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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.

A billboard in Zambia, 2005. Credit: Lars Plougmann from London, United Kingdom via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
Global freedom on the decline
Only one in five residents lives in a country designated as “Free” (as opposed to “Partly Free” or “Not Free”). That is, in societies run by democratically elected, accountable governments where basic civil and political rights are guaranteed.
Apr. 2, 2021
Ben Cohen
Israeli Flag
Featured Columnist
Yet another attempt to sanitize anti-Zionism
The true purpose of the “Jerusalem Declaration” is to carve out a space for the elimination of the Jewish state without being accused of anti-Semitism.
Mar. 26, 2021
Ben Cohen
Anti-Semitism
Featured Columnist
Anti-Semitic or just ‘strident’?
An alternative definition by the “Nexus Task Force on Israel and Antisemitism” offers an escape route to those who oppose Israel’s existence.
Mar. 19, 2021
Ben Cohen
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng addresses the Judicial Officers Association of South Africa's annual general meeting held at Kopanong Conference Hotel in Benoni. Credit: GCIS/Government of South Africa/Flickr.
Featured Columnist
South Africa’s chief justice confronts the apartheid analogy
He talked about Israel positively while at the same time shining a light on the double standard that enables his government to cozy up to repressive regimes around the world, from Iran to China, while depicting Israel as a rogue apartheid state.
Mar. 12, 2021
Ben Cohen
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Featured Columnist
History, the Holocaust and hatred in Turkey’s school textbooks
One can hardly expect Israel or the Zionist movement to come out favorably; the portrait that is painted in classrooms and educational materials is duly hostile.
Mar. 5, 2021
Ben Cohen
Manfred Gerstenfeld. Source: YouTube.
Featured Columnist
Remembering Manfred Gerstenfeld: Truth against myth
When what some observers called the “new anti-Semitism” began to gather pace at the turn of this century, there were a handful of scholars, Gerstenfeld among them, who were equipped to explain that while the wine was new, the bottles were old.
Feb. 26, 2021
Ben Cohen
National flags at the entrance of U.N European headquarters in Switzerland. The U.N. office was established in Geneva in 1947 and is home to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Credit: Giorgio Caracciolo/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
Engaging with the UN Human Rights Council
It’s a real American conundrum—namely, because the majority of its member states are illiberal autocracies, and yet, the only country to have its record scrutinized as a fixed agenda item is Israel.
Feb. 19, 2021
Ben Cohen
Shaun Henrik Matheson
Featured Columnist
‘Shaun on P13:’ Ordinary Norwegians expose the anti-Semite in their midst
Israel has previously been smeared in similar ways on the Scandinavian country’s state-owned media, though perhaps never with the raw blood lust displayed by Shaun Henrik Matheson.
Feb. 12, 2021
Ben Cohen
The Polish flag with Warsaw in the background. Credit: Velishchuk Yevhen/Shutterstock.
Featured Columnist
The historical problem with Poland
It was the epicenter of the Holocaust, and it’s impossible to imagine the process of memorialization without it.
Feb. 5, 2021
Ben Cohen
Former President Bill Clinton greets Gerry Adams in East Belfast, Nov. 30, 1995. Credit: White House Photo by Sharon Farmer via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Columnist
Joe Biden, Anne Neuberger and dual loyalty
Not even a month into the new administration, the American public is being presented with another example of the “dual-loyalty” canard that has continuously stalked prominent American Jews in government, the media and academia especially.
Jan. 29, 2021
Ben Cohen
A view of the anti-Semitism “Freedom for Humanity” mural in London that was taken down in 2012. Source: Screenshot.
Featured Columnist
‘Freedom for Humanity:’ A Cautionary Tale
The cyclical journey of this particular mural—from the extreme left to the far-right and back again—takes place on a road that is much more straightforward to navigate than partisans of either side would be comfortable admitting.
Jan. 22, 2021
Ben Cohen
American business magnate Sheldon Adelson attends an American Independence Day celebration at Avenue in Airport City, on July 3, 2018. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90
Featured Columnist
‘Your suffering is our pleasure’: The anti-Zionist glee at Sheldon Adelson’s death
With Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel as with businessman and philanthropist Adelson, far-left invective was soaked in hostility to the Zionist movement that seeped into a frankly disturbing detestation of the deceased person.
Jan. 15, 2021
Ben Cohen
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