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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 June 8, 2009 / 16 Sivan 5769

Tiananmen icons

By Jonathan Gurwitz


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | More than two centuries ago, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant laid out the proposition that the internal character of a nation — literally, its constitution — defines its external actions. Democratic nations built upon republican ideals and the rule of law will tend to be peaceful. Despotic governments that tyrannize their own people will also tend to terrorize their neighbors.


Kant wrote in his 1795 essay, "Perpetual Peace": "In a constitution which is not republican, and under which the subjects are not citizens, a declaration of war is the easiest thing in the world to decide upon, because war does not require of the ruler … the least sacrifice of the pleasures of his table, the chase, his country houses, his court functions and the like."


The 20th century was the proving ground for Kant's theory. Hitler and Stalin brutalized their own people before devastating most of Europe and then, under Stalin's communist successors, keeping half the continent behind an Iron Curtain. Later on, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Kim dynasty in North Korea tortured, gassed and starved the unfortunates who suffered their rule while attacking their neighbors and building the infrastructure of international terrorism.


The communist Chinese government, which, 20 years ago this week, massacred peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square, certainly follows in this despotic tradition. A government that wages war on its own people seeking democratic reform, one that sends tanks down the Avenue of Eternal Peace to slaughter thousands of unarmed students, will have no compunction about the use of violence beyond its borders.


And so a regime that beats and imprisons Buddhist monks in Tibet — which China considers a province — is also the principal accomplice of the Sudanese government's genocide in Darfur. A party apparatus that sees Christians, Muslims and Falun Gong as ideological threats to its existence must keep the People's Liberation Army — with 2.3 million active duty troops — on a war footing against free Taiwan, with a total population of only 23 million.


Zhao Ziyang was, in 1989, the general secretary of the Communist Party and one of China's most powerful leaders. He was an accomplished economic reformer who sympathized with the students and sought a peaceful resolution to the Tiananmen Square protests.


Communist hardliners, however, outmaneuvered Zhao. For his lack of enthusiasm in defending the party, Zhao was placed under house arrest for the final 16 years of his life.


Last month, Zhao's memoirs — secretly recorded during his confinement — became public. In translations provided by the Wall Street Journal, the former communist boss reveals an evolution in thinking that sounds remarkably Kantian: "The democratic systems of our socialist nations are all just superficial; they are not systems in which the people are in charge, but rather are ruled by a few or even a single person.


"We can say that if a country wishes to modernize, not only should it implement a market economy, it must also adopt a parliamentary democracy as its political system. Otherwise, this nation will not be able to have a market economy that is healthy and modern, nor can it become a modern society with a rule of law."


Zhao died in 2005. It would be too much to call him a hero of Tiananmen Square, though his subsequent defiance under house arrest was valiant, even noble.


The world doesn't know who most of the real heroes of Tiananmen Square actually were. After Zhao's ouster, those who weren't killed were made to disappear in the Chinese gulag. What we do have are a handful of images, the most powerful being that of a man staring down a column of tanks.


Tank man, as he is known, is gone. So far as we are aware, he left no memoirs. His spirit lives on, however, among Chinese people and people everywhere who would challenge the pleasures of their leaders' tables for a freer life and a more peaceful world.

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

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JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.

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© 2009, Jonathan Gurwitz

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