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In this issue
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. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 25, 2009 / 3 Tamuz 5769

The President's news conference

By Cal Thomas


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There was a noticeable change in the climate during President Obama's Tuesday news conference that had nothing to do with the heat and humidity, the excuse given for moving the event indoors from the Rose Garden. Those Chicago boys (and girls) know all about cold winters, but if they think 80 degrees and partly cloudy is hot, wait until August when the three H's — hot (95 degrees), humid (95 percent) and hazy — take over.


For the first time in a long time, the president was challenged about his positions on Iran, health care and his "occasional" smoking. This may be due to the heavy criticism the media have been getting from commentators who have accused them of not doing their jobs with coverage that has bordered on the worshipful.


In his strongest statement yet on the demonstrations in Iran and the violence by the government to suppress them, the president said he was "appalled" and "outraged" and that the response has been "unjust." He followed this with the usual genuflections about "respecting" the "sovereignty" of Iran, as well as their religion. How can anyone respect a government as sovereign that rigs an election to stay in power and a religion that countenances the murder of unarmed citizens? Is Allah against free speech?


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The president said his comments on the election and the demonstrations have been "consistent" when clearly they have not. But better to get to the right place on a long trip than refuse to begin the journey.


The president wouldn't answer a question about a "red line" for Iranian behavior, which, if crossed, would trigger a significant response from the United States. Neither would he abandon "hot dog diplomacy." Despite all that has happened, Iranian diplomats are welcome at American embassies and consulates around the world for July 4 celebrations. The irony of Iranians participating in a recognition of American independence and the freedoms that accompanied it probably won't impress these servants of a theocratic state, but maybe someone can pry open their tightly closed minds.


The president made one important point with which I agree. He noted that congressional (mostly Republican) critics have their responsibilities and duties and so does he. He said the Iranian government has been "mistranslating" his remarks and claiming the inaccuracies prove the United States and the West are behind the protests and egging on the protestors. He doesn't want to say anything that can be taken down and used against America on Al-Jazeera.


There is another point, which the president made last week. Since all four of the presidential candidates (and they were culled from an initial group of more than 400) were hand-picked by the mullahs who actually call the shots in Iran (and who want to call nuclear shots, as well), who can say for sure that if any of the other three were to win a recount he would be an improvement over the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?


Here's another question: what kind of freedom do these demonstrators want? This may not be Hungary in 1956, or the Prague Spring of 1968; it also may not be Poland or East Berlin in the '90s. How do we know that should anyone else be declared the winner, he will announce an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program, cancel "Allah's will" announced by Ahmadinejad to obliterate Israel and stop financing terrorism? Supposedly fair elections have elevated terrorist organizations to power and terrorist groups are challenging supposedly "moderate" leaders in Israel and Gaza, as well as in Arab and Muslim countries. Adolf Hitler won one election.


Since the United States apparently does not intend to support the demonstrators with military or other tangible means, President Obama is right to be cautious. This revolution, like the previous one in 1979 that brought the religious fanatics to power, must ultimately be won or lost by the Iranians themselves.

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Cal Thomas Archives

JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.

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