yet the contentious strip of land controlled by Hamas issued last week described living conditions as “more and more wretched” and predicted that the coastal enclave would become unlivable as soon as 2020. Electricity is…

  Jul 17, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Liberal’ Jews Are Just As Judgmental As The Orthodox Behind The Kotel Decision

  Like most of my fellow liberal Jews, I find it deplorable that the Israeli government reneged on a deal for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. I’m also feeling something that others probably aren’t, though: hope for a lesson learned about liberal Judaism’s own walls. What the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate is doing to the liberal…

  By Paul Golin Jul 17, 2017 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman A precise, Chekhovian logic guided Israel’s strike on Iran — but chaos could come next

  

• Nora Berman Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s strike on Iran was necessary. But for real change, the US must join the fray

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

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  Opinion

  When Is It Okay To Call Someone A Nazi?

  The question isn’t really who has called someone else a Nazi, but who hasn’t. After decades of work educating young people about the awful history of the Nazi regime, we now reside in a world where every 7th grader (including myself, once upon a time) calls their teacher a Nazi, and where literally thousands of…

  By Steven Davidson Jul 16, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  What Would Jane Austen Tell Us About Marriage Today?

  Jane Austen wrote her legendary novels on a small, twelve-sided walnut table situated by a window near the rarely used front door of her family’s cottage in the English village of Chawton. She used a quill pen with ink she may have made herself, on small sheets of writing paper that could easily be shielded…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 16, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  George W. Bush Speechwriter Slams ‘Toxic’ Trump In Washington Post Op-Ed

  Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Michael Gerson slammed President Donald Trump for his moral ambiguity as this latest scandal involving his son’s contact with a Russian lawyer unfolds. The op-ed “An administration without a conscience,” published Thursday in the Washington Post, made no reservations in labeling the contact between…

  By Michael Heckle Jul 14, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Trump-Putin Syria Ceasefire Puts Russia On Israel’s Border

  The United States, Russia and Jordan, with Israel’s acquiescence, recently negotiated a ceasefire among warring parties in the southwest corner of Syria, an area bordering both Israel and Jordan. Presidents Trump and Putin announced the achievement at their Hamburg summit, and it took effect July 9. On the face of it, an end to the…

  By Yossi Alpher Jul 14, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Does Sebastian Gorka Still Have A Job?

  Sebastian Gorka is making the rounds of the dreaded Mainstream Media again. For a while there, the controversial deputy assistant to President Trump — who has well-documented ties to far-right, anti-Semitic groups in Hungary — was mostly speaking before friendly audiences in front of the camera or in person. But in the last few days especially,…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 13, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  New York Times Column Takes Aim At Kushner’s Security Clearance

  In his column “All Roads Now Lead to Kushner,” published Thursday in The New York Times, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof made a very clear demand: revoke Jared Kushner’s security clearance immediately. Recent revelations that Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort met with a “Russian government attorney” in June 2016…

  By Michael Heckle Jul 13, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Far Left’s Toxic Mix Of Anti-Semitism And Misogyny Must Be Stopped

  “The British elections should be a lesson for the Democratic Party,” Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote in The New York Times less than a week after race ended. Never mind that the left-wing Labour Party actually lost to the Conservative Party, much like Hillary Clinton defeated Sanders himself in the Democratic primaries. The American left, he…

  By Liam Hoare Jul 13, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Trump Has Driven Jewish Conservative Thinkers To Brink Of Extinction

  Over the coming years, environmental scientists will probably chronicle the many species that Donald Trump’s presidency has brought to extinction. Political scientists may add another: the conservative Jewish intellectual. I’m using the phrase in a specific way. By “intellectual,” I mean someone who traffics in ideas, not tribal or partisan loyalties. By “conservative,” I mean…

  By Peter Beinart Jul 13, 2017 | 7 min read