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May 16, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Torah talk 'lost in translation'?

Diana West: Israel is not a freedom franchise, Mr. President

Caroline B. Glick: Understanding Hizbullah's power play

JWisdom: Real estate and real living by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

May 15, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Finding a Reason to Do Nothing

Oline H. Cogdill: Jesse Kellerman paints art world tale in brilliant strokes in 'The Genius'

JWisdom: Blake Nordstrom Speaking! by Sara Yoheved Rigler

May 14, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Snitching to the IRS

The Kosher Gourmet by Jill Wendholt Silva: Spring greens with fennel and herbs

JWisdom: A Righteous Gentile by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

May 13, 2008

Jonathan Mark: For pro-Israel voters, Obama's middle name should be the least of their concerns

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Leaker Shield Act

JWisdom: Why You & I Never Die: A Jewish View of Immortality, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

May 12, 2008

Chosen Words: A newsletter for personal and spiritual growth gleaned from classic biblical and other sources that will help you enhance your day to day life. Likely the most constructive three minutes you will spend today

Mark Steyn: Israel's 'doom' could also be Europe's

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: When Faith Meets Fate, Part One

May 9, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Reverence, Yes; Worship, No

Mona Charen: Did Israel Drive Out the Arabs 60 Years Ago?

JWisdom: Ultimate opportunities by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

May 8, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Israel at 3,500+

Jonathan Tobin: Still Fighting the Same War

Steven Plaut: How ‘nakba’ proves the fiction of a Palestinian Nation

JWisdom: Taking Israel for Granted? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

May 7, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Israel is irrelevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Dion Nissenbaum: Latest Olmert scandal could derail efforts to force Israel's compromises

JWisdom: My Inner Ventriloquist by Sara Yoheved Rigler

May 6, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: Anti-Zionism at 60

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: In honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with a smorgasbord featuring the taste and essence of the Jewish homeland

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Jewish Deer in Nazi Headlights

May 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Busy work

Jonathan Mark: Remarkable half-century old Mike Wallace interview with Abba Eban puts current anti-Israel sentiment into perspective

May 2, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Rote religiosity

Caroline B. Glick: Whitewashing Hamas

JWisdom: Parent trap?

May 1, 2008

David Zwiebel: Faith communities can learn from Orthodox Jews in stimulating private philanthropy for religious education

George Friedman and Peter Zeihan of Stratfor: The Shift Toward an Israeli-Syrian Agreement

JWisdom: It's time to wake up by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

April 30, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Pennsylvania's Democratic slugfest may leave some Jewish votes up for grabs

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Fresh herbs, sauteed veal and tiny creamer potatoes makes a light spring dinner

JWisdom: How to Build a Mentch by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 29, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood

Joel Brinkley: On human rights, the U.N. once again strikes out

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: When The Truth is Unbelievable

April 28, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I'm often stuck in the doctor's waiting room for hours! Doesn't he owe me something for my wasted time?

Steven Emerson: New U.S. government policy advises agencies to avoid using some of the very same words that make up terror groups' names

JWisdom: Why You & I Never Die: A Jewish View of Immortality, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

April 25, 2008

Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg: Schadenfreude isn't kosher for Passover --- or at any other time

Rabbi Berel Wein: The secret of how the data bank of memory is transferred from one generation to the next

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part III

April 24, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The successful failure

Fred Burton and Scott Stewart of Stratfor: Placing the terrorist threat to the food supply in perspective

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part II

April 23, 2008

Connie Ogle: An intricate game of a novel

Jonathan Tobin: Making Sense of the 'J Street' Jive

JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen

April 22, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Why Israel's 'Leaven law' matters

Caroline B. Glick: Obama the Savior

April 18, 2008

Rabbi Harvey Belovski: Multimedia tool of antiquity

Caroline B. Glick: Revealed Truths vs. revealed lies

JWisdom: More than miracles by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Deconstructing Dayeinu

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: Is innovation at the Seder a slap at tradition?

JWisdom: Discovering Your Divine Mission, Part III by Rabbi David Aaron

April 16, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: A Prayer for Sderot's Children

Ethel G. Hofman: Sumptuous Seder

JWisdom: The Divine is in the details by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 15, 2008

Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Let Charlton Heston Go!

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Jimma, tyranny's enabler

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part IV by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 14, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: The Snitching Supervisor

Jonathan Tobin: Forget the Fun and Games!

JWisdom: Sincerity is Valued Most by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 11, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Mystery in the Middle East

Caroline B. Glick: Why Ahmadinejad smiles

JWisdom: Elevated illness by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 10, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing by George Friedman: A Mystery in the Middle East

The Kosher Gourmet By Steve Petusevsky: The spring elegance of asparagus

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: The Power of Rational Lies

April 9, 2008

Michael Feldberg: An all but forgotten Colonial doctor who put his Jewish values before his life

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's "Everything's Relative" gets philosophical

JWisdom: Four Rabbis in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 8, 2008

Caroline Glick: Covering for the enemy

Elliot B. Gertel: 'House' goes Hasidic

JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part III by Dr. Lisa Aiken

April 7, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I have a translating business. Recently someone asked me to translate some financial documents that are clearly forged. Should I agree?

Jonathan Rosenblum : Israel is unwittingly helping to fuel the international campaign of delegitimization against it

JWisdom: Matzah and leaven as a life philosophy by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D.

April 4, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The Mystery of Suffering

Caroline B. Glick: Fear of democracy

JWisdom: Dirty Jews by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

April 3, 2008

Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein: Parents --- and the children who would be them

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Tempted by restaurant dressings? Don't be. Here are recipes that can be made at home, healthier!

JWisdom: The importance of retaining a 'slave mentality' by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

April 2, 2008

Mitch Albom: Child abuse, disguised as faith

Jonathan Tobin: Unreasonable Accommodations

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith with Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Eliminating Jewish Influence over Germans

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 Sept. 19, 2006 / 26 Elul 5766

How to play hardball

By Mort Zuckerman

Mort Zuckerman
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | You would think that the sheer malevolence of the 9/11 attacks, bringing sudden death out of a flawless blue sky, would be seen now for the outrage it is. Nothing less than a global challenge-a war-as Britain's Tony Blair first put it, not so much between civilizations as for civilization. After all, since 9/11, we have seen the nihilistic murder of many thousands of innocents in Spain, Britain, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, Kenya, and Tunisia. Modern technology, invented by the West the jihadists love to hate, has empowered this small number of extremists and inculcated in us a darker, more foreboding sense of our future than almost anyone could have predicted at the start of the new century. George Bush sees this more clearly than anyone among the Democratic Party leadership, and Tony Blair more clearly than any in his own blinkered Labor Party.


There is obviously much to criticize in the Bush administration's management of the war on terrorism, but no settlement of any kind is conceivable with radicals who seek an Islamic caliphate that will expel the West from within the Muslim world and erase from it the last shred of human dignity by establishing a theocratic dictatorship that will impose a medieval interpretation of Islamic law's most barbarous tenets. Al Qaeda makes no bones about its goal. Its chief in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, spoke clearly and chillingly for the movement: "Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute."


Outrages. This is an existential struggle against an enemy that can and must be defeated. Al Qaeda's leadership may have been stripped of its ability to execute another 9/11-it has not, after all, managed a single attack on America since then-but it remains capable of inspiring outrages by small groups of extremists.


The most insidious threat, of course, is that of Muslims living in the West who decide to put religious fanaticism ahead of loyalty to their host country. None of us can assume we are not at risk from some alienated American-born Muslim male inflamed by the Internet or brainwashed in prison or by a radical mosque.


We are forced, as a result, to weigh the imperatives of security against our democratic practices. The issue before the Congress today is the White House effort to clarify Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. There are those who argue that the White House is trying to reinterpret Article 3. Not so. The White House is dealing with the issue that Article 3 was drafted intentionally to be general and vague. For example, it excludes "outrages upon personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment." But earlier the Senate understood that terms like "outrages" and "degrading" were so vague that using them in a criminal statute would violate our standards of due process. The Senate, therefore, has twice provided a definition for these terms, first as a condition of ratifying the Geneva Conventions and later using that very same definition for the "Detainee Treatment Act" of 2005, passed under the leadership of Sen. John McCain. Yet now Congress is refusing to repeat this clarification so that the Department of Justice can judge the appropriateness of any procedure the administration or the CIA would propose to use.


Opponents argue that this would jeopardize the protection awarded Americans captured by radicals overseas, fanatics who have, on occasion, broadcast the beheadings of captured Americans on TV. So much for protection. As Abraham Lincoln said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."


Surely it must be possible to work out a formula that does not weaken Article 3 while enabling our government to protect us against a "ticking bomb" terrorist who has information that could save many innocents from imminent danger but who refuses to divulge it. Compelling him to talk does not undermine our values; it undermines the jihadists. In the future, if it was discovered that such an attack could have been avoided by use of such extraordinary measures, and that they were not employed, there would very likely be a huge public outcry forcing the government to take steps that would dramatically undermine our civil liberties. We must remember that the terrorist's advantage is that he may fail time and again, but to succeed, he need prevail only once.


This is not a time for fantasy. There will be no James Bond figure acting as an undercover agent who, with the help of beautiful women, will defeat cunning terrorists seeking world domination. Our enemy is more subtle than any Dr. No-and far too dangerous for us to simply trust in fate that we will somehow obtain the intelligence we need to prevent future attacks. We must do what is required to ensure that we have that intelligence. Indulging in the bitter politics that have marked our political dialogue on this issue is contrary to our national interest.

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

JWR contributor Mort Zuckerman is editor-in-chief and publisher of U.S. News and World Report. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

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