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May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
March 26, 2010
11 Nissan 5770
Politics vs. Principle
By
Suzanne Fields
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
A certain Washington dinner party most of the guests were conservatives dissolved in raucous laughter the other night when the host asked me what to make of what's going on in the nation's capital. "Cynicism reigns unchallenged," I said.
My reply was hardly an outburst of wit worthy of Dorothy Parker, nor was this the Algonquin Round Table, but the guests looked at me as though I was Alice in Washingtonland who just climbed out of the rabbit hole. What I mistook for cynicism, they told me, was merely business as usual.
Didn't I know that power always trumps principle in Washington? Someone reminded me that John F. Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage," which captured the nation's attention and won him a Pulitzer Prize, was ghost-written and thus based on a lie of authorship. Mark Twain famously called Congress "our native criminal class." Congressmen, he observed with inventive wit, had "the smallest minds, the selfishiest souls and the cowardliest hearts that G0d makes."
Who can argue with the proposition that the congressional Democrats who voted for a health care reform that almost none of their constituents want and that they privately detest have found the leader they deserve? Health care is the president's piglet, and he's determined to protect it with the ferocity of a biting sow. Lyndon Johnson would understand Barack Obama's display of political persuasion. LBJ succeeded not only with knee-patting and arm-twisting, but by creating "services" requiring big bureaucracies. The Great Society was the boondoggle that first made a billion dollars an insignificant sum in congressional calculations.
But there may be a similarity between LBJ and Obama more ominous than manipulating Congress. LBJ's reputation at home turned to ashes abroad. Obama's dispatch of Hillary Clinton to display what looked like a white flag in the Middle East is likely to embolden Iran, with consequences too grim to imagine.
The debate over health care, exciting (and dispiriting) as it was (and is), diverted attention from Iranian nuclear ambitions. But it's still with us. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor, draws a stunning analogy between Iran now and Germany after World War I. He recalls in The Wall Street Journal remarks Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's master of propaganda, made to a group of German journalists in 1940: If Goebbels had been the French premier after Hitler came to power, he would have said, "The new Reich chancellor is the one who wrote 'Mein Kampf,' which says this and that. This man cannot be tolerated in our vicinity. Either he disappears or we march."
Goebbels continued: "They didn't do it. They left us alone and let us slip through the risky zone, and we were able to sail around all dangerous reefs." Comparisons of contemporary men and events to Nazi Germany are usually glib and rarely on the mark, but this one strikes into the heart of our own complacency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who came to town this week to speak to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), reminded Washington that the ties between the United States and Israel are not mere cliches, but reflect sharing of the hatred of the Islamists who dream of putting the entire world under Sharia law.
"Militant Islam does not hate the West because of Israel," Netanyahu said. "It hates Israel because of the West, because it sees Israel as an outpost of freedom that prevents them from overrunning the Middle East. When Israel stands against its enemies, it stands against America's enemies."
In contrast, Hillary's speech to AIPAC rang with the music of a stick banged against a tin pan. She repeated the cliches and even took note of the repeated warnings, such as they are, of transforming "crippling" sanctions into "sanctions that will bite" instead of sending a little dog to nip at Iranian heels, the West will send a dog big enough to reach an occasional ankle. Then the secretary of state put on her schoolmarm mantle to scold Israel once more for building apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem.
But Jerusalem, as the Israeli prime minister reminded Washington, is not a "settlement," but a nation's capital. Nearly a quarter of a million Israelis, almost half of the city's population, live in neighborhoods just beyond the 1949 armistice lines. "All these neighborhoods are within a five-minute drive from the Knesset. They are an integral and inextricable part of modernJerusalem. Everyone knows that these neighborhoods will be part of Israel in any peace settlement. Building in them in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution."
The Jewish Passover season begins next week, celebrating the end of Jewish slavery in Egypt with remembrances of wandering through the desert to the promised land. It's a holiday where the herbs are both bitter and sweet, for looking back and facing the future. That's better than cynicism, however much the politicians invite 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.
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Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
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