Opinion

• Opinion

  A Jewish State for Whom?

  Of course, Israel is a Jewish state, as in a state with a Jewish majority, a Jewish flag, a Jewish official calendar, a Jewish military, a Jewish national airline, a Jewish sensibility, etc., etc. It is the only country on the planet that can make those claims. That is the whole point of its existence:…

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  IDF Chief Rabbi: No Link to Temple Mount in Islam

  The chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, Brigadier General Rafi Peretz, said during a lecture to seminary students in early November that the Temple Mount has no legitimate religious significance in Islam and that Muslims “imagine” a religious bond to the site. When they pray, he said, they bow in the direction of Mecca…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 28, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Will France Recognize a Palestinian State?

  ‘Le moment venu” — when the moment is right. This has long been the default response of the French minister of foreign affairs when asked if and when his government will officially recognize the Palestinian state. Over the past few weeks, forces both domestic and foreign have brought this particular moment ever closer. But it…

  By Robert Zaretsky Nov 28, 2014 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Lesson from Ferguson

  Since last summer, there has been so much written about the shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri and the inability of our legal system to bring this case to justice that it’s almost foolhardy to think we can add substantially to the conversation. So we will contribute just a small thought. Our…

  Nov 27, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Did Israel’s President Just Oppose Bibi’s Bill?

  Getty Images (JTA) Reuven Rivlin just did the one thing Israel’s president — a largely ceremonial post — doesn’t usually do: He publicly, and vehemently, opposed a specific bill endorsed by the government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Addressing a conference in Eilat, Rivlin lambasted the controversial Nation-State Law, advanced this week by Israel’s…

  By Ben Sales Nov 26, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Feeling That Black Lives Don’t Matter

  Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel taught us that on three things the world is sustained: on truth, on justice and on peace. But today the streets have erupted in protest — in Ferguson, Missouri, and around the country — because a clear truth, that an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown Jr., was shot and killed…

  By Rachel Kahn-Troster Nov 26, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Who’s ‘Too Right Wing’ for Sheldon Adelson?

  Two of the hottest stars in the Republican firmament, Ted Cruz of Texas and Sheldon Adelson of Nevada, tore through the skies this week in what’s traditionally considered America’s most solid Democratic stronghold, the New York Jewish community. The resulting sound-and-light show probably doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the fates of the two…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 25, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Who You Gonna Call?

  Getty Images Barbie and Waldo rub shoulders in this week’s quiz, along with CNN, which gets it wrong. Really wrong.

  By Lenore Skenazy Nov 25, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  If America Had Laws Like Israel

  Thinkstock A new proposed bill, supported by senators on both sides of the aisle, will finally define and determine the United States of America as the land of the Protestant People, the largest religious constituency in the U.S. and the group out of which America’s founding fathers and ruling leadership emerged. The new law aims…

  By Avital Burg Nov 25, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ferguson Shows an Unjust System Cannot Produce Justice

  “Set yourself judges and officers in all your gates,” says Deuteronomy 16:18, two verses before the Torah’s famous injunction, “justice, justice, shall you pursue.” Biblical commentators have observed that the two commandments are related: Because the judges are appointed by the Israelites themselves, they are responsible to the community, and can dispense justice fairly. The…

  By Jay Michaelson Nov 25, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I Admit It — I’m Binational-Curious

  For at least a generation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the oddest in the world. No one knew how to solve it, yet everyone knew what the solution was: two states, the 1967 lines with land swaps, a creative solution on Jerusalem. Within a couple of years, this consensus has begun to collapse. In short, the…

  By Jay Michaelson Nov 25, 2014 | 4 min read