Opinion

• Opinion

  Citizens at Birth

  In the United States, the debate is over the 14th Amendment. In Israel, it’s centered on a government decision to deport the children of migrant workers. The core issue is the same: Should birth confer citizenship? And who gets to decide? The first question ought not to be difficult to answer, for the right to…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  Remembering Tony Judt, Heartsick Lover of Zion

  If you’ve been following the news lately, you’re probably aware of the death August 6 of Tony Judt, the British-born historian of modern Europe. You’ll surely have noticed the cascades of tribute to “one of the world’s most prominent public intellectuals” (Toronto Globe and Mail), “a historian of the first order” (Time magazine), “widely regarded…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 11, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Why Social Security Isn’t Broke, Why We Think It Is and Where the Money Went

  Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik has an essential piece today debunking what he calls “The Myth of the Social Security system’s financial shortfall.” It’s based on the newly-released 2010 report of the Social Security Trustees. In fact, he argues, Social Security is doing fine, sort of. If there’s a problem, it’s the fact…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 8, 2010 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Why the Lebanese Border Is Heating Up. Hint: It’s Not About Israel

  Progressive Zionists rightly insist on the right to declare one’s love for Israel and still point out when Israel is in the wrong and the other side has a legitimate case. The trouble is that one neglects to take note from time to time (to time to time to time, actually) when Israel is in…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 7, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Tale of Two Citizens

  Now and then, there’s a moment when everything comes together, when all the sturm und drang that so often characterizes Israel’s saga recedes, the land is girdled by rainbows, it streets are filled with song and marshmallows. So it must have been when 29-year-old Hillary Rubin, who had made aliyah to Israel (from Detroit) in…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 4, 2010 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Don’t Take Hamas’s Goals Out of the Equation

  Why do the debates over the morality of Israel’s responses to Hamas never seem to produce a consensus? A debate broke out last year after Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and another after the publication of the Goldstone Report. Recently we have found ourselves in the midst of yet another debate in the wake of…

  By Michelle Sieff Aug 4, 2010 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Seizing a Moment of Promise for Mideast Peace

  Things are starting to look up on the Middle East peace front. From the very positive White House meeting in July, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take to “concrete steps” to revive the peace process, to the Arab League’s recent green light for direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, we’re finally seeing some…

  By Uri Savir Aug 4, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Wounded People vs. Oliver Stone

  Abba Eban once told me a story about a conversation he’d had years before with a British friend. It happened in 1970, shortly after the Six Day War. The friend complained that Israel was acting unnecessarily defensive and inflexible for a country that had just won a major victory. “You must understand, we’re a wounded…

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

  An Orthodox Pledge of Compassion

  It has been nearly a decade since the film “Trembling Before G-d” introduced Jewish communities around the globe to the very existence of faithful and observant gay Orthodox Jews and their struggles. While many in the Orthodox world paid attention to the film at the time, since then there has been little or no change…

  By Steven Greenberg Aug 4, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  August 13, 2010

  Wedding Erodes Intermarriage Taboo Like it or not, the media-hyped Clinton-Mezvinsky intermarriage, discussed in your August 6 editorial, “When Marc Weds Chelsea,” will make religiously based Jewish opposition to such matches in our society more difficult. (I’m the groom’s uncle, although I wasn’t present at the ceremony.) Chelsea did not and will not convert to…

  Aug 4, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Mosque and Us

  Before it became a cause célèbre for Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and other rank opportunists, before the Anti-Defamation League sullied a once-noble reputation by siding against religious liberty, before the tweets and satellite trucks spun this all out of control, the plan to turn an eyesore of an empty building two blocks from Ground…

  Aug 4, 2010 | 2 min read