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May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

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 Dec. 5, 2006 / 14 Kislev, 5767

Making the case for another killer

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Russia of Vladimir Putin sometimes resembles the old Soviet Union more than it resembles a democracy someone in the West would recognize, but the radioactive drama playing out in London might not be a case for James Bond after all.


Or it might be. Russia was a dark and sinister place long before Lenin arrived in Moscow, where assassination was an art and mercy was administered with a dirk or strained through a poisoned pilsner. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev merely refined the czar's virtuosity.


Scotland Yard formally asked for Russian help yesterday to find the assassin of Alexander Litvinenko, the one-time Russian spy who came in from the cold only to die in a warm British bed. Two detectives were dispatched to Moscow, but they can't be sure how much help they'll get. Mr. Putin originally scoffed that he hadn't seen proof that Mr. Litvinenko, who passed away in considerable pain from polonium 210 poisoning, had even suffered a "violent death." His foreign minister complains that "continued suggestions" that the Kremlin was involved in the Litvinenko death "could damage relations" between Russia and Britain.


Well, yes, it probably could. Bonnie and Clyde similarly complained that "continued suggestions" that they were robbing banks could damage their relations with the FBI and police chiefs in small towns across the Midwest and South. Moscow, unlike Melvin Purvis, does not appear eager to get to the bottom of the crime.


Not all speculation in London fingers Mr. Putin and his men. The London Independent, which relentlessly blames George W. Bush for the world's evils and ills, suggests that Mr. Litvinenko could have administered the poison and doomed himself to a particularly painful death just to make Mr. Putin look bad. But even moderate London sources suggest that the rush to judgment is at least premature and maybe wrong-headed. John Reid, the British home secretary, privately warned the Blair Cabinet "not to make assumptions," at least until more facts are known.


Others in London, no particular friends of Mr. Putin, argue that the poisoning is certainly worthy of a murky Russian novel, but does not bear the marks of an efficient KGB hit, which usually leaves no trace of authorship. Whoever administered the fatal potion gave Mr. Litvinenko a hundred times the dose needed to kill, and even if the killer wanted to send a message to other restless Russian exiles in "Londongrad," he would not, if in the employ of a government killing agency, have made it so tempting to tie the killing to official sources.


Mr. Putin, notes Tim Hames, a columnist for the London Times, "has been portrayed as if another Ernst Blofeld, Ian Fleming's sinister founder of Spectre [the nemesis of James Bond], stroking his white cat while calmly deciding whether or not to terminate his enemies. ... The more that we learn about Mr. Litvinenko and his circle, the more confusing matters become and the longer and more diverse grows the list of people who may have wanted him murdered. He was involved with past members of the KGB ... whom he had accused of killing innocent Russians in 1999 to revive the conflict with Chechnya, current [espionage] operatives, people with connections to organized crime, various anti-Putin activists and a series of Russians living in Britain either by choice or in involuntary exile." The murkiness grew darker yesterday when Mr. Litvinenko's father revealed that the one-time spy, once known to cultivate radical Islamists in Chechnya, had converted to Islam on his deathbed and wanted a Muslim funeral. Could his death have been just another revenge killing in the name of Allah?


London bubbles, squeaks and frequently crackles with intrigue. "Londongrad" has become a congested intersection of Russian interests, for billionaires preparing a place to run to, oligarchs who are variously friend and foe of the reigning powers in Moscow, spies and counterspies, all contending for advantage. Britain can tolerate the ordinarily intolerable because the Russians are spying on each other, not on sensitive British targets. Organizing murder is what mafia dons do, and as long as the killing of thugs goes on out of sight, no one is frightened.


But fighting with radioactive isotopes is another matter entirely, leaving lethal traces to threaten innocents in hotels, restaurants, airplanes and taxicabs. Soon nobody will be safe, and that scares everybody.

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.

JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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