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Dec. 1, 2008

Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings

Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?

Nov. 28, 2008

Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be

Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?

Nov. 26, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership

Andrea Simantov: Shades of life

Nov. 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence

The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!

Nov. 24, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'

Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends

Nov. 21, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?

Caroline B. Glick: Civilization walks the plank

Nov. 20, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto

Nov, 19, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality

Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?

Nov, 18, 2008

Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason

Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

Nov, 17, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason

Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?

Nov, 14, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia

Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead

Nov, 13, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic

The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla

Nov, 12, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers

Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks

Nov, 11, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?

Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate

Nov, 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?

Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist

Nov, 7, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality

Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy

Nov, 6, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism

The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes

Nov, 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors

Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie

Nov, 4, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law

Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East

Nov, 3, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?

Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything?

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 Dec. 7, 2006 / 16 Kislev 5767

What we really need at the U.N.

By James Lileks


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | John Bolton is out as U.N. ambassador, and many folks are singing hurrah: Our long international nightmare is over!


Bolton had the glasses and facial hair of a 1974 high school science teacher; he was appointed by Bush, had temper issues, and was skeptical of the U.N. -- obviously a force for evil, and we're better off with someone cuter.


Our fellow world citizens at the U.N. are too important to ignore; why, they might take up a resolution to permit George Clooney to address them about Darfur, and Bolton was just the sort of petty killjoy who'd insist they also do something about the matter. Typical. Didn't he see this month's GQ? It's the Genius issue. Clooney's on the cover. Bolton would be lucky to get on Muttonchop Monthly.


Bolton didn't realize the rules of the game, it seems. The object of the U.N. is not to advance U.S. interests. The object is assure a steady flow of money and excuses to various illiberal regimes, to issue gravely worded statements of concern when a member nation starts slaughtering its citizens in numbers that require two commas, and to condemn Israel.


The last point is particularly important. Israel's mulish refusal to remove itself from the map is a particular affront to the finely tuned sensibilities of the diplomats, and requires weekly condemnatory resolutions, if only to keep the moral faculties limber. Russia could annex the Baltic states and it wouldn't evoke the same ire produced by a civilian casualty in a Gaza raid.


To paraphrase Stalin: One death is a tragedy; a million will be referred to the permanent subcommittee on statistics.

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No, the U.S. ambassador must realize that the U.S. is the problem. It was the goody-two-shoes U.S. that didn't play along with Oil-for-Food. It was the U.S. that cruelly tricked the U.N. into putting sanctions on Iraq; it was Bolton who attempted to build international consensus opposing Iran's Atoms-for-Peace program, which was undertaken solely to heat dove nurseries. The man was a pain, and the international community is glad he's gone.


So who would they like to see in his stead? Let's consider the candidates.

  • Hugo Chavez. Granted, there's the whole head-of-a-hostile-state thing, but he has the right tone, and the charisma the job needs. The more intemperate fringe of the left may believe that George W. Bush is a sulfur-stinky devil, but only Chavez could push through a U.N. resolution stating it as fact.

  • Lincoln Chafee. The name's been floated, since he's regarded by his party as a useless sell-out flaccid RINO, but Bush doesn't hate him that much.

  • Bill Clinton. Why not? He's the ex-president everyone loves nowadays. He's concerned about the right diseases, he realizes that fighting terrorism is a job to be bungled by law enforcement officials instead of by large-scale military invasions, he's obviously looking for work, and it would be a wonderful gesture to the incoming Democrats. Surely their hearts would be so softened by such a bipartisan gesture, they'd respond in kind. By dropping the impeachment charges from nine to eight, for example.

  • Jimmy Carter. He's already regarded as America's unofficial ambassador to the world, and since his latest book calls Israel an apartheid state, he would be the anti-Bolton. He remains the most passionate advocate for a two-state solution -- Palestine and New Jersey -- and rather than blocking resolutions that target Israel, he'd probably come up with six on his own before lunch.

  • Larry the Cable Guy. If you've ever watched C-SPAN's interminable blather-swaps over some minute point of order, you can appreciate the prospect of someone shouting GIT 'R DONE in a gutteral roar. Of course, the ambassador from the principality of Giuterdun may wonder why he's constantly being addressed, but he'd get used to it.

  • One of those novelty drinking-bird toys that rocks up and down; you could position it to hit the VETO button. Lacking in nuance, but not a bad default position.

  • A Random Disaffected Republican Voter who believed in what Bolton was trying to do, but wanted the GOP to lose in order to "send a message," thus assuring Bolton could never get confirmed.


Message sent, and received. By the whole world, in fact.

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 James Lileks is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2006, James Lileks

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