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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review July 7, 2009 / 15 Tamuz 5769

Big overflight news suddenly in the air

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Barack Obama landed Monday in Moscow, the first stop on his latest magical mystery tour, this time to eliminate nuclear weapons, cool global warming, drop in on the pope at the Vatican (perhaps to apologize for the Inquisition) and make a call on his ancestral Africa (perhaps to apologize for slavery).


Important though Mr. Obama's trip is, there's a definite buzz in the air that something more interesting than talking and apologizing is on the bubble elsewhere. When an interviewer asked Joe Biden whether Israel is in its rights to punish Iran if no one else does, the veep was unusually forthcoming: "Look," he said, "Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation - what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else." Then, as if remembering who he was, he added: "Whether we agree or not."


But would the United States dissuade the Israelis? "Look," he replied, "we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do." This could be just good old Joe speaking his mind, but Mr. Obama no doubt told him to keep his lip carefully buttoned while he was gone. This time good old Joe was saying only what he was told to say.


President Obama arrived in the Russian capital under cold, leaden skies (no sign of global warming) and there was nobody to make a speech to, except for Michelle and the girls. His motorcade into the city passed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier but the crowds watched in silence as the motorcade passed. Then it was on to meet Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, and talk statistics.


Three hours later the two presidents signed an agreement to instruct their negotiators to talk some more about cutting the number of nuclear missiles by 1,100. Or it might be 500. The number of warheads will be limited to 1,675 each. Or it might be less than that. Or maybe more. Whatever. The talking continues.


Summits are not what they used to be, and the cold air in the Russian capital did not crackle with the usual electricity, and the press entourage was for once not in a rush to declare a "winner." But maybe there is one already. The Russians agreed to allow American overflights over its territory to resupply American troops as Mr. Obama expands his war in Afghanistan. Mr. Medvedev - and particularly Vladimir Putin - would no doubt be delighted to see Mr. Obama come a cropper in Afghanistan, just as they did: "Mr. Obama, be our guest."


There was nothing said publicly about what to do about Iran, a client of the Russians, but clearly the big overflight news was reported from London, where the London Sunday Times said the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, had concluded from his very private talks with Saudi officials that Saudi Arabia would not object - beyond the usual invective in the deeper shades of purple at the United Nations - if Israeli bombers fly over the kingdom "on a mission … in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia."


John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., is not surprised, calling the news "entirely logical." He has talked with several Arab leaders and "none of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn't trumpet it as a big success." He noted that the Israelis have not said a word about bombing a suspected Syrian nuclear site.


The Sunni states are sometimes modest in a few things but never in their suspicion and hatred of the Shi'ites. There's the usual cry that such an Israeli strike would "destabilize" the region, and set off a nuclear arms race among the Sunni states. But once Iran, the chief Shi'ite state, is capable of firing nuclear missiles the Sunnis would certainly demand one of their own. That's when the race would begin.

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