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Feb. 8, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications

Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank
Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate
Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights?
Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype
Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too
Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license
The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics
Feb. 6, 2013

Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA
Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran
Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner
Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll
Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker
Feb. 4, 2013

Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel?

David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders
Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted
Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA
Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do
Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss
The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert
Feb. 1, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption

Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home
Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow
Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years
Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid?
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't
Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO)
The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish
January 30, 2013

Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day'

America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans!
Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown!
Germany remembers Hitler rise to power
Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats
Ballot riles Guinness World Records
The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin
January 28, 2013

Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos

Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback'
Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer
Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating?
David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied
Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends
David Clark Scott Lego Racism?
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south


Jewish World Review June 14, 2007 / 28 Sivan, 5767

Pulling money can break Iran

By Dick Morris & Eileen Mc Gann


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The past week has very possibly been the key turning point in the drive to cripple the Iranian government and force it to back off its nuclear weapons program. Uncovered by the mainstream media, a courageous and far-sighted effort by Reagan's assistant secretary of defense, Frank Gaffney, to force state pension systems to stop investing in companies that do business with Iran or Sudan has won key victories in Florida, California and Ohio.


Spurred by vigorous lobbying by key legislators in each state, these massive pension funds are now committed to disinvest from companies that invest in Iran's or Sudan's energy industries.


Gov. Charlie Crist (R) of Florida signed legislation last week banning such pension-fund investments. On June 5, the California Assembly unanimously voted to require CalPERS and CalSTRS, the public employee and teacher retirement systems, to disinvest from companies that invested in Iran's defense, nuclear or oil industries. CalPERS has about $2 billion now invested in companies that would be covered by the law. Imagine the hit that these companies' CEOs and directors will take in their bonuses that are linked to stock prices when these shares are dumped on the market! California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, noting that "money is the mother's milk of terrorism," decried how California pension funds — the largest in the country — are "funding … terrorist groups that are trying to kill us."


Meanwhile, in Ohio, the five public pension systems gave in to demands from state legislators that they too disinvest from companies that are doing business in Iran and Sudan. The pension funds had originally resisted calls for disinvestment, claiming they impeded their mission of maximizing returns on their investments, but they have now told the state House Speaker, Jon A. Husted — who brokered the deal — that "they would work to pull most of their money out of companies with ties" to Iran or Sudan, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Their decision came as a bill to require such disinvestment was working its way through the legislature.


These actions come on top of the trailblazing decision of Missouri state Treasurer Sarah Stillman to stop investing in companies that do business with Iran, Syria, Sudan or North Korea.


United Nations sanctions are important, but these state pension decisions directly impact the 485 companies that Gaffney's group, www.disinvestterror.org, has found to invest in the four terror-sponsoring nations identified in the Missouri disinvestment program.


Iran's key vulnerability is its economy, which is totally dependent on energy revenues. Eighty-five percent of government revenues come from the energy sector, and these revenues are expected to drop from $55 billion in 2006 to only $44 billion this year due to a rise in domestic demand for energy and decreasing energy production. By 2014, it is estimated Iran will export no oil at all unless foreign investment comes to the rescue and helps generate additional production. Iranian oil reserves are the second largest in the world, but are of no use to the ayatollahs unless they can get at them. By cutting off foreign investment in the energy sector, these state governments have gone a long way toward destabilizing the Iranian regime.


Now it is up to Congress to pass legislation requiring the Bush administration to apply the sanctions already legislated in the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act passed in the mid-90s but never applied due to national security waivers by Presidents Clinton and Bush. By forcing the president's hand — even passing the bill over his veto — Congress will relieve Bush of a political quandary. The reason the president keeps granting waivers on the applications of the formidable set of sanctions that could descend on Iran is that Europeans resent the extraterritorial application of American power over their companies that invest in Iran. (That's why state pension fund disinvestment is so effective: It is a way of leveraging foreign companies through market forces even though we have no political control over them.)


All the speculation about military action against Iran misses the point: It is through economic disinvestment in their energy and banking industries that we can exert maximum leverage and likely topple this pernicious regime — or force it to give up its nuclear program.

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 Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . And". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.



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