Opinion

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  Meet the ‘Good Kids’ Who Refuse To Spy for Israel

  Thinkstock The refusal of 43 men and women to continue their reserve duty in Israel’s elite 8200 intelligence-gathering unit has taken Israel by storm. The group published a letter on Friday, and it made its way quickly into the Israeli, American, and international headlines. The letter stated that these soldiers and officers are no longer…

  By Elisheva Goldberg

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  Israeli Criticism of 43 Refuseniks Couldn’t Be More Natural

  Getty Images Forty-three reservists of an elite IDF corps have signed and released a letter setting out their refusal to serve Israeli “military control over the Occupied Territories” anymore. The members of Unit 8200, an intelligence unit often seen as an incubator of Israeli high tech as its soldiers move into civilian life, directly criticized…

  By Brent Sasley Sep 15, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Climate Change — A Hole Too Big To Ignore

  Yes, it was a rough summer, what with racial tension in Missouri and an army of Spanish-speaking children invading our southern border, plus threats of a new world war in Ukraine and barbaric jihadis marching across Iraq, decapitating journalists and massacring religious minorities. Not to mention the deadly, dispiriting 50-day war between Israel and Hamas….

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 15, 2014 | 4 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• 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

  

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  Opinion

  In ‘Black-ish,’ Jews Are More Than White-ish

  “Dad, I want to have a bar mitzvah! And — I’ll get a Hebrew name. I’m going to go with either Shlomo or Shmuel.” So says young Andre Jr. — much to the dismay of Andre Sr. — in the trailer for ABC’s new family comedy, “Black-ish,” set to debut September 24. This African American…

  By Sigal Samuel Sep 14, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Meet the Female Coach of Y.U. Men’s Volleyball Team

  Jacqui Dauphinais / JTA (JTA) — Having been a standout player in high school and college, and an assistant coach, new Yeshiva University men’s volleyball coach Jacqui Dauphinais has plenty of knowledge about the sport. And in her one season as an assistant for the Maccabees, she showed she wasn’t afraid to speak up. The real…

  By Hillel Kuttler Sep 14, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  As Gaza Recedes in the Rear View Mirror

  Americans have a habit of moving on once the guns stop firing. We did it in Afghanistan in the 1980s, tried to do it in Iraq in the 2000s — and now we’re doing it in Gaza. Yet as past experience has shown, now is the moment for more engagement, not less. As Operation Protective…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 13, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Déjà Jew: IDF’s Top Guns Slug It Out for Top Spot

  Fresh from the long war with Hamas in Gaza, tensely facing down simmering unrest in the West Bank and chaos on the Syrian border, Israel’s defense establishment is now bracing for what’s shaping up to be the most bruising confrontation of all: the choosing of the next chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces….

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 13, 2014 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Jews Take Action Against Jewish Press Gay ‘Conversion’ Ad

  p>Getty Images Young Jewish professionals have started taking action against The Jewish Press in response to their advertisement for JONAH International, the Jewish gay “conversion” therapy organization. Yesterday, as the social media outrage towards the JONAH ad on The Jewish Press’ website continued, Chaim Levin, a former JONAH participant and witness in the infamous lawsuit…

  By Rachel D. Benaim Sep 12, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Walking Amid the Rubble of Gaza

  I just returned from a visit to Gaza — my first since the war’s end — and found it ruined on a scale that I was not prepared for, despite all the pictures. On the ground it can take you suddenly and squeeze the breath out of you. You drive through an area that is…

  By Kathleen Peratis Sep 12, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bush Press Secretary Live Tweets 9/11

  Getty Images Former President George W. Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer is remembering the tragic events of September 11 in an usual way — on Twitter. As Mashable reports, Fleischer, who served as Bush’s press secretary from January 2001 to July 2003, was with the president when the first plane smashed into the World Trade…

  By Anne Cohen Sep 11, 2014 | 10 min read
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  Opinion

  Judging Ray Rice Instead of Ourselves

  Ray Rice / Getty Images “Justice, justice, shall you pursue,” we are taught — and what could be more just than punishing a man shown, on video, punching and knocking out his wife in what seems like a brutal, cruel attack? Thus have we seen, in the last 72 hours, a cascade of condemnations of…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 11, 2014 | 5 min read