Opinion

• Opinion

  Yediot Obtains Obama’s Speech: Renew Talks, Recognize Jewish State, Stop Settlements

  Yediot Ahronot obtained a copy of President Obama’s upcoming Middle East speech, its website Ynet reports. The speech, to be delivered at 6 p.m., will call on Jerusalem and Ramallah to reignite the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying it is the only way to achieve viable peace. Obama stands to demand the Palestinian Authority recognize…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Hunting Demjanjuk

  At long last, the seemingly endless saga of Ivan Demjanjuk appears to have finally come to an end. What began in the United States in the 1970s as an investigation of a suspected armed SS Ukrainian guard at the Sobibor death camp, concluded more than 35 years later in a Munich courtroom with a verdict…

  By Efraim Zuroff May 16, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Twin Traumas of Gaza and Sderot

  “You cannot begin to imagine the fear that infects everyone here. Even before Cast Lead, we felt it. But then, when the bombing began, it was devastating. And no one can know whether at any moment it will resume.” Those are the words of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, the senior psychiatrist in Gaza, a man widely…

  By Leonard Fein May 15, 2011 | 3 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 Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Readers’ Questions Answered: Israel, Hebrew, Guns and Me

  Given the evidently growing interest in the details of my biography, I’d like to offer a quick rundown of the most frequently questioned data. I lived in Israel for six years during the 1970s, serving for several years as an Israel and Zionism educational programs specialist at the World Zionist Organization in Jerusaledm and then…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 13, 2011 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  GOP Jewish Coalition Rips Ron Paul as Anti-Israel. You Don’t Know the Half of It.

  Our friends at the Republican Jewish Coalition have issued a strong statement criticizing Ron Paul, the Texas congressman and newly announced contender for the GOP presidential nomination. Paul is scored for espousing “a dangerous isolationist vision for the U.S. and our role in the world” and for having been “a virulent and harsh critic of…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 13, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Bright Red Line

  In the last few weeks, two men have been forced to explain their views on Israel by members of the Jewish community who have assigned themselves the role of the Israeli government’s local public defender. Both debacles are dismaying. The differences between them are telling. When a few vocal critics raised a ruckus over the…

  May 11, 2011 | 3 min read
• Letters

  Pro-Israel Activities Count, Too

  The Forward’s May 13 article, “Survey of Campus BDS Finds Few Serious Cases” unfortunately focused solely on the failures of Israel’s campus detractors to implement boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) against Israel. But this misses the critical context that support for Israel on campus has never been greater, and the network of campus Israel supporters…

  May 11, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  Not Embarrassed

  I am flattered but uncomfortable with the fact that David Hazony chose to base his May 2 Op-Ed, “A Tale of Two Brothers,” on a blog I posted two months ago. He used that piece of writing to establish his premise that, “a great many mainstream, longtime supporters of Israel” are publicly expressing embarrassment. He…

  May 11, 2011 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Tread on a Sacred Tradition

  A group in San Francisco has collected enough signatures to force a vote on a law that would make it illegal to “circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.” This ban, if it passes, might infringe on the First Amendment guarantee…

  By Melvin Konner May 11, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Israel’s Security Elite Joins the Opposition

  It probably won’t surprise you to hear that the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, the people who’ve led the fight against the state’s enemies for decades, are more frightened now than they’ve been in a long time. You might be shocked, though, to hear what’s got them in a panic. It’s not the Iranian nuclear…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 11, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Three Mountains, Different Views

  Jerusalem’s Har HaZikaron, or the Mount of Rememberance, where Yad Vashem, Israel’s principal Holocaust museum, is situated, is the venue for the annual formal state ceremony that marks the beginning of Yom HaShoah V’Hagvurah — Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. Holocaust survivors, families of Righteous Gentiles; some thousands of soldiers, and diverse groups of citizens,…

  By Leonard Fein May 10, 2011 | 4 min read