Opinion

• Opinion

  Tunisia Riots and a Mysterious Star of David

  According to reports on Twitter and in Tunisian media, Muslim protestors have scaled barrier walls at the U.S. embassy in Tunis. The police and military response was quick, with men on horseback and armored vehicles arriving to disperse protesters — identified as hardline Islamists — who raised a black flag of the radical Salafi movement…

  By Nate Lavey

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi Picks Adelson’s Paper to Deny Meddling

  When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied interfering in U.S. elections today, he chose an odd platform to air his position. He gave the interview to an Israeli newspaper owned by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a top Republican donor who has vowed to give tens of millions of dollars to defeat President Barack Obama. Netanyahu’s…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Sep 14, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Jerusalem, Why Did We Forget Thee?

  In a few days we’ll celebrate one of the emotional peaks in the Jewish calendar, the twice-yearly proclamation that ends the Yom Kippur fast and Passover feast: Next year in Jerusalem. We won’t mean it literally. For most it’s a metaphorical prayer for a better world, expressing faith that history has direction and meaning, with…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 14, 2012 | 3 min read

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• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson I supported Israel’s actions in Gaza in October 2023 — not anymore

  

• Rob Eshman The staggering hypocrisy behind Trump’s deal to free the last living American hostage

  

• Nora Berman How the Oct. 7 aftermath splintered the New York Dyke March

  

• Dan Perry It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump

  

• Emily Tamkin This week proved it: Trump’s approach to antisemitism at Columbia is horribly ineffective

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Video Madness

  The video deriding Muslims that allegedly sparked violence in Libya and Egypt probably would get a failing grade in any high school film class. Just watching it for a few minutes is enough — it is crude, mean, amateurish. Why anyone would produce and create such a film, why a Florida pastor would promote it,…

  Sep 14, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Who Are Your Forward 50?

  Like the advent of cool autumn evenings, like the start of the school year and the wrap up of the baseball season, assembling the Forward 50, the annual list of America’s most influential Jews, is again under way at our office. Staff members have already met twice to discuss the people they believe have had…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 14, 2012 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Watch: Slain Envoy Saw Al Qaeda Take Root in Libya

  Rachel Maddow opened her MSNBC show this evening with a fascinating piece about a small city just east of Benghazi called Derna, which was reported several years ago by the late Chris Stevens, then a junior U.S. diplomat in Libya to be a hotbed of Islamic radicals and Al Qaeda wannabes. According to a 2008…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 14, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi’s ‘Snub’ Leak Makes Sense to Some

  It’s surely an irony of the current public spat between Israel and the White House: An Israeli government that tut-tuts every time important public figures speak their mind on Iran has no qualms about leaking sensitive information when it suits its own perceived interests. Whatever the truth of the current spat between Jerusalem and Washington…

  By Nathan Jeffay Sep 13, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Iraq War ‘Godfather’ Opposes Iran Strike

  The man once known as the intellectual godfather of the Iraq war opposes a military strike on Iran. Bernard Lewis, 96, the British-born expert on the Middle East who enjoyed exceptionally close ties to the Bush administration, told the Forward at a gala dinner held in his honor last night that he didn’t support military…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Sep 13, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel on the Ballot

  It’s difficult to recall a time when an Israeli prime minister has inserted himself into a presidential election campaign in the way that Benjamin Netanyahu has. It’s even harder to recall a time when a trusted ally openly urged the American president to undertake a questionable, unpopular and highly risky war. We sure hope Netanyahu…

  Sep 13, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Untangling the Oxymoron of the Secular Jew

  ‘Secular” is to “Jew” as “holy” is to “Torah,” as “noisy” is to “grogger,” as “crotchety” is to “Larry David.” Which is another way of saying that this coupling of adjective and noun sounds logical, natural and familiar. Could the same be said of a shiduch on the order of “secular Southern Baptist,” or “secular…

  By Jacques Berlinerblau Sep 12, 2012 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Reporter Watches Bris — And It Ain’t Pretty

  While I was researching my Forward story about circumcision and pain, I realized that I didn’t know what a circumcision actually looks like. I’ve only attended one bris — apart from my own — and there I didn’t have a good line of sight to the baby. I was particularly interested to know more about…

  By Paul Berger Sep 11, 2012 | < 1 min read