Don’t reward Palestinians for a new wave of terror
April 1, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
After a week of terror attacks that took the lives of 11 people, Israelis are wondering whether they are on the brink of a third intifada. Read more
Must Bennett wave the white flag on a new Iran deal?
March 24, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
As far as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is concerned, there’s no point in getting into a fight you can’t win. Read more
Why does the world care what Israel does about Ukraine?
March 16, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
It has long been axiomatic that Israel—a tiny country whose people comprise a tenth of a percent of the world’s population and whose landmass is an exponentially smaller fraction of a percent of the planet’s landmass—gets the sort of media attention that would be appropriate for one of the largest nations. Read more
Why we should care about the fate of Ukraine
February 16, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
It’s difficult to know where exactly the crisis over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine will end. Read more
The ‘genocide Olympics’ gives the lie to human-rights rhetoric
February 8, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
On his Facebook page last week, Elisha Wiesel—the son of the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel—had a poignant accusation for the world, and especially for those who revered the lessons his father tried to impart about the importance of speaking up against atrocities and totalitarian regimes. Read more
Why the Amnesty ‘apartheid’ smear of Israel can’t be ignored
February 4, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Say this for Amnesty International, its outrageous report alleging that Israel is an “apartheid state” has brought nearly all of the Jewish world together to condemn the organization. Read more
The Holocaust Remembrance Day rule that proves everyone loves dead Jews
January 27, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
It was a great day for Israeli diplomacy. For the first time, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution sponsored by the Jewish state and it received nearly universal support. Read more
Plea bargains should not be for prime ministers
January 20, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
It’s the sort of story that makes you wonder about who is doing the leaking and why. Read more
Politics and combating antisemitism don’t mix
January 11, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
At a time when antisemitism is on the rise around the globe, the office of the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy for Combating and Monitoring Antisemitism ought to be filled. Read more
Harry Potter and the search for fake antisemitism
January 7, 2022 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Jon Stewart tells us he was just kidding. The former star of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” who now has a popular podcast, is involved in entertainment projects as well as supporting various philanthropic causes. Read more
Archbishop Tutu and the disturbing power of intersectionality
December 28, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Desmond Tutu will primarily be remembered by posterity for his role as a leader in the struggle against South African apartheid. Read more
The non-Orthodox get another lesson in Israeli electoral maths
December 24, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid may have put together a coalition without any ultra-Orthodox religious parties earlier this year, but they still fear the power of the haredim and their allies. Read more
Why the double standard on West Bank violence?
December 19, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
To the casual observer of news from the Middle East, it would appear that the biggest story coming out of Israel lately is what some outlets are describing as a surge in settler violence against Palestinians. Read more
Iran: A test of Biden’s strategic vision and character
December 7, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
For Biden administration officials, their inability to achieve their top foreign-policy priority is both frustrating and puzzling. Read more
Biden gives a clinic on how not to negotiate with Iran
November 21, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
It’s hard not to sympathize a bit with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his coalition partner Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Read more
Hypocritical Israeli coalition politics get ugly
November 7, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
For some observers of the Israeli political scene, there’s only one thing that matters. Read more
The point of a case that helped start a war is to ensure unending conflict
November 4, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
On the 104th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, four Palestinian families, acting under pressure from both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, reminded us why the conflict between Jews and Arabs has never been resolved in all these years. Read more
Is this the beginning of a new Cold War between Biden and Israel?
October 30, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
As far as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid are concerned, this week has brought a perfect storm of circumstances that threaten to complicate their hopes for a better relationship with the United States. Read more
The ‘human rights’ scam at the heart of the NGO controversy
October 27, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
To listen to the U.S. State Department and many in the international human-rights community, Israel has done it again. Read more
Biden Palestinian consulate move will be Bennett’s toughest test
October 22, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Over the course of its first nine months in office, the Biden administration has had a lot of trouble getting out of its own way on just about every conceivable issue, be it domestic or foreign. Yet one of the few areas in which President Joe Biden hasn’t so far either screwed things up and/or appreciably worsened the situation is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Read more
Israel can’t ignore China’s threat to the free world
October 15, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Any time Israel has reason to doubt the reliability of America’s friendship, some in the Jewish state start thinking about the need to re-evaluate its attitude towards the world. Read more
BDS proves once again that it’s all about the antisemitism
October 13, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Irish novelist Sally Rooney thinks that she’s an advocate for human rights, and that prejudice and hate have nothing to do with her work or her various political stands. Read more
Is it ever OK to praise the ‘truth’ of an antisemitic blood libel?
October 3, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Does it matter if politicians let lies told by people they meet publicly go unanswered? That’s the question that many in the Jewish community are asking this week in the wake of an incident this week involving Vice President Kamala Harris. Read more
A cautionary tale about Arab-Israeli normalization
October 1, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Those picking up The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 24 got some good news about the cause of peace in the Middle East. Read more
The triumph and tragedy of Jewish self-liberation
September 26, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
When the leading scholar of Jewish literature of our time chooses to write a memoir of her career, it is hardly a surprise that its pages are filled with the names of the great writers she has encountered and studied. Ruth Wisse is currently a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund, but prior to that, she helped found the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University in Montreal and then became Professor of Yiddish and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Read more
The real lesson of 9/11 isn’t a story about Islamophobia
September 12, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
One of the strangest aspects of post-9/11 America has been the compulsion of so many to change the narrative about the attacks that took place 20 years ago. Read more
In addressing antisemitism, honesty matters
September 8, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
A couple of years ago after giving a speech, I was confronted with what struck me as a bizarre query during the question-and-answer period. Read more
Why the Crown Heights pogrom still matters
August 26, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Three decades have passed since the Crown Heights pogrom, and any assessment of the memory of that tragic event must start with an acknowledgment that New York City is a very different place than it was in August 1991. Read more
Has Biden anything to offer Bennett but more trouble?
August 24, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
In theory, the planned meeting this week between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Joe Biden ought to be exactly what both men need. Read more
Two cranky old Jews symbolize everything that’s wrong with our political culture
August 22, 2021 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Apparently, two elderly, wealthy Jewish men aren’t speaking to each other anymore. Who cares? In theory, no one ought to. But when the pair in question are television comedy star Larry David and former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, and a chance meeting between them results in a public scene involving screaming occurs in a popular spot on Martha’s Vineyard, it’s exactly the sort of thing that does get treated as a very big deal indeed. Read more