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Dec. 1, 2008

Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings

Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?

Nov. 28, 2008

Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be

Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?

Nov. 26, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership

Andrea Simantov: Shades of life

Nov. 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence

The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!

Nov. 24, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'

Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends

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?

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. 7, 2008 / 8 Tishrei 5769

Michelle Obama's fearful vision

By Mona Charen


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I had an experience wearing a headscarf last week that was culturally and politically interesting. More on that in a minute. It made me think of Michelle Obama.


Last year, Mrs. Obama introduced her husband at a campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Like so many of Mrs. Obama's speeches, this one reflected a jaundiced view of her country. She began by telling the crowd that her husband was "special." Nothing very unusual there. But then she offered a glimpse (she said) into their private discussions prior to his run for the White House: We talked about it and asked people what they were concerned about and it was fear. They were afraid. "It was fear raising its ugly head. Fear in one of the most important decisions we would make. It was fear of everything. Fear that we might lose. Fear that he might get hurt. Fear that this would be ugly. Fear that it would hurt our family. Fear."


Now it isn't crazy for a wife to fear for her husband's safety when he runs for political office. Rumor has it that Alma Powell discouraged Colin Powell from running for president out of similar concerns. But Michelle Obama was not talking just about the crazed gunman who might be lurking in a crowd somewhere.


"But you know the reason I said yes?" she continued. "I am tired of living in a country where every decision we've made over the last 10 years wasn't for something — but it was because people told us we had to fear something. We had to fear people who look different from us, fear people who believed in things that were different from us. I am so tired of fear and I don't want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear."


So by Michelle Obama's lights, the last decade has featured Americans being manipulated into fearing those are different from us, presumably by cynical politicians. "That's why — and we have to admit it — we are in this war. We are in this war because for eight years we were told to be afraid."


Right. There was no unprovoked attack on American civilians killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children. There was just a concerted effort by Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Rumsfeld to make us fear people "who believed in things different from us."


Actually, I think Americans — for good or ill — have exactly the opposite tendency.


Last week, I happened to wear a scarf tied tightly around my head for a day. The reason isn't important. But I noticed something. Everywhere I went and in everything I did, people were extra polite and nice to me. Cars let me cut into their lanes. Clerks in stores were extra cheery. Now, I'm a friendly sort and usually get treated well, but this was noticeably better. And then it hit me — people must have assumed I was a Muslim and were determined to show that they bore me no ill will.


My friend Danielle Crittenden really did perform an experiment. She donned a Saudi-style full burka and went about her daily life wearing it for a full week. She, too, found that Americans were extra friendly to a black clad shadow.


Showing nothing but her eyes, she even showed up at National Airport with a one-way ticket and no baggage. To be sure, they pulled her aside for extra screening, but the female TSA agent assigned to wand her asked tentatively if it was "culturally okay" to ask her to remove her face covering. "'When women like you come through, we don't know what's 'correct.' Like if I want to see that your face matches your ID, can I ask you to show me your face?'"


Crittenden was dumbstruck: "It's a good thing I was wearing a mask so the guard could not see my astonishment. The security agents at the airport serving the nation's capital—bare seconds of air distance from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the White House—did not feel entitled to check the identities of veiled women. Clearly, they hadn't even received any special sort of instructions about it."


One can easily imagine Mr. and Mrs. Obama chatting about xenophobic, narrow, hate-filled America over their toast and coffee in the morning — he lamenting their attachment to religion and guns, she decrying their fear-mongering hatred of The Other. It's enough to make one decline her invitation, offered that afternoon in Council Bluffs, to "help us change, transform this country in a fundamental way."

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