In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
GOP Jewish Coalition Rips Ron Paul as Anti-Israel. You Don’t Know the Half of It.
Our friends at the Republican Jewish Coalition have issued a strong statement criticizing Ron Paul, the Texas congressman and newly announced contender for the GOP presidential nomination. Paul is scored for espousing “a dangerous isolationist vision for the U.S. and our role in the world” and for having been “a virulent and harsh critic of…
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Opinion The Bright Red Line
In the last few weeks, two men have been forced to explain their views on Israel by members of the Jewish community who have assigned themselves the role of the Israeli government’s local public defender. Both debacles are dismaying. The differences between them are telling. When a few vocal critics raised a ruckus over the…
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Letters Pro-Israel Activities Count, Too
The Forward’s May 13 article, “Survey of Campus BDS Finds Few Serious Cases” unfortunately focused solely on the failures of Israel’s campus detractors to implement boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) against Israel. But this misses the critical context that support for Israel on campus has never been greater, and the network of campus Israel supporters…
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Letters Not Embarrassed
I am flattered but uncomfortable with the fact that David Hazony chose to base his May 2 Op-Ed, “A Tale of Two Brothers,” on a blog I posted two months ago. He used that piece of writing to establish his premise that, “a great many mainstream, longtime supporters of Israel” are publicly expressing embarrassment. He…
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Opinion Don’t Tread on a Sacred Tradition
A group in San Francisco has collected enough signatures to force a vote on a law that would make it illegal to “circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.” This ban, if it passes, might infringe on the First Amendment guarantee…
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Opinion Israel’s Security Elite Joins the Opposition
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that the leaders of Israel’s security establishment, the people who’ve led the fight against the state’s enemies for decades, are more frightened now than they’ve been in a long time. You might be shocked, though, to hear what’s got them in a panic. It’s not the Iranian nuclear…
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Opinion Three Mountains, Different Views
Jerusalem’s Har HaZikaron, or the Mount of Rememberance, where Yad Vashem, Israel’s principal Holocaust museum, is situated, is the venue for the annual formal state ceremony that marks the beginning of Yom HaShoah V’Hagvurah — Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. Holocaust survivors, families of Righteous Gentiles; some thousands of soldiers, and diverse groups of citizens,…
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Opinion The Jewish Roots of Madoff’s Crime
In her engrossing new book on the rise and shattering fall of Bernie Madoff, Diana Henriques points to the key role played by a quartet of very wealthy Jewish entrepreneurs who set up accounts with Madoff by the end of the 1970s. Some of their names, sadly, are familiar to those who have followed the…
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Opinion For the Best Argument Against a Unilateral Declaration of Statehood, Look to the Palestinians Themselves
With the Palestinian Authority intent on declaring unilateral statehood in September, voices in Israel and in the United States have started to argue with increasing vociferousness against this idea. But for the clearest articulation of why Palestinian unilateral action is a wrongheaded approach one has to look no further than to the Palestinians themselves. Among…
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Opinion Taliban, Qaeda Flee Afghan in Panic. Plus: More Israeli Defense Bigs Rip Bibi, Welcome P.A. Unity
Taliban and Al Qaeda members are fleeing northern Afghanistan in disarray, amid a “collapse of morale” following the death of bin Laden, Juan Cole reports on his “Informed Comment blog. It appears that the Taliban were still linked to, and perhaps taking direction from, al-Qaeda, more than most analysts had suspected. It also appears that…
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Opinion Outlawing Circumcision
The subject of circumcision is often relegated to the realm of jokes and cheeky double-entendres, but a San Francisco ballot initiative now gaining momentum would ban the practice, and it raises some very serious issues. At the heart of the current controversy are three fundamental questions. First, is circumcising an infant wrong? Second, should infant…
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