Opinion

• Opinion

  Shouting To Be Heard

  Some inside the Jewish world have asked why a group of 14 young activists affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace chose to disrupt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans. Five of these young Jews stood up during Netanyahu’s G.A. address to…

  By Cecilie Surasky

  3 min read
• Opinion

  The Sudan Precedent

  From Iraq to Lebanon, from the Palestinian Authority to Yemen, Arab states are increasingly fragmenting along regional, sectarian and ethnic lines. But only one Arab state is on the verge of formally dismantling itself: Sudan. The population of southern Sudan votes January 9 on a proposal to secede from the Arab-dominated north and become an…

  By Yossi Alpher Nov 24, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Missing Half of the Potentially Best Ideas

  The e-mails flowed in — from Dan, Albert, David and Moshe. From Paul, Eric and Yoav. And from Benjamin, Rafael and Ethan. They all wanted a spot here, on the Forward’s opinion pages. While it’s not a new trend for opinion editors to hear far more from the Mitchells and Jasons than from the occasional…

  By Karen Loew Nov 24, 2010 | 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Shouting ‘Fire’

  J Street often likes to portray itself as the innocent victim of Jewish communal persecution. But this should not camouflage its self-serving role in kicking up the media circus that erupted recently when its president was barred from speaking at a suburban Boston synagogue. The incident began when the leadership of Temple Beth Avodah in…

  By Ira Youdovin Nov 24, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Is Glenn Beck After the Wrong Billionaire?

  If you’ve kept up with the outraged tsunamentary (“tsunami of commentary” — I made that up) following Glenn Beck’s televised sliming of billionaire currency trader George Soros, you might suppose there’s nothing left worth saying about it. But you would suppose wrong. There’s much more to say. Beck, the top-rated bloviator at top-rated Fox News,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 24, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  A Dangerous Link

  The Obama administration’s offer of a package of advanced weaponry and military assistance worth billions of dollars in return for an Israeli commitment to freeze settlement construction for just three months marks a troubling development in the relationship between the two allies. There’s a reason that this deal has drawn criticism from an unusual chorus…

  Nov 24, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Looking at Haiti

  The images beamed from Haiti seem to go from very bad to unbearably worse. The nation was already the poorest in the hemisphere before the January 12 earthquake crushed the landscape and killed hundreds of thousands. Then came the sight of more than a million displaced people living in over-crowded, squalid refugee camps. Then the…

  Nov 24, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Hanukkah Time

  Hanukkah comes early this year, in the way that Jewish holidays seem always to be early, or late, but never on time because it’s not at all clear what that means. In America, we live by two calendars. They rarely match, but they do instruct. When Hanukkah is late — that is, close to Christmas…

  Nov 24, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Thankful That the Pilgrims Didn’t Shoot a Wild Boar

  Erev Thanksgiving, and I am as every year dazzled by how very Jewish this holiday is — in its way, every bit as Jewish as Hanukkah, now just days away. Think on it: Suppose the Pilgrims had bumped into a wild boar instead of encountering a turkey. Thanksgiving’s centerpiece would be on oinker rather than…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 24, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Uproar as Haredi Lawmaker Urges Yeshiva Boys to Join Army, Get Jobs

  We’ve been talking a lot lately about the rising proportion of ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jews in the Israeli population, and the various challenges it poses to Israeli society. Most dramatic are the declining proportion of 18-year-olds who will be available for military service, since the great majority of Haredi men claim an exemption as full-time…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 21, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Occupation Is the Issue; BDS Is a Distraction

  In case you haven’t noticed, the sky is falling. Yes, again. This time it’s the imminent danger of the Global BDS movement. BDS: Boycott, divestment, sanctions. Soon, we’re told, very soon, Israel will be crippled, its economy in ruins, its legitimacy destroyed. Accordingly, a mobilization to oppose the Global BDS movement is now the highest…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 17, 2010 | 3 min read