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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 Nov. 19, 2007 / 9 Kislev 5768

Dems suffer Dukakis moment

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Sometimes the public measure of presidential mettle comes down to a single image: Richard Nixon sweating through a debate with John F. Kennedy; Jimmy Carter fending off a killer swamp rabbit; or Michael Dukakis posing in an M1 Abrams battle tank.


Will Hillary Clinton's dissembling over drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants turn out to be her Dukakis-in-a-tank moment? If so, then it will be manifestly unfair — but not because the senator from New York is striving to be the first chief executive whose spouse would be a first gentleman.


What was unfair was that Clinton was the first to field a question from Tim Russert at the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia on Oct. 30 about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's controversial plan. In her answer, she seemed to confirm what she had told the Nashua Telegraph's editorial board Oct. 16. Giving illegal immigrants licenses "makes a lot of sense" because it helps fill the vacuum left by the federal government's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.


But then Clinton went Clintonian. In response to criticism from Sen. Chris Dodd, she stated, "I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Gov. Spitzer is trying to do it."


Answering Dodd's charge — a repeat of her quote to the newspaper, really — that she said it made sense, she replied, "No I didn't." Then answering Russert again about the plan's sensibility, she said, "It makes a lot of sense," though it's not necessarily "the best thing for any governor to do."


In the space of three minutes, she covered at least three positions on a simple yes or no question. Three weeks later, following a furor over her dissimulation, the voting public finally learned she's against drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants — for the time being.


Here's the unfair part. Russert then put the question to all seven candidates for the Democratic nomination who participated in the debate at Drexel University: "Does anyone here believe that an illegal immigrant should not have a driver's license?"


The six men surrounding Clinton looked about sheepishly. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Omicron Persei 8, asked for clarification. Only Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut raised his hand in mild dissent.


Driving is a privilege, Dodd said. Extending licenses to illegal immigrants is "troublesome," as though anyone who flouts our nation's immigration laws would somehow be deterred from getting behind the wheel because the Department of Motor Vehicles says they aren't privileged enough.


The real story from the Drexel debate should have been that six Democratic presidential hopefuls see nothing wrong with licensing illegal immigrants. Or at least, as in the case of Clinton, they see it as the not-best thing that sometimes makes a lot of sense.


Over the past year, conventional wisdom has held that the immigration issue is toxic for Republicans. And there's no doubt that some of the corrosive rhetoric in the immigration debate has destroyed GOP support among Hispanics that Republicans have struggled for three decades to build.


But the Republican problem, serious as it is, is largely one of style — of using the right language and framing the debate properly. The American people are frustrated by the government's failure to enforce immigration laws, a failure that, as the 9-11 commission detailed in a 2004 monograph, terrorists have devastatingly exploited. They want current immigration laws enforced, not new laws that reward immigration scofflaws.


For Democrats, however, the immigration issue presents a problem of substance. A Rasmussen poll conducted in the wake of the Drexel debate found that 77 percent of Americans oppose granting drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, including 68 percent of those who identified themselves as Democrats. Facing withering opposition, Spitzer withdrew the plan last week.


So when six Democratic candidates stuff their hands in their pockets when given the opportunity to signal their opposition to this policy, it's a sign of just how out of touch they are with public sentiment. And that image, more than a bumbling Hillary Clinton, is the one that should have emerged from Philadelphia.

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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