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May 9, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Reverence, Yes; Worship, No

Mona Charen: Did Israel Drive Out the Arabs 60 Years Ago?

JWisdom: Ultimate opportunities by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

May 8, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Israel at 3,500+

Jonathan Tobin: Still Fighting the Same War

Steven Plaut: How ‘nakba’ proves the fiction of a Palestinian Nation

JWisdom: Taking Israel for Granted? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

May 7, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Israel is irrelevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Dion Nissenbaum: Latest Olmert scandal could derail efforts to force Israel's compromises

JWisdom: My Inner Ventriloquist by Sara Yoheved Rigler

May 6, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: Anti-Zionism at 60

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: In honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with a smorgasbord featuring the taste and essence of the Jewish homeland

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Jewish Deer in Nazi Headlights

May 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Busy work

Jonathan Mark: Remarkable half-century old Mike Wallace interview with Abba Eban puts current anti-Israel sentiment into perspective

May 2, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Rote religiosity

Caroline B. Glick: Whitewashing Hamas

JWisdom: Parent trap?

May 1, 2008

David Zwiebel: Faith communities can learn from Orthodox Jews in stimulating private philanthropy for religious education

George Friedman and Peter Zeihan of Stratfor: The Shift Toward an Israeli-Syrian Agreement

JWisdom: It's time to wake up by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

April 30, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Pennsylvania's Democratic slugfest may leave some Jewish votes up for grabs

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Fresh herbs, sauteed veal and tiny creamer potatoes makes a light spring dinner

JWisdom: How to Build a Mentch by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 29, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood

Joel Brinkley: On human rights, the U.N. once again strikes out

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: When The Truth is Unbelievable

April 28, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I'm often stuck in the doctor's waiting room for hours! Doesn't he owe me something for my wasted time?

Steven Emerson: New U.S. government policy advises agencies to avoid using some of the very same words that make up terror groups' names

JWisdom: Why You & I Never Die: A Jewish View of Immortality, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

April 25, 2008

Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg: Schadenfreude isn't kosher for Passover --- or at any other time

Rabbi Berel Wein: The secret of how the data bank of memory is transferred from one generation to the next

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part III

April 24, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The successful failure

Fred Burton and Scott Stewart of Stratfor: Placing the terrorist threat to the food supply in perspective

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part II

April 23, 2008

Connie Ogle: An intricate game of a novel

Jonathan Tobin: Making Sense of the 'J Street' Jive

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen

April 22, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Why Israel's 'Leaven law' matters

Caroline B. Glick: Obama the Savior

April 18, 2008

Rabbi Harvey Belovski: Multimedia tool of antiquity

Caroline B. Glick: Revealed Truths vs. revealed lies

JWisdom: More than miracles by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Deconstructing Dayeinu

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: Is innovation at the Seder a slap at tradition?

JWisdom: Discovering Your Divine Mission, Part III by Rabbi David Aaron

April 16, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: A Prayer for Sderot's Children

Ethel G. Hofman: Sumptuous Seder

JWisdom: The Divine is in the details by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 15, 2008

Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Let Charlton Heston Go!

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Jimma, tyranny's enabler

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part IV by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 14, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: The Snitching Supervisor

Jonathan Tobin: Forget the Fun and Games!

JWisdom: Sincerity is Valued Most by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 11, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Mystery in the Middle East

Caroline B. Glick: Why Ahmadinejad smiles

JWisdom: Elevated illness by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 10, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing by George Friedman: A Mystery in the Middle East

The Kosher Gourmet By Steve Petusevsky: The spring elegance of asparagus

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: The Power of Rational Lies

April 9, 2008

Michael Feldberg: An all but forgotten Colonial doctor who put his Jewish values before his life

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's "Everything's Relative" gets philosophical

JWisdom: Four Rabbis in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 8, 2008

Caroline Glick: Covering for the enemy

Elliot B. Gertel: 'House' goes Hasidic

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part III by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 7, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I have a translating business. Recently someone asked me to translate some financial documents that are clearly forged. Should I agree?

Jonathan Rosenblum : Israel is unwittingly helping to fuel the international campaign of delegitimization against it

JWisdom: Matzah and leaven as a life philosophy by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 4, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The Mystery of Suffering

Caroline B. Glick: Fear of democracy

JWisdom: Dirty Jews by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 3, 2008

Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein: Parents --- and the children who would be them

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Tempted by restaurant dressings? Don't be. Here are recipes that can be made at home, healthier!

JWisdom: The importance of retaining a 'slave mentality' by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 2, 2008

Mitch Albom: Child abuse, disguised as faith

Jonathan Tobin: Unreasonable Accommodations

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith with Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Eliminating Jewish Influence over Germans

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 Feb. 19, 2007 / 1 Adar, 5767

U.S. rejects ban on making prisoners disappear

By Nat Hentoff


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | On Feb. 6, in an historic expansion of international protection of terrorism suspects and other prisoners from being held in secret detention or being forced to disappear, 57 nations signed an international treaty in Paris. This ban includes kidnapping (as in CIA "renditions" to countries known for torturing prisoners). The United States was invited to sign the treaty but refused despite our allowed adherence to the rule of law and our core emphasis on due process — as ordered by the Supreme Court in our treatment of detainees (Hamdan v. Kumsfeld, 2006).


It would have been acutely embarrassing for the Bush administration to sign any assurances that we do not kidnap or otherwise "disappear" terrorism suspects. At this very moment, German prosecutors are pursing arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents charged with kidnapping a German citizen, Khaled el-Masri, and sending him to Afghanistan where he was sexually abused and beaten for five months.


And Italian prosecutors have arrest warrants out for 25 CIA operatives charged with snatching Osama Moustafa Nasr off a street in Milan and sending him, shackled, to Egypt where he was subject to electric-shock interrogation and also sexually abused. Already, the chief of Italy's military intelligence service, Nicolo Politari, has considered it necessary to resign for his alleged complicity with the CIA kidnappers.


With regard to these "extraordinary renditions," as the CIA delicately calls them, these brutal kidnappings — contemptuous of American law and the Geneva Conventions that this nation has signed — Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office, has put the kidnappings in plain, accusatory language: "(These) forced disappearances (are) used by dictatorships to secretly detain, arrest or kidnap individuals and then deny it occurred."


For this constitutional republic to engage in precisely these practices has made us lose the respect and confidence of many people around the world who do not hate the United States and, like us, are in justified fear of murderous terrorists. The CIA "renditions," begun under the Clinton administration, have been greatly expanded under George W. Bush in a March 13, 2002 memorandum by the Justice Department, titled:


"The Presidents' Power as commander-in-chief, to transfer Captured Terrorists to the Control and Custody of Foreign Nations." The president has yet to acknowledge the existence of this memorandum, presumably because it is a "state secret."


As for what happens to these terrorist suspects in the foreign prisons to which we render them, the president routinely says: "This country doesn't torture."


Somewhat more obliquely in defense of these CIA kidnappings, an administration official told Dana Priest of the Washington Post (Dec. 26, 2002), "If we're not there in the room, who is to say?"


A number of these formerly vanished prisoners — finally released after no charges against them were proved — have told very explicitly what has happened to them. (See, for example, the carefully documented and footnoted Stephen Grey's "Ghost Plane: The True Story of The CIA Torture Program" (St. Martin's Press, 2006).


In a Feb. 2 Los Angeles Times editorial — "No more renditions (If the U.S. wants European allies to help the war on terror, it has to respect their laws)" — that newspaper made the reasonable point: "The Bush administration cannot afford further self-inflicted damage. Due process remains a fundamental Western value, and outrage about violations is a sign of democratic health, not political opportunism. ... There can be no more disappearances, no more renditions ..."


For this to happen will require, at long last, a serious — not a grandstanding — congressional investigation — with subpoenas — of these "special powers" given to the CIA, going back to Bill Clinton's administration. From whom in the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the Oval Office have these authorizations and continuing cover-ups come from?


When the evidence has been gathered, the next necessary action by Congress must be to revise the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which immunized those involved with "renditions" from prosecution under our War Crimes Act of 1996.


On Jan. 18, at the start of a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Oversight of the Department of Justice, Sen. Patrick Leahy, its chairman, told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "The administration's secret policies have ... reduced America's standing around the world to one of the lowest points in our history."


Leahy has been particularly persistent and passionate in trying to repair our international standing — and thereby our ability to more effectively and credibly fight terrorism. The Democratic leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi should join Leahy.

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


Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his current work, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance". Comment by clicking here.

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