Opinion

• Opinion

  Chuck vs. Chuck?

  It could come down to a tale of two Chucks. Chuck Hagel’s chances of getting confirmed as Pentagon chief could hinge on whether Sen. Chuck Schumer is satisfied with Hagel’s stance on Iran. Schumer, perhaps the most influential Jewish senator, is not pleased with Obama’s choice of Hagel for Secretary of Defense and has yet…

  By Nathan Guttman

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Shimon Peres Talks with NYT About Iran and Bibi

  “There are two things that cannot be made without closing your eyes — love and peace. If you try to make them with open eyes, you won’t get anywhere,” Shimon Peres tells Ronen Bergman in an illuminating interview in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine. While the 89-year-old President of Israel tells the journalist he…

  By Susan Armitage Jan 11, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Enduring Failures of Israel’s ‘Decision Makers’

  One of Israel’s worst-kept military secrets is the simmering tension between the country’s top security professionals and their civilian bosses, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The headlines surface regularly and tend to look the same, so it’s easy to miss the big picture. Ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan created a splash all…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 11, 2013 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry The Iran war looks like a failure. Now comes the Trump-Netanyahu spin game

  

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

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  You Too Can Sign It Like Jack Lew

  You’ve seen it. President Obama has seen it. Now you get to try it out yourself. We at the Forward are proud to present the Jack Lew signature widget, which allows you to recreate the wonderful, amazing, crazy curlicues of the first Orthodox Jew to be nominated as treasury secretary. Go ahead, test it out…

  By Dave Goldiner Jan 10, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  An Israeli Ballot With No Good Options

  Israel doesn’t need to hold elections. It only needs to ask for whom I’d vote, because I’ve never voted for anyone but winners. I was for Golda in 1974, for Begin in 1977, for Rabin in 1992, for Netanyahu in ’96, for Barak in ’98, for the Sharon of the Likud in 2000 and the…

  By Hillel Halkin Jan 10, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jack Lew’s Really Bad John Hancock

  Does Jack Lew need to tighten up his penmanship if he’s going to be treasury secretary? The Orthodox Jew whose signature is going to be on every single dollar bill in the land has a pretty weird — actually, an incredibly, startingly weird — signature. And it seems to be the main thing the world…

  By Renee Ghert-Zand Jan 9, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Chuck Hagel Failure May Haunt Hawks

  Hawkish groups that sought to pre-emptively sink Chuck Hagel’s candidacy for secretary of defense may have been trying to teach President Obama and his supporters a lesson — but it seems they’re the ones who may look back at this episode as a cautionary tale. “You don’t want to wound the king,” Joseph Cirincione, president…

  By Laura Rozen Jan 9, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The $1 Trillion Debt Ceiling Solution

  Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) wants the government to mint a platinum coin worth…a cool $1 trillion.. Nadler, a Jewish Upper West Sider, thinks the minting of a ridiculously valuable coin could foil GOP attempts to hold Democrats hostage in debt ceiling negotiations. It would allow the government to pay its debts without going through Congress,…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jan 9, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Better Schools for Better Communities

  After 50 well-spent years inside urban public schools — as a teacher and principal, a parent, a school board member, an author and advocate — I’ve discovered that, given the chance, all children can receive a high-quality education. All we need are small class sizes, probably located in small schools. Lots of time for teachers…

  By Deborah Meier Jan 9, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Rabbi Jonah Pesner Mulls Massachusetts Senate Run

  A rabbi passed over last year for the leadership of the Reform movement thinks he might have better luck running for the U.S. Senate. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, a senior vice president at the Union for Reform Judaism, told the Boston Phoenix on January 7 that he is considering entering the special election to replace Senator…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jan 8, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Build on Gay Marriage Victories

  It’s looking like 2013 will be the year of same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court will decide on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (it’s up to Justice Kennedy) and California’s Proposition 8, both of which try to criminalize marriage that is not between a man and a woman. The Obama administration, already not…

  By Jay Michaelson Jan 8, 2013 | 2 min read