Opinion

• Opinion

  More Than Ever, Time To Remember Rabin

  This year, for the first time since the first anniversary of that terrible night, there will be no rally in Tel Aviv to commemorate the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Dalia Rabin, the slain prime minister’s daughter and chair of the Rabin Center, announced the decision. Her explanation? Public interest is waning, and the costs of…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Politicizing Israel

  As of this writing, there is no outcome to the maneuverings at the United Nations over whether the Palestinian Authority will request a vote on statehood and, if so, how that vote will proceed. But there is already one outcome of this troubled period in America’s relationship with Israel that we fear could prove dangerous…

  Sep 22, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  New Labor Head: Fiery Populist, Wary Diplomat

  The Israel Labor Party chose a new leader in a primary runoff on Tuesday. The winner, Shelly Yacimovich, is a former television news anchor whom polls show to have the most realistic chance of leading the battered party back to major-party status after a decade of what has seemed like terminal decline. Yacimovich (ya-khee-MO-vitch) is…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 22, 2011 | 3 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

  Israel Outreach Effort Comes to Columbia

  With the Palestinians poised to make their bid for statehood at the United Nations, another diplomatic effort was taking place on Columbia University’s manicured campus five miles uptown. Hillel, the national Jewish student organization, erected an open-air tent on September 21 with the words “Talk Israel: Join the Conversation” on a blue banner on Columbia’s…

  By Naomi Zeveloff Sep 22, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Palestinians Wait for Statehood, With Mix of Emotions

  The mood on the streets of Ramallah can best be described as tempered excitement as the Palestinian leadership begins its bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations. Flags attached to car windows proudly feature the words U.N.-Palestine State. Massive billboards advertise the statehood bid with colorful depictions of the Palestinian flag flying at the…

  By Joseph Dana Sep 21, 2011 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Rick Perry’s New Best Friend

  Now that Republican presidential wannabe Rick Perry has waded into the sticky-wicket of Middle East politics, it’s only fair to examine the influences on his thinking. After all, while Texas is a big state to govern, and he could probably see Mexico from the border, Perry doesn’t have much foreign policy experience, in the Mideast…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 20, 2011 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Is MK Ahmed Tibi Part of Abbas’s UN Delegation?

  It’s a question that cuts to the heart of Israeli Arab identity. With the Palestinian statehood bid upon us, is it wrong for the elected representatives of Israel’s Arab citizens to work against Israeli officials at the United Nations, or is it only a natural representation of their constituents’ views and their expression of kinship…

  By Nathan Jeffay Sep 20, 2011 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Netanyahu Left Palestinians With No Choice But the U.N.

  With all the tension between Israel and its neighbors, the expected vote in the United Nations on Palestinian statehood will be a dangerous confrontation. There’s no telling how the Palestinians and the rest of the Muslim world will react afterward, or how Israel will react, either. It would be better for all concerned if this…

  By Larry Derfner Sep 20, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Our Man at the U.N.

  It’s an eventful week here for those of us following the never ending saga known as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The spotlight is now, of course, on the United Nations General Assembly, where the Palestinians will make their case for statehood and the Americans and Israelis will tell us why this is a bad idea. Our…

  By Gal Beckerman Sep 20, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  AJC: Palestine State Just Hours Away! Send Money!

  The Palestinians’ United Nations statehood ploy has drawn an array of responses around the world, from enthusiasm in Turkey to anxiety to Washington and panic in Jerusalem. And one prominent Israeli center-left politician, Isaac Herzog, proposes a counter-intuitive Israeli gambit of voting for the statehood bid—under certain conditions (as I’ll explain below). Nothing, however, quite…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 19, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  When Tragedy Strikes, Nation Becomes Neighborhood

  Prompted by the 9/11 commemoration, I turned to what I wrote several days after that terrible time. I don’t make a habit of reprinting myself, but these words seem to me particularly apposite. At 8 o’clock on the morning of this last June 3, less than two days after the suicide bombing of the Dolphinairum…

  By Leonard Fein Sep 19, 2011 | 4 min read