Jeff Jacoby

A day of mourning in a time of fear - The Boston Globe Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning for the Jewish people — but it ought to be a moment of reckoning for all Americans.

To ensure that Jews can live in safety is not only to defend a targeted minority, but to uphold the ideals that made America a light among nations. The US has been blessed because it blessed its Jews. May it never learn what happens if it stops doing so. #TishaBAv
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/29/o...

It’s time to end US military aid to Israel — for both countries’ sakes - The Boston Globe The Jewish state should want to be treated by its closest ally as an equal, not as dependent.

You’ll get no argument from me— and I say that as a Zionist who loves Israel.
www.bostonglobe.com/2023/08/13/o...

YouTube video by Associated Press WATCH: Footage from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing

The scientific marvels of my lifetime — computers, the internet, mapping the genome, heart transplants — are wondrous. But for me, nothing can ever match the audacity of July 20, 1969, when Americans walked on the Moon.

The memory still gives me chills.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzAp...

Actually, the only people who say "it takes a village to raise a child" are left-wingers, who are perfectly fine with a welfare state that never stops metastasizing.

1 in 4 Americans believe recent attacks on Jews were ‘understandable,’ ADL survey finds - Jewish Telegraphic Agency Even more believe attacks on American Jews will end if Israel stops its war in Gaza, according to the survey.

One-fourth of Americans regards violent attacks on Jews as "understandable." And most of the other three-fourths couldn't care less.

This country is not the safe haven it used to be. Not for Jews, anyway.
www.jta.org/2025/07/11/u...

No, Trump Is Not ‘Weaponizing’ Anti-Semitism If “a liberal is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel,” as Robert Frost put it, then a Jewish liberal must be someone who begs

This would be more persuasive if it included even one example of Trump cracking down on right-wing antisemitism. But the only Jew-hatred the WH opposes is the kind found among leftist elites. Which suggests that antisemitism isn't Trump's target; it's his pretext.
www.commentary.org/articles/tal...

Sign up for Arguable with Jeff Jacoby - The Boston Globe Sign up for a weekly newsletter from Globe Opinion's must-read conservative columnist, Jeff Jacoby.

If you'd like to subscribe to Arguable (it's free!), just sign up here: bit.ly/ArguableNews...

The problem with ‘Are you proud to be an American?’ - The Boston Globe We can love our country without idolizing it, and criticize America without abandoning it.

I love this country. I'm grateful I was born and raised here. I rejoice in all the ways America has made the world better.

But am I "proud to be an American?" That question makes no sense, as I write this week in my Arguable newsletter.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/08/o...

Take Off the Mask, ICE The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves.

Former commander in NYPD's 6th Precinct: "The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves." (& thanks for mention) [Brandon del Pozo, The Atlantic]

Want more growth? Welcome more immigrants. - The Boston Globe To open our gates to striving would-be Americans is to turbocharge the economy and enrich the American way of life.

It has always been in our national interest to welcome peaceful and grateful foreigners. Bigoted nativists have always recoiled from the prospect of letting too many immigrants in. Clear-eyed patriots know the real danger is in keeping too many of them out.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/06/o...

YouTube video by ILTV Israel News Zohran Mamdani asked 3 times to condemn “Globalize the Intifada” — refuses each time.

Mamdani has been asked again and again to repudiate that phrase, and has been told exactly "what it means and why it hurts." He won't do it.

www.youtube.com/shorts/_hMAu...

When Israel-haters like Zohran Mamdani refuse to repudiate slogans like "globalize the intifada," this is what they are endorsing: arson, violence, and the attempted murder of Jews anywhere in the world.

New York has many problems. Grocery stores aren’t one of them. - The Boston Globe Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for supermarket socialism is an idea with a long history of failure.

New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposed supermarket socialism — government should own grocery stores! — is an idea with a long record of failure. Just ask anyone who grew up behind the Iron Curtain or in Cuba.

Here's my new Boston Globe column. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/02/o...

‘War does not solve problems,’ declares the pope. He’s wrong. - The Boston Globe Peace is not always just, and justice is not always peaceful.

Sometimes the most meaningful prayer is not that the weapons should be silenced but that the righteous should be granted the strength to endure the fight.

In a new @globeopinion.bsky.social column, I respond to Pope Leo's claim that "war does not solve problems."
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/25/o...

Israel’s war against Iran is America’s war, too - The Boston Globe The regime in Tehran has been killing US citizens for decades.

"It isn’t only Israel that has an overwhelming justification to act against Iran," I write in a new Boston Globe column today. "The United States does, too."

The vicious and violent Islamists who rule Iran hate America as much as they hate the Jewish state.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/18/o...

The funeral for Ravid Chaim, the newborn son of Tzeela Gez, a pregnant Israeli woman who was murdered in a terror attack while in labor. Ravid Chaim, just 15 days old, tragically passed away after remaining in serious condition since the attack.
May his memory forever be a blessing. 🕯️

The real legacy of ‘Napalm Girl’ - The Boston Globe The iconic Vietnam War photograph is unforgettable, but its impact was almost nonexistent.

"Napalm Girl" is among the most harrowing images of the Vietnam War. But its impact on events and public opinion was almost nonexistent.

My new column for is about the famous "Napalm Girl" picture, and the mythology that has grown up around it.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/28/o...

"An Ugly Tax" in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" Conservative Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby rightly decries a pernicious provision in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill": Buried near the end of the

In this post, I build on @bostonglobe.com columnist @jeffjacoby.bsky.social's excellent critique of the "ugly tax" on remittances in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill": reason.com/volokh/2025/...

‘Like hearing Lincoln at Gettysburg’ - The Boston Globe Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn’s eulogy on Iwo Jima called Americans to live up to their nation’s noblest ideals.

As countless Americans were buried on Iwo Jima, a Jewish chaplain delivered a eulogy that would become a Marine Corps legend. "Among these men, there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy." #MemorialDay

www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/29/o...

The tone-deafness of ‘just two dolls’ - The Boston Globe Trump ought to know that abundance goes to the heart of the American way of life.

Freedom isn’t only about political liberties and democracy — it’s also about having abundant economic choices. When Trump says kids should make do with few toys, he's spouting a message that contradicts the American Idea.

My new Boston Globe column explains: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/10/o...

What part of ‘unjust law’ don’t you understand? - The Boston Globe From the Fugitive Slave Act to deportation raids, legal obedience isn’t always morally sound.

Again and again, American history provides painful reminders that not all laws are just and legality is not the same as morality, writes @jeffjacoby.bsky.social. And while the rule of law is deeply rooted in our tradition, so is resistance to bad laws.

The power of cult brainwashing is frightening. In the latest YouGov/Economist survey, 27% of Republican voters agree that Canada is an "unfriendly" or "enemy" country; 29% say so about the European Union. How did the once-great GOP turn into a party of mindless Kool-Aid drinkers?

When this "Palestine Resistance" lapel button was made in 1948, it was to support the Jews of Palestine, who were fighting the Arab onslaught intended to drive them into the sea. Everyone then understood that "Palestine" referred to the Jewish homeland and that "Palestinians" were Jews.

Antisemitism is growing worse on the left. And on the right. - The Boston Globe As the annual festival of Purim arrives, Jews feel the chill of danger.

Liberals long insisted that antisemitism was mainly a right-wing phenomenon. Today, left-wing antisemitism is all too obvious and rightly decried by conservatives. But too many of 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 now turn a blind eye to the Jew-haters on their side of the aisle.

My latest: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/12/o...

Mar-a-Lago’s ‘trade deficit’ isn’t a problem. Neither is America’s. - The Boston Globe Imports are a sign of wealth, not of being ripped off.

Trump's views on trade and tariffs amount to crackpot economics. To grasp how absurd they are, you need look no further than the wealth of Mar-a-Lago, as I explain in my latest Boston Globe column.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/09/o...

What a disgusting betrayal. The US and Israel voted WITH Russia in the U.N. against a resolution condemning Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Shame on Trump. Shame on the Republicans who have enabled his corruption of US foreign policy. And shame on Israel for endorsing this vile American perfidy.

Franklin Pierce lusted for foreign territory — and squandered his presidency - The Boston Globe What the 14th president can teach the 47th.

Each year for Presidents Day, I write a column about a lesser-known US president. My subject this year: Franklin Pierce, the nation's 14th POTUS. As I discovered while doing my research, there is a striking parallel between Pierce's presidency and Donald Trump's.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/16/o...

I find it sickening when US presidents proclaim their fondness for murderous dictators. I hate hearing Trump talk that way about Xi, just as I hated hearing Carter fawn over Brezhnev and Ceausescu. Before that, Nixon called Mao another George Washington and FDR gushed over Stalin.

It's revolting.

White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on 'Gulf of America' The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from attending an event in the Oval Office after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ...

I like to think that some Republicans, somewhere, are embarrassed by this. apnews.com/article/trum...

A harsh immigration crackdown is a strange way to show love - The Boston Globe JD Vance invokes religion to defend the indefensible.

JD Vance, defending Trump’s immigration policies, talks about loving family, neighbors, and community. Really? Does anyone seriously imagine that *love* is the basis of the administration's ferocious assault on even legal immigration?

My new Boston Globe column. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/12/o...