Opinion

• Opinion

  Syria Crisis Shakes Up Entire Region

  This past year was a historic one for the Arab world. The regional security order that has been in place for decades has been upended, and there is great uncertainty as to the new political, economic and security dynamics taking shape. The near future will be complex and volatile, and nowhere more so than in…

  By Randa Slim

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Quashing France’s Israel Apartheid Week

  This is the week that wasn’t — at least if you planned on attending the colloquium “New sociological, historical and legal approaches to the call for an international boycott: Is Israel an apartheid state?” Scheduled to take place on February 27 and 28 at the University of Paris VIII, the colloquium was quashed last week…

  By Robert Zaretsky Feb 28, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jerusalem Isn’t Just for Arabs, Either

  I write this late on Sunday night in Doha, following the first day of the Arab League’s Conference on Jerusalem. I am attending the conference as an individual and a member of the foreign policy community — not as a representative of any organization (as is the case when I attend most conferences). That said,…

  By Lara Friedman Feb 27, 2012 | 4 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Returning to Rabin’s Zionism

  On a hopeful evening in early November 1995, a broad cross-section of Israel’s population gathered in Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square to join together for the cause of peace. They came to hear from their leader, Yitzhak Rabin, recently awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Oslo Accords. Rabin’s words that…

  By Daniel G. Zemel and Jack Moline Feb 27, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What About Israel’s Atomic Weapons?

  Israel’s best kept secret is not of the “maybe yes, maybe no” variety. In fact it is a “yes” so definitive that it has 162 million Google entries. Honest. That’s what Google’s response is when you type in “Israel’s nuclear policy” — books, articles, essays, arguments, all blithely recognizing that Israel has nuclear arms. Yet…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 26, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Over Jew Creek and Up Jew Mountain

  We’ve got a story in this week’s paper about a pond in New Hampshire with a pretty scummy name — thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week! Seriously, the article about Jew Pond, exploring the small body of water that has caused a rift between local residents who want the name changed and…

  By Gal Beckerman Feb 24, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Defending Contraception

  The controversy over the Obama administration’s proposals to include contraception in insurance coverage required by the new health care law has been portrayed as an issue of religious rights. And women’s rights. And reproductive rights. And political rights. Instead, it ought to be viewed as a public health imperative. The argument forwarded by the Catholic…

  Feb 24, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  You Can’t Pray the Gay Away

  ‘Reparative therapy” for gays and lesbians, which attempts to “change” sexual orientation and is neither reparative nor therapy, is the last gasp of bad theology. It exists to solve a theological crisis. On the one hand, Jews are told that God loves us and that “it is not good… to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) On…

  By Jay Michaelson Feb 24, 2012 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Living Title VI: A UC Santa Cruz Account

  A few weeks ago, we ran an op-ed by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz who has filed a Title VI complaint to the government’s office of civil rights. She cites a number of instances in which she believes Jewish students were discriminated against as the targets of anti-Israel advocacy….

  By Gal Beckerman Feb 23, 2012 | 5 min read
• Letters

  Cover Up

  Regarding “The Allure of the Burka” in the February 3 edition of the Forward, it is male religious fanatics (Muslims, Orthodox Jews, etc.) who have problems with the way women dress or want to dress. Instead of forcing women to conform to men’s rules, why don’t these men just wear bags over their heads so…

  Feb 23, 2012 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  Returning to the Oral Tradition

  Harvey Hames’ analysis of the role of Halacha in the State of Israel offers an important perspective on this complex historic-religious conundrum (When Democracy and Halacha Collide, February 17). There is, however, another critique of the rabbinic tradition that is overlooked in Hames’ op-ed. Halacha is, in effect, the offspring of an oral tradition, the…

  Feb 23, 2012 | < 1 min read