Articles written by jonathan s. tobin
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Gantz was warning Washington, not Tehran
(JNS) — The loudest Israeli message to the Biden administration was sounded by Defense Minister Benny Gantz during his appearance last week at the Israeli-American National Council Summit in Hollywood, Fla. Gantz said that he had notified his c...
No, Gen. Flynn: America may be a nation of faith, but not just one
(JNS) — Ever since President Thomas Jefferson first coined the phrase in 1802, Americans have debated exactly how high the “wall of separation” should be between religion and state. The debate continues to this day. These discussions reflect a basic...
Is this the beginning of a new cold war between Biden and Israel?
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. Both...
Calling critics of Soros antisemitic undermines the fight against hate
(JNS) — It’s never a good sign when George Soros’s name is back in the headlines. The Hungarian-born hedge-fund billionaire has become a touchstone of controversy. Both Republicans and Democrats in Virginian are taking his name in vain this week...
Some ideas must be debated, but not historical facts
(JNS) — Some Jewish liberals say that they saw this coming. There were those who believed that the movement to stop the teaching of critical race theory in the schools was bound to negatively impact teaching about the Holocaust. They claim that t...
How a budget standoff demonstrated the partisan split over Israel
(JNS) — The Iron Dome missile-defense system has long been one of the least controversial aspects of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Funding for the idea was approved in principle by the George W. Bush administration in 2007 after the Israel A...
As abortion debate heats up, the right to faith in the public square is on the line
(JNS) — It’s been a year since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, and many fans still mourn her loss. That’s not just because a true pioneer for women in the legal profession deserves to be honored as a role model or even because of the odd — and not...
Flattery and empty promises won't preserve an alliance
(JNS) — The reviews at home were mixed for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s first meeting with President Joe Biden. Many of those who despise Bennett’s right-wing principles thought he did a good job, while most of those who share his views...
The cost of disgrace is not cheap
(JNS) — For those old enough to remember the images of the last days of South Vietnam, recent events in Afghanistan are shockingly familiar. In each case, a flawed American ally facing a determined foe quickly collapsed once both sides to the c...
Why are 'progressive Jews' defending Ben & Jerry's?
(JNS) — If you thought that American Jews were going to unite against discrimination in ice-cream sales, you were wrong. The decision of the Ben & Jerry’s company to “end sales of our ice-cream in ‘occupied Palestinian territories’” was widely cond...
A year with too much to mourn
(JNS) — It may have been discouraging, but the dismal turnout for a national rally that was supposed to bring Jews together against antisemitism was also an appropriate reminder of the greatest challenge facing them. A week before Tisha B’Av — the a...
Are Jews really united against antisemitism?
(JNS) — The first thing to be said about the “No Fear” rally against antisemitism held in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sunday was that it was a noble effort. The organizers and those who showed up deserve credit for trying to shine a sp...
Don't confuse Holocaust education with the battle over critical race theory
(JNS) — There is no more obvious sign that American education is in trouble than the fact that most state legislatures have become battlegrounds over how to teach history. The subject can be fraught with controversy under any circumstances. But in t...
The left slides into acceptance of antisemitism
(JNS) — As far as some of Israel’s most vicious critics were concerned, it was the sort of thing that gave their critiques of Zionism a bad name. It was difficult to pretend that the decision of organizers of a Philadelphia food festival to dis...
Why is HIAS seeking to make America's border crisis even worse?
(JNS) — Over the weekend, President Joe Biden finally conceded that what was happening at America’s southern border is a “crisis,” a word that his administration had consistently refused to use when referring to the situation there which appears...
What Bernie Madoff proved about America and the Jews
(JNS) — On Dec. 11, 2008, one of the worst events to rock the organized Jewish world was revealed on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. Few outside of the financial world had ever heard of him before that day. But when news broke that Ber...
Stop pretending that anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism
(JNS) — In case you haven’t heard, people who want to eliminate Israel are very interested in stopping anti-Semitism. In other words, the same people who want to deny rights to the Jewish people that they don’t think of trying to deny to anyone else...
How many American Jews are there, and does it really matter?
(JNS) — Two weeks ago, the White House Passover seder was hosted by America’s Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born lawyer is the first Jew to be a spouse of a vice president, as well as the first male to occupy the role. Being a Jew...
Will Biden's moves bring the Saudis closer to Israel?
(JNS) — President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team has talked a lot about re-emphasizing diplomacy and re-engaging with allies after what they claim was the trashing of old friends during the presidency of Donald Trump. But that doesn’t appear to in...
Don't stop JNF from doing its job
(JNS) — The little blue box is no longer ubiquitous in Jewish households the way it once was. The symbolic pushke into which coins were collected in the homes of both the rich and the poor to help the Jewish National Fund redeem the land of Israel h...
Who will defend Jewish students against anti-Semites?
(JNS) — Following the U.S. Capitol riot, there has been a renewed emphasis on the threat from white-supremacist hate groups from the Biden administration, much of the media as well as the organized Jewish community. The anti-Semitic imagery seen at t...
Will impeachment and censorship defend Jews against anti-Semitism?
(JNS) — With the U.S. House of Representatives poised to pass new articles of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, the debate about the proper response to his role in last week’s disgraceful and bloody Capitol riot has now moved to the...
A toxic race curriculum has no place in Jewish schools
(JNS) — Just how far are Jewish institutions willing to go to accommodate the principles of critical race theory and its “cancel culture” view of American and Jewish history? In the case of Brandeis University Press, even that respected liber...
Why are Jews trying to undermine the fight against Jew-hatred?
(JNS) — A group of 122 Palestinian academics, journalists, writers and filmmakers signed a letter last month taking issue with the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of anti-Semitism. Their s...
The Chanukah challenge for young Jews
(JNS) — Chanukah’s popularity with American Jews was largely the result of a futile though determined effort to compete with Christmas. While enjoying freedom, prosperity and influence that was unprecedented in the history of the Diaspora, Ame...
