Anti-Zionism’s mask falls…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

The first Saturday in September will see Israel’s national soccer team travel to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, for a crucial qualifying game for next year’s European Championship in France. Read more

Anti-Semitism gets a boost from the Iran deal

In Europe, Jewish communities are still licking the wounds from a miserable 12 months that saw deadly jihadist violence erupt against them in Paris, Brussels, and Copenhagen. Read more

Hey @TheIranDeal, I have some questions—actually, lots of them…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org

This week, a bunch of journalists, foreign policy wonks, and assorted pundits received an email from the White House that began with the legendary words, “Hey, I’m Ben Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. Read more

Europe’s crisis proves Israel is no ‘anachronism’…writes Ben Cohen

Back in 2003, as some readers will recall all too clearly, the noted historian Tony Judt penned a searing critique of Israel in the New York Review of Books. 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

Sanitising Iran, demonizing Israel

As expected, the Obama administration is having a hard time selling the American public on the feeble understanding—it’s not a “deal,” since nothing was signed—that was recently reached with Iran over its nuclear program…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org 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

Netanyahu nails the fundamental problem with Iran…writes Ben Cohen

I have to confess that I was disappointed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference this year. Read more

A dream deal with Iran

Love, as the song goes, is in the air. If the latest media reports are accurate, the United States and the Iranian regime are rapidly closing in on a deal over the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions. 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

Europe’s Jews tied to a declining political class

As regular readers of my column will know, I am not an admirer of the analogy between the situation that Jews faced in Europe in the 1930s, and the trials and challenges we face now…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org Read more

Charlie Hebdo and the temptation of self-censorship

As predictably as birds flying south for the winter, this week’s abominable terrorist attack on the headquarters of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, brought forth the usual burnt-out platitudes from those commentators who insist that Islamist violence is rooted in legitimate grievances with the West…writes Ben Cohen/JNS.org. 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

The return of Palestinian unilateralism…writes Ben Cohen

It sometimes seems as if the see-saw debate about the true intentions of Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority has been with us for an eternity. 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

The difference between Scottish nationalism and Zionism…writes Ben Cohen

I will confess that, over the last week, I felt more anxious than I’d anticipated about the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum. 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

Jewish anti-Zionism? Not in our name

I recently journeyed to Columbus Circle in Manhattan to savor the atmosphere at two rival demonstrations over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Read more

The vanishing two-state solution…writes Ben Cohen

Speaking to a British television network this week, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron bemoaned that “facts on the ground” were on the verge of wrecking the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 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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Against antisemitism, self-defense is no offense…writes Ben Cohen

The debate about whether Jews have a future in Europe has once again surfaced, as Israel’s Operation Protective Edge gained momentum in response to Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Read more

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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