Opinion

• Opinion

  Israeli Reality Versus Our Projections

  I just returned from a few weeks in Israel, and was there during the dramatic denouement of the Gilad Shalit story. The trip reminded me why it’s important for those of us who observe and comment and tear our hair out over Israel to actually experience the country as a place — as opposed to…

  By Gal Beckerman

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Ilan Grapel’s Imprisonment Marks Trouble

  The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on October 24 that Ilan Grapel, a dual American-Israeli citizen, will soon be released from an Egyptian prison, after four months of detention on what are believed to be trumped-up charges. American and Israeli policymakers, however — and citizens abroad — should be concerned that the…

  By Zack Gold Oct 26, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Obama’s Charity-Tax Plan Sounds Good to Some

  President Obama is getting precious little credit for his policy heroism these days. But here is one conservative ready to applaud the president for an idea whose time has come. Let’s tax charity. Absolutely. The president, in his plan to bring down the deficit, said that he wanted to bring down the deduction for charitable…

  By Noam Neusner Oct 25, 2011 | 3 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

• 
  Opinion

  Learning From J14

  Is Occupy Wall Street an outgrowth of the J14 protests, the social justice movement begun in Tel Aviv on July 14 that drew nearly half a million Israelis to the streets? The tents, the youthful organizers, the anarchic hodgepodge of themes and complaints certainly make it easy to draw the analogy. In fact, we wish…

  Oct 24, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Rabbi Learns Repentence From Prisoners

  “Welcome to the Waldorf Astoria,” said the jail guard as he showed me the room I would sleep in, my prison issue bedding (top sheet, bottom sheet, two pillowcases, no pillow) and the vacuum-packed kosher meals that had been prepared for me. This was the beginning of the three days of this High Holy Day…

  By Ari Hart Oct 21, 2011 | 4 min read
• Letters

  What I Need To Know

  I am the mother of a young musician in his first year of service in the Israel Defense Forces. This is what I need to know: that if he were in Gilad Shalit’s position, my people would never, ever leave him behind in order to avoid the terrible calculus of securing his life in an…

  Oct 20, 2011 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Deal To Free Gilad Shalit Was Smart

  You didn’t have to be a great lover of Israel to get choked up at the sight of Gilad Shalit walking unsteadily into the sunlight of freedom October 18, after five years of being locked in a hole somewhere in Gaza. At the same time, you couldn’t miss the anguished second-guessing that dominated public discussion…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 20, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Jewish Students Deserve Legal Protection

  Soon, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which says that it serves as “the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community,” will be voting on a draft resolution on countering campus anti-Israel activity. The draft resolution follows from a policy issued last year by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR),…

  By Susan B. Tuchman Oct 20, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  By Our Numbers, Pressing To Reform America

  Where shall we start? How about the fact that more than half the unemployed people in the United States have been out of work for more than 40 weeks? Or would you rather wrestle with the fact that we now have more than 46 million Americans living in poverty, half of them in abject poverty?…

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

  This ‘Occupy’ Anti-Semite Is No New Face

  Occupy Wall Street’s most visible anti-Semite was picketing the Financial District long before Zuccotti Park was occupied. Carrying a variety of hand-lettered signs with anti-Semitic messages, images of the man — who has been vehemently disowned by the mainstream of the protest movement — have been instrumental to the case that Occupy Wall Street is…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Oct 19, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  Israel Shouldn’t Free Killers

  Did Israel ask the relatives of those hundreds of Israelis who were murdered by terrorists about their feelings and opinions pertaining to the release of their relatives’ murderers (“Free at Last, Shalit Returns to Israel,” October 18)? Hypothetically, suppose there were secret recordings of some of those to be released declaring that as soon as…

  Oct 19, 2011 | < 1 min read