Opinion

• Opinion

  Is it 1948 or 1967?

  One way to understand the Israel/Palestine impasse: Either it is 1947/8, or it is 1967. If it is 1947/48, the argument is about narratives and refugees; if it is 1967, the argument is about borders and an end to the conflict. In 1947, the United Nations endorsed a two-state solution to the Palestine question. In…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Don’t Make Us Choose

  When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress May 24, his first audience was the assembly of federal lawmakers and other government dignitaries seated before him. His second audience was President Obama, who was off hobnobbing with the Queen of England, but who only days earlier had set out his vision for…

  May 25, 2011 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What Is the Wording?

  This fall, the Palestine Liberation Organization will ask the 192 member states of the United Nations to declare an independent state of Palestine. In my view, this is a bad idea; if I could, I would stop it. But since the peace process (apparently) is dead and it is unlikely that anything will occur to…

  By Kathleen Peratis May 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

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  Opinion

  The France That Hasn’t Shown Its Face to Dominique Strauss-Kahn

  The case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former director of the IMF and leading Socialist politician now accused of sexual assault, has left the French public shocked and scandalized in many different ways. But curiously, there is one response that we have not seen: anti-Semitism. Curious, because France’s long history with its Jews has often been troubled…

  By Robert Zaretsky May 23, 2011 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Generals Vs. the Lobbyists and the Psychology of AIPAC

  The press attention at AIPAC goes to the big speeches by prime ministers, superstar lawmakers and the occasional president. Most of the action, though, is in the less ballyhooed small-group workshops and “breakout” sessions, dozens at a time, where groups of delegates listen to experts expound on topics ranging from effective lobbying and working with…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 23, 2011 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Poverty of Riches

  In April, we learned that the poorest municipality in the country by income is Kiryas Joel, the Satmar Hasidic hamlet in Orange County, New York. To anyone who knows the community, this was no surprise. The families living there are younger, larger and more likely to be led by a full-time student of Torah who…

  By Noam Neusner May 23, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Abe Gets Hate Mail, Bibi’s 3 Whoppers and an Optimistic (Yes!) Reading of the Situation

  Barack and Bibi: An Optimistic Reading According to a very reliable source, Abraham Foxman got an e-mail the other day, lamenting the fact that Hitler didn’t get him, apparently because of the Anti-Defamation League’s statement praising President Obama’s Middle East speech. I didn’t call for confirmation because I didn’t want Abe to ask me not…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 22, 2011 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Two Narratives for Two Peoples

  Many Jewish Israelis and their supporters have reacted with outrage to a New York Times Op-Ed on May 17 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, particularly its invocation of the Palestinian historical narrative. Most troubling to them was Abbas’s description of how his family was “forced” to flee their home in what became Israel in 1948…

  By Hussein Ibish May 19, 2011 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  At Home in America

  May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Yeah, we didn’t know about it either. It’s a new date on the calendar, declared by President Bush in May 2006, to honor the 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. Now Jews have a place in the firmament of celebrations of racial and ethnic diversity, alongside African…

  May 18, 2011 | 2 min read
• Letters

  No Trial Needed

  Deborah Lipstadt’s May 13 article “Eichmann’s Lessons for Bin Laden is interesting and informative, but her key analogy between Eichmann and bin Laden is weak. The circumstances which led to the ultimate fate of each are sufficiently different that her regret that bin Laden was never “shown the wonders of a democratic system of justice”…

  May 18, 2011 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  A Healthy Cut

  Eli Ungar-Sargon’s claim (“Outlawing Circumcision: Good for the Jews?” May 20) that the health benefits of circumcision are only “purported” is sadly misinformed, and his analogy to mastectomy is just plain silly. Numerous studies by the World Health Organization, as well as independent studies published in the Lancet, Scientific American and the New England Journal…

  May 18, 2011 | < 1 min read