Opinion

• Opinion

  A Dissenting Opinion on ‘Aba-Gate’

  This is a difficult moment for American Jews. To wake up and discover, as did the Forward’s Gal Beckerman, that the Israeli Ministry of Absorption is actively trying to convince Israeli expatriates living in the U.S. that they should come back to Israel by dramatizing the risk of assimilation of their kids and grandkids —…

  By David Hazony

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Occupy Protests Show Radical Potential

  At the end of a long day of peaceful demonstrations in Oakland this past November, a few hundred protesters — many wearing masks or covering their faces with bandanas — massed for a night of rage, smashing windows, chucking rocks and sparking bonfires. In the aftermath, the city’s police chief described the perpetrators as “generally…

  By Thai Jones Dec 2, 2011 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Robin Hood in Reverse

  Senator Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma, votes with his party far too often for our taste on issues such as abortion (he’s against it), gun control (ditto) and tax cuts (he’d keep them). But the medical doctor from Muskogee is admirably willing to challenge the GOP presumption that the very rich can’t possibly pay a…

  Dec 2, 2011 | 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

  Obama Trumpets Pro-Israel Record

  President Barack Obama reasserted his administration’s support for Israel to a group of donors convened by one of America’s most influential Jewish fundraisers in Manhattan Tuesday night. “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Dec 1, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Barney Frank and the Financial Crisis

  Democrats have never recovered from the trauma of 1994, when they lost the House of Representatives to Newt Gingrich’s Republicans and found themselves in the minority for the first time in 40 years. One Democrat emerged relatively unruffled, however: Barney Frank of Massachusetts. “I’m used to being in the minority,” he famously wisecracked in a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 1, 2011 | 4 min read
• Letters

  Grappling With Tradition

  With regard to a December 2 Forward article, “Conservatives Grapple With Gay Wedding Rite,” we wish to clarify our position on the draft of a new ceremony for gay and lesbian couples in discussion before the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The drafting of these model ceremonies of commitment and separation, in…

  Nov 30, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  Academic Concerns

  The Touro College community was deeply disappointed by two recent Forward articles: “Is Jerusalem Online U. a Real College?” (November 11) and “Touro Under Scrutiny Over Israel Class” (November 18). Touro College is a respected, fully accredited, Jewish-sponsored independent institution of higher and professional education with some 19,000 students enrolled at schools and divisions throughout…

  Nov 30, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  For Rick Perry, 21 Is New 18

  So Rick Perry stands before a town hall meeting at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm’s College in New Hampshire and, on his own, with no prompting or sneaky questioning, made it clear that he thought only Americans 21 years old and over are allowed to vote. This may be one of the stupidest…

  By Jane Eisner Nov 30, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  A Piece of Hasbara Aimed at Alienating Me

  Usually when another blogger sufficiently channels my own anger about something that has me piqued, I tend to just try and let it go and give them the last word. And that was my first reaction this morning when I read, with increasing agitation, Jeffrey Goldberg’s post about a new Israeli ad campaign targeted at…

  By Gal Beckerman Nov 30, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Did Netanyahu Free My Daughter’s Killer?

  Malki, in October you would have turned 25, if only… if only you hadn’t stopped in at the Sbarro restaurant in the center of Jerusalem with your best friend, Michal, that hot summer afternoon of August 9, 2001. You were on your way to a camp counselors’ meeting but had some time to spare. At…

  By Frimet Roth Nov 30, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Pinkwashing Is Not Black and White

  Last March, this newspaper published a classic example of pinkwashing, which is the concerted effort by supporters of Israel to tout Israel’s excellent LGBT rights record to win support for Israel in general. In their straightforwardly titled piece, “LGBT Activists Should Know Friends From Foes,” Stuart Applebaum and Benjamin Weinthal stated plainly that activists “should…

  By Jay Michaelson Nov 29, 2011 | 3 min read