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July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

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

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

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 July 23, 2007 / 8 Menachem-Av, 5767

Iraq dire, not deteriorating

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | "The United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq," began a short Asociated Press dispatch Tuesday.


I'm sure the reporter who used the word "deteriorating" to describe the security situation in Iraq did so without thinking much about it.


But it isn't true. It is reasonable (though it no longer may be accurate) to describe the security situation in Iraq as "bad," "grim," or "dire." But it isn't getting worse. Security has improved so much since January that after a visit to Iraq last week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said a "sea change" has taken place.


Lest you think Gen. Peter Pace exaggerates, here is what CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, who was with the chairman in Ramadi, told anchor Kiran Chetry:


"What's really extraordinary here is, of course, Ramadi was the heartland of al-Qaeda just a few months ago. Now, today, the streets are quiet. Rebuilding is under way. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary things is they have not had an IED attack on the streets of this city since February."


Hours before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) began his no-snooze-until-we-lose all-night session to force withdrawal from Iraq, the United States announced the capture of Khaled al-Mashhadani, the highest-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq. A few days before, Abu Jurrah, the most wanted al-Qaeda figure south of Baghdad, was killed by a precision artillery shell after a tip from local Iraqis.


These indications of progress made no impression on the "surrendercrats," who pronounced the surge a failure before it began.


Americans are being misinformed because many journalists and politicians are less interested in the facts on the ground than in putting their spin on those facts.


On July 12, the Washington Post and AP ran stories based on what their sources in the intelligence community said was a threat assessment compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center.


"A new threat assessment from U.S. counterterrorism analysts says that al-Qaeda has used its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border to restore its operating capabilities to a level unseen since the months before Sept. 11, 2001," the AP story began.


This prompted some talking heads to tell their viewers that al-Qaeda is as strong today as it was when it flew airplanes into the twin towers.


We don't know what was in the report, because it's still classified. We do know the report was prepared for incorporation into the new National Intelligence Estimate on terrorist threats to the American homeland. The "key judgments" portion was declassified and released on Tuesday.


"We assess that greatly increased worldwide counterterrorism efforts over the past five years have constrained the ability of al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. homeland again and have led terrorist groups to perceive the homeland as a harder target to strike than on 9/11," the first of those key judgments said. Kinda different from what the talking heads led you to expect, isn't it?


The spinmeisters got carried away. Suppose I fall off a roof and break my hip. For a while I'm bedridden, then confined to a wheelchair. Now I can hobble around with a cane. My "operating capabilities" have been restored "to a level unseen" since before I fell off the roof, but they're still a far cry from what they were before I fell off the roof.


Al-Qaeda fell off the roof when we destroyed its sanctuary in Afghanistan. It has regained strength since the government of Pakistan granted it de facto sanctuary last year in the provinces bordering on Afghanistan. But it remains a shadow of its pre-9/11 self. (Since al-Qaeda has been able to reconstitute itself to the extent it has chiefly because it has had a safe haven in Pakistan, Democrats should ask themselves how granting al-Qaeda a larger safe haven in Iraq will make the terror group easier to defeat.)


George Friedman, who founded the private intelligence service Stratfor, said the NIE "was meant to pressure Pakistan, even if it looked like a total failure of the intelligence community's mission (to disrupt al-Qaeda through covert action)."


"By issuing the NIE report, [the United States] was increasing pressure on [Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf to do something decisive about militant Islamists in Pakistan - or the United States would have to do something," Mr. Friedman said.


Mr. Friedman noted that President Musharraf did order a raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad last week. "Pakistan got the message," he concluded.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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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