Opinion

• Opinion

  Swipe Right If Israeli-Palestinian Peace Turns You On

  Are you in the mood to make love, not war? Then swipe right — right across the Green Line! Verona, a new Tinder-like dating app specially designed for Israelis and Palestinians, sounds like a joke. But for 1000 users and counting, it’s become a real way to find a hot hook-up and solve the Middle East…

  By Sigal Samuel

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi’s Nightmare: Unruly Coalition Might Fall — or Worse, Survive

  Right now, after finishing seven weeks of infuriating, hairpin coalition negotiations, Benjamin Netanyahu must be wondering what would be a worse fate for the impossibly shaky and extremist government he’s assembled: that it collapses the moment some disgruntled back-bencher decides to walk out — or that it survives and leads Israel into as-yet unimagined recesses…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 7, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  In Wartime, Who Comes First — Soldiers or Civilians?

  ‘My feeling after Operation Protective Edge was not so good. Mostly I felt bad from a moral perspective…. We shot at houses just because. We shot at cars, at ambulances — doing things I was raised not to do — not to kill the innocent…[but] here I was formally told ‘Kill everything in your proximity.’…

  By Elisheva Goldberg May 6, 2015 | 5 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• 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

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  Opinion

  Lindsey Graham Isn’t Racist — Some of His Favorite Words Start With ‘Al’!

  Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina who hopes to win the White House in 2016, made headlines this week when an AIPAC dinner in Boston, “Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news.” The senator then gave some examples: “Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula.” It was a…

  By Jesse Lempel May 6, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Why Lag B’Omer Matters

  Twenty four thousand students who studied with the famed 2nd Century Rabbi Akiva were killed by a terrible plague. What sin made them deserving of such a wipeout? “They did not treat each other with respect,” the Talmud says plainly. What does the holiday of Lag B’Omer, which arrives this evening, have to do with…

  By Abigail Pogrebin May 6, 2015 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  As Coalition Deadline Nears, Bibi’s Choices Are All Bad

  Benjamin Netanyahu has barely a day left to complete what looked like a slam-dunk a month ago and now seems almost impossible: assembling a governing coalition of parties that control a majority of the 120 seats in Israel’s parliament. If he doesn’t finish the job by midnight Wednesday (5:00 p.m. Eastern), Israel’s figurehead president Reuven…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 5, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  A Kidney Donor Who Wants No Help

  I donated my kidney. And I have to say that, with the exception of my marriage and the birth of my children, living donation was by far the most meaningful experience of my life. The only reason I write anonymously here is that I never wanted to broadcast what I did. The act was rewarding…

  By Anonymous May 5, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Clock Ticking on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Coalition Drive

  Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is racing against the clock to assemble a new governing coalition before his statutory deadline runs out on Wednesday and he’s forced to return his mandate to Israel’s figurehead president. By all reports, it’s going to be a cliffhanger. Of the five smaller parties he wants to recruit, two have…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 4, 2015 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Stop Comparing the Tel Aviv Protests to Baltimore

  The comparison is irresistible. In Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — thousands of black citizens took to the streets to protest racism and police brutality. And in Tel Aviv — just like in Baltimore and Ferguson — the urban streets became akin to a war zone, with water cannons and stun…

  By Jesse Lempel May 4, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Are You Really Stunned That Ethiopian Anger Has Reached Tel Aviv?

  “I was in the army four years ago, and when I was released, my wife and I went to rent an apartment — and we were told they don’t want Ethiopians,” said one young protestor to a newscast on Sunday night. He was standing in a crowd of mostly Ethiopian Jewish protesters in Tel Aviv’s…

  By Seth J. Frantzman May 4, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Pamela Geller is Not Charlie

  In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, some people taking up the cause of the publication would, before the massacre, have been its ideal prime targets — like Marine Le Pen, or, in this case, Pamela Geller and the American Freedom Defense Initiative. AFDI held a “Draw the Prophet” Cartoon Contest in the Curtis…

  By Lior Zaltzman May 4, 2015 | 2 min read