Forward Forum


In Iran Elections, Hezbollah Loses — Will Israel Too?

By Meir Javedanfar

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad aren’t the only people who have staked their reputations on Iran’s disputed presidential election results. In a TV interview, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah described the Iranian elections as a mass endorsement by the Iranian people of their country’s system of Velayat-e Faqih — or “guardianship by Islamic jurist” — in which the state is guided by a clerical “supreme leader.”Read More

Gilad Shalit’s Plight, and Israel’s Dilemma

By Haim Watzman

There are many beautiful theories about how to bring Gilad Shalit home, but it’s an ugly fact that he now has been a captive for three years. And it’s an ugly fact that a series of Israeli governments have been unable to free him. Both diplomatic and military means have failed so far. Shalit’s family and friends blame the government for not doing enough, as do many Israelis. Others, including army officers, diplomats and the families of terror victims, argue that not every price is worth paying. Gilad, they say, does not stand alone; his life is not worth more than the lives of others.Read More

A Fourth of Jew-ly Celebration

By Michael Barclay

As a young child, I always loved the Fourth of July — the fireworks, the meat on the grill, the picnics and everyone seeming so grateful to be American. As I got a little older and learned about the Founding Fathers, who cherished their principles and beliefs so much that they were willing to risk everything in the quest for freedom, the Fourth of July took on a much deeper meaning. And as a rabbi, I gained an appreciation of how the principles upon which this country was founded resonate with Jewish tradition. Indeed, I have come to see the Fourth of July as a profoundly Jewish holiday.Read More

Sharansky Inherits a House Divided

By J.J. Goldberg

One of the stranger and nastier episodes of modern Israel-Diaspora mud wrestling was laid to rest in late June in Jerusalem when Natan Sharansky, the onetime Soviet political prisoner and human rights icon, was elected chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel.Read More

Actions Speak Louder Than (Even Ugly) Words

By Rafael Medoff

Newly released tapes of President Richard Nixon’s private conversations in 1973 include a remark that antisemitism will increase in the United States if American Jews “don’t start behaving.” As outrageous as that comment was, it should be kept in mind that Nixon was not the first American president to privately express antisemitic sentiments — nor is it clear how such views affected those presidents’ policies regarding Jewish concerns.Read More

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