This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
Israel
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Opinion Breaking Through the Impasse on the Jordan Valley
Recent news reports indicate that a major stumbling block in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is the insistence by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on maintaining a military force on the border between the future Palestinian state and Jordan, along the Jordan Valley. This demand, and the fact that Secretary of State…
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Opinion Why Benjamin Netanyahu May Look at the Math — and Cut Deal on Peace Plan
There are plenty of good reasons to doubt whether Benjamin Netanyahu has any real intention of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians. He keeps approving new settlement construction in the territories where the Palestinians expect to build their state. He keeps coming up with new security red lines — control of the Jordan Valley,…
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Fast Forward Italian Jews Grapple With J Street-Style Rift on Israel
Special meetings are being held this week to discuss increasingly sharp political tensions within the Italian Jewish community centered on differing attitudes toward Israel and the Middle East. The meetings were called in the wake of an incident on Jan. 14, in which Jewish protesters disrupted a panel discussion of a book on the left…
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Opinion The (Hillel) Kids Are Alright
The Jewish world seems worried about Hillel. “Are you okay?” people keep asking me. Our phones at Ohio University Hillel are ringing with those calling to hear the “real” story, or to leave long-winded diatribes on our voicemail. Reporters ask if we’ll answer a few questions (no thanks). Hillel has been in The New York…
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Fast Forward Israel Prepares To Return Palestinian Remains To Families
Israel has begun to exhume the remains of a number of Palestinian militants to return them to their families for burial, the army said on Sunday, a move that could help ease some tension between the adversaries. Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian authority are currently locked in peace talks being mediated by the United States…
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Opinion How Israel’s Politics vs. Security Rift Aids Jihadis
Hamas fighters testing a Gaza-made M-75 long-range missile, November 2013 / Getty Images Maariv’s Eli Bardenstein offered a stunningly clear and disturbing report (in Hebrew, my translation below) on Friday that illustrates the vexing complications introduced into the triangular Jerusalem-Cairo-Gaza relationship by political turmoil in all three places. It makes a very useful companion piece…
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Fast Forward Only One Chief Rabbi in Israel Under New Knesset Bill
A Knesset committee voted to approve a bill that would create one chief rabbi position instead of the current two. The Knesset Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted Sunday to approve the legislation, proposed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Hatnua Party, and co-sponsored by Religious Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett and lawmaker Eli Ben-Dahan of…
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Culture How I Won a Marathon in Israel
There are two Meccas, one in Saudi Arabia and the other, you’ll never guess, in Israel. The one in Saudi Arabia is for Muslim pilgrims, the one in Israel is for journalists. There are more journalists in this little part of the world than cats. And, believe you me, there is no place on the…
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Culture Inside the ancient Christian theology driving modern antisemitism
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News Jews paused Indiana’s abortion ban — by turning a religious freedom law against the evangelical right
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Opinion The moral degradation of Israel’s far right is even worse than you think
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Culture In 1989, Harold Pinter and Jerry Schatzberg made the perfect Holocaust movie for 2026
In Case You Missed It
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Culture Gene Shalit, a mensch with a personality as big as his mustache, turns 100
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Looking Forward How a song about the food chain became a Seder mainstay
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Fast Forward Connecticut Catholic school punishes students who targeted ‘Jew Canaan’ rivals on social media
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Fast Forward Pro-Palestinian rally at Buchenwald memorial is shut down by German authorities
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