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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.

Sudan flag on a military uniform. Credit: Bumble Dee/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Sudan in peril, and Israel’s response
Peace is only possible in Khartoum if the causes of nearly 70 years of instability are meaningfully addressed.
April 21, 2023
Ben Cohen
Captured Jews who participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are rounded up by the Waffen SS on Nowolipie Street between April 19 and May 16, 1943. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
‘From Every Floor, From Every Window:’ Remembering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The energy and the intensity shown by the 700 poorly armed young Jewish fighters reflected the understanding, deep in their hearts, that the battle for the ghetto was not ultimately one in which they would prevail.
April 14, 2023
Ben Cohen
Israelis protest in Tel Aviv against the government's judicial overhaul on March 9, 2023. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.
Featured Columnist
Their protests, not ours: Palestinian Solidarity Movement’s reaction to Israel’s political upheaval
If you advocate a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against a nation in toto, then you end up judging the protests before you have even assessed them.
March 31, 2023
Ben Cohen
French Israelis light memorial candles as they gather at Paris Square in Jerusalem in a demonstration against antisemitism in France following the murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Jewish woman in Paris, March 28, 2018. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.
Featured Columnist
‘The system has failed:’ Antisemitism flourishes in France
A growing proportion of French society doesn’t agree that the problems faced by Jews are their problems as well, according to a recent survey.
March 24, 2023
Ben Cohen
Roger Waters. Credit: Andrés Ibarra, November 2018.
Featured Columnist
‘Auf Wiedersehen,’ Roger Waters?
These days, the question is less about where and when he will play, and more about whether he will be permitted to play at all.
March 17, 2023
Ben Cohen
Hezbollah and Lebanese flags. Credit: Arthur Sarradin.
Featured Columnist
The EU must designate all of Hezbollah
It position remains that the Lebanese-entrenched and Iranian-back organization is half a terror group and half a political party. That needs to be reversed immediately.
March 10, 2023
Ben Cohen
Elly Schlein in Turin, Italy, February 2023. Credit: Mike Dotta/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Elly Schlein’s Etruscan nose
There is a great deal to unpack here, most obviously the newly elected politician’s determination to deny that she is Jewish in the same breath as condemning antisemitism.
March 3, 2023
Ben Cohen
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
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