Tobin’s Take
Beating up on Ivanka
Jonathan TobinJun 22, 2017
Ivanka Trump is more than just the First Daughter. As a key adviser as well as the wife of Jared Kushner, the president’s Jewish son-in-law and point man on a host of...
At synagogues, ‘Trump bump’
Jonathan TobinJun 15, 2017
For many years, every population study has shown that the American synagogue is in trouble. The demographic collapse of non-Orthodox Jewry has affected every aspect of...
Want a path to peace? Trump pounds Abbas
Jonathan TobinJun 08, 2017
The most important incident during President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East took place out of view of the international press. At the time, it went unreported...
Taking Trump seriously, but not literally
Jonathan TobinJun 02, 2017
In a seminal piece for the Atlantic last September, journalist Salena Zito explained a simple truth that most people hadn’t grasped about the man who was about to be...
Can Trump’s outside-in formula work?
Jonathan TobinMay 25, 2017
Much of the attention being given to President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East has focused on whether his first foreign trip will provide much of a distraction...
Hubris and the ‘new’ Hamas
Jonathan TobinMay 11, 2017
President Donald Trump’s optimism about Middle East peace might be justified. Perhaps Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ pledge that he will be a...
Why and how Trump is acting against Iran
Jonathan TobinMay 04, 2017
When the Obama administration managed to avoid a congressional vote on its nuclear deal with Iran in the fall of 2015, courtesy of a Democratic Senate filibuster, the...
The Palestinians don’t want Mandela
Jonathan TobinApr 27, 2017
Palestinian internal politics and liberal hostility to Israel came together at The New York Times this month. The newspaper provoked a firestorm of criticism through its...
Spicer, Hitler, and equal opportunity apologists
Jonathan TobinApr 20, 2017
The biggest Jewish news story during Passover this year was the latest example of a rule of political argument: he who mentions Hitler first always loses. I refer, of...
Does JVP fit in the big Jewish tent?
Jonathan TobinApr 14, 2017
What’s the one value that the Jewish community should care most about? To listen to many who run organizations and communal philanthropies, the answer is inclusion. At...
