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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 April 17, 2008 / 12 Nissan 5768

China's flame of shame

By Nat Hentoff


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | At an April 3 press conference in Beijing, International Olympic Committee Hein Verbruggen — asked about human rights in China, said comfortably, as reported by Human Rights Watch, that the IOC "can easily prove that bringing the Games here has led to improvements." But after the Olympic torch came close to being extinguished by thousands of protesters in Athens, Paris, London and San Francisco, the shaken IOC President Jacques Rogge told The New York Times (April 11) that the tumultuous reaction is creating a "crisis" for that august institution.


A demonstrator in San Francisco, speaking of the torch-relay reception, called that symbol "the flame of shame." To prevent further crises, Rogge finally called for China to hold to the guarantees it gave to get the games: "a 'moral engagement' to improve human rights in the months leading up to the Games" and an assurance there would be unfettered press freedom for international media before and during the Olympics.


But as the world has seen, hundreds of Chinese human-rights activists and journalists have been imprisoned, and foreign telecommunications companies have been banned from showing live shots of Tiananmen Square (site of the 1989 massacre of Chinese pro-democracy students) during the games — while foreign reports from Tibet are being blacked out.


The Chinese response to Rogge's request that it live up its guarantees was indignant rejection, and a demand that the IOC stop meddling in China's internal affairs.


Rogge, while not at all demanding that the torch relay, which began in 1936 to celebrate the coming of the Olympics to Nazi Germany, be stopped, is aware that his long silence on China's broken pledges has led to such attacks on his organization as a charge by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders that "It is your silence that has unfortunately made all these human rights abuses possible."


Rogge has broken that silence because not only China's standing in the world has been further blackened, but the IOC is fast losing stature, endangering the credibility for years to come of its mission, as proclaimed in its charter, to promote "a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."


In a further blow to China, and to the IOC's startling decision to award the games to that grim state, the European Parliament (BBC, April 10) passed a nonbinding (but resonating) resolution that its members' leaders consider not attending the opening ceremonies of China's "One World, One Dream" events (now a nightmare) unless that imperious nation engages in a dialogue with the Dalai Lama (who has not called for a boycott of the games), and stops it repressions in Tibet.


How long will this surge of moral concern by the European Parliament and the International Olympic Committee last? Long before Rogge's sudden recognition of this "crisis," Human Rights Watch had urged him to raise with the Chinese government the jailing for 3-1/2 years of China's leading human rights activist, 34-year-old Hu Jia.


As Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director, Sophie Richardson, had reminded Rogge: "Hu Jia's sentence shows that you can't defend human rights in China without becoming a case yourself."


The charge against Hu Jia and many other brave Chinese who have reported to the world their struggles to begin an opening for democracy, is "incitement to subvert state power." Hu Jia's wife, Zeng Jinyan, is also a fearless, internationally known human-rights champion. Their daughter — born last November, a few weeks before her father's imprisonment — is under house arrest along with her mother.


Will IOC president Rogge try to pay a visit to them between the Beijing sporting events in August?


Unintentionally, of course, having the Olympics in China has shone harsh light on China's crimes in Tibet and its complicity in the genocide in Darfur conducted by Sudan, China's primary business partner, protector and arms supplier. Present at the protest in San Francisco was Muhdy Bahradin, a Darfur refugee, who told the New York Sun (April 10):


"I lost a lot of my students, my family members, my relatives in the genocide. This (demonstration) isn't political. ... This is about human beings. This is about human lives."


However, on Sept. 11, Coca-Cola spokesman Kelly Brooks (a corporate sponsor of the Olympics) told The New York Times: "We firmly believe the Olympics are a force for good that celebrates the best in sports, and we are proud to support the Beijing 2008 Olympics.


The Wall Street Journal (March 17) reports that Coca Cola and other corporations have paid as much as $120 million, according to some estimates, to sponsor Beijing's Olympics. President Bush will be there.


Happy viewing, Mr. President!

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.


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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