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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 Nov. 15, 2007 / 5 Kislev 5768

Good intentions no match for this Godzilla

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If you ever attended one of those late-night animated film festivals that theaters used to sponsor during the 1970s, then you may have seen a short cartoon — very short — called "Bambi Meets Godzilla."


The cartoon begins with the innocent deer standing in a tranquil meadow as the opening credits roll past. A pastoral melody from the Rossini opera "William Tell" plays in the background as Bambi sniffs the flowers in his animated paradise.


Seconds into the cartoon, the brief credits conclude. Suddenly, Godzilla's giant foot comes crashing down on Bambi, smashing him into oblivion. In less than two minutes, it's over.


If "Bambi Meets Godzilla" were made today, some creative mind would almost certainly find a way to extend it into a two-hour cinematic indictment of global warming, the war on terror or the pharmaceutical industry. When Marv Newland created it in 1969, he gave his cartoon the improvisational brevity merited by an encounter between a naïf and a monster.


Jimmy Carter reenacted "Bambi Meets Godzilla" during a recent visit to Darfur. The people of Darfur are suffering the fifth year of a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by the government of Sudan and its Janjaweed militia allies.


The numbers and the atrocities are by now so well-known, so commonplace as to be stultifying: 2 million people driven from their homes, as many as 400,000 killed, mass rapes of women and girls.


During his two-day mission to Sudan, Carter intended to meet with Darfur refugees. But when he arrived outside the town of Kabkabiya, a Janjaweed stronghold, the people were too frightened to come out. The former president and his entourage tried to venture into the village. Along the way, according to an Associated Press account, residents slipped handwritten notes to Carter's traveling companions.


Billionaire Richard Branson produced a note from his pocket scribbled in Arabic. "We (are) still suffering from the war," it said, "as our girls are being raped on a daily basis."


Carter made it to a school where he met with one refugee. But when he tried to proceed farther, Sudanese security officers — if not the actual monsters of the Darfur genocide, then at least their accomplices — stopped him. Carter railed at the armed men, "I'll tell President Bashir about this."


Of course, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is one of the principal architects of the strategy of rape and civilian slaughter.


Carter left Darfur complaining that the West was responding too slowly to the humanitarian tragedy while also criticizing the use of the word "genocide" to describe the situation, a designation he called legally imprecise and "unhelpful."


It was a surprising criticism coming from a man who tosses the word "apartheid" around with careless abandon. The African tribes of Darfur have the bad luck of being ethnically cleansed by fellow Muslims rather than by Jews.


More to the point, when the men with guns who do the killing confronted Carter, his only response was to threaten to talk to someone about it — someone, it turns out, who gives the orders to the men with guns to do the killing.


Well-intentioned words won't do a thing to help the people in Kabkabiya today, tomorrow, next month or even next year. One of the frightening consequences of the Iraq war is that people of good will seem to have forgotten that sometimes words are not enough.


"The biggest problem we have today is that we never join words and action," Paul Rusesabagina told the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board in a meeting last month.


Rusesabagina is a hero of the Rwandan genocide whose exploits are portrayed in the movie "Hotel Rwanda." It wasn't a call for reckless adventurism, as Rusesabagina made clear in his criticism of the Bush administration's motives for going into Iraq. But sometimes, words alone are not enough.


In the animated world, Godzilla squashes Bambi and the cartoon ends. In the real world, ruthless monsters ignore pleas for peace and verbal threats and keep raping and killing.

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.

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© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz

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