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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

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. 14, 2008 / 8 Adar I 5768

McCain's doing away with ‘chickenhawk’ sightings

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The dodo. The passenger pigeon. The crested sheldrake. Birds driven to extinction and known only to history.


Conservation groups in the United States have done an outstanding job in recent decades raising public awareness about endangered species, preventing more feathered creatures from becoming museum artifacts. This week, the Interior Department announced another success story when it proposed removing the brown pelican from the endangered list.


Yet for every success, there are countless failures. Americans care about the beloved bald eagle. Yet how many of us even know about the Kittlitz's murrelet or the Gunnison sage-grouse? When it comes to endangerment, ignorance is an agent of extinction.


So it is with another bird that is rapidly disappearing from the American political landscape almost without notice — the chickenhawk. A search of the Nexis database reveals 263 sightings of the fair-weather fowl in U.S. newspapers in 2004, 116 in 2005, 85 in 2006 and 123 in 2007. Yet two months into 2008, there have been only eight references to this once prolific predator.


What accounts for such an astonishing decline? John McCain.


Four years ago, Democrats selected a presidential candidate who made military service his singular credential. At the same time, friendly forces denigrated the service of George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard.


That's when the liberal chickenhawk meme really hatched. If you hadn't fired a weapon in combat or been fired upon, you had no business making decisions about war as chief executive or even voicing an opinion about it as a citizen — that is, if you were favorably disposed to deposing homicidal dictators and ending genocidal regimes. If you were opposed to military action, any credential would suffice.


It was a stunning and cynical reversal for Democrats. For the better part of the 1990s, they vouched that studying at Oxford and not inhaling made Bill Clinton every bit as suitable to be commander in chief as George H.W. Bush, a decorated combat naval aviator, in 1992 and Bob Dole, a decorated soldier, in 1996. In 2004, however, guard duty was dismissed as cocktail hour for the country club set.


In the aftermath of the election, chickenhawk references declined as recriminations against the Kerry campaign took flight. Chickenhawk sightings rose in 2007, as Democrats retook control of Congress and debates raged about withdrawal from Iraq.


Later in the year, chickenhawks were purportedly spotted in the campaign of Mitt Romney, none of whose five sons had enlisted in the military.


As John McCain became the presumptive GOP nominee, however, chickenhawk sightings all but disappeared.


Flying 23 combat missions, getting shot down over enemy territory, being beaten within a hair of your life, tortured and held in captivity for 51/2 years, having one son in the Marines and another at the Naval Academy may not give McCain absolute moral authority on issues of national security. But by the standard set by Democrats in 2004, he has an unquestionable superiority.


Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton has ever served in uniform, not even the Illinois Air National Guard. Obama's children are too young to enlist. But in this gender-liberating election, those keen observers who spotted chickenhawks in the Romney camp might just as well be asking why Chelsea Clinton isn't in uniform.


McCain is to the chickenhawk purveyors of the political world what "Dirty Harry" Callahan is to the mobs of mayhem in the movie world. Picture a gang of MoveOn and Code Pink types roaming through an urban wasteland, blocking entry to Marine recruiting offices and harassing people in uniform while professing to support the troops. Until McCain happens on the scene.


"Go ahead, make my day. Call me a chickenhawk for supporting the surge. You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punks?"


Military service has never been and never should be a prerequisite for public office or to engage in public debate about military matters. And the best way for the chickenhawk mongers to relearn this civics lesson is for John McCain to teach it to them the hard way.

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.

Comment by clicking here.

JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.

Jonathan Gurwitz Archives


© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz

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