Opinion

• Opinion

  Santorum Joins Gingrich in Not Seeing Palestinians

  “All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis. They are not Palestinians. There are no Palestinians.” — Rick Santorum

  By Gal Beckerman

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Wisc. Teens on Parade: You Can’t Scare Them.

  Marching in the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day, the Pulaski High School “Red Raiders” Marching Band, honoring their home-state University of Wisconsin Badgers. They proceed smartly through the streets of Pasadena, California, playing “On Wisconsin.” Then they stop in front of the reviewing stand—apparently an unplanned stop, as the announcers seem surprised—and while…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 3, 2012 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  GOP Candidates Take Hard Line on Iran

  With Iowa’s caucuses set for tonight, Republican hopefuls are doubling down on their rhetoric on the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions in an apparent effort to distance themselves from GOP candidate Ron Paul. Front-runner Mitt Romney, dark horse Michele Bachmann, and the late-surging Rick Santorum all promised a readiness to launch military strikes on…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jan 3, 2012 | 2 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

  What Would Barack Do?

  Jewish Democrats don’t have a say in who wins tonight’s Iowa’s Republican caucuses. But they do have opinions about which candidate President Obama should be pulling for. Most hope an arch-conservative like Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry takes the key contest, beating frontrunner Mitt Romney and dark horse Ron Paul. If one of…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Jan 3, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ghost of Israel’s Future

  We know that Avigdor Lieberman is following events in Russia closely. After the December 4 parliamentary elections there were tainted by ballot stuffing and other violations roundly condemned by Western election monitors, Lieberman offered his own assessment of whether democracy had been harmed: “The outcome of the elections reflects the mood in Russia,” he said….

  Jan 2, 2012 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Are Holocaust Images Too Hurtful?

  The ongoing protests against the exclusion of women from the public sphere by some Haredim, and counter-protests by Haredi activists who say they are maligned by critics, have everyone in Israel talking. The subject was quite provocative enough. And then came the Holocaust reference to make it even more so. On New Year’s Eve night,…

  By Nathan Jeffay Jan 1, 2012 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  A Crazy World, From Pyongyang to D.C.

  Our world has rarely seemed so impenetrably mysterious as it has these past days. The spectacle of hysterical weeping and wailing in North Korea follows hard on the heels of 10,000 protesters marching in downtown Cairo in outrage over photos of soldiers dragging women by the hair and stomped on them, stripping them half-naked in…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 1, 2012 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Orthodox Divisions Over Extremism, Responsibility

  Two very important articles in Haaretz this week that shed light on the violent extremism emerging from the two main streams of Israeli Orthodoxy. One, a feature article in today’s weekend section by senior correspondent Yair Ettinger, focuses on the growing furor over Haredi extremism, assaults on women’s rights and the violence in the Haredi…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 30, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Recognition of Suffering, Far Too Late

  Israel is definitely making progress on the subject of the Armenian genocide. In late December, during the Knesset’s first ever open-door debate on the issue, nobody was reported to have questioned whether the deliberate killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-’16 should be called a genocide, nor whether the Ottoman Empire was the guilty party,…

  By Larry Derfner Dec 30, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  When History Is Closed for Debate

  The spirit of the holiday season has just swept across the French National Assembly. On December 22, the nation’s representatives — or, more accurately, the handful in attendance — passed a bill that would criminalize the denial of the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915. It was as much a gift to the government…

  By Robert Zaretsky Dec 30, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Monitoring the Monitors

  The Syrian uprising, now in its ninth month, has recently experienced some of the most ruthless and deadly violence on the part of Bashar al-Assad’s government. The stronghold city of Homs, a center of the revolt, is a war zone. Images from the city show bodies lying on the sidewalks and tanks rolling down the…

  Dec 30, 2011 | 2 min read