Opinion

• Opinion

  Gilad Shalit’s Release Restores Heart of Israel

  It is impossible to overstate the intensity of emotion felt in Israel at the news of Gilad Shalit’s impending release. Many of us have been glued to the television screen with unrelenting tears in our eyes since we first heard about the imminent deal. It feels like we just let out a collective breath, like…

  By Elana Sztokman

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Gilad Shalit Release Welcome, But at What Cost?

  Gilad Shalit is finally on his way to freedom. Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a prisoner exchange, which reportedly will see Shalit return to Israel within a matter of days while Jerusalem frees about 1,000 prisoners. This is certainly welcome news, especially for Shalit’s family and loved ones. But the sheer amount…

  By Brent E. Sasley Oct 12, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How FDR Helped Save Jews of the Holy Land

  Adolph Hitler addressed a cheering Reichstag on January 30, 1939, and offered a prophecy: He warned that if there were to be another war, it would end with the annihilation of European Jewry. The massacres that accompanied Germany’s war on Poland later that year, followed by Germany’s invasion of Western Europe in 1940 and the…

  By Robert M. Morgenthau and Frank Tuerkheimer Oct 12, 2011 | 8 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman ‘Remember the Liberty’ has become code for ‘Israel Is Evil’ 

  

• Dan Perry A new proposal to radically destabilize Israel

  

• Emily Tamkin Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point

  

• Jay Michaelson When it comes to Israel/Palestine, everyone is sure that everyone else is a bigot

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  When Home Is a Blessing

  When I grew up, Sukkot felt like an after-thought following the intensity and purpose of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. No one in my Reform community in a lower-middle-class suburb of New York City ever built a sukkah; instead, we decorated the one at the synagogue — stringing together dried cranberries and making endless links…

  By Jane Eisner Oct 11, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  To Test Beliefs, Listen to the Other Guy’s

  When did your dad become a Republican?” That was the question with which my 13-year-old daughter dutifully reported she had been greeted the morning after parents’ night at her school. What had I done to deserve this? Well, the previous evening I took a look at the proposed reading list, which leaned, believe it or…

  By Eric Alterman Oct 10, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Inspirational Yom Kippur at Occupy Wall St.

  A large, open plaza across from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street has made its encampment for three weeks, proved to be the perfect setting for Kol Nidre on Friday night. Earlier in the week, when Daniel Sieradski, Occupy Wall Street protester and self-styled “new media activist,” wondered on Facebook and Twitter whether he…

  By David A.M. Wilensky Oct 10, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Congress Shows Lack of Leverage With Threat To Cut Off Aid

  As an Israeli who sees the occupation as a plague both on Palestinians and on Israelis, I think it’s a good thing that Congress just held back $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinians as punishment for their statehood bid at the United Nations. It’s a good thing, because now that the Republican Party…

  By Larry Derfner Oct 7, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Texas Death Row Snares Americans in Iran, Cuba

  You’ve probably heard by now of Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, the American students imprisoned and abused in Iran for two years, virtually incommunicado, on flimsy espionage charges until they were finally “bailed out” (read: ransomed) by Oman and released last month. You may also know about Alan Gross, the ailing American computer specialist arrested…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 7, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Fight for Justice Continues Against Violent Settlers

  Two of my young Israeli friends, key activists in Solidarity, the folks who for nearly two years have demonstrated every Friday afternoon at Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem where Israeli Jews have been buying up Palestinian property and claiming that the neighborhood is legally Jewish, were assaulted September 30. My friends, graduate…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 6, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  In Tough Times, Hoping to ‘Corner’ Market for Compassion

  If you’ve glanced at the economic news lately, you’ve probably had one of two reactions. You’ve turned the page, struck a defensive pose of indifference and quietly given thanks that you’re still afloat. Or maybe you’ve cast about for a way to help, shuddered at the vastness of the misery and national paralysis and finally…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 6, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Dangerous Sermons

  On Sunday, October 2, the Revival Assembly Church in Manchester, N.H., was one of the 539 churches around the country participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an increasingly popular form of civil disobedience on the religious right. Pastor Chris Anu urged the 80 parishioners in his Pentecostal church to reject same-sex marriage as an abomination and…

  Oct 6, 2011 | 2 min read