Opinion

• Opinion

  What Voter Fraud?

  This isn’t Russia, you know, where allegations of massive voter fraud in the latest parliamentary election were so outrageous that the chairman of the ruling party had to resign. Nor is the United States like any number of African nations, where brutal dictators somehow manage to be swept into office by unrealistic margins again and…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  Get to the Damn Table? Guess Who Said It First

  Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has drawn a lot of heat in the last few weeks, on himself and the administration, for his December 2 comment that Israel needs to “just get to the damn table” with the Palestinians. After all, his critics note, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been declaring since 2009 that he’s ready to…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 16, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Orwell Would Love Israel’s Anti-NGO Bill

  Editor’s Clarification: An earlier version of this article mistakenly suggested that NGO Monitor supports the Knesset’s current NGO legislation. It does not. The article has been changed to clarify this point. It was one of the boldest assaults on an Israeli military base in years: A gang of some 50 hostile West Bankers stormed a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 15, 2011 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry Israelis have no idea where the Iran war is going. But they know it’s part of Netanyahu’s campaign

  

• Emily Tamkin Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• Letters

  Forgotten Pact

  J.J. Goldberg is right to remind us (“What We Have Forgotten About Pearl Harbor,” December 2) of America’s refusal to join the battle against the Nazis until the Japanese brought the war to American soil. But some key facts are missing. When he seeks to distinguish between “the Nazi regime of malignant intentions and utter…

  Dec 14, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  No Comparison

  In Leonard Fein’s December 4 column, “It’s Time for Dialogue With Hamas,” he compares the PLO with Hamas. But, while the PLO is a secular organization motivated by nationalism, Hamas, an extreme fundamentalist group, is motivated by religion. Fein should read the prologue of Hamas’ founding charter. It states that Hamas’ aim is a war…

  Dec 14, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  A Different Context

  I just read the op-ed by Thai Jones, “From Russia to Zuccotti Park, the Parodox of Anarchism” in the December 2 issue. I am puzzled by the effort to somehow equate the 21st century protests against the inequality of wealth in America with the Russian revolution, which was against the brutality of the tsarist regimes….

  Dec 14, 2011 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  GOP Gets It Right on Israel

  The Republican presidential contenders have campaigned hard for the pro-Israel vote. Recently they each made bold promises of fealty to Israel while addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition (save for Ron Paul, who wasn’t invited) and sparred verbally, not just over whether the United States should support a Palestinian state, but over whether the Palestinians were…

  By Noam Neusner Dec 14, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel Misses Point With Ad Campaign

  The advertising campaign by Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption aimed at inspiring expatriate Israelis to return to Israel so offended American Jews that it eventually was canceled by Prime Minister Netanyahu himself. One of the ads suggested that a peril of Israelis coming to the United States and raising children here is the likely loss…

  By Liora R. Halperin Dec 14, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Shearing Heard ‘Round the Hasidic World

  Never before has the shaving of one man’s beard prompted such an outcry. When Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu posted pics, early Tuesday, of his newly-shaven (and nearly unrecognizable) face, and later posted a statement on his blog saying that there’s “no more Chassidic reggae superstar” and “sorry folks, all you get is me….no alias,” many…

  By Debra Nussbaum Cohen Dec 13, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  JNF Board Member Quits Over Evictions

  Some of my earliest Jewish memories involve dropping spare change in the Jewish National Fund’s iconic little blue boxes. I was proud that my money would help plant trees in Israel. The JNF, I knew, was making the desert bloom. As an adult, I became a member of the organization’s Washington, D.C., board and moved…

  By Seth Morrison Dec 13, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Somebody’s Raising Taxes on the Rich

  The growing ideological connection between the Republican Party in the United States and the Netanyahu government in Israel doesn’t extend to tax policy, it seems. With little fanfare, the Knesset last week approved an increase in corporate taxes and personal taxes on the very rich, going where the GOP here threatens never to tread. The…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 12, 2011 | < 1 min read