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Ben Cohen. Credit: Courtesy.

Ben Cohen

Featured Columnist

Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and director of FDD’s rapid response outreach, specializing in global antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Middle East/European Union relations. A London-born journalist with 30 years of experience, he previously worked for BBC World and has contributed to Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, Tablet and Congressional Quarterly. He was a senior correspondent at The Algemeiner for more than a decade and is a weekly columnist for JNS. Cohen has reported from conflict zones worldwide and held leadership roles at the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. His books include Some of My Best Friends: A Journey Through 21st Century Antisemitism.

Image from “The Twits” by Roald Dahl. Source: Screenshot.
Featured Columnist
‘Gobblefunk:’ Author Roald Dahl’s antisemitic legacy
It’s tempting to think that if revisions to his work continue, very little of the original will be left, which is why some observers are arguing that the project of sanitizing his novels is a waste of time.
Feb. 24, 2023
Ben Cohen
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Commissioner James Cavallaro, March 2014. Credit: Daniel Cima via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
Free speech as hate speech: The James Cavallaro scandal
Either the U.S. State Department doesn’t know about the social-media antics of its nominees, or it doesn’t care.
Feb. 17, 2023
Ben Cohen
The Goyim Defense League hung banners supporting Kanye "Ye" West's comments about Jews over a Los Angeles bridge, Oct. 22, 2022. Source: Twitter.
Featured Columnist
We need a better definition of antisemitism
Antisemitic ideology is highly adaptive, reinventing its obsession with supposed Jewish malignancy in almost any situation and winning supporters accordingly.
Feb. 10, 2023
Ben Cohen
A Documenta installation. Credit: Facebook.
Featured Columnist
Getting away with it: Germany’s Documenta art festival
Documenta has basically gotten away with organizing a festival stained with the most virulent antisemitism, and that there are no guarantees that such a scandal can be avoided in the future.
Feb. 2, 2023
Ben Cohen
An Israeli soldier in Jenin in April 2002. Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
Featured Columnist
‘The History Matters Here:’ Return to Jenin
Jenin was the location, in April 2002, of one of the most treacherous myths about Israel’s military conduct that spilled over into open antisemitism. Sadly, the lessons of that sordid episode more than 20 years ago do not appear to have been learned.
Jan. 26, 2023
Ben Cohen
From left: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
How does Israel interpret the Russian-Iranian alliance?
In Israeli eyes, Tehran is allied with Moscow because both are in conflict with the U.S. for different reasons, and that fact is far more important than any ideological overlaps between them.
Jan. 6, 2023
Ben Cohen
Ukrainian civilians and soldiers take shelter under a bridge in Kyiv, March 5, 2022. Credit: Міністерство внутрішніх справ України via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
2022: The year FUD took off
The ideas and institutions that anchored us in the past are falling away, yet the shape of our new era remains unclear.
Dec. 29, 2022
Ben Cohen
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech to the nation in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 2022. Source: Twitter/@POTUS.
Featured Columnist
The Iran nuclear deal is dead. Or is it?
As long as the EU believes there is even the faintest hope of a breakthrough with the mullahs, the U.S. is unlikely to place an official stamp upon its commander-in-chief’s off the cuff comments.
Dec. 23, 2022
Ben Cohen
A Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protest against Israel in Melbourne, Australia. Credit: Mohamed Ouda via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
BDS versus modern art
The toxic sledgehammer politics of BDS—the “with us or against us” choice—mean that the route from urging Israel’s elimination to expressing hostility towards Jews, particularly when those Jews engage in support for a Jewish state where they do not themselves reside, is quite a straightforward one.
Dec. 15, 2022
Ben Cohen
Mahsa Amini, Iran
Featured Columnist
Beware of Iran’s reformist clerics
The Islamic Republic cannot be reformed. Iran will only have a bright future once the Islamist regime is gone for good.
Dec. 9, 2022
Ben Cohen
A protest against China's "Zero Covid" policy. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
China’s cry for freedom
It barely needs remarking that those who participate in protests, whether in Russia, Iran or China, are exhibiting extraordinary courage. To protest against any regime that brooks no dissent is to invite incarceration, abuse and in many cases, torture.
Dec. 2, 2022
Ben Cohen
Flags with FIFA and Qatar 2022 World Cup logos wave in the wind. Credit: rarrarorro/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Qatar’s farcical World Cup begins
Qatar’s censorship on behalf of its Iranian ally aligns with the sly, underhanded manner through which it used its wealth and influence for the purpose of bribing FIFA into awarding Doha the 2022 World Cup, an outcome that former FIFA President Sepp Blatter now belatedly admits was “a mistake.”
Nov. 17, 2022
Ben Cohen
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