Opinion

• Opinion

  Diving Into the Gene Pool: New Research on the Origins of the Tribe

  The genetics blog at DiscoverMagazine.com, Gene Expression, has an eye-opening post peeling away some of the more intriguing layers in the big new study of Jewish genetic patterns that was published June 3 in the American Journal of Human Genetics and reported the next day in the Forward’s own Shmooze blog. The Journal study confirms…

  By J.J. Goldberg

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Who’s a Pirate? Jewish Naval Battles, from Gaza Coast to La. Oil Smear

  The news this week is chock-full of outrage over the Israeli naval action that Turkey and others are calling an act of naked piracy on the high seas. And in the week’s other top story, by incredible coincidence, the oil slick oozing across the Gulf of Mexico made its first major landfall Thursday at, of…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 4, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Flotilla, the Israeli Moral Imagination and the Failure of U.S. Jewish Leadership

  Haaretz reporter Anshel Pfeffer has a very important piece in the Friday paper that looks at the Gaza Flotilla incident and the yawning gap between Israeli and international perceptions of the affair — and then connects it to Peter Beinart’s “breathtaking” New York Review of Books essay, “The failure of the American Jewish establishment.” In…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 4, 2010 | 2 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

  Israel: U.S. Asset or Burden? Asset, Say ADL, AIPAC, 334 Congressmen. Burden, Says Mossad

  One of the debates simmering just below the surface this week is the question of whether Israel is a strategic asset or burden to the United States. Pro-Israel advocates have maintained for decades that it is an asset, and a darned valuable one. This view has been emphatically restated in the past few days by,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 3, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Chosenness and Its Discontents

  The first line is familiar. I’ve added the rest: How odd of God to choose the Jews. But how on earth could we refuse? Was the choice reciprocal? Fact eternal or just cyclical? Was it mystical, statistical, poetical, umbilical? The consequence let us confess Is no small measure of distress. We stand accused, we are…

  By Leonard Fein Jun 2, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Erdogan’s Turkey Is Not a Friend

  Speaking in the aftermath of Israel’s botched raid on the Gaza flotilla, veteran American diplomat Aaron David Miller commented: “Overnight, the Israelis have boosted Hamas’s stock; accelerated the international community’s efforts to pressure and isolate Israel; undermined [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas, prompted a crisis with the Turks.” Miller may be right on the first…

  By Michael Rubin Jun 2, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Israel’s Ship of State Is Adrift

  Israelis’ hearts went out to the young soldiers who were shown rappelling down to the deck of the Mavi Marmara only to be attacked by a mob armed with sticks and knifes (though the video clips released by the Israel Defense Forces don’t show what happened after the soldiers opened fire). But amid feelings of…

  By Noam Sheizaf Jun 2, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  June 11, 2010

  Specter’s Legacy Sits In Judgment The end of Arlen Specter’s career as a U.S. senator should be hailed by Jews as well as by all Americans (“End of Specter Era Brings New Race for Jewish Vote,” May 28). Why? Because of his key role in driving the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Specter’s…

  Jun 2, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Time for Israeli Ingenuity

  In their best-selling book “Start-Up Nation,” Dan Senor and Saul Singer detail how Israel’s “economic miracle” has been fueled by an informal, creative and entrepreneurial business culture backed by government policies focused on innovation. How is it, then, that a nation with the economic brainpower to lead the world in per-capita start-ups cannot apply that…

  Jun 2, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  We Are One, Genetically

  The Jewish communal world is obsessed with the notion of peoplehood and how to define it, promote it, strengthen it — especially how to encourage younger, unaffiliated Jews to feel part of a sprawling but interconnected global family. A new scientific study may offer some help. Turns out that Jews the world over share many…

  Jun 2, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Another Fine Mess, Bibi

  This is from Amnon Abramovitch, a popular commentator on Israel’s Channel 2 Television News, writing for the Yediot Ahronot opinion page (Hebrew, print only), Tuesday, June 1. Wherever he touches military and security affairs, Benjamin Netanyahu has bad luck. An evil eye, a sort of un-naches. That’s how it’s been since way back when, and…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 2, 2010 | 2 min read