Opinion

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  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

  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

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 The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

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

  

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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
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  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 Jul 8, 2014 | 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