Opinion

• Opinion

  What Did You Expect?

  What did you expect? Did you think that terrorists wouldn’t attack three teenagers hitchhiking on a Palestinian road? Did you think that the Palestinian population isn’t angry enough to create extremist fringes like this? Did you really think that a continued occupation and no hope for independence would not breed some percentage of hard-core, terrorist…

  By Jay Michaelson

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Avigdor Liberman Dumped Bibi

  Avigdor Liberman at Likud-Beiteinu campaign rally, December 2012 / Getty Images Israeli Foreign Avigdor Liberman announced today that he was pulling his Yisrael Beiteinu party out of its electoral alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. The two combined forces in a joint electoral slate in advance of last year’s Knesset elections, but never merged the two…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 7, 2014 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Benjamin Netanyahu’s Favorite Poet — and Ours

  First at the November 2012 memorial ceremony for the victims of the Toulouse school massacre, and again in response to news of the three murdered Israeli teenagers earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaned on the same line of the same poem “On the Slaughter” by Hayyim Nahman Bialik: “The vengeance for a…

  By Steven J. Zipperstein Jul 7, 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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Why Jewish Revenge Murder Should Shake Us Up

  Relatives of Mohammed Abu Khdeir carry his body during his funeral / Getty Images Already, the details emerging about the gruesome death of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian teen burned alive in a revenge attack, are causing soul-searching among Israelis who would not or could not acknowledge that this unforgivable act was perpetrated by some…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 7, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Who Won in Bibi-Liberman Divorce?

  Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman / Getty Images Who was the winner in the Liberman-Netanyahu divorce? The ruling party in Israel has just split, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman pulling his Yisrael Beytenu party out of its year-and-a-half-old alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Liberman said he was leaving Bibi because the latter…

  By Nathan Jeffay Jul 7, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Pinkwashing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir

  An undated family handout picture of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Now that Israeli police have arrested six Jewish suspects for the kidnap-murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, it’s safe to say that the teen was not killed by his own family for being gay. Of course, Mohammed’s family has been saying that all along. They’ve…

  By Sigal Samuel Jul 7, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  More From Spy Chiefs: Palestine Conflict, Not Iran, Is Our Top Threat

  Yesterday I posted my translation of a Facebook post by Yuval Diskin, the former director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency. He wrote that Israel’s security is threatened by a growing anger and frustration among the Palestinian public — and that the frustration is due in large measure to Israeli government policies. Among those…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 6, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: The One With All the Funky Food

  ChocoChicken’s chocolate fried chicken and duckfat fries. // Twitter/KristieHang Shrimp, Stalin and Gay Pride signs? This could be the strangest Jewish News quiz of them all. Except…they’re all strange. (Did we mention the cheesecake with bagel crumbs?) Good luck!

  By Lenore Skenazy Jul 6, 2014 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Bulldoze Homes of Jewish Terrorists, Too

  Israel regularly destroys homes of Palestinian terror suspects, calling it a deterrent. But it never uses the same tactic against Jewish extremists. / Getty Images (Haaretz) — There is only one sane and truly halakhic way to tackle our current situation: Take the well-known members of the Orthodox Price Tag gang and lock ‘em up, for…

  By Daniel Landes Jul 6, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ex-Shin Bet Chief: Israeli Illusions Fueled Blowup

  Yuval Diskin, who served as director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service from 2005 to 2011, posted some rather blunt observations on his Facebook page this morning regarding the tit-for-tat murders of teenagers, the Palestinian rioting in East Jerusalem and the Triangle (the Arab population center south of Haifa) and what he fears is coming…

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

  Supreme Court Rulings Show What We Care About

  Among the joys of late June, along with fine weather and happy children, is the annual opportunity to watch the Supreme Court close out its docket with a rush of last-minute rulings on the year’s toughest cases. It’s a grand national civics lesson that brings us together as few other events can do. It teaches…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 5, 2014 | 4 min read