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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 Oct. 29, 2007 / 17 Mar-Cheshvan 5768

World War III? Maybe Bush is on to something

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When George W. Bush suggested Iran's acquisition of nuclear arms technology might be a catalyst for World War III, progressive-minded people took it as a sign that Chimpy W. McHitlerburton is off his neocon rocker. The president must be spoiling for a new way for Americans to get their heads blown off for his amusement — as Rep. Pete Stark might put it.


Here's the offending quote that put the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Michael Moore at Def Con 2: "If you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."


Was that really such a jingoistic message? And what exactly did the president mean about World War III?


Concerning the former, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made much the same point at the United Nations last month.


"If we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world," he told the General Assembly. "Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war."


Maybe Sarkozy is a cowboy at heart. Or maybe he and Bush are on to something.


Let's review a few facts. Iran is the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism through groups such as Hezbollah. Its leaders are guided by an extremist religious ideology that exalts martyrdom.


Iran hid its nuclear research program from the international community for two decades, in violation of its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligations. The existence of the program only became known when an opposition group exposed it in 2002. Since then, Iran has lied repeatedly about the nature and purposes of the program.


Reasonable people — people interested in avoiding war and preserving peace — can conclude, therefore, that a regime that is this dangerous, opaque and dishonest should not be trusted with mankind's most lethal technology. And there are two ways to prevent them from acquiring it.


The first way is peacefully, by laying out economic disincentives for bad behavior and economic inducements for good behavior.


Never mind international sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, where Russia and China do the mullahs' bidding. Even among NATO allies, Germany and Italy seem determined to prove Lenin's maxim about capitalists selling the rope by which their enemies will hang them.


If sanctions aren't effective — or aren't even meaningfully attempted — then the military option is the unappealing alternative of last resort. The message from Bush and Sarkozy was not directed at the leaders of Iran. It was directed at the leaders of the countries who are in a position to make sanctions work but whose irresponsible actions are making the military option inevitable.


And what about World War III? Note that Bush did not say, "If you're interested in avoiding a U.S. attack, you ought to stop Iran." Tehran's nuclear ambitions have spurred a new Middle East arms race and frightened Arab neighbors into pursuing their own "peaceful" nuclear programs.


Every day that Iranian centrifuges process enriched uranium, the edifice of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty crumbles a bit more. If Iran acquires the technological capacity to build a weapon, it will collapse completely.


Then there is Israel, with its own nuclear deterrent, which last month conducted a military strike to pre-empt nuclear weapons research in Syria. In 2002, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — a so-called moderate — delivered a revealing sermon in which he said the solution to the Zionist problem is the nuclear bomb, one of which could obliterate Israel, while any Israeli response would inflict limited damage on the Islamic world.


"The confrontation of pious and martyrdom-seeking forces with the highest forces of colonialism is extremely dangerous and might inflame a third world war," he said.


Bush and Sarkozy see World War III as a catastrophe to be avoided. Iran's leaders see it as an acceptable consequence of a theological imperative.

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.

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© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz

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