Opinion

• Opinion

  Defeating Hamas Will Not Solve Israel’s Problem

  Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister of the economy, wants to defeat Hamas. “Hit Hamas without mercy,” Bennett said. “Day and night. On weekdays and holidays. Without respite and without rest. Until they are defeated.” And Bennett is not alone. In a new poll, 41% of Israelis say they want to topple Hamas. Benny Morris, the noted…

  By Jeremy Pressman

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Left-Wing Argument for Supporting Israel’s War

  This is perhaps the single most important, and most widely misunderstood, point about the Gaza war: The strategic aim of Hamas rockets is to perpetuate, not to end, Israel’s military rule over the West Bank. Many, within and outside Israel, assume that Hamas aims primarily at ending the so-called siege of Gaza. But this is,…

  By Gadi Taub Aug 11, 2014 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  4 Ways Gaza War Costs Israel

  (JTA) — After the missiles have stopped, after the troops have come home, even after most of the wounded are out of the hospital, Israelis will still be feeling the burden of Operation Protective Edge – this time in their pockets. With the recent expiration of a temporary cease-fire, the operation may not be over. (Another…

  By Ben Sales Aug 11, 2014 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• Dan Perry The moral degradation of Israel’s far-right is even worse than you think

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Israel’s Moral Dilemma in Waging Gaza War

  The far-reaching implications of the war in Gaza was recently driven home to me when I observed Israeli paratroopers preparing to take out missiles hidden in homes — in Lebanon. On June 11 I was part of a group of students of international affairs who were invited to an Israel Defense Forces base, Eliakim, near…

  By Amitai Etzioni Aug 11, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Orwell Would Ask Where ‘Pro-Israel’ Leads Us

  “Thought can corrupt language,” George Orwell wrote in the 1943 essay I referred to in my column, “but language can also corrupt thought.” Gil Troy’s response to my piece offers a concise portrait of this process. But his critique is more than a helpful example of the rhetorical phenomenon I wrote to challenge. In form…

  By Daniel May Aug 10, 2014 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Liberman Shuffle Leaves Bibi with No Knesset Edge

  In a scarcely noticed series of political maneuvers, Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud party lost its primacy as the largest party in the Knesset last Wednesday. It’s now equal in size to Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party at 19 seats each. Moreover, don’t be surprised if the prime minister finds himself dropping to 18 in the fall….

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Palestinians Ease Truce Terms as Livni Airs New Peace Bid

  Conflicting reports from the Egyptian-Palestinian negotiations in Cairo: The Israeli news site Mako-News10 reported Saturday evening that the factions comprising the Palestinian cease-fire negotiating team — the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad — had made some significant concessions on their demands for renewing the Gaza cease-fire. They agreed to permit Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 10, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ISIS Aimed at Ideals When They Destroyed Jonah’s Tomb

  I The Sunni extremists of ISIS who recently in Mosul destroyed the shrine that is believed to mark the tomb of the prophet Jonah knew what they were doing. What they almost surely did not know is the special poignancy that attaches to their deed. Jonah was not a run of the mill prophet, if…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 9, 2014 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The (Overlooked) Man in Ramallah

  Now that the recent war in Gaza seems to have come to some kind of end, we’ve arrived at the portion of this cyclical fighting in which each side vies to spin itself as the winner. But amid this jockeying, the position of perhaps the most important player in the drama to come has been…

  Aug 8, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Gaza War Leaves Broken Friendships in Wake

  If Hollywood and television are a microcosm of the real world, the current Middle East conflict didn’t just leave an estimated 1,814 Palestinians and 67 Israelis dead, but also left countless friendships and relationships destroyed in its aftermath. The collateral social damage stemming from baseless insults, fuming rhetoric, serves no purpose other than to hinder…

  By Eliyahu Federman Aug 8, 2014 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Professor Gets in Big Trouble for Showing Concern for Gaza War Victims

  Hanoch Sheinman, the philosophy professor at Bar-Ilan University’s law school caught in the midst of a fierce controversy involving an email sent to his second-year law students, expressing sympathy for all victims of Israel’s Gaza conflict, phoned me in frustration because he couldn’t manage to shut the roof of his rented convertible. I had emailed…

  By Steven J. Zipperstein Aug 8, 2014 | 3 min read