Opinion

• Opinion

  Opposition in Israel Mounts Around Bedouin Transfer Plan

  Israel is promoting a plan to transfer some 40,000 Arab Bedouin citizens from traditional villages into towns despite opposition by activists and senior government officials that threatens to derail it. Government supporters say the resettlement would encourage development, but that was repeatedly challenged by residents of the villages in Israel’s southern Negev desert. “It’s a…

  By Reuters

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Censoring Hillels Goes Against Jewish Traditions

  Hillel President Eric Fingerhut chats with a student. Flickr: Hillel News and Views. Hillel, the ancient sage, was famously impossible to insult. The Talmud portrays intellectuals, rebellious students, passersby and would-be converts as offering jokes, specious arguments, and outrageous claims — all to rattle the unflappable teacher. But in the face of faulty arguments, Hillel…

  By Andy Bachman Dec 11, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ex-Labor Pol, Ousted from Peace Now Panel, Cries ‘Intolerance’

  Einat Wilf and Ehud Barak announce defection from Labor Party, January 17, 2011 / Wikimedia Commons A former Labor Party Knesset member, Einat Wilf, is complaining that she’s been dropped from the program of the third annual Conference of the Israeli Left, sponsored Peace Now, because of her pro-Israel views. In a Facebook post announcing…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 11, 2013 | 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

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  Opinion

  Skipping Mandela Funeral, Bibi Misses an Important Lesson

  Late-night comedians may have made fun of him, but George H.W. Bush knew the value of a good foreign funeral. He went to lots of them during the eight years he was Ronald Reagan’s vice president, jetting around the world to deliver the United States’ respects and, not incidentally, to chat up other mourners. Barbara…

  Dec 11, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  40,000 Sign Petition To Help 6 Year Old Jewish Boy

  Rabbi Yaakov and Devorah Cohen have run out of medical options to save their six-year-old son Raphael Elisha, who suffers from a malignant brain and spine cancer. Desperate to save their son, the Cohens have turned to the internet. The couple posted a petition which asks the FDA to authorize a compassionate exemption so their…

  By Hody Nemes Dec 10, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  An Open Left?

  In recent years, the Israeli left has argued strongly for freedom of expression and open debate, often in the face of calls from the right for the silencing of such-and-such an NGO, conference, or political event. But it seems that open-mindedness isn’t universal across the left. Einat Wilf, a former lawmaker for the Labor and…

  By Nathan Jeffay Dec 10, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  The Lessons of Newtown

  In the dry, neutral language used in these types of missives, the just-released official report on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School sidesteps any determination of causality or assignment of blame. Even though the shooter, Adam Lanza, had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life,” and even though…

  Dec 10, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Sparks Fly as Bibi, Kerry, Obama Spar at D.C. Event

  President Obama and Haim Saban, Washington, D.C., December 7 / Getty Images Tempers are wearing thin both in Washington and Jerusalem over continuing disagreements on the Iran nuclear talks and the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. And the situation wasn’t helped by last weekend’s Saban Forum in Washington. The three-day forum, sponsored by the Brookings Institution,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 10, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Wonder Woman, Cannabis and a Brand New Pill

  Wonder Woman, weed and a strange new pill. It sounds like a bad trip, or even worse comic book. But actually it’s just last week’s Jewish news, all rolled into one big, fat quiz.

  By Lenore Skenazy Dec 9, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Another Way To Join the Jewish People?

  Almost two weeks ago, the two of us proposed that Jewish communities consider instituting an alternative pathway to joining the Jewish People. As the Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011 demonstrated, thousands of Americans – many married to Jews, many with Jewish children and grandchildren, and many with Jewish friends – have already chosen…

  By Steven M. Cohen and Kerry Olitzky Dec 9, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Much Is Mandela Worth To Israel? Less Than Thatcher

  The Knesset’s speaker has just confirmed that he will lead a delegation of Israeli lawmakers to Nelson Mandela’s funeral, following announcements that the Prime Minister and President will skip it. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is saying that he has Israeli taxpayers’ interests at heart in his decision to skip the burial — it would simply be…

  By Nathan Jeffay Dec 9, 2013 | 2 min read