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May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Dec. 1, 2003 / 6 Kislev, 5764

Silence of the watchdogs

By Diana West

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Remember the tree that fell in the forest, causing a ruckus of breaking branches and cracking trunks as it crashed? According to the fortune-cookie school of philosophy that popularized this conundrum, there would be no noise, or no verifiable noise, if there were no human being around to witness it ... unless, I would hasten to add, the human witness on hand happened to be a journalist.


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With a journalist — or, rather, with a press corps — you never know what reverberations an event or revelation will generate. And I'm not even thinking of the big media silence on the so-called "Feith Memo." Tossed out many news cycles ago by the Weekly Standard in the form of a big, fat scoop, this top-secret U.S. government memo offers intelligence, in 50 numbered points, on the operational relationship it says has existed between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein since the early 1990s. The Standard called its article "Case Closed," but that doesn't mean the press shouldn't even take a peak.


This time, it's another Big Story that has been reliably launched only to sink with little trace. It concerns the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, and it broke in the Financial Times on Nov. 21. "The European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-Semitism," the newspaper reported, "because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined."


This suppression is a disgrace. Having commissioned the report during a shocking European upsurge in anti-Semitic violence in 2002, the EU has now buried the report during another shocking European upsurge in anti-Semitic violence in 2003. Indeed, the Financial Times published its initial story the same week that two Jewish synagogues in Turkey were devastated by Islamic bombers, and a Jewish school near Paris was firebombed. A French-language news Web site, www.revue-politique.com, now reports that the brutal murder of a Jewish DJ in Paris on Nov. 19 may have been an act of Muslim anti-Semitism.


According to the Financial Times, the EU racism commission (EUMC) was appalled by the report's conclusion that the new anti-Semitism is largely a phenomenon of the 21st-century left and the Islamic movement in Europe. As Juliane Wetzel of the Berlin research center that completed the research told the newspaper in a follow-up story, "The study put the EUMC in a difficult situation because it singled out the group (young Muslims), which they (the EUMC) seek to protect. They refused to publish it because it clashed with political correctness."


Refusing to publish the report is an embarrassment that exposes the lengths to which European bureaucrats will go to suppress a terrible truth to sustain a dangerous fantasy — namely, that anti-Semitism is the sole province of jackbooted rightists swilling beer and sieging heil. But the bureaucrats have been thwarted. Their story is out. Juicy details abound — as in the fact that the same EU racism commission has already brought out three reports on anti-Islamic attitudes in Europe in the two years since 9/11. But practically no media organization in Europe or the United States has yet to take up the cry.


Such journalistic silence does more than deprive us of information. It sucks the oxygen from the free exchange of ideas, stifling debate before it occurs. This undermines more than the state of the press. It adversely affects public discourse everywhere, lending credence to the pernicious notion that subjects of grave importance — Muslim anti-Semitism and European denial, for example — must be consigned to furtive whispers, if they are mentioned at all.


This same silence leads to a tyranny of political correctness, as evidenced by author Robert Spencer's recent experience. His 2002 book, "Islam Unveiled" (Encounter, 2002), a carefully researched analysis of the disturbing links between Koranic teachings and Islamic terrorism, was slated for publication in France this month. (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)


Death threats against both the book's translator, French writer Guy Milliere, and its French publisher, Yves Michalon, have frightened the publishing house into canceling the book. ("It's ironic," Mr. Spencer said in an interview with Front Page Magazine. "If you don't say Islam is a religion of peace, they will kill you.") Before shouting vive la France avec irony, it's worth noting that author Ibn Warraq has heard from U.S. publishing sources that similar fears have prevented an American reprint of his excellent 1995 book, "Why I Am Not a Muslim.(Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)"


Hiding facts and suppressing arguments — not publishing them, not airing them, not facing them — doesn't make them go away. It chokes the free flow of ideas our democracies require to survive.

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

JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

© 2003, Diana West