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Opinion
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us .
ISRAEL. WILL NEVER
ALLOW SYRIAN GUNS
BACK ONTO THE
GOLAN HEIGHTS!
NEVER!!
NEVER!!
NEVER!!
Editorial
Putin's Folly
T
here is a huge shadow
slowly extending across
the Middle East, and it
belongs to a nation that did its
best to destabilize the region in
the past.
Under the leadership of
Vladimir Putin, Russia is again
trying to assert itself as a major
player in international affairs.
Hopes that a democratic Russia
would be an ally in the search
for peace in the Middle East are
crumbling.
Putin, instead, has buddied up
to the despicable regime in Iran
and systematically blocked any
attempt by the United Nations
to impose meaningful sanc-
tions against its nuclear ambi-
tions. Russia also is assisting in
construction of Iran's $1 billion
nuclear power plant. It seems
to be a replay of the 1960s and
'70s, when the Soviet Union
was a major source of weapons
technology for Israel's most dedi-
cated enemies.
Putin is slowly reimposing
state control over the Russian
economy and news media.
Entrepreneurs who seem to be
guilty of nothing more than
making too much money in
industries coveted by friends of
the political leadership are given
prison sentences. Chief among
them is Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
owner of Yukos, the largest oil
company.
Khodorkovsky,
who is Jewish
and reputed to
have been the
richest man in
Russia, is serving
time in Siberia.
He was charged
with tax evasion, although the
claims against Yukos actu-
ally exceeded its income for the
period in question. The company
was turned over to a state-run
firm headed by Igor Sechin, a
great friend of Putin's. Oil and
gas production, which were sup-
posed to supply a foundation of
prosperity, subsequently have
plummeted.
Reporters who attempt to
investigate these things too
closely show a disturbing ten-
dency to be murdered. It's as if
the old Soviet Union, minus the
pretense of rule by the prole-
tariat, is slowly emerging from
the grave.
There doesn't seem to be any
great degree of anti-Semitism
(although in Russia that's always
a possibility) or a particular ani-
mus towards Israel in any of this.
AND IF WE
AGREE TO WAIT
20
YEARS?
Putin is slowly reimposing
state control over the Russian
economy and news media.
It's just business as far as Putin is
concerned. Rewarding his friends
and making Russia count again
in world politics.
But just as Natan Scharans
now a force in Israeli politics,
spoke out fearlessly against
the old Soviet regime, Garry
Kasparov, who is partly Jewish,
is among the leaders in protests
against Putin. The former world
chess champion was at the center
of street demonstrations against
Putin in Moscow last month.
"I think that it's a vital
moment now for Russian democ-
racy to convince people that
it's only our actions, our joined
actions, and protests that could
force the Kremlin to recon-
sider its plans:' says Kasparov.
Attention and support should be
given to what he and his allies
are doing.
It is disheartening that Russia
has backed away from democ-
racy to fall into an authoritarian
president, but generally
praised after leaving
the job as a statesman
and seeker of wisdom.
But he seems to have
gone off the rails
lately. His recent book,
Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid, has been
denounced by most
objective reviewers as
factually dishonest and
morally offensive.
In addition to absolving the
Palestinians of all accountability
for the murderers among them,
there is the inevitable salvo at the
"Jewish Lobby," which presum-
ably holds the U.S. government
in its thrall.
Now he is trying to wriggle out
of it by saying the word "apart-
heid" was chosen only to get
attention for the book and ensure
that it would be reviewed and
read more widely
than it might have
been otherwise.
This is his idea
of a justification?
To me, that only
enhances the sleazi-
ness of the enter-
prise. I only wonder
why he neglected
to throw in the
Protocols of the
Elders of Zion?
Is it too late to take back my
1976 vote for him? It's the one I
regret most in any election.
Some Democrats wanted the
book's release to be held up until
after the November election so
that it wouldn't hurt the party
with Jewish voters. They also
spread the word that Carter was
out of the party's mainstream.
Let's hope so.
Although the party made a
DryBonesBlog.corn
embrace once more. But Putin's
misguided adventures in the
Middle East endanger the entire
region.
It's a big price to pay for
Russian pride. Li
E-mail letters of no more
than 150 words to:
letters@thejewishnews.com .
Reality Check
Time's Revenge
ournalists like to tell
themselves that they
write "the first draft of
history."
In reality, it's more like his-
tory's extreme close-up; a shot
so tight that it has no meaning
until the camera pulls back over
time to reveal the bigger picture.
That's why it is absurd to rate
a U.S. president's performance
until he is out of office for at least
30 years. Because history has a
way of surprising you.
George W. Bush's record, for
example, looks pretty dismal
today. But so did Harry Truman's
when he left the presidency after
the 1952 election. Now Truman is
ranked among the greats, while
Woodrow Wilson, admired as
an outstanding chief executive
during his lifetime, has been
knocked down several notches.
Look at the reassessment of
30
January
2007
Gerald Ford following his death.
Certainly not a great president,
his tenure is given far more
respect now than it ever was
while he was in office. He was
mocked as a clumsy bumbler
and detested as the man who
robbed the left of the satisfaction
of seeing Richard Nixon do the
perp walk.
Now he is admired, even by
opponents who sneered at him
then, as someone who did the
right thing at great personal
cost. Henry Kissinger said in his
eulogy that he may have been
one of the "10 just men" of the
Talmud who redeem the rest of
mankind for its sins, which may
be going some.
In contrast, however, look
at Jimmy Carter, the man who
defeated Ford in 1976, primarily
on the issue of Nixon's pardon.
He was an ineffectual one-term
concerted effort to recruit cen-
trist candidates in the last elec-
tion, Carter's views are in perfect
accord with those of its left wing.
Some liberal Jews are in denial
about that. But that's their prob-
lem.
Who knows how Bush will be
judged in 2037? There is a long
way to go before the struggle
with Islamic terrorism is resolved
and, as unlikely as it may seem
today, history may show that his
policies were not so misguided.
As Bob Dylan put it, "The wheel's
still in spin."
Journalism already has flunked
him. But the camera has not yet
begun its long, slow pullback to
the wider shot. I I
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .