Posted on: June 13th, 2003

We were sharply critical of 2000 Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman over a variety of issues. And we expect that we will have a lot to say about him in the coming months as he pursues the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. Hopefully, he will draw more positive comment from us this time around as he runs on his own and not as second banana.

Posted on: June 13th, 2003

It now appears that The Times is finally 'fessing up to the
most outrageous abuses by one of its reporters and is
conducting an investigation into the full scope of Jayson
Blair's misleading of its readers. From what is already known,
for a period of four years, Blair fabricated news stories. But
what is intriguing is that some higher-ups at The Times
apparently were aware of Blair's wrongdoing, but for reasons
not yet clear ? he was not discharged. Some are suggesting
that notions of "affirmative action" (Blair is African-
American), were in play in Blair's being hired and not let go.

Posted on: June 13th, 2003

The Jewish Press' continuing coverage, in our Family Matters section, of students' claims of abuse at the hands of unidentified teachers in our yeshivos, attests to the significance we attach to the problem. Yet we are constrained to note our serious reservations about how the issue has been treated in The Jewish Week.

Posted on: June 13th, 2003

As Secretary of State Powell continues in efforts to promote the so-called Middle East "Road Map," the Bush administration's apparent departure from the firm, uncompromising anti-terror American resolve President Bush articulated on June 24th last year and re-enforced byOperation Iraqi Freedom, is nothing short of stunning.

Posted on: June 6th, 2003

As obscene as Lemrick Nelson's admission that he killed Yankel Rosenbaum most certainly is, what it says about how our criminal justice system is failing the Jewish community willperhaps be more enduring. In dramatic fashion, by highlighting the truth of something a jury in 1992 declined to acknowledge despite overwhelming evidence, it underscores something thatshould have been apparent for more than a decade. While crimes against victims who happen to be Jewish may not regularly go unpunished, the high profile, notorious ones, those whichhighlight the Jewishness of the victim, are a different matter altogether.

Posted on: June 6th, 2003

It was not for nothing that last June, President Bush declared that for any progress towards Palestinian goals, there must be a "new and different Palestinian leadership ... not compromised by terror." Plainly the President had enough of Arafat's duplicitousness and deceit.

Posted on: June 6th, 2003

There are many things that come to mind as Israel marks 55 years since it won its independence in 1948. If nothing else, Israel has demonstrated that Jews, given even less than half a chance, can collectively rise to the very peak of human achievement. We Jews have always contributed to mankind in much greater proportion than our numbers would suggest,wherever we found ourselves. But it is in Israel, where Jews have organized a state, which after a mere 55 years, has fostered wondrous achievements in virtually all areas of humanendeavor, that what we are capable of is so obvious.

Posted on: May 30th, 2003

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's point about a pending Supreme Court case challenging state anti-sodomy laws seems hardly remarkable. The senator said: "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [homosexual] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery, you have the right to anything."

Posted on: May 30th, 2003

A letter published in last week's issue as well as several others slated for publication in the coming weeks, are critical of our editorial comment several weeks ago regarding Agudath Israel of America's Avi Shafran's penchant for addressing religious issues in non-Orthodox publications. Our comments were triggered by a particular Shafran piece in the March 21 issue of such a publication, The Jewish Week, entitled "What Da'at Torah Really Means," in which Shafran addressed the seeming rejection by so-called Modern Orthodoxy of the notion of general deference in decision-making to Torah authorities.

Posted on: May 30th, 2003

It would seem that Bismark, Metternich and even Machiavelli have nothing on Britain's Tony Blair. Having stood firm with President Bush on Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is widely reported that the President feels he "owes him one." And Blair is skillfully - and ironically - using that chip to ingratiate Britain in the Arab world and reverse the negative reaction engendered by the war against Iraq!

Posted on: May 30th, 2003

In the months prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Bush Administration grappled with the dilemma of determining when enough was enough and military force had to take over where UN inspections left off. In a revealing interview in February, Secretary of State Powell gave us a window into his and the President's thinking. Here is Secretary Powell's response to Ted Koppel's question about how much more time would be appropriate to give Hans Blix and his inspectors:

Posted on: May 25th, 2003

We recognize that in the high-stakes, often take-no-prisoners budget negotiations in Albany, leverage is at a premium. And we also appreciate the particularly exquisite dilemma now facing Governor George Pataki with the advent of both houses of the legislature having united against him and their probable ability to override his vetoes of their budget proposals.

Posted on: May 25th, 2003

Although we, along with most others, are following with great interest, the apparent running battle between Abu Mazen and Yasir Arafat over the make-up of the former’s list of ministers, we suggest some red lights of caution. For one thing, it is not at all clear that all of the hullabaloo is not just some […]

Posted on: May 25th, 2003

The Palestinian Authority's call for the United States to release captured Achille Lauro thug Abu Abbas is not only the height of cynicism but is also a virtual declaration that they are free to target anyone and anything, at a time and place of their choosing, in the name of Palestinian nationalism.

Posted on: May 25th, 2003

Following the first Gulf War, which left Saddam Hussein in power, most everyone outside of Hussein and his fellow travelers in the Arab world acknowledged the necessity of imposing sanctions against a Hussein-led Iraq to force him to disarm. Unfortunately, although the sanctions were aimed at Hussein, it was undeniable that the sanctions would also visit great suffering on the Iraqi population, especially since Hussein could be expected to - and did - divert whatever resources were available to himself and the effort to maintain his power.

Posted on: May 9th, 2003

This past week, the Anti Defamation League went public with a criticism of "mainline" Arab-American groups for failing to speak out against anti-Semitism and terrorist acts committedagainst Jews by Palestinians and other Arabs. The ADL point that such failure only tends tolegitimatize and ultimately to encourage such behavior is surely a valid one.

Posted on: May 9th, 2003

The owners of Starbucks have not disclosed why they are closing all of their stores in Israel, but they are indeed closing. The prevalent Israeli media take is that there was a major management miscalculation in concentrating on Tel Aviv which has, as described in The Jerusalem Post, "a developed cafe culture with European roots" which worked against the acceptance of Starbucks. There is also talk that Israeli consumers tended to disdain the quality of Starbucks coffee.

Posted on: May 9th, 2003

There is growing fear that the anti-religious ferment in Israel reflected in the recent startling electoral victory of Tommy Lapid's Shinui Party also spawned the horrific arson burning of five Sifrei Torah. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire, but arson seems certain. Although news coverage of the incident has been sparse, reports that have appeared have hinted that the perpetrators were not Arab terrorists, but rather anti-religious Jewish Israelis.

Posted on: May 9th, 2003

Several weeks ago, Rabbi Mordechai Willig went public with an apology to a young man over the treatment meted out to him ten years ago by a Beth Din headed by Rabbi Willig. The young man had brought charges against Rabbi Baruch Lanner and was severely chastised by the tribunal following their consideration of the matter.

Posted on: May 9th, 2003

Ever since 9/11, President Bush's constant refrain has been an uncompromising effort at eliminating terror and its infrastructure around the world. Plainly, this has not been the product of a Pollyannish notion of refashioning the world in the American image, but rather of a hard-nosed evaluation of what it will take to minimize the threat from fundamentalists around the world bent on America's destruction.