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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 15, 2004 / 25 Nissan, 5764

Sharon's master move

By Sidney Zion


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Israeli leader outflanks the Palestinians and gets Bush's okay



http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Ariel Sharon scored a home run in Washington yesterday, and if that doesn't defang his critics in Israel, the Jewish state ain't what it used to be.


The one (and maybe only) thing that brings together nearly all Israeli Jews is the okay from Uncle Sam. America is seen as the country's umbilical cord, and while there have been times when Israel stood fast against U.S. pressure, nothing beats a nod from the White House.


Never did an American President give them anything like George Bush delivered on the day after Passover.


Sharon, accused by his own settlers' movement of selling it and himself out, under the gun of leftists who want him indicted for bribery, condemned by the United Nations for assassinating the leader of Hamas, then comes to Washington and brings home the flanken.


Bush calls him "heroic, courageous, bold" for his move to get out of Gaza and remove a few settlements from the West Bank, and the President says that Palestinian refugees will have to fulfill their "right of return" in a Palestinian state, not in Israel.


But these were relatively easy deals for any American President, particularly in an election year. What counted, big-time, was Bush's rejection of the eternal State Department canard that the settlements are illegal and the key "obstacles to peace" and that nothing but a virtual pullback by Israel to the pre-1967-war borders could bring peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

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"In light of new realities," said Bush, "including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949 ...."


Since Sharon, on the eve of embarking from Israel, announced that five major Israeli population centers (read settlements) would remain in Israel - well, do the math.


The Palestinian Authority, of course, rejected this out of hand - all of it, including Bush's position on the "right of return."


But the prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair, who was expected by the UN and the media to run hardball against Sharon's initiative, "welcomed" his pledge to withdraw from Gaza and some settlements in the West Bank.


So we must ask: Why did Sharon do what he did?


I think it's because he understood that the stagnation of the so-called road map to peace would lead to nothing more than pressure on Israel to give without getting from the Palestinians.


Sharon had long said that the Netzarim settlement in Gaza was as vital to Israel's security as Tel Aviv. But the way the world worked after 9/11 made this appear as dinosaur talk. The world wanted Israel to cooperate in the effort to co-opt the Arabs and lead them to be on our side against terrorism.


Keeping Gaza as Israeli "occupied territory" ran totally against this notion. Plus, a good two-thirds of Israeli public opinion wants out of Gaza. And they want it now.


Of course, so did most American Jews and the State Department and the White House. The State Department, the Israeli left and many Jewish Americans wanted more - they wanted Israel out of the West Bank altogether.


And here was the genius of Sharon. In the words of the late Jewish criminal Israel Shawarzberg, "He pulled their teeth, so now they can only gum him."


On May 2, Sharon's Likud Party will vote yes or no on his pullout from Gaza.


Izzy Shawarzberg, wherever he is, lays 20 to 1 and out that Sharon wins. They can only gum him.

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

JWR contributor Sidney Zion is a columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.






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