Opinion

• Opinion

  8 Best Jewish Road Trips

  Editor’s Note: As part of the Forward’s Our Promised Lands project, which will cover 50 states in 50 weeks, Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel are setting out on a Southern adventure. Over the next eight days, they will travel to Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, so keep an eye on this blog to follow their…

  By Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  How the Gaza War Started — and How It Can End

  The Forward has my latest column on how Israel and Hamas stumbled through a series of accidents and misunderstandings into a war nobody wanted. Because it’s written for print (unlike this blog) it has limits on length, and even though the paper generously lets me run way over my limit every week, there are inevitably…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 10, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Trace Kidnap-Murders Back to Israeli Settlements

  Palestinian families leave their houses following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City / Getty Images When I was 14 years old, I remember my father, Edgar M. Bronfman, publicly calling for the end of Israeli settlement building. It was 1977, the very beginning of the implementation of the Drobles Plan, and only a few thousand…

  By Adam Bronfman Jul 10, 2014 | 3 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 A US official just made history in the West Bank — did he imperil prospects for peace?

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

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  Opinion

  In Tel Aviv, Keep Calm and Mind the Rockets

  Israeli family seeks shelter in parking garage as rocket sirens blare. / Getty Images (JTA) — “In Tel Aviv, we expect the skies clear with a temperature of 32 degrees,” our pilot said upon taking off from Milan’s airport Wednesday, with no discernible hint of irony. The thermometer in Tel Aviv did fill up — 32…

  By Ben Sales Jul 10, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza

  In the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 10, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m Lurking on Maine Town’s Facebook Page

  Josh Nathan-Kazis checks out his roots in Fort Kent, Maine. Everyone in the Facebook group called “You know you grew up in Fort Kent, Maine, when…” is talking about my great-grandfather. I’ve been lurking all day. The great thing about travel writing in 2014 is that you can eavesdrop on locals’ reactions to your story…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jul 9, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  A Blood Libel Against All Palestinians

  The family of murdered Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir / Haaretz On July 1, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu eulogized the three Israeli yeshiva students murdered in the West Bank. “A deep and wide moral abyss separates us from our enemies,” he said. “They sanctify death while we sanctify life…” When 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was…

  By Lara Friedman Jul 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ZOA’s Double Standard

  Mort Klein / Courtesy of ZOA (JTA) — American Jewish groups from across the ideological and religious spectrum have issued strongly worded condemnations of the murder of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdier, apparently a revenge killing committed by Jews. One exception to this chorus of denunciation was the Zionist Organization of America, a hawkish Israel…

  By Anthony Weiss Jul 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Israel Wants an Independent Kurdistan

  In the early spring of 1975, the Israeli-Kurdish alliance and the secret Israeli presence in Iraqi Kurdistan came to an abrupt end when the shah of Iran and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein reached an agreement terminating their conflict. Israel, dependent on Iran for access to Kurdistan, had to leave. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reported quietly on…

  By Yossi Alpher Jul 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Our Hope Is Not Yet Lost

  The revenge killing of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khudair has shaken up even those who normally have little reason to question their preconceived notions about the Israel-Palestinian dispute. Eli Valley takes an insightful graphic look at one (fictional) American Jew’s crisis of confidence. SCROLL DOWN TO ENLARGE. Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His…

  By Eli Valley Jul 8, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  8 Things You Didn’t Know About Jewish Maine

  Camp Modin, in the Belgrade Lake district, is New England’s oldest summer camp. // Courtesy of Camp Modin 1) Jewish population as of 2012: 13,890 2) The Portland JCC opened in 1938. 3) Camp Modin, established in 1922 in the Belgrade Lake district, is the oldest Jewish camp in New England. 4) Susman Abrams (1743-1830.,…

  By Yardain Amron Jul 8, 2014 | 2 min read