Opinion

• Opinion

  Why Killing Kids on Gaza Beach Is Bad Hasbara

  Palestinians rush wounded boy to safety after Israeli mortar killed four boys playing soccer on a Gaza beach. Getty Images (JTA) — Israel’s fight in the PR war just got that much harder. Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge last week, journalists and commentators — Jon Stewart included — have criticized Israel for the lopsided…

  By Ben Sales

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  May Gaza Victims’ Memories Be a Blessing

  Courtesy of namesonwall.tumblr We read names. We say names out loud, and hold their souls on our breath. We record names with ink and carve them into stone; we raise them in national squares and on city streets. When lives are lost, those left behind do what they can to ensure that the names –…

  By Emily L. Hauser Jul 16, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Tea Party Guy’s Immigration ‘Fear’ Gaffe

  (JTA) — Arizona congressional candidate Adam Kwasman has drawn some national attention as one of the Jewish Republicans hoping to take Eric Cantor’s place as GOP Jew on Capitol Hill. He’s now made national news again, but for very much the wrong reasons. Kwasman, who is competing for the Republican nomination in the first district, was…

  By Anthony Weiss Jul 16, 2014 | < 1 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  5 Ways To Turn Down the Social Media Flame

  I’d like to say that social media doesn’t matter. Israel and its Palestinian counterparts are pursuing tactics, military and otherwise, and the battle for public opinion is only one among many. Despite what nearly everyone seems to think, what happens on our Facebook and Twitter feeds probably doesn’t matter that much. Except when it does….

  By Jay Michaelson Jul 16, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  The Intifada Will Be Live Streamed — Is That Bad?

  We in the pro-Israel community have spent the past decade bracing for the next intifada — another uprising. And now that it seems to be upon us, we are set with our talking points: why peace talks failed, why the Hamas and Palestinian Authority unity government is to blame, how the Israelis try to protect…

  By Noam Neusner Jul 16, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  With Israel Feuds Raging, Can’t Jews All Get Along?

  Yesterday, Jews and Muslims in Israel, New York and other communities decided to take advantage of a calendric symmetry to assert their connection to one another, if only by breaking bread after a daylong fast. For Jews, it was the 17th of Tammuz, when the walls around the ancient city of Jerusalem were breached, marking…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 16, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Joseph Stalks Us in Memphis

  Jews pop up in unexpected places in Memphis, Tennessee. Here are six things that surprised us in the Blues City. 1) Joseph Is Stalking Us The biblical Joseph is stalking us in the South. We first came across him in Alabama, when we drove through Dothan, a town with a fledgling Jewish community. The town’s…

  By Sigal Samuel and Anne Cohen Jul 16, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Did Danny Danon Go Too Far?

  Getty Images (JTA) — Apparently, Danny Danon went too far. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Danon, a hawkish Likudnik who had been deputy defense minister, from his post after Danon slammed the Israeli Cabinet decision to endorse a proposed cease-fire with Hamas. Danon had called the decision a “slap in the face to all…

  By Uriel Heilman Jul 16, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How Female Circumcision Is Different From a Brit Milah

  A recent story in The New York Times looked at the rise of American girls who are being sent abroad to undergo female circumcision, which has been banned in the United States since 1996. As Julie Terkewitz reported, about 228,000 women and girls in the United States, members of an African immigrant population that has…

  By Elissa Strauss Jul 15, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  WATCH: PLO Envoy Calls Hamas Rockets ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

  Here’s a remarkable bit of television — official Palestinian Authority TV, to be specific — in which the Palestinian delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva tells an interviewer that Hamas’s rocket fire from Gaza is a crime against humanity. Plain and simple, no hedging. In Arabic (with English subtitles). Watch it…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 14, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Cheesiest Terror Push on Facebook

  Facebook It’s no surprise that in 2014, the war between Hamas and Israel is being fought on the Internet and social media front, as well as from the air (and possibly soon on the ground, as well). Both sides of the conflict are trying to get the world to understand and support their case for…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Jul 14, 2014 | 2 min read