Opinion

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent conflict in Gaza and Israel casts a vivid spotlight on the need to strengthen relations between Jews and Muslims in countries around the world. It is crucial if we are to avoid importing the violence that has rocked the Holy Land to our… Read more »

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, sitting, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce a cease-fire with Hamas at a news conference in Jerusalem, Nov. 21, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

(JTA) – As Israel and Hamas mostly stilled their guns Wednesday night after reaching a cease-fire agreement, ending eight days of intense bombardment, both sides took home some new lessons about their foes. By firing longer-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Hamas demonstrated for the first… Read more »

On America’s Election Day, Nov. 6, nearly 1 billion people around the world went hungry. By the end of December, nearly 11 million children in the developing world will have died this year from causes related to malnutrition. Hunger is the world’s number one health risk, killing more people… Read more »

The arguments for and against the latest Palestinian bid for statehood status at the United Nations come down to which is the faster path to irrelevancy. The Palestine Liberation Organization is seeking a diplomatic victory to preserve the legitimacy of its affiliated Palestinian Authority in the face of a… Read more »

The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — Wage war to make peace. That’s the idea behind Israel’s strikes this week against Hamas targets in Gaza, including Wednesday’s attack that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. What’s not clear is how far Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense will go, what price Israeli civilians… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — “To be good Americans, we must be better Jews.” When Justice Louis Brandeis spoke these words, he sought to inspire our nation’s Jewish community to live by our ideals and our principles, to serve as active citizens in a thriving democracy founded on the right to… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As Will Rogers said, “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!” In the last four years, the Obama administration has dug our country deeper and deeper into several painful and dangerous holes. It’s time to stop digging and find better solutions. President Obama’s economic… Read more »

Can you imagine Israel without a free, independent, vociferous and diverse media? Can you imagine Israel without Maariv and Haaretz? Without biting commentary, investigative reporting and an open, cacophonous marketplace of views and ideas? Such an Israel terrifies me, and it should alarm you, too. It is not the… Read more »

Liberal pundits have coined a new saw: Sheldon Adelson and the newspaper he owns, Israel Hayom, are primarily responsible for the collapse of many Israeli media outlets, and this endangers Israeli democracy. The assertion is wrong on both the business and ideological levels. The imminent failures of Maariv and… Read more »

Ben Cohen

The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t so much a peace prize as it is an appeasement prize. I know, I know: many people realized this bald truth before I did. I’ll confess that I was avoiding that conclusion because, despite all the laughable recipients of the prize — former PLO… Read more »

Unfortunately, Lily Brull (responding to my 9/7/12 letter in the AJP, “No $1.5B to Muslim Brotherhood”) is off the mark (“Miller got it right on $1.5B for Muslim Brotherhood,” 9/21/12). It’s not the amount of money that’s at issue. What I object to is her characterizations of the identity… Read more »

Guy Gelbart’s explanation of the facts leading to the death of Rachel Corrie is much appreciated, as is his discussion of the aftermath of disinformation that was intended to trash Israel and especially the IDF (“Anti-Israel cynics led Corrie to tragic death,” AJP, 9/21/12). He also states that Rachel… Read more »

I was pleased to see cantorial music, and Jewish sacred music in general, highlighted in your last issue in Sheila Wilensky’s article on cantorial soloists in Tucson. It was gratifying in particular to see that at Temple Emanu-El we have employed all but one of the individuals you profiled… Read more »

Politicians sometimes save the most important truths for a foreign audience. Sometimes those truths really need to be said at home. On “Meet the Press” last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a particular point about the liberal values shared by the United States and his country. In… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In 1935, a trial was held in Bern, Switzerland, in which two individuals were being prosecuted for distributing the notorious anti-Semitic document “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” At the trial, witness after witness came forward testifying to the fraudulent nature of “The… Read more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an offsite bilateral meeting as part of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 28, 2012. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet, but they ended up sounding not so far apart. Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 28 in many ways echoed Obama’s speech there on Sept. 25, with both ratcheting up the heat… Read more »

Our agencies regularly provide background discussions concerning  Middle East negotiations, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA for the cream of the crop of North American Jewry, which includes clergy, students, academics and all streams of Jewish religious observance, from Orthodox Jews to Reconstructionist Jews. Whenever possible, we invite someone who… Read more »

My first column. What a lame subject for a first column. But I’ve been meaning to write this column for 20 years, and I’m only just now getting around to it. Seriously. I’ve had a lot to say. But more than that, I’ve had an extraordinary opportunity these 20… Read more »

I should like to clarify for Robert Varaday  (“No $1.5B to Muslim Brotherhood,” AJP 9/7/12) that Ken Miller was perfectly truthful about the gift of $1.5 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood. President Obama is forgiving a $1 billion dollar loan to them (out of a $3 billion loan), and supporting… Read more »

Living as Jews in America, we are slowly relinquishing personal and group responsibility to our government elites who are supposed to be stewards of our freedoms. Washington political elites pander to us as we lose more and more of our freedoms afforded us by our Constitution and our heritage.… Read more »