This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
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Fast Forward Pot Smokers Choked by Tight Israel Border Security
Israel’s newly fortified Egyptian border has delivered a severe blow to drug smugglers, forcing its hashish and marijuana smokers to deal with a new kind of high – soaring prices. The ravines that snake past rocky red mountains once provided a popular, low-risk route for traffickers to run drugs, women and African migrants into Israel…
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Fast Forward Scarlett Johansson Cuts Ties to Oxfam Over SodaStream Feud
Actress Scarlett Johansson has ended her relationship with Oxfam, saying she and the humanitarian organization have “a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.” The announcement Wednesday evening comes after a protracted debate over her role as spokesperson for SodaStream, which operates a factory in the West Bank. Johansson…
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Israel News SodaStream Controversy Fueled by Lies and Distortions — and Israel’s Occupation
To some people, it’s a storm in a soda cup. But to others, SodaStream’s most ambitious advertising campaign ever, starring Scarlett Johansson, is a potent symbol of all that is bad about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The ad campaign, to be kicked off during the broadcast of the Super Bowl, on February 2,…
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Fast Forward Jews Slam New York Mayor Bill De Blasio for ‘Secret’ AIPAC Speech in Open Letter
A group of New York Jewish public figures have signed an open letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio condemning his recent proclamation that the pro-Israel lobbyist group AIPAC would always have a friend at City Hall. The letter counters the idea that AIPAC represents the best interests of de Blasio’s New York constituents, including the…
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Opinion What Yair Netanyahu’s Norwegian Dating Game Tells Us
It’s easy for liberal Jews to write off the hullabaloo regarding the dating habits of one of Israel’s better known sons as just that: Hullabaloo. Sound and fury signifying nothing, or maybe signifying a prurient interest in famous lives, or possibly signifying a helplessly stultified and hidebound worldview that has nothing to do with us….
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Life ScarJo’s Other SodaStream Problem: The Sexist Ad
No matter where you stand on Israeli politics, it’s hard not to see Scarlett Johansson’s decision to become a spokesperson for SodaStream as a bold choice. Unfortunately, this boldness didn’t make its way into the commercial itself. Instead, the ad relies on the most cliche, ickily retro advertising tropes imaginable. If you are reading this…
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Fast Forward Is Yair Netanyahu Dating Non-Jewish Norwegian Woman?
The son of Benjamin Netanyahu is not dating a non-Jewish Norwegian girl, an official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office reportedly told the head of the haredi Orthodox Shas party. Israel’s Channel 10 reported Wednesday that the official told Aryeh Deri in a meeting that Yair Netanyahu, 23, and Sandra Leikanger, 25, who both study…
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News French Court Rules Boycott of SodaStream Illegal
A pro-Palestinian group’s campaign to boycott the products of the Israeli SodaStream company violates French law, a Paris court ruled. The ruling was handed down on Jan. 23 by the French capital’s Tribunal for Grand Instances, which fined the group about $9,000 and ordered it to remove calls to boycott SodaStream and its agents from…
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News The ADL’s turn away from civil rights was years in the making — Oct. 7 accelerated it
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Culture He works at a Holocaust museum by day. How’d he end up in ‘Marty Supreme’?
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News The Holocaust Torah that survived a Mississippi synagogue fire was brought there by the state’s only survivor
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Fast Forward ‘Dilbert’ cartoon creator once questioned the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust
In Case You Missed It
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Culture His mother is Israeli, his father is Palestinian. His life? Complicated.
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Opinion There’s a vicious antisemitic precedent for Trump’s demonization of Renée Nicole Good
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Film & TV Judd Apatow on why Mel Brooks’ influence ‘will last as long as our jokes’
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Opinion I was in a high school production of ‘Anne Frank’ — today in Minnesota, I feel her fear more than ever
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