Opinion

• Opinion

  Who Is Palestinians’ Partner for Peace?

  Late on the night of September 13, 1993 — the day the Oslo Accords were signed on the South Lawn at the White House — I was making my way to the door of a hotel suite where a dozen American Jews were talking with Yasser Arafat, when a young man in Arafat’s security entourage…

  By Leonard Fein

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Guardian’s Old-Is-New Cartoon Canard

  For a cartoonist, how to say “Jews are controlling international affairs” without actually having to say it? Well, the creation of Israel has made it very easy in this regard. Just replace ‘Jews’ with ‘the Israel lobby’ (or ‘Israel’ itself) and substitute ‘the United States’ or maybe ‘the United Nations’ for the usual ‘international government’…

  By Liam Hoare Nov 16, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Americans and Our ‘Stuff’

  For all the Democrats’ sniping, the losing Republicans have put their finger on an important truth about American voters and why they voted the way they did November 6. As Bill O’Reilly smartly explained it on election night, “people want stuff” from the government. Lots of stuff. No less than 47% believe they’re entitled to…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 16, 2012 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Tale of Two Davids

  Gen. David Petraeus is not the first famous David in history to be ensnared in the web of infidelity. King David was an adulterer and a fellow military hero as well. However, the similarities end there. While the biblical David was able to retain his kingship because he repented and was forgiven, the contemporary David…

  By Daniel Goodman Nov 16, 2012 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Sticking It to Hamas, on Twitter

  There’s nothing funny about war. So it’s unsurprising that a trending Twitter hashtag #HamasBumperStickers is being met with equal parts horror and glee. “What’s the martyr with you?”, “I don’t break for Jews,” and “My other car is also a mass of blackened, twisted metal” are just a few of the Tweets cascading out today…

  By Paul Berger Nov 15, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  What’s the Gaza ‘Game Over’ Strategy?

  Since Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense on Wednesday, fighting around the Israel-Gaza border has been intense. The death toll stands at three on the Israeli side and 13 on the Palestinian side. A few minutes a rocket wounded ago three Israeli soldiers. In the last 24 hours, 138 rockets from Gaza has struck Israel…

  By Nathan Jeffay Nov 15, 2012 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  An ‘Imperfect Jew’ and LGBT Leader

  When the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission was founded in 1990, sodomy laws were prevalent. Amnesty International’s platform didn’t include LGBT rights. The United States wouldn’t grant asylum to refugees on the basis of sexual orientation. The world’s changed since then, and so has IGLHRC. Since earning consultative status at the United Nations…

  By Michael Kaminer Nov 15, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Imagine an Israeli Arab Alfred Dreyfus

  Once again, France is having an affair with the affair — the Dreyfus Affair. On November 4, Le Monde published a controversial essay by Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz, titled “Israel: Justice or Tribalism,” in which she views contemporary Israel through the prism of this 19th-century event. Israel, she concludes, lacks the political and legal ingredients…

  By Robert Zaretsky Nov 15, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Scarlet ‘A’ Is for ‘Anti-Semitism’

  Like Hester Prynne, the heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel “The Scarlet Letter” about the rigid and harsh religiosity of 17th century Puritans, many contemporary Jewish intellectuals are marked with the infamous letter ‘A’ (not for adultery as in the novel, but for anti-Semitism). Peter Beinart, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Avi Shlaim, Shlomo Sand and…

  By Eva Illouz Nov 14, 2012 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How To Fix the Vote

  The difficulty that some voters had to endure simply to cast a ballot in the November 6 election is a stunning testament to their civic dedication and a disgrace to our system. In hotly-contested swing states like Florida and Virginia, people waited on line for as much as nine hours to vote. Nine hours! Americans…

  Nov 14, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Call for Jewish Tolerance

  Calling on the federation system to join synagogues in a fight against religious discrimination in Israel, Reform leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs aimed to engage the broader Jewish community in the struggle for equality of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations in Israel. Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, described Israel as “the only democracy that legally…

  By Nathan Guttman Nov 13, 2012 | 2 min read