Win or lose, Iranians want regime change

For the first time in nearly a decade, one dares to believe that the Islamist clerics who have ruled Iran since 1979 will not be in power by the time the 40th anniversary of their revolution rolls around in 2019…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

In decades-long AMIA Jewish center affair, the truth will come out

Like so many pins in a bowling alley, the treacherous former Argentine leaders who signed a secret pact exonerating Iran of its responsibility for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires are, finally, collapsing under the rolling weight of judicial scrutiny…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Year zero: the Palestinians and the Balfour Declaration

For the Palestinians, the year zero is not 1948, when the state of Israel came into being, but 1917, when Great Britain issued, in the November of that year, the Balfour Declaration—expressing support for the establishment of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Harvey Weinstein’s disgrace produces another nasty caricature

Walking through central London last week, and with a spare half hour on my hands, I decided to pay a quick visit to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Inside, I spent most of my time intently studying a painting that I could not recall having seen before: “The Philosopher,” a 1645 canvas by the Italian painter Salvator Rosa…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

On antisemitism, difficult questions and contested answers

In his magnum opus “A Lethal Obsession,” the late Robert Wistrich, one of Israel’s finest scholars of the murderous pathways of Jew-hatred, elegantly summarised the character of antisemitism at the turn of this century…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

The illiberal world of Stephen Bannon

In considering the furore around President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Stephen Bannon, the CEO of the hard-right news website Breitbart, as his chief strategist, let’s start with the perspective of those who have defended him…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org.
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The decisions facing Donald Trump…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

Donald Trump is now America’s master. Read more

Say it loud, say it clear: no World Cup for Qatar…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

In a normal world, it wouldn’t be Israel that is the target of a campaign for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. The tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar is a far better candidate. Read more

A new age of Middle East insecurity…writes Ben Cohen

Back in 2010, I interviewed Gerard Araud, who is now the French ambassador in Washington, DC, while he was still serving as France’s envoy to the United Nations in New York.We talked at length about Iran, and this was the first thing he told me: “The Iranian nuclear program has no civilian explanation whatsoever. You don’t start a civilian nuclear program by enriching uranium. It’s like if you buy the gas before the car.” Read more

Israel, not Netanyahu, is the ultimate target…writes Ben Cohen

There is no world leader more hated by bien-pensant liberals in the West than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read more

What’s at stake when anti-Zionism aims for academic respectability?

A potentially ugly row is brewing in the United Kingdom over an academic conference, due to be held at the University of Southampton in April, which carries the title, “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism.” Read more

Getting antisemitism wrong at the United Nations…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

You have to hand it to the United Nations, I guess. It’s hard to think of another body that would organise a special meeting on the subject of rising antisemitism with anti-Semites not just in attendance, but making speeches as well. Read more

Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day?…asks Ben Cohen

Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day? Read more

Tragedy of Mizrahi Jewish refugees emerges from the shadows

To properly understand how the Holocaust has been seared onto Israel’s collective consciousness, one should visit the country on the 27th of Nisan, a date in the Hebrew calendar that falls in either April or May in the solar one….writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Overlooked Palestinian terror group returns with a vengeance

The older I get, the more my childhood memories fade, but I still vividly remember the morning of Sunday, July 4, 1976…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org Read more

Can the political left tackle antisemitism?…asks Ben Cohen

While I’ve never been a big fan of celebrity interventions in politics, I will concede that, on occasion, a big-screen actor or a rock star will achieve the kind of impact that mere mortals can only dream about. Read more

Diaspora Jews a soft target…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

Next week, the opera “The Death of Klinghoffer” opens in New York. Read more

Another obscene Israel analogy…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

For several decades now, Israel’s enemies have actively and willfully defamed the Jewish state by comparing its actions to the atrocities committed by the worst villains in recent history. Read more

Allies and adversaries in the Middle East

Who are we at war with in the Middle East?…asks Ben Cohen/JNS.org Read more

Reflections on the beating of George Galloway

Ask a foreigner to name a British parliamentarian. Assuming they are able to provide an answer, there’s a high chance, especially if that person is a Jew or a Muslim, that the name on their lips will be that of George Galloway…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. Read more

Are circumstances getting worse for Jews and Israel?…asks Ben Cohen

“That February, in Sarcelles, flaming objects were thrown into the Tiferet Israel School, destroying the building. In April, at Garges-les-Gonesse, firebombs were hurled at the synagogue. From Nice to Marseille, antisemitic mail was delivered. In the offices of CRIF, located in the Fifth Arrondissement several blocks from the popular food market on the Rue Mouffetard, an envelope arrived filled with white powder and a message: ‘The biological war against the Jewish lobby has begun.’”

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Abbas, Auschwitz, and Palestinian strategy…writes Ben Cohen

It was often remarked that the late Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasser Arafat, would sound moderate when speaking in English and utterly intransigent when speaking in Arabic. Much of the same could be said about his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Read more

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