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Sept. 5, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?

Caroline B. Glick: The master strategist

Sept. 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas: Biden, Palin take lead in clash on Mideast issues

Bruce Dancis: With humor as their weapon, the Three Stooges took on Hitler

Sept. 3, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: Productive school years don't just happen

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India

Sept. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Costly Advice

Caroline B. Glick: Calling Israel's bluff

JWisdom: Wandering in Wonder by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

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 Oct. 16, 2007 / 4 Mar-Cheshvan 5768

Security before belief

By Ed Koch


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When I was a child, I read "The Forty Days at Musa Dagh" by Franz Werfel, a fictionalized account of actual events, which told the story of how the Turks persecuted and killed Armenians in 1915. From that time on, I was on the side of the Armenians and against the Turks.


This was back in the days before the word "genocide" had entered our vocabulary. To this day, I still believe the Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians because of tribalism and their hatred of Christians. In 1915, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was on the side of the German Empire, then led by Kaiser Wilhelm II. At its high point, the Ottoman Empire stretched from Greece to Egypt and everything in between, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the coastal strip of North Africa


When I was in Congress from 1969 through 1977, I joined with Ben Rosenthal (D-NY), who is now deceased, John Brademas (D-IN) and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) as one of those supporting the Rosenthal amendment which called on Congress to cut off military aid to Turkey unless it removed its invading army from Cyprus. A coup in Cyprus had endangered the Turkish minority on that island and precipitated the Turkish invasion and the establishment of a Turkish controlled area in the north of the island.


Let me digress for a moment and relate a short anecdote which appears in my book, "Politics." "When the Rosenthal amendment was ratified by the House, Rosenthal, Brademas, Sarbanes and me were invited by the Greek Patriarch of North and South America, Archbishop Iakovos, now deceased, to his birthday party held in Manhattan and attended by more than a thousand guests at which Paul Sarbanes and John Brademas were to be honored. Well, the star was Rosenthal. When he came in, the place erupted. You had a thousand Greeks in there. It would be like a thousand Jews on something involving Israel of momentous importance to them. The Rosenthal Amendment had carried at that point, and I've never seen such a response for the size of the group. It was wonderful. And Rosenthal made one of the best speeches I've ever heard. It was a very short one. He said, 'I was wondering what I would say here tonight, and I thought I'd tell you a story. You're probably not going to appreciate it in the way that it's meant, but I'm going to tell you anyway.' He said, 'I had lunch with my mother, who lives in New York, today; and she asked me what I was doing tonight, so I said, 'I'm going to a dinner, Mama, that will honor two of my friends in Congress, John Brademas and Paul Sarbanes. And, you know, Mama, they're probably the two smartest men in Congress.' My mother said, 'Are they Jewish?' and I said, 'No, Mama, they're not Jewish - they're Greek.' My mother said, 'Are you sure they're not Jewish?' I thought a moment and then I said to my mother, 'Mama, I think they're half Jewish' And then he said to this crowd, holding out his hands, 'Tonight I'm half Greek.' And the place erupted in cheers and applause. I think it's the best story I've ever heard for an audience of that kind. It was wonderful, just wonderful."


Now back to the present. Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee led by Chairman Tom Lantos, voted 27-21 to denounce the slaughter of the Armenians in 1915 as an act of genocide by the Turks. The Turks have always taken the position that the killing of Armenians on their eastern border - their border with Russia, then on the side of the allies in World War I - occurred because, they alleged, the Armenians sided with the Russians, thereby committing treason against the country in which they lived, the Ottoman Empire. In support of their defense against committing an act of genocide, they point to the fact that Armenians living in Constantinople, then capital of the Ottoman Empire, were not killed.


The Turks now in a newly created country - formed in 1917 — led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who secularized a then theocratic Islamic remnant of the Ottoman Empire, wanting to establish a new Turkey that included all minorities to be equally treated in a democratic state, made it illegal to disparage the new state.


The Turkish government, enraged at the action of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has threatened retaliation if the Congress, both House and Senate, passes a final resolution. The retaliation threatened is to close the port in Turkey which permits the entry of 30 percent of all U.S. fuel used for military vehicles in Iraq and the closure of the Turkish airport through which a large part of U.S. military supplies are airlifted for use in Iraq.


On my Bloomberg radio program, I gave my position on the issue and entered into a dialogue with a young man who identified himself as Armenian. I said that while I still believed what the Turks did in 1915 was an act of genocide, I would not have voted for the resolution, because it endangers the security of American troops and simply provides the Armenians with a political victory and nothing else. Therefore, it is not worth the danger the Congressional action will cause to American troops. While we did not get into it in this discussion, I have on other occasions stated my support for using American troops to defend the people of Darfur in the Sudan from suffering genocide which is occurring today. I also mentioned on the program that during my tenure as a Congressman, I did not sufficiently appreciate how valued an American ally the Turks had become.


I regretted my failure to appreciate their positive role as our ally, particularly at a time when Greece was hostile to both the U.S. and Israel, while Turkey was friendly and supportive to both the U.S. and Israel.


My listener was surprised, he said, at my position on the resolution. I replied that the paramount duty of all Americans is to safeguard the wellbeing of American troops in Iraq. That comes before all other considerations in my judgment. He responded that he did not believe they would be endangered.


I disagree and don't think we should chance it.

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

JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.

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