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February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
March 18, 2005
/ 7 Adar II, 5765
Facing new evil empires
By
Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's strange yet appropriate to be discussing Lebanon again, where the United States began its war on Islamic terror in 1983. Or, rather, where Islamic terror began its war against the United States.
|  SIGNS OF THE TIMES: "Palestinian" security forces salute during a training session in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. Look familiar? |
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The fact is, in 1983, after Iranian-backed, Syrian-boosted Hezbollah bombings in Beirut killed more than 300 Americans at the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks, the United States just sailed away.
We wouldn't assume a war footing against "terror" for another 20 years. Ronald Reagan could fight only one totalitarian behemoth per lifetime, the spreading rot he knew, communism, not the still-nippable, budding blight of jihadist Islam. But 1983 was a good year for the Cold War: It was the year President Reagan branded the Soviet Union the "evil empire."
In his tiny corner of the Gulag, the renowned dissident Natan Sharansky learned of President Reagan's establishment-quaking words. As Sharansky has written, "Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's 'provocation' quickly spread through the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth." Sharansky experienced first-hand the transformative powers of truth and free-world leadership: It was Reagan administration pressure on the Evil Empire that ultimately won his release in 1986 after nine years of Soviet servitude.
Now, Sharansky, an Israeli government minister, has written "The Case for Democracy" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) a book President Bush has declared to be a part of his "presidential DNA." Being "the case for democracy," the book provides a theoretical underpinning for Bush's doctrinal optimism about the security-enhancing potential in the spread of freedom. But, as P. David Hornik has written in the American Spectator, Sharansky's famously hopeful philosophy is tempered by a less well-known realism. In other words, he sees through his own hearts and flowers to the facts on the ground.
These aren't always so pretty. But worse than the uglier corners of reality are the efforts to hide them. Discussing the Palestinian election, which has been followed by continued incitement and terrorism against Israel, Sharansky told the Jerusalem Post it was "shame," as the Post paraphrased, that "the world uses the same words for completely different types of processes in different government systems, thereby making moral equivalencies that don't exist." As Sharansky put it, "This election can be the beginning of the democratic process only if we don't have illusions that democracy is already there, and that all we have to do now is give them independence. If this is what we do, then we will find that we have given independence not to a democratic state, but to a terrorist state."
This is something to think about in connection with the wider Middle East, where there is now such a strong desire to see dictators fall and democracies rise. Danger lurks in allowing the ideologies and bureaucracies and armies of violence and hatred to be sucked up whole into the machinery of democracy, as though majority-rule itself will neutralize rather than strengthen such poisons. I think of this in regard to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, himself an unrepentant Holocaust denier (a weird counterpoint to this week's opening of a new Holocaust museum in Israel attended by world leaders), who says the terrorist group Hamas would and should hold seats in the Palestinian parliament. I think of this in regard to the appalling proposition that the United States might reverse core policy and regard the terrorist group Hezbollah as just another political party.
And I think of this in regard to a barely noted story of democratic justice, Palestinian-style 15 Palestinian Authority-scheduled executions of "collaborators" with Israel. Presumably, these are Arabs likely Muslims who have risked everything to prevent the mass murder and maiming of Jewish civilians. Chairman Abbas' idea of judicial review has been to turn their cases over to Sheik Akrima Sabri, who, as the P.A.'s chief mufti, is a poster-imam for Jew-hatred and the joys of "martyrdom." Not surprisingly, he is calling for the prisoners' blood.
Natan Sharansky has urged Ariel Sharon to save them. "It is unacceptable," he wrote in a letter to the Israeli prime minister, that Israel release hundreds of jailed terrorists "because of the hope of an opening to peace, (while) the P.A. is about to commit state executions of people accused of helping Israel thwart terror." Thwarting jihadist terror is what the new and improved P.A. is supposed to be doing along with the rest of the Middle East, someday, the democracy-theory goes. If it doesn't, of course, the empire remains evil, no matter what we call it.
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JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
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