Opinion

• Opinion

  Israel’s Heartbreaking Policy to African Asylum-Seekers

  Meet Omer Olivier. Mr. Olivier is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has been living in Israel for the last seventeen years without official status. Although he has filed a request to be recognized as a refugee, his lack of recognized status means he cannot work legally nor get medical services….

  By Leonard Fein

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Google Switches to ‘Palestine’

  At least on Google, it’s Palestine. The company made waves this week when it changed the geographic tagline for the Palestinian version of its search engine, Google.ps, to read “Palestine” instead of “Palestinian Territories,” Foreign Policy reported. “We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products,” Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a…

  By Susan Armitage May 3, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Israel Was Right Not To Return Golan Heights to Syria

  Here’s the beginning of one newspaper article about Syria that you didn’t read this week: “Israel Weighs Golan Invasion.” “U.S. Warns It Not To Act.” “Israeli troops exchanged fire with Syrian rebels on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and Syrian army artillery fire killed two vacationing Israelis on a nearby beach, Israel’s Cabinet…

  By Hillel Halkin May 3, 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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Warren Buffett’s $2B Bet on Israel

  Warren Buffett, the famed investment Oracle of Omaha, is in love with the Israeli economy, or at least with one company. On Wednesday, shortly after announcing his purchase of Israeli cutting tool maker Iscar for $2 billion, a move that would complete his takeover of the company, Buffett sat down with Israeli reporters at the…

  By Nathan Guttman May 3, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  An Anguished Choice

  The gruesome case of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion provider accused of murdering four live fetuses by “snipping” their spinal cords after botched abortions, has emboldened those who want to further restrict and erode a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Abortion rights advocates argue that that is the wrong conclusion — that desperate women…

  May 2, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Hungary, Where Europe’s Ugly Faultlines Meet

  As the World Jewish Congress prepares to convene in Budapest, Paul Berger covers the increasingly hostile conditions under which Hungarian Jews — one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe with an estimated population of around 85,000 recorded in 2012 — are forced to reside. Primarily, the problem in Hungary is a political problem. With…

  By Liam Hoare May 2, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  News Quiz: Kate Upton Says No, Eli Roth’s Injury

  Welcome, readers! This week’s news quiz will have you kicking yourself — or at least thinking about Jews who kick, even as you also think about the sea, the South, the shekel and… breasts. (If you weren’t already.) Enjoy!

  By Lenore Skenazy May 1, 2013 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Is Arab (League) Glass Half Full?

  Skeptics point out that all that happened yesterday was that Arab leaders acknowledged what everyone already knows — that if and when Israel makes a final peace agreement with the Palestinians, it won’t return exactly to 1967 borders. This is true. When the Arab League indicated that it is updating its position from its Arab…

  By Nathan Jeffay May 1, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Egypt’s Not So Free Press

  Two years ago, as the fragile beginnings of free expression swept through the Arab world, Arab media was compelled to reinvent itself. Messages sent through Twitter and other social media, videos uploaded to YouTube, blogs and photographs produced by “citizen journalists” — all served to bring energy and populist force to the uprisings and challenged…

  May 1, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Sid Schwarz and Others Discuss What’s Trending

  Sid Schwarz’s new book has a rather ambitious title, but then, this rabbi/entrepreneur is a rather ambitious man. In “Jewish Megatrends”, he aspires to do nothing less than, as the subtitle says, chart the course of the American Jewish future. He’s not doing it alone, of course. That’s where I came in. Schwarz asked me…

  By Jane Eisner Apr 30, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Towards a More Transparent Jewish State

  A year after the eruption of the 2011 social protest in Israel, and just before the 2013 election campaign, we — a small group of the protest leaders — decided to embark on a cross-country journey to learn what had changed during the intervening months, and to find out how Israelis would like the protest…

  By Stav Shaffir Apr 30, 2013 | 4 min read