Opinion

• Opinion

  ‘Pinkwash’? ‘Occupation’? What’s Up at NYT Op-Ed?

  The New York Times has a very good article with a seriously bad headline in this week’s Sunday Review section. The title is “Israel’s Other Occupation.” The topic of the piece is the growing assault against the rights of Arab citizens of Israel, taking place within the borders of pre-1967 Israel. The occupation is the…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  3 min read
• Opinion

  New Evidence Suggests Strauss-Kahn Was Set Up

  A startling new report by investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein suggests that the arrest of then-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges in New York last May may have been a setup engineered by his political opponents. The article, based among other things on examination of hotel card-key records, cell phone records…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 27, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Perception of Failure

  The unpardonable failure of the members of the congressional supercommittee to resolve their differences and actually do what it takes to govern is largely their own fault. Not that many members didn’t embrace the herculian task with rigor and good intentions. Unfortunately, some of the Republicans — and yes, the intransigence was found mostly on…

  Nov 24, 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

  In Knesset, Populism Trumps Reason

  What is happening in the Knesset? It seems that every week brings forth a new bill that would curtail some aspect of Israel’s democracy. As Carlo Strenger writes in Haaretz today, “It is hard to avoid the impression that the parliamentarians of the 19th Knesset have engaged in a ferocious competition for chauvinism and anti-liberalism.”…

  By Gal Beckerman Nov 22, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Revealing True Meaning of Thanksgiving

  Let’s face it: Once you get past the turkey and stuffing, this whole Thanksgiving business raises as many questions as it answers. We’ve all been hearing since we were kids that this is the great all-American holiday, the one that belongs to everyone regardless of color or creed. Its simple, universal message, we learned, is…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 22, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Glenn Beck: It’s 1939

  It’s 1939 for the Jews all over again. That, at least, would seem to be the case according to Glenn Beck, who was the keynote speaker at Sunday’s annual gala of the Zionist Organization of America. Using apocalyptic language, the former FOX news commentator said that that Jews have it “worse today” than they did…

  By Naomi Zeveloff Nov 21, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Like Old Times: CIA’s New Fiasco in Beirut

  There’s a sort of grim poetry in the timing of today’s news about the burning of two major CIA intelligence networks by Iran and Hezbollah. It was almost exactly 70 years ago, with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, that the creation of the CIA was set in motion with…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 21, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Price Tag’ Attacks Pose Test for Israel

  Israeli society has been confronted recently by a troubling new trend: vigilante attacks by some settlers and their supporters against Palestinians in the occupied territories, Arab citizens of Israel and, increasingly, Israeli peace groups. These began as the settlers’ own form of retaliation — exacting a “price” for any Palestinian violence — but have devolved…

  By Ziad Asali Nov 21, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Undermining Democracy

  Israeli President Shimon Peres thinks the bills are a very bad idea. So do the opposition leader and three prominent ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud party. Even Gerald Steinberg, head of NGO Monitor, who has made his reputation exposing what he considers dangerous left-wing biases in Israeli human rights groups — even…

  Nov 21, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bibi Is a Liar, So What’s the Fuss?

  Few stories that start out as potential bombshells end up as utterly duddish (from “dud”) as the “hot mic” exchange between Presidents Sarkozy and Obama. Duddish, that is, here in Israel, where I am for a couple of weeks; not so back home, in the States, as we shall see. If I were a rich…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 20, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Penn State: A Modern-Day Akeda

  This essay is closely adapted from a *d’var Torah that the author delivered on the Sabbath of November 12 at Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue in Manhattan.* The text of parsha Vayera is as familiar as any in the Torah. It includes the Akeda, the passage we read not only in the annual cycle, but…

  By Samuel G. Freedman Nov 18, 2011 | 4 min read