Opinion

• Opinion

  Obama, Israel & American Jews: ‘Commentary’ Polls the Experts

  Commentary magazine has come out with a star-studded symposium, titled “Obama, Israel & American Jews: The Challenge,” in which no fewer than 31 prominent American Jews were invited to comment on the tensions between the Obama administration and the Israeli government — tensions “of a kind not seen since the days of the administration of…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  2 min read
• Opinion

  A Worldview at Odds With a Jewish State

  Liberal young American Jews are growing increasingly distant from Israel. That idea is at the core of the recent essay by Peter Beinart in The New York Review of Books. While Beinart set off a fierce public debate in Jewish circles, one voice has been mostly missing: that of young American Jews like myself. I…

  By Max Strasser Jun 9, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Myth of Alienation and Apathy

  Over the past several weeks, a debate about the future of liberal Zionism has been raging in the Jewish community. In newspapers, magazines and the blogosphere, Jews have been talking about Peter Beinart’s essay in The New York Review of Books in which he argued that young, liberal, non-Orthodox Jews are growing estranged from Israel…

  By Theodore Samets Jun 9, 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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Reading Washington’s Linkage Map

  After a first year in office marked by incredible tumult in American-Israeli relations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may now feel he has reason to celebrate a general reduction in tensions with the Obama administration. After all, the administration is playing tough with Tehran, helping ready Israel militarily for any clash with Iran or its regional…

  By Yossi Alpher Jun 9, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Israel’s Choice: Realpolitik or Kvetching?

  Looking at the deadly takeover of the so-called Free Gaza Flotilla and the international uproar that ensued, Israelis and their friends around the world are raising some troubling questions for public consideration. Some are new questions, some old, but all arise now with a sudden new urgency. Why, for example, does the world rise in…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 9, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Freeing Gilad Shalit

  Very soon, it will be four years since the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25, 2006, a grim, frustrating anniversary that sends contradictory messages to the head and the heart. If there were easy answers here, they would have been found years ago; instead, it is possible that the recent botched raid…

  Jun 9, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Fighting Halachically?

  Is it kosher to box? Thanks to Yuri “Lion of Zion” Foreman and Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita, this is no esoteric question. After all, Foreman just lasted nine rounds against Miguel Cotto in Yankee Stadium, a match he lost in a technical knockout but fought through obvious pain and with such ferocity that he…

  Jun 9, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  In Tel Aviv, a Chance To Stop Zimbabwe’s Blood Diamond Trade

  The government of Israel has a chance to exercise valuable leadership on a critical international human rights issue — and it has nothing to do with the Palestinians. Israel holds the annual chairmanship of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, an international body designed to choke off the trade in “blood diamonds.” On June 21-23, Tel…

  By Rona Peligal Jun 9, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Why I Cannot Forgive Germany

  “I cannot and I do not want to forgive the killers of children; I ask God not to forgive.” — Elie Wiesel It was more than 15 years ago, but I still remember the day clearly. My husband and I hosted a dinner at our home for emerging young German leaders. They were participating in…

  By Anita Epstein Jun 9, 2010 | 9 min read
• Opinion

  The Sieges of Gaza

  Siege 1: Israeli sources are in perfect accord: The flotilla was a provocation, intended less to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, more to break Israel’s siege. The people on board the vessels made no effort to disguise their intentions. Accordingly, Israel knew in advance that it would be faced with a more…

  By Leonard Fein Jun 9, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  No Thanks, Helen Thomas

  Let’s shed no tears for Helen Thomas. She exemplified the adage that reminds us to quit while we’re ahead. In her case, how much neater it would have been if she had simply stepped away from her front-row seat to the nation’s business before the ravages of age further loosened her tongue to utter some…

  Jun 8, 2010 | < 1 min read