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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 29, 2007 / 13 Tamuz, 5767

Bi-partisan strangling of policy that finally makes sense

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | "Sentence first; verdict later," said the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland." The Queen of Hearts isn't a member of the U.S. Senate, but she has the temperament for it.


This week Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) joined their Democratic colleagues in declaring the troop surge a failure. This is curious because (a) the change in strategy has barely begun to be implemented, and (b) the initial signs are positive.


The troop surge formally began Jan. 10 with the announcement that five additional Army brigades would be sent to Iraq. The last brigade did not arrive until the week before last. "What we've been doing so far is putting forces into position, said David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer who advises our new commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, on counterinsurgency in an interview two weeks ago. "We haven't actually started what I would call the surge yet."


But the announcement of the surge and the arrival of the first units in it did have two immediate effects: Al Qaida operatives began to leave Baghdad for other parts of Iraq (chiefly Diyala province northeast of Baghdad), and sectarian deaths within Baghdad plunged. (These rose in May, but remain at less than half their pre-surge levels.)


Violence is also down significantly in Anbar province, which at this time last year was al Qaida's foremost stronghold.


As one of its architects told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday, the surge represents a repudiation of the strategy the Bush administration has followed in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.


"That approach relied on keeping the American troop presence in Iraq as small as possible, pushing unprepared Iraqi security forces into the lead too rapidly, and using political progress as the principal means of bringing the violence under control," Frederick Kagan said.


The new strategy is to go on the offensive against al Qaida and Shia extremists backed by Iran, with protecting Iraqi civilians from the terrorists the foremost objective. All successful counterinsurgencies in the past succeeded by protecting the population. But protecting Iraqi civilians wasn't even on the list of priorities for Gen. George Casey, the previous commander in Iraq.


As I write these words, several division-size offensives are under way in Iraq, the most important of which is "Arrowhead Ripper" in Diyala province.


"These operations are qualitatively different from what we've done before," Mr. Kilcullen said in a post at the Small Wars Journal. "Our concept is to knock over several insurgent safe havens simultaneously, in order to prevent the terrorists from relocating their infrastructure from one to another...Unlike on previous occasions, we don't plan to leave these areas once they're secured. These ops will run over months, and the key activity is to stand up viable local security forces...to permanently secure them."


Al Qaida had made Baqubah the capital of its "Islamic state of Iraq," and U.S. officials had hoped to bag a lot of its leaders with Arrowhead Ripper. But it appears that many of them read the tea leaves and fled before the operation got under way. This has caused some in the news media to portray Arrowhead Ripper as unsuccessful.


LtCol. Kilcullen is unperturbed. "The 'terrain' we are clearing is human terrain, not physical terrain," he explained. "It is about marginalizing al Qaida, Shia extremist militias and other terrorist groups from the population they prey on. This is why claims that '80 percent of al Qaida leadership have fled' don't overly disturb us: the aim is not to kill every last AQ leader, but rather to drive them off the population and keep them off."


"Progress toward the end-state goal of Arrowhead Ripper — turning over Baqubah to Iraqi government control — appears to be working," said Michael Yon, a former Special Forces soldier who is now a freelance journalist embedded with the U.S. troops conducting the assault.


After four years of fumbling, we finally have a strategy which makes sense and shows concrete signs of progress. But now some Republican senators are joining Democrats in attempting to strangle it in its crib.


And what is the "new" strategy that Sen. Lugar and Sen. Voinovich would have us follow instead of the surge? It's the old failed Bush strategy dressed up in new clothes, Dr. Kagan said. Pushing for political benchmarks and a rapid draw down of American forces is no more likely to be successful now than it was then.


"Political progress is something that follows the establishment of security, not something that causes it," he said.

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.

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