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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 22, 2007 / 10 Mar-Cheshvan 5768

Timing is everything, and Pelosi's got nothing

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The last time House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did her best impersonation of a secretary of state, her amateur performance was merely reckless. This time it is dangerous.


Pelosi's April visit to Syria should have demonstrated a fundamental about diplomacy — words matter.


Pelosi created an international tempest by claiming to bear a message for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, one stating his country was prepared to engage in peace talks with its longtime enemy without preconditions. That would have marked a significant departure from six decades of Israeli practice.


Olmert did not make such a departure, which forced the Israeli Foreign Ministry to issue a clarification that contradicted Pelosi's supposed communique.


Pelosi also declared that the road to peace in Lebanon, which Syrian Baathists regard as a vassal state, runs through Damascus. Farid Ghadry, president of the Reform Party of Syria, blasted Pelosi's carelessness, writing, "Assad is viewing her trip as a green light to take over Lebanon the same way Saddam viewed (U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April) Glaspie's lack of interference as a green light to invade Kuwait."


Unlike Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, who prefaced the dialogue with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a harsh rebuke of his government's repressive policies, Pelosi's photo-op notably glossed over Assad's totalitarian tendencies and his regime's routine violation of human rights.


This month, 92 years after the fact, Pelosi felt the time had come for American lawmakers to finally issue a definitive statement about the first state-sponsored mass murder of the 20th century. When the Armenian genocide issue came up in 2000, one of its most forceful opponents was California Democrat Tom Lantos. The Fresno Bee reports Lantos warned against offending Turkey, telling colleagues that "there is a long list of reasons why our NATO ally at this point should not be humiliated."


Some of those reasons were related to U.S. enforcement of a U.N. no-fly zone in northern Iraq — no access to U.S. bases in Turkey, no no-fly zone. President Clinton felt the security imperatives in Iraq outweighed the political significance of a congressional declaration in Washington. So he appealed to members of his own party, including Lantos, to delay the genocide resolution and, ultimately, to GOP House Speaker Denny Hastert to kill it.


Now that the United States has 168,000 military personnel in Iraq, it's a different story on Capitol Hill. Lantos, as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, dismisses Turkish sensitivity. "The Turkish-American relationship is infinitely more valuable to Turkey than it is to the United States," he said recently on CNN.


President Bush appealed to Congress to put the welfare of American military personnel first. Most military air cargo headed for Iraq passes through Turkey's Incirlik air base, including new MRAP — mine-resistant, ambush-protected — vehicles that are finally providing a measure of protection against deadly IED attacks. No Incirlik, no MRAPs, or at least their delivery to the war zone will be delayed. Contrary to Lantos' assertion, more Americans will die if the United States loses access to bases in Turkey.


Yet unlike her predecessor as speaker, Pelosi pushed forward with the genocide resolution, in spite of the known consequences. Assuming the guise of secretary of state again, she said it was part of her mandate to reassert America's moral authority. By end of week, cooler heads appeared to be prevailing.


Congress should go on record about the atrocities that claimed 1.5 million Armenian lives. Historical amnesia about the systematic slaughter of Armenians has encouraged many of the genocidal movements that followed. But after nine decades and with a war in Iraq, now is not the time to put U.S.-Turkish relations to a test.


Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell sent Pelosi a letter last month warning her the resolution would endanger U.S. national security interests. A real secretary of state would already know that.

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.

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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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