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Nov, 21, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?

Caroline B. Glick: Civilization walks the plank

Nov, 20, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto

Nov, 19, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality

Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?

Nov, 18, 2008

Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason

Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

Nov, 17, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason

Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?

Nov, 14, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia

Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead

Nov, 13, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic

The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla

Nov, 12, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers

Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks

Nov, 11, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?

Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate

Nov, 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?

Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist

Nov, 7, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality

Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy

Nov, 6, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism

The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes

Nov, 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors

Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie

Nov, 4, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law

Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East

Nov, 3, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?

Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything?

Oct. 31, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Our Immutable Noble Essence

Caroline B. Glick: Running against Bush

Oct. 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: The End of the Special Relationship?

Steve Lipman: 'Kid Kosher' Gets A Title Shot

Oct. 29, 2008

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: GET US THE TAPE THE L.A. TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE, AND WE'LL GIVE YOU CASH!

Dr. Ari Korenblit: Making The Write Choice for President

Oct. 28, 2008

Mona Charen: Denial runs through American Jewry

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Sell-off to capitalism or sell-out to Islam?

Oct. 27, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Are tax deductions for charitable donations moral?

Jonathan Mark: The Mystery Of The Arab-American Vote

Oct. 24, 2008

'Why aren't all religious people vegetarians?': Response by Miriam Kosman

Caroline B. Glick: Testing Obama's mettle

Oct. 23, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama Would Fail Security Clearance

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A fast chicken dish with an Asian accent

Oct. 20, 2008

Gary Rosenblatt: Still One Torah

Jonathan Tobin: Government 'Gifts' Are Not Free

Oct. 17, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sukkos and the Great Meltdown

Caroline B. Glick: The disappearance of law

Oct. 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Copying DVDs: RIP OR RIPOFF?

Cal Thomas: Blaming the Jews (again)

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 Dec. 11, 2006 / 20 Kislev, 5767

Just short of a joke

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | President Kennedy once hosted a dinner for Nobel Prize winners. At the dinner he reportedly said: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."


After reviewing the report of the Iraq Study Group, released Wednesday, New York Post editorial page editor John Podhoretz declared: "The nation's capital hasn't seen such concentrated wisdom in one place since Paris Hilton dined alone at the Hooters on Connecticut Avenue."


Stratfor, a private intelligence service, said the ISG report was "underwhelming." Retired Army intelligence officer Ralph Peters called it a "muddle of truisms and bad ideas." The conservative National Review called it "an analytic embarrassment." Fred Kaplan, military writer for the liberal Webzine Slate, said its recommendations were "a useless grab bag." T. F. Boggs, an Army sergeant recently returned from his second tour in Iraq, said the recommendations were a "joke" that "could only have come from a group of old people who have been stuck in Washington for too long."


The foremost recommendation of the ISG — for a regional peace conference with Iran and Syria — is surreal. The ISG report notes (on page 46) that: "Iran has provided arms, financial support and training for Shiite militias in Iraq ...There are also reports that Iran has supplied improvised explosive devices to groups — including Sunni Arab insurgents — that attack U.S. forces.


"Syria also is playing a counterproductive role," the report said. "Syrians look the other way as arms and foreign fighters flow across the border into Iraq, and former Baathist leaders find a safe haven within Syria."


Despite these facts, the commissioners declare that Iran and Syria have an interest "in avoiding chaos in Iraq," and that "Iran's interest would not be served by a failure of U.S. policy in Iraq." Iran's leaders obviously think otherwise.


The truth, which the ISG's aging luminaries lack more the guts than the brains to grasp, is that Iran and Syria are now our principal enemies, both in Iraq and in the broader war on terror. Without their interference, sectarian violence in Iraq would swiftly and sharply decline.

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The goal of U.S. policy in Iraq is to create a stable, free and democratic government which, if not aligned with the West, would not be hostile to it. Iran and Syria regard such an Iraq as a mortal threat to their own tyrannical regimes.


Former Secretary of State James Baker and former House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton, co-chairmen of the ISG, think Syria can be appeased by permitting it to crush the fragile democracy in Lebanon, and by forcing Israel to cede to it the Golan Heights. It's unclear what concessions they think would sway Iranian behavior.


Leave aside that the Golan Heights is no more Mr. Baker's to give than the Sudetenland in Czechoslavakia was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's to give when he met with Hitler in Munich in 1938. (Israel, like Czechoslovakia before it, would not be invited to the regional peace conference the ISG wants to have.) When you reward bad behavior, you tend to get more, not less, of it. What do you think would happen if, each time your two-year-old threw a tantrum, you gave him ice cream?


It can't hurt to talk. So say advocates of negotiations with Iran and Syria. But it does hurt if our enemies regard our eagerness to talk as a sign of weakness and irresolution, as Hitler did at Munich.


The other 78 recommendations of the ISG — for a slight temporary increase in U.S. troop levels, faster training of Iraqi forces, etc. — are sound enough, but have been recommended often before by others, or already are U.S. policy.


The ISG report was hailed by insurgents in Iraq, and by journalists so thrilled by the implied criticism of President Bush that they overlooked the preposterousness of negotiations with Iran and Syria and the "stay the course" flavor of the other recommendations.


One network reporterette asked Mr. Baker if the president could pick and choose among its recommendations or was obliged to accept them all. You'd think a journalist assigned to cover this story would be aware the report is advisory only.


Not all journalists are idiots. Jonathan Karl of ABC asked why the president should pay more attention to the recommendations of the ISG, a group that spent all of four days in Iraq, than to the recommendations of his commanders in the field.


That's a good question. I hope President Bush is asking it as well.

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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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