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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.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, 2017. Credit: Golden Brown/Shutterstock.
Opinion
If you want peace, reform the Palestinian Authority
The road to a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict runs through Ramallah, not Jerusalem.
Oct. 3, 2022
Ben Cohen
Iran Protests
Featured Columnist
Iran’s inspirational protest movement
As Jews celebrate the Rosh Hashanah holiday, perhaps they can also offer a prayer to relieve the salty tears of the Iranian mothers and fathers who have lost their children during protests.
Sept. 23, 2022
Ben Cohen
Flags of the United States and the Soviet Union. Credit: Danielo/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Russia: Among the thugs
It’s worth stating that we have seen this configuration of the international landscape before.
Sept. 16, 2022
Ben Cohen
Queen Elizabeth with the royal family at Buckingham Palace in London, June 2018. Credit: Lorna Roberts/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
The queen is dead; long live the king?
No one should pretend that Charles will easily fit his mother’s outsized shoes, and he now faces the formidable task of winning the affections of the British people alongside their respect.
Sept. 9, 2022
Ben Cohen
A 1904 cartoon depicting U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt appealing the Russia Czar Nicolas II to end the oppression of Russian Jews. Credit: Everett Collection/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
‘Basmanny Justice’ and the Jews of Russia
Once again, the writing is on the wall, this time propelled by the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Aug. 26, 2022
Ben Cohen
Star of David, Concentration Camp
Featured Columnist
Mahmoud Abbas highlights a German problem
The country’s rejection of anti-Semitism largely consists of official rhetoric, as opposed to outright condemnation and uncompromising action against the scourge.
Aug. 19, 2022
Ben Cohen
South Africa on a map. Credit: TonelloPhotography/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Confronting South Africa’s official anti-Zionism
The word “apartheid” is key to understanding why more than the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, most of Europe and even parts of the Islamic world, it South Africa that has proved so receptive to the core contention that Israel has no right to a sovereign, independent existence.
Aug. 12, 2022
Ben Cohen
Yellow Star of David with shadow on black background. Credit: Ausra Barysiene/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Anti-Semitism: Back to square one?
We can no longer assume that basic knowledge of the Holocaust plays an immunizing role, especially as the Nazi extermination program fades further and further into history.
Aug. 5, 2022
Ben Cohen
Russian President Vladimir Putin negotiates with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Ukrainian wheat, July 18, 2022. Credit: 42nd Street in Manhattan/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Mr. Putin goes to Tehran
Iran and Russia further bind their ties—one an authoritarian regime claiming Divine sanction, the other an authoritarian regime promoting nationalist chauvinism, both of them sworn enemies of Western democracy.
July 22, 2022
Ben Cohen
Hamid Nouri on trial in Sweden on May 2, 2022 Credit: Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
Iran’s ‘death corridor’ is open for business
The trial of former Iranian regime operative Hamid Nouri provides a harrowing glimpse into the systemic abuse of human rights in the Islamic Republic.
July 15, 2022
Ben Cohen
Anti-Zionism, Zionism Is Racism Sign
Featured Columnist
Banning anti-Zionism: Feasible? Desirable?
The depiction of Israel as an apartheid state is wrong and immoral, but it shouldn’t be illegal, for the simple reason that banning certain types of speech is a gateway to further, unexpected restrictions.
July 8, 2022
Ben Cohen
Graffiti displaying Koran verses seen in the center of Nablus in the West Bank, Nov. 15, 2016. Photo by Sebi Berens/Flash90.
Featured Columnist
Wishing Israel away
Islam is not the only faith to dress up superstition as credible assertion. Still, the significance of such beliefs is better gauged by measuring their popularity rather than debating their contents.
July 1, 2022
Ben Cohen
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