Opinion

• Opinion

  Human Rights NGOs Need a Monitor

  Most people prefer giving, rather than receiving, criticism. Leaders of powerful non-governmental organizations are no exception. Human rights NGOs have long benefited from a “halo effect” that has protected them from scrutiny; reporters quote their research widely, assuming it is accurate. But in recent years, the protective coating has worn thin, and the heads of…

  By Gerald M. Steinberg

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Out With Israel’s Old Left, in With the New

  No more than several thousand people took part in what was billed as Israel’s “first-ever Human Rights March.” Many of those who attended the December 11 gathering in Tel Aviv were affiliated with the several dozen Israeli NGOs that took part in organizing the event. There were gay rights supporters, protesters against the deportation of…

  By Noam Sheizaf Dec 30, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  In Uganda, a Hate That We Must Confront

  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said that Judaism “takes the mind out of the narrowness of self-interest.” During the past few weeks, I’ve been reminded of the urgent need for American Jews to make this formulation real as I’ve turned my attention to a flagrant threat to human rights in Uganda. Since October, the Ugandan…

  By Ruth Messinger Dec 30, 2009 | 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 is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

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

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Between Bernie and Joe: The Senate Democrats’ Rock and Hard Place

  Back on December 17, 2009, Americans were glued to their televisions and computer screens, waiting to see whether the Senate Democrats could muster enough votes to block a Republican health care filibuster. David Letterman reported that night on his CBS “Late Show” that they had closed the deal. “They have 60 votes to pass a…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 30, 2009 | 4 min read
• Letters

  January 8, 2010

  Laws of War Apply, Irrespective of an Occupation’s Legality In an otherwise insightful article, J.J. Goldberg makes a seriously erroneous assertion about international law as it relates to the Israeli-occupied territories (“Four Myths About the Mideast and Real Estate,” December 25). Goldberg claims that the broad consensus about the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to…

  Dec 30, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  A Right to Health Care

  After all the horse-trading and grandstanding that marked the Senate’s health care debate, it’s easy to overlook the historic meaning of the chamber’s December 24 vote. The two houses of Congress have now endorsed the principle that access to decent medical care should be available by right to every citizen. America has finally ratified life…

  Dec 30, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Despair, Israeli Style

  When it’s not preoccupied with Gilad Schalit’s release-not-release, the settlement freeze-not-freeze, the never-ending Iran nightmare or Bibi Netanyahu’s offer/threat to bring Tsipi Livni’s Kadima into his coalition, in whole or in pieces, the Israeli press has lately been publishing a good deal of what can only be described as existential despair. Nobody has captured the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 27, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Year in Verse

  Who needs Santa when we can opine On Jews in the news, twenty-o’-nine? A year when Madoff became a verb, Larry David brought ‘Seinfeld’ to ‘Curb.’ Who needs reindeer when by the deli Are Bruno and Bar Refaeli? * The change in Washington gave the nod: A new job for David Axelrod, Another for Rahm…

  Dec 23, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  British Court, Jewish Dilemma

  Britain’s Supreme Court has weighed in on the thorny question of Jewish identity. By a 5-4 vote on December 16, the judges upheld an earlier court ruling that publicly funded Jewish schools in Britain could not admit students by what it deemed to be ethnic considerations. Such schools, said the court, had to look beyond…

  By Ethan Tucker Dec 23, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Aughts and Us

  The End of the Peace Process By Elliott Abrams The Palestinian rejection of two Israeli prime ministers’ peace offers, one more generous than the other, transformed the Israeli view of relations with the Palestinians. These rejections — by Yasser Arafat of Ehud Barak’s offer and by Mahmoud Abbas of Ehud Olmert’s — plus the terrorist…

  Dec 23, 2009 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  A Year of Harsh Blows, and a Growing Divide

  How to sum up 2009? For starters, recall that it capped the first decade of the new millennium, a decade that effectively began on September 11, 2001. A decade marked by a string of losses that would put the New York Mets to shame: the loss of America’s global respect and its economic stability, the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 23, 2009 | 3 min read