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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Sept. 21, 2006 / 28 Elul, 5766

Imagine the world without the United Nations

By Michael Goodwin


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Riots in Hungary, a coup in Thailand, genocide in Darfur, threats against the Pope and terror bombs shattering life and limb throughout the Mideast — it all happened Tuesday.


Imagine the world without the United Nations.


Actually, it would be pretty much the world we have now because the UN is next to useless. Its only function is to give a stage to the world's troublemakers and throw up obstacles to those seeking solutions. As for really doing something, fuhgeddaboudit!


So even as the world seemed on the verge of exploding yesterday, there was no real news from, and no backbone in, Turtle Bay. Of course, with the leaders of the rogue nations in town, New York was probably as safe from a terror attack as it's ever going to be.


The only suspense was whether President Bush would cross paths with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He didn't, so they dueled with words in speeches hours apart.


Bush went first and did his part to shake things up with yet another forceful address on the threats of terrorism, this time to the General Assembly. It was noteworthy that he used the gathering of autocrats, terror sponsors and timid time-servers to put a stick in the eye of many Mideast governments sitting before him. His calling Syria "a crossroads of terrorism" and "a tool of Iran" was about as direct talk as the UN has heard since Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on a desk there in 1960.


Bush aimed his most hopeful remarks directly at the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Palestine. He pledged that America wants peace, has no quarrel with Islam and urged them to stand for democracy. He talked about human rights and the original goals of the UN, which must have seemed quaint notions to the smug crowd before him.


The hall was two-thirds empty when Ahmadinejad took the stage about 7:30 p.m. The delegates didn't miss much, except a squirrelly, 30-minute recitation of his complaints against America and Israel and promised his nuclear ambitions were peaceful. Adopting the pose of the defender of the world's oppressed, the Iranian president demonstrated top-notch acting ability.


With a straight face, he cited instability in Iraq and elsewhere in the region as concerns. Never mind that many of the terrorists get their funds and weapons from Iran. Only the UN could stage such a farce.


But the day was not an entire waste for American audiences. Just before Bush began, a leading Democrat, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, said he hoped Bush would be "conciliatory." So at least we saw a clear difference on how America's two parties approach the world. With Dems already confused about how to fight the war on terror, and even how to talk about it, Bush's approval ratings are climbing again. Nothing happened yesterday to change that dynamic.


Richardson didn't sound so different from French President Jacques Chirac. In an entirely predictable move that shows France can't shake the habit of prematurely surrendering, Chirac used a photo-op with Bush to outline how France had capitulated to Iran over its nuclear program. He said France, a permanent member of the Security Council, would not support any move to sanction Iran in hopes that Iran would suspend its nuclear enrichment program.


That was the opposite approach that Washington had wanted, and assumed it was on the way to achieving. It wanted Iran to suspend enrichment before talks started, and wanted strong sanctions if Iran balked. The Security Council, although Russia and China were reluctant, seemed on that course. And then along came France, as usual.


The really amazing thing is that Bush managed to smile and shake hands with Chirac, who had the gall to claim the U.S. and France agree on Iran.


I guess that means Bush is becoming a statesman. He has learned to smile while he's being stabbed in the back. The UN taught him that.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.




Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.


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