tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25090914167574712142024-03-12T20:32:49.779-07:00Brian's blogBrian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-7214773460772815222014-10-19T09:25:00.004-07:002014-10-19T09:28:22.718-07:00I endorse Jerako Biaje for Toronto School Board Trustee in Ward 5, York Centre<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jerako Biaje</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">As I noted
in an earlier post (</span><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2014/10/i-support-richard-klagsbrun-for-school.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">),
the Toronto District School Board has a well-deserved reputation as the most dysfunctional
school board in Canada. We need to vote out the incumbents who have made such a
mess of things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">In School
Board Ward 5 (York Centre), I endorse <b><span style="color: #351c75;">Jerako
Biaje.</span></b> Of all the candidates running to replace our current incompetent
Trustee, she looks like far the best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Here’s
where Jerako stands on the issues:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hi Brian,<br />
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Re. Consolidating Half Empty Schools and Closing the Emptiest Schools:<br />
I am willing to consolidate half-empty schools and close the emptiest ones. I
would hope that the parents and residents in Ward 5 share that view. However, my
job will be to represent you/Ward 5. As a side note: I hold a strong position
against selling TDSB owned property.<br />
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Re. Curriculum:<br />
Yes, I have already turned a skeptical eye on social justice classes as well as
working to get the politics out of schools. I have grave concerns regarding the
curriculum. Prior to leaving the Board's Parent Involvement Advisory Committee, we were gaining momentum on our Curriculum
Committee on this issue. Working to get politics out of our schools is a must!<br />
<br />
Re. Budget:<br />
I am going to be the Board’s nightmare regarding the budget. The budget will be
held up like a mirror – I am a vigilante. I know who the main perpetrators are
regarding the people who have completely disregarded and disrespected their
fiscal responsibility. Hold me accountable, too.<br />
<br />
My job will be to represent you and the rest of Ward 5. I will bring the items
from the Board back to parents and residents for their vote (by way of Ward
council meeting/email/newsletter). If for some reason we do not share the same
position I will represent your position, that is my job.<br />
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I hope these answers have been helpful.<br />
<br />
Thank you,<br />
Jerako</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Visit her Jerako’s
Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JerakoBiaje"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a> and her
Twitter page <a href="https://twitter.com/JerakoBiaje"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-63384436417357538962014-10-11T06:52:00.003-07:002014-10-11T06:53:49.590-07:00I support Richard Klagsbrun for school trustee in Ward 10, Trinity-spadina<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cjnews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/350px/richard_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cjnews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/350px/richard_0.jpg" height="367" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Klagsbrun</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">The
Toronto School Board has a well-deserved reputation as the most dysfunctional
school board in Canada.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Board faces
a huge crisis of declining enrollment and empty schools – which it does nothing
about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">While
unable to provide decent facilities for our kids, the Board wastes huge sums of
money. For a glimpse of how awful financial controls are at the Board, start <a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-toronto-school-board-financial.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">And while
it’s utterly incompetent when it comes to the basics, the Board spends time
promoting far left politics and sees no problem with indoctrinating our
kids. {For more on this, see <a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2012/05/new-racism-in-our-kids-schools.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>,
<a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/12/success-toronto-school-board-takes.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>,
<a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/10/toronto-high-school-teacher-links-to.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a> … for starters.}<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">With
elections for School Board Trustees coming up in a couple weeks, we have a
chance to do something about this dismal state of affairs. In Ward 10, Richard
Klagsbrun is running for school trustee on a campaign of better financial
management and less political indoctrination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Moreover,
as the man behind the well-known blog, <a href="http://eyecrazy.blogspot.ca/"><span style="color: blue;">Eye on a Crazy Planet</span></a>, Richard has the
track record to prove his long-standing interest in the issues. He has my
support. Check out Richard's campaign website <a href="http://www.klagsbrun.ca/"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/53/196904602_cdf010f28d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/53/196904602_cdf010f28d.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.6666660308838px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #221e1e;">Ausma Malik speaking at antisemitic </span><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/08/al-quds-day-in-toronto-multicultural.html"><span style="color: blue;">al-Quds Day Rally</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;"> in Toronto,</span><br /><span style="color: #221e1e;">with yellow flag of Hezbollah terrorist group in background</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">What’s
more, Richard’s main opponent in the election is <span style="background: white; color: #221e1e;">Ausma Malik</span> </span><span style="line-height: 17pt;">a woman best known for her sympathy
for terrorists. No I’m not kidding. Read more </span><a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/news/canada/2014/09/30/chow-endorses-radical-muslim-terrorist-sympathizer-for-trustee" style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a><span style="line-height: 17pt;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Unfortunately,
Malik is a strong contender. The unions believe they’ll always have her vote so they’re supporting her (see <span style="color: blue;">here</span>) and she’s received endorsements from the downtown NDP
establishment, including mayoral candidate Olivia Chow. I trust Chow simply didn’t
bother to check Ausuma’s background before endorsing her, but now that it’s
come out, I can’t help noticing that Chow is sticking by her support for this
terrorist sympathizer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ah well, after starting as the front runner, Chow is now in third place, well behind Doug Ford in the polls and so far behind John Tory that media should start classifying her as one of the many fringe candidates. Indeed, now that she's supporting Malik, maybe Chow will actually end up with a vote count that has to be tallied with negative numbers.</span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-35141255263231291092014-10-05T13:03:00.000-07:002014-10-05T14:02:03.503-07:00Olivia Chow and other candidates for Toronto City Council and for the Toronto School Board are fully owned by unions<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1700767!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1700767!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Tory ~ in favour of saving another $11 million per year for Toronto citizens, even if it upsets the unions</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">The
problem with Olivia Chow is that she’s against hiring out garbage collection to
the private sector. More exactly the problem is the reason she’s against it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">As it
stands, a private company collects the garbage on the west side of the city,
while on the east side, city workers still collect the garbage. Giving the work
to a private company on the west side is saving the city $11 million dollars a
year. What’s more, service isn’t merely as good; it’s better. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Naturally
(almost) everyone running for mayor wants to extend private garbage collection to
the east side, too. John Tory and Doug Ford both consider the question a
no-brainer. As far as I can tell so does every other mayoral candidate – except
Olivia Chow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Chow says
she wants to encourage diversity in our garbage collection (whatever that
means). Everyone knows it’s really because the city garbage collectors are
unionized. And when it comes down to it, Chow sides with the unions – even if
it’s against the interests of the people of Toronto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">I have
nothing against unions. I’m a union member myself. But I want my mayor, my city
councillors and my school board representatives to be on my side. I want them
looking out for my tax dollars and making sure the city gets the best deal possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Unfortunately,
Olivia Chow is not on my side. And I understand why. She believes in unions,
and in return, the unions believe in her. What’s more, the unions show their support
with money and manpower – and lots of it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">The unions
have helped Chow immensely in every political battle she’s ever fought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Chow isn’t
the only would-be member of city council who sides with the unions more than
with the people of Toronto. The Toronto and York Region Labour Council has provided a
convenient list of would-be Toronto councillors and would-be school board
representatives who they can rely on to always vote in favour of union
positions and, if necessary, to vote against the interests of the people of Toronto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">If you
want the city and the school board to pay millions more than necessary for
worse work, then vote for the following candidates…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #351c75;">Union endorsed candidates for City Councillor:</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 1
(Etobicoke North): Idil Burale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 2
(Etobicoke North):Andray Domise <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 6
(Etobicoke Lakeshore): Russ Ford<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 7
(York West): Keegan Henry-Mathieu<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 8
(York West): Anthony Perruzza <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 9
(York West): Maria Augimeri <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 12
(York South Weston): Lekan Olawoye <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 13
(Parkdale High Park): Sarah Doucette<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 14
(Parkdale High Park): Gord Perks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 17
(Davenport): Alejandra Bravo <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 18
(Davenport): Ana Bailão <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 19
(Trinity Spadina): Mike Layton <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 20
(Trinity Spadina): Joe Cressy <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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(St. Paul’s): Joe Mihevc <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 24
(Willowdale): Dan Fox <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 26
(Don Valley West): David Sparrow <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 27
(Toronto Centre Rosedale): Kristyn
Wong-Tam <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 28
(Toronto Centre Rosedale): Pam McConnell <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 29
(Toronto Daforth): Mary Fragedakis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Union endorsed candidates for the Toronto
District School Board:</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 5 –
York Centre: Howard Kaplan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 7 –
Parkdale High Park: Robin Pilkey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 8 –
Eglinton Lawrence: Jennifer Arp<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 10
Trinity Spadina: Ausma Malik<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 14
Toronto Centre Rosedale: Chris Moise<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 17
Don Valley East: Robert Cerjanec<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 18
Scarborough Southwest: Parthi Kandavel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 20
Scarborough Agincourt: Manna Wong<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 21
Scarborough Rouge River: Shaun Chen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 4
North York: Marina Laccona<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 5
North York: Maria Rizzo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ward 12
Scarborough: Paulina Corpuz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Town of
Georgina Ward 3: Dave Neeson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-22858779242593916572014-09-10T12:34:00.001-07:002014-10-05T14:03:57.327-07:00Review of Fields of Exile by Nora Gold<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="color: #252324;">Dundurn Press (2014), 424 pages, E-book $9.99, Trade Paperback $24.99, available </span></i><a href="http://www.dundurn.com/books/fields_exile" style="color: #6e88a7; line-height: 17pt; text-decoration: none;"><i><span style="color: blue;">here</span></i></a><i style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="color: #252324;">.</span></i></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #252324;">Fields of Exile</span></i></b><span style="color: #252324;"> is a portrait of love and hate. The heroine, Judith, loves Israel. And the book’s finest writing details that love in beautiful, sensual prose. But after ten sweet years in the arms of her beloved land, Judith returns to Canada and enrolls in a Master’s of Social Work program. And there she encounters hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">It’s a hatred that Jews with leftist friends or who have had the misfortune to be on campus since the launch of the Palestinian terror war against Israel in September 2000 will recognize: it’s the 21<sup>st</sup> Century manifestation of Jew-hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">Personally, I’ve been called a Nazi while wearing a kippa when I was at a party with leftist friends. To be precise, because I was visibly Jewish that day, I was asked if I was a Zionist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">I thought it a weird question, like asking someone if they’re a suffragette, if they believe women should have the vote. Doesn’t everybody? Wasn’t that question already decided?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">Am I a Zionist? Do I think Jews should have their own country? Again, wasn’t that question already decided? Israel exists, right? So, yeah, I said, of course I’m a Zionist. Well then, I was told, you’re a Nazi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">According to a remarkable number of self-described “progressives,” Israel is the epitome of earthly evil and should cease to exist. Such progressive aren’t particular about what should happen to the Jews who live there, either – or to Jews who have the nerve to call themselves Zionists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">This is the re-born hatred that Judith walks into when she enrolls in a Master’s program at a fictional university near Toronto. As a reader, I found her achingly naive. Judith finds it normal for an academic department to have a declared political agenda. Her university was already like that ten years earlier when she took her BSW.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">She does feel uneasy when one student dares to dissent from the ruling ideology of “anti-oppression.” The pack turns on this hapless student who declares an opposition to abortion. She’s ridiculed, humiliated, torn to shreds by her enlightened comrades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">Not that Judith agrees with this anti-abortion student. Judith is herself a child of the left. In Israel, she did good work building bridges between Israeli and Palestinian youths, and she is among a handful of Israelis who still believes in the peace movement. This, after Israel’s supposed peace partner responded to two comprehensive peace proposals with a campaign of suicide bombings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">While Palestinian terrorists blow up seniors at a</span><a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/2002/Pages/Passover%20suicide%20bombing%20at%20Park%20Hotel%20in%20Netanya.aspx" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Passover sede</span><span style="color: #252324;">r</span></a><span style="color: #252324;"> and murder teenagers at an </span><a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/2001/Pages/Tel-Aviv%20suicide%20bombing%20at%20the%20Dolphin%20disco%20-%201-.aspx" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">all-ages disco</span></a><span style="color: #252324;">, Judith and her friends stand in front of the Israeli prime minister’s office to protest against their own government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">But they are not so deluded as to admire the terrorists – unlike the students Judith finds in Canada, who do idolize terrorists and figure Israelis are getting what they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">For me, the great strength of this novel is Nora Gold’s spot on portrayal of the shock of encountering antisemitism, the dizzying dismay of finding that howling hateful horde even here in Canada.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">On the other side of the ledger, though, I think the novel wastes too many words on Judith’s ruminations about Jews in exile versus Jews in Israel. I don’t see this as much of an issue in the Jewish community and it’s of even less interest to the wider public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Pr0-Palestinian thug assaults Israel supporter at protest</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #252324; line-height: 17pt;">Also, Gold invents a new Palestinian terror group, which massacres a group of children in a bombing attack. I have a queasy feeling that Gold isn't sure she can trust readers to be outraged by Hamas or the other terrorist groups operating in Israel and so felt she had to invent a group that’s even worse.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">In a similar vein, Gold’s anti-Israel activists tend to slide into outright antisemitism in obvious ways. But this is a substantial novel. With close to 130,000 words to work with, Gold could have exposed more subtle varieties of hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252324;">Still, her book couldn’t be more timely. During the recent Hamas–Israel war, we saw the </span><a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/news/2014/08/26/york-u-student-president-glorifies-terrorist" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #252324;">p</span><span style="color: blue;">resident of York University’s student federation</span></a><span style="color: #252324;"> idolizing one of the </span><span style="color: #221e1e;">FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists, posting photos and quotes on his Facebook page. Meanwhile, on its Facebook page, York’s anti-Israel apartheid group posted an </span><a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/news/2014/08/18/saiayork-posts-terrorists-interview-on-facebook-page" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">interview with a Gaza-based terrorist</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;">. This, unfortunately, was no surprise as the apartheid group regularly features terrorists and their supporters at its </span><a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/news/2014/03/04/terrorists-among-guests-of-israeli-apartheid-week-on-campuses" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">anti-Israel events</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #221e1e;">Even worse, we’ve seen Jews </span><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/07/21/pro-gaza-rallies-worldwide-tainted-by-anti-semitism-calgary-organizer-to-apologize-for-violence/" style="color: #6e88a7; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">physically assaulted</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;">, with Jews punched and kicked and one Calgary man dragged across the street by an Israeli flag tied around his neck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #221e1e;">To be sure, the haters are few in number, but they can’t be ignored. Nora Gold is affiliated with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (</span><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2011/12/the-oise-cult-of-conformity.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">OISE</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;">), which like the fictional university in her novel, is committed to an "</span><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2012/05/new-racism-in-our-kids-schools.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">anti-oppression</span></a><span style="color: #221e1e;">" ideology and is one of the centres of the new antisemitism. So her novel is something of an insider’s view of the hatred that infects our campuses. For anyone interested in what's happening on our campuses and in what the leaders and teachers of tomorrow are being taught, it's a must read.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #221e1e;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #221e1e;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 22.6666660308838px;">A slightly shorter version of this review was published in the </span><a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/" style="line-height: 22.6666660308838px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Jewish Tribune</span></a><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 22.6666660308838px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22.6666660308838px;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=252893&h=530&w=758" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=252893&h=530&w=758" height="278" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hamas operative in Gaza</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">The Palestinian factions continue their usual cordial relations. F</span></span><span class="sep" style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="color: #3e3d3d;">rom the </span><a href="http://freebeacon.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Washington Free Beacon</span></a><span style="color: #3e3d3d;">, by </span></span></span><span class="author" style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://freebeacon.com/author/abraham-rabinovich/" title="View all posts by Abraham Rabinovich"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Abraham Rabinovich</span></span></a></span></span></div>
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2014-09-07T16:12:46+00:00" pubdate="" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #878787; font-style: italic;">September
7, 2014 4:12 pm</time></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">JERUSALEM—In a scathing criticism of Hamas, Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ridiculed the organization’s claims of
victory in the recent confrontation with Israel and accused it over the weekend
of executing 120 Gaza residents for breaching a curfew during the war, an
allegation heretofore not heard publicly.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Referring to Hamas’ boast at the end of the 50-day war
that it was “allowing Israelis to return to their homes,” he noted that 400,000
Gazans had been left homeless by the war. “Who will return Gaza’s residents to
their homes,” he asked sarcastically. Although 4,000 rockets had been fired
into Israel, he noted, only three persons had been killed.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He asked how Hamas could have been surprised by Israel’s
military response after having abducted and murdered three Israeli teenagers
and then firing rockets into Israel.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Abbas has previously condemned Hamas for publicly
executing alleged informers for Israel during the war (the numbers given range
from 27 to 38 executions) without trial. In a meeting with journalists in Cairo
Saturday night, he said “Hamas also conducted atrocities at the war’s end when
it executed 120 people without trial because they breached the curfew.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Palestinian Authority signed an agreement with Hamas
several months ago to form a national unity “technocratic” government that
would end seven years of rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and
Gaza. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">This isn’t the first time Fatah members have blasted Hamas since
the end of Hamas’s recent war against Israel.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On August 30, the Fatah Central Committee accused Hamas of
targeting Fatah members in Gaza during the war and of stealing humanitarian aid.
According to the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/">Jerusalem Post</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The statement said Hamas placed more than 300 Fatah members under house
arrest, exposing them to Israeli air strikes.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Other
Fatah members were kept in Hamas prisons during the war, which also endangered
their lives, the statement said.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Fatah
said it preferred to remain silent toward the Hamas “crimes” during the war out
of keenness to preserve Palestinian unity.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Fatah
also accused Hamas of confiscating food and medicine sent to the Gaza Strip
from the West Bank and other countries. It said Hamas distributed the aid among
its men in mosques and sold some of it in the black market.</span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.focusonisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/fatah-hamas-riconciliazione-palestinese-focus-on-israel-300x171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.focusonisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/fatah-hamas-riconciliazione-palestinese-focus-on-israel-300x171.jpg" height="228" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">But Abbas’s big problem with Hamas is that the Shin Bet recently
uncovered a Hamas plot to overthrow him in the West Bank – repeating their 2007
coup against Fatah in Gaza.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #3e3d3d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to the Jerusalem Post:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A large-scale Hamas terrorist formation in the West Bank and Jerusalem planned to destabilize the
region through a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel and then topple
the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)
said Monday.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The
Shin Bet announcement was a follow to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Hamas-West-Bank-head-arrested-indicted-for-planning-wave-of-terror-attacks-370332" target="_blank"><em><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Jerusalem
Post</span></em><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">first exclusively breaking the story</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">regarding the busting and indicting of Hamas's West Bank
leader, dozens of his operatives and a massive plot to recreate Hamas's West
Bank infrastructure on August 7.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The
plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey and
centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the
Shin Bet added.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The
end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability
to carry out a military coup, overthrowing the government of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The
plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey and
centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the
Shin Bet added.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The
end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability
to carry out a military coup, overthrowing the government of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">The
plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey and
centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the
Shin Bet added.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">The
end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability
to carry out a military coup, overthrowing the government of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Understandably, Abbas has been pretty pissed off at Hamas ever since the
Shin Bet shared its evidence of this plot. But really, no serious observer of
Palestinian politics ever placed much faith in the supposed Fatah-Hamas unity
deal to start with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">For starters, there’s no realistic hope for stability when each Palestinian
political party has its own army. Indeed, the last “unity government” with
Fatah and Hamas ended with Hamas’s bloody 2007 coup in Gaza. As Time magazine <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1632089,00.html">reported</a>,
back on June 12, 2007:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hamas and
Fatah may have passed the point of no return: The unprecedented viciousness of
the renewed fighting between the rival Palestinian factions in Gaza makes any
new cease-fire difficult to envisage; this time, it may be a fight to the
death.</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Since the
new clashes erupted on Sunday, gangs have tossed their enemies alive off
15-story buildings, shot down one another's children, and burst into hospitals
to finish off wounded foes lying helplessly in bed. The revenge motive alone
could now be enough to sustain the civil war.</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">The
fighters of Hamas are better organized and motivated than those of President
Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization, and by the second day of fighting they had
seized the advantage, flushing Fatah militants out of security posts and
installations throughout the Gaza Strip. Doctors reported that in the last 24
hours, 21 Palestinians have been killed and another 120 wounded in the
fighting.</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Both Hamas
and Fatah have vowed to kill each other's political and military leaders, and
have tried to do so with a vengance. Twice in the past 48 hours, Fatah members
shelled the home of Hamas leader and Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh. He and his
family were unhurt.</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">It did not
help the morale of Fatah gunmen that their senior commander, Mohammed Dahlan —
a sharp-suited favorite of the Israelis and the U.S. — slipped out of Gaza as
soon as the fighting started. Soon afterwards, Hamas members cornered a top
Dahlan commander, Jamal Abud a-Jediyan, near his home and pumped 45 bullets
into him. One Fatah officer, Colonel Nasser Khaldi, contacted by a news agency,
complained: "There is a weakness of our leaders. Hamas is just taking over
our positions. There are no orders."</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Meanwhile,
President Abbas, who remains a safe distance away from the fury of Gaza at his
fortress home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, has accused Hamas — his
partner in a short-lived unity government — of trying to stage a coup.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">And within a couple days of this report, it became clear Hamas
was not just trying; it succeeded in overthrowing Fatah in Gaza. And everyone
who knows anything about Palestinian politics, knows that, given the chance,
Hamas will take over the West Bank the same way.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-6265592781171339822014-09-01T17:08:00.001-07:002014-09-01T19:31:51.567-07:00An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This is a long article and I don't agree with all of it, but it's the best piece about the reporting of the Israeli-Arab conflict that I've read in years</span></div>
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<span style="color: #646464; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><b>A former AP correspondent explains how and why reporters get Israel so
wrong, and why it matters<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> </span></b><span style="color: #646464; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16pt;">By </span><span style="color: #e65a1e; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16pt;"><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/author/matti-friedman/">Matti
Friedman</a></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Israel Story</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Is there anything
left to say about Israel and Gaza? Newspapers this summer have been full of
little else. Television viewers see heaps of rubble and plumes of smoke in
their sleep. A representative </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/aflame-2"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">article</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> from a recent issue of <i>The</i> <i>New
Yorker</i> described the summer’s events by dedicating one sentence each
to the horrors in Nigeria and Ukraine, four sentences to the crazed <i>génocidaires</i> of
ISIS, and the rest of the article—30 sentences—to Israel and Gaza.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">When the hysteria
abates, I believe the events in Gaza will not be remembered by the world as
particularly important. People were killed, most of them Palestinians,
including many unarmed innocents. I wish I could say the tragedy of their deaths,
or the deaths of Israel’s soldiers, will change something, that they mark a
turning point. But they don’t. This round was not the first in the Arab wars
with Israel and will not be the last. The Israeli campaign was little different
in its execution from any other waged by a Western army against a similar enemy
in recent years, except for the more immediate nature of the threat to a
country’s own population, and the greater exertions, however futile, to avoid
civilian deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The lasting
importance of this summer’s war, I believe, doesn’t lie in the war itself. It
lies instead in the way the war has been described and responded to abroad, and
the way this has laid bare the resurgence of an old, twisted pattern of thought
and its migration from the margins to the mainstream of Western
discourse—namely, a hostile obsession with Jews. The key to understanding this
resurgence is not to be found among jihadi webmasters, basement conspiracy
theorists, or radical activists. It is instead to be found first among the
educated and respectable people who populate the international news industry;
decent people, many of them, and some of them my former colleagues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">While global mania
about Israeli actions has come to be taken for granted, it is actually the
result of decisions made by individual human beings in positions of
responsibility—in this case, journalists and editors. The world is not
responding to events in this country, but rather to the description of these
events by news organizations. The key to understanding the strange nature of
the response is thus to be found in the practice of journalism, and
specifically in a severe malfunction that is occurring in that profession—my
profession—here in Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">In this essay I
will try to provide a few tools to make sense of the news from Israel. I
acquired these tools as an insider: Between 2006 and the end of 2011 I was a
reporter and editor in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press, one of the
world’s two biggest news providers. I have lived in Israel since 1995 and have
been reporting on it since 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">This essay is not
an exhaustive survey of the sins of the international media, a conservative
polemic, or a defense of Israeli policies. (I am a believer in the importance
of the “mainstream” media, a liberal, and a critic of many of my country’s
policies.) It necessarily involves some generalizations. I will first outline
the central tropes of the international media’s Israel story—a story on which
there is surprisingly little variation among mainstream outlets, and one which
is, as the word “story” suggests, a narrative construct that is largely
fiction. I will then note the broader historical context of the way Israel has
come to be discussed and explain why I believe it to be a matter of concern not
only for people preoccupied with Jewish affairs. I will try to keep it brief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">How Important Is
the Israel Story?</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Staffing is the
best measure of the importance of a story to a particular news organization.
When I was a correspondent at the AP, the agency had more than 40 staffers
covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. That was significantly more
news staff than the AP had in China, Russia, or India, or in all of the 50
countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined. It was higher than the total number
of news-gathering employees in all the countries where the uprisings of the
“Arab Spring” eventually erupted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">To offer a sense of
scale: Before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, the permanent AP presence
in that country consisted of a single regime-approved stringer. The AP’s
editors believed, that is, that Syria’s importance was less than one-40th that
of Israel. I don’t mean to pick on the AP—the agency is wholly average, which
makes it useful as an example. The big players in the news business practice groupthink,
and these staffing arrangements were reflected across the herd. Staffing levels
in Israel have decreased somewhat since the Arab uprisings began, but remain
high. And when Israel flares up, as it did this summer, reporters are often
moved from deadlier conflicts. Israel still trumps nearly everything else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The volume of press
coverage that results, even when little is going on, gives this conflict a
prominence compared to which its actual human toll is absurdly small. In all of
2013, for example, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict claimed 42 lives—that is,
roughly the monthly homicide rate in the city of Chicago. Jerusalem,
internationally renowned as a city of conflict, had slightly fewer violent
deaths per capita last year than Portland, Ore., one of America’s safer cities.
In contrast, in three years the Syrian conflict has claimed an estimated
190,000 lives, or about 70,000 more than the number of people who have ever
died in the Arab-Israeli conflict since it began a century ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">News organizations
have nonetheless decided that this conflict is more important than, for
example, the more than 1,600 women </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.nation.com.pk/national/07-Mar-2014/1600-pakistani-women-murdered-370-raped-in-2013"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">murdered in Pakistan last year</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> (271 after being raped and 193
of them burned alive), the ongoing </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-promotes-mixed-marriages-in-tibet-as-way-to-achieve-unity/2014/08/16/94409ca6-238e-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">erasure of Tibet</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> by the Chinese Communist Party,
the </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/17/congo-reporting-media-war-anjan-sundaram"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">carnage in Congo</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> (more than 5 million dead as of
2012) or the </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117519/central-african-republic-conflict-africas-bloodiest-fight"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Central African Republic</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">, and the drug wars in Mexico (death
toll between 2006 and 2012: </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/02/world/americas/mexico-drug-war-fast-facts/"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">60,000</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">), let alone conflicts no one has
ever heard of in obscure corners of </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.geneva-academy.ch/RULAC/current_conflict.php?id_state=107"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">India</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> or </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.geneva-academy.ch/RULAC/current_conflict.php?id_state=218"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Thailand</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">. They believe Israel to be the most
important story on earth, or very close.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">What Is Important
About the Israel Story, and What Is Not</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">A reporter working
in the international press corps here understands quickly that what is
important in the Israel-Palestinian story is Israel. If you follow mainstream
coverage, you will find nearly no real analysis of Palestinian society or
ideologies, profiles of armed Palestinian groups, or investigation of
Palestinian government. Palestinians are not taken seriously as agents of their
own fate. The West has decided that Palestinians should want a state alongside
Israel, so that opinion is attributed to them as fact, though anyone who has
spent time with actual Palestinians understands that things are
(understandably, in my opinion) more complicated. Who they are and what they
want is not important: The story mandates that they exist as passive victims of
the party that matters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Corruption, for
example, is a pressing concern for many Palestinians under the rule of the Palestinian
Authority, but when I and another reporter once suggested an article on the
subject, we were informed by the bureau chief that Palestinian corruption was
“not the story.” (Israeli corruption was, and we covered it at length.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Israeli actions are
analyzed and criticized, and every flaw in Israeli society is aggressively
reported. In one seven-week period, from Nov. 8 to Dec. 16, 2011, I decided to
count the stories coming out of our bureau on the various moral failings of
Israeli society—proposed legislation meant to suppress the media, the rising
influence of Orthodox Jews, unauthorized settlement outposts, gender
segregation, and so forth. I counted 27 separate articles, an average of a
story every two days. In a very conservative estimate, this seven-week tally
was higher than the total number of significantly critical stories about
Palestinian government and society, including the totalitarian Islamists of
Hamas, that our bureau had published in the preceding three years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Hamas charter,
for example, calls not just for Israel’s destruction but for the murder of Jews
and blames Jews for engineering the French and Russian revolutions and both
world wars; the charter was never mentioned in print when I was at the AP,
though Hamas won a Palestinian national election and had become one of the
region’s most important players. To draw the link with this summer’s events: An
observer might think Hamas’ decision in recent years to construct a military
infrastructure beneath Gaza’s civilian infrastructure would be deemed
newsworthy, if only because of what it meant about the way the next conflict
would be fought and the cost to innocent people. But that is not the case. The
Hamas emplacements were not important in themselves, and were therefore
ignored. What was important was the Israeli decision to attack them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">There has been much
discussion recently of Hamas attempts to intimidate reporters. Any veteran of
the press corps here knows the intimidation is real, and I saw it in action
myself as an editor on the AP news desk. During the 2008-2009 Gaza fighting I
personally erased a key detail—that Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians
and being counted as civilians in the death toll—because of a threat to our
reporter in Gaza. (The policy was then, and remains, not to inform readers that
the story is censored unless the censorship is Israeli. Earlier this month, the
AP’s Jerusalem news editor reported and submitted a story on Hamas
intimidation; the story was shunted into deep freeze by his superiors and has
not been published.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">But if critics
imagine that journalists are clamoring to cover Hamas and are stymied by thugs
and threats, it is generally not so. There are many low-risk ways to report
Hamas actions, if the will is there: under bylines from Israel, under no
byline, by citing Israeli sources. Reporters are resourceful when they want to
be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The fact is that
Hamas intimidation is largely beside the point because the actions of
Palestinians are beside the point: Most reporters in Gaza believe their job is
to document violence directed by Israel at Palestinian civilians. That is the
essence of the Israel story. In addition, reporters are under deadline and
often at risk, and many don’t speak the language and have only the most tenuous
grip on what is going on. They are dependent on Palestinian colleagues and
fixers who either fear Hamas, support Hamas, or both. Reporters don’t need
Hamas enforcers to shoo them away from facts that muddy the simple story they
have been sent to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">It is not
coincidence that the few journalists who have documented Hamas fighters and
rocket launches in civilian areas this summer were generally not, as you might
expect, from the large news organizations with big and permanent Gaza
operations. They were mostly scrappy, peripheral, and newly arrived players—a
Finn, an </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/181454/video-shows-hamas-firing-rocket-from-residential-area"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Indian</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> crew, a few others. These poor
souls didn’t get the memo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">What Else Isn’t
Important?</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The fact that
Israelis quite recently elected moderate governments that sought reconciliation
with the Palestinians, and which were undermined by the Palestinians, is
considered unimportant and rarely mentioned. These lacunae are often not
oversights but a matter of policy. In early 2009, for example, two colleagues
of mine obtained information that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had made a
significant peace offer to the Palestinian Authority several months earlier,
and that the Palestinians had deemed it insufficient. This had not been
reported yet and it was—or should have been—one of the biggest stories of the
year. The reporters obtained confirmation from both sides and one even saw a
map, but the top editors at the bureau decided that they would not publish the
story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Some staffers were
furious, but it didn’t help. Our narrative was that the Palestinians were
moderate and the Israelis recalcitrant and increasingly extreme. Reporting the
Olmert offer—like delving too deeply into the subject of Hamas—would make that
narrative look like nonsense. And so we were instructed to ignore it, and did,
for more than a year and a half.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">This decision
taught me a lesson that should be clear to consumers of the Israel story: Many
of the people deciding what you will read and see from here view their role not
as explanatory but as political. Coverage is a weapon to be placed at the
disposal of the side they like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">How Is the Israel
Story Framed?</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Israel story is
framed in the same terms that have been in use since the early 1990s—the quest
for a “two-state solution.” It is accepted that the conflict is
“Israeli-Palestinian,” meaning that it is a conflict taking place on land that
Israel controls—0.2 percent of the Arab world—in which Jews are a majority and
Arabs a minority. The conflict is more accurately described as “Israel-Arab,”
or “Jewish-Arab”—that is, a conflict between the 6 million Jews of Israel and
300 million Arabs in surrounding countries. (Perhaps “Israel-Muslim” would be
more accurate, to take into account the enmity of non-Arab states like Iran and
Turkey, and, more broadly, 1 billion Muslims worldwide.) This is the conflict
that has been playing out in different forms for a century, before Israel
existed, before Israel captured the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the
West Bank, and before the term “Palestinian” was in use.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The
“Israeli-Palestinian” framing allows the Jews, a tiny minority in the Middle
East, to be depicted as the stronger party. It also includes the implicit
assumption that if the Palestinian problem is somehow solved the conflict will
be over, though no informed person today believes this to be true. This
definition also allows the Israeli settlement project, which I believe is a
serious moral and strategic error on Israel’s part, to be described not as what
it is—one more destructive symptom of the conflict—but rather as its cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">A knowledgeable
observer of the Middle East cannot avoid the impression that the region is a
volcano and that the lava is radical Islam, an ideology whose various
incarnations are now shaping this part of the world. Israel is a tiny village
on the slopes of the volcano. Hamas is the local representative of radical
Islam and is openly dedicated to the eradication of the Jewish minority enclave
in Israel, just as Hezbollah is the dominant representative of radical Islam in
Lebanon, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Hamas is not, as it
freely admits, party to the effort to create a Palestinian state alongside
Israel. It has different goals about which it is quite open and that are
similar to those of the groups listed above. Since the mid 1990s, more than any
other player, Hamas has destroyed the Israeli left, swayed moderate Israelis
against territorial withdrawals, and buried the chances of a two-state
compromise. That’s one accurate way to frame the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">An observer might
also legitimately frame the story through the lens of minorities in the Middle
East, all of which are under intense pressure from Islam: When minorities are
helpless, their fate is that of the Yazidis or Christians of northern Iraq, as we
have just seen, and when they are armed and organized they can fight back and
survive, as in the case of the Jews and (we must hope) the Kurds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">There are, in other
words, many different ways to see what is happening here. Jerusalem is less
than a day’s drive from Aleppo or Baghdad, and it should be clear to everyone
that peace is pretty elusive in the Middle East even in places where Jews are
absent. But reporters generally cannot see the Israel story in relation to
anything else. Instead of describing Israel as one of the villages abutting the
volcano, they describe Israel as the volcano.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Israel story is
framed to seem as if it has nothing to do with events nearby because the
“Israel” of international journalism does not exist in the same geo-political
universe as Iraq, Syria, or Egypt. The Israel story is not a story about
current events. It is about something else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Old Blank
Screen</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">For centuries,
stateless Jews played the role of a lightning rod for ill will among the
majority population. They were a symbol of things that were wrong. Did you want
to make the point that greed was bad? Jews were greedy. Cowardice? Jews were
cowardly. Were you a Communist? Jews were capitalists. Were you a capitalist?
In that case, Jews were Communists. Moral failure was the essential trait of
the Jew. It was their role in Christian tradition—the only reason European
society knew or cared about them in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Like many Jews who
grew up late in the 20th century in friendly Western cities, I dismissed such
ideas as the feverish memories of my grandparents. One thing I have learned—and
I’m not alone this summer—is that I was foolish to have done so. Today, people
in the West tend to believe the ills of the age are racism, colonialism, and
militarism. The world’s only Jewish country has done less harm than most
countries on earth, and more good—and yet when people went looking for a
country that would symbolize the sins of our new post-colonial,
post-militaristic, post-ethnic dream-world, the country they chose was this
one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">When the people
responsible for explaining the world to the world, journalists, cover the Jews’
war as more worthy of attention than any other, when they portray the Jews of
Israel as the party obviously in the wrong, when they omit all possible
justifications for the Jews’ actions and obscure the true face of their
enemies, what they are saying to their readers—whether they intend to or not—is
that Jews are the worst people on earth. The Jews are a symbol of the evils
that civilized people are taught from an early age to abhor. International
press coverage has become a morality play starring a familiar villain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Some readers might
remember that Britain participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the fallout
from which has now killed more than three times the number of people ever
killed in the Israel-Arab conflict; yet in Britain, protesters furiously
condemn Jewish militarism. White people in London and Paris whose parents not
long ago had themselves fanned by dark people in the sitting rooms of Rangoon
or Algiers condemn Jewish “colonialism.” Americans who live in places called
“Manhattan” or “Seattle” condemn Jews for displacing the native people of
Palestine. Russian reporters condemn Israel’s brutal military tactics. Belgian
reporters condemn Israel’s treatment of Africans. When Israel opened a
transportation service for Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank a few
years ago, American news consumers could read about Israel “segregating buses.”
And there are a lot of people in Europe, and not just in Germany, who enjoy
hearing the Jews accused of genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">You don’t need to
be a history professor, or a psychiatrist, to understand what’s going on.
Having rehabilitated themselves against considerable odds in a minute corner of
the earth, the descendants of powerless people who were pushed out of Europe
and the Islamic Middle East have become what their grandparents were—the pool into
which the world spits. The Jews of Israel are the screen onto which it has
become socially acceptable to project the things you hate about yourself and
your own country. The tool through which this psychological projection is
executed is the international press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Who Cares If the
World Gets the Israel Story Wrong?</span></b><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Because a gap has
opened here between the way things are and the way they are described, opinions
are wrong and policies are wrong, and observers are regularly blindsided by
events. Such things have happened before. In the years leading to the breakdown
of Soviet Communism in 1991, as the Russia expert Leon Aron </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/everything_you_think_you_know_about_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union_is_wrong"><span style="color: #e65a1e; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">wrote</span></a></span><span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> in a 2011 essay for <i>Foreign
Policy</i>, “virtually no Western expert, scholar, official, or politician
foresaw the impending collapse of the Soviet Union.” The empire had been
rotting for years and the signs were there, but the people who were supposed to
be seeing and reporting them failed and when the superpower imploded everyone
was surprised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #e65a1e; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Whatever the
outcome in this region in the next decade, it will have as much to do with
Israel as World War II had to do with Spain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">And there was the
Spanish civil war: “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly
reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper
reports which do not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship
which is implied in an ordinary lie. … I saw, in fact, history being written
not in terms of what had happened but of what ought to have happened according
to various ‘party lines.’ ” That was George Orwell, writing in 1942.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Orwell did not step
off an airplane in Catalonia, stand next to a Republican cannon, and have
himself filmed while confidently repeating what everyone else was saying or
describing what any fool could see: weaponry, rubble, bodies. He looked beyond
the ideological fantasies of his peers and knew that what was important was not
necessarily visible. Spain, he understood, was not really about Spain at all—it
was about a clash of totalitarian systems, German and Russian. He knew he was
witnessing a threat to European civilization, and he wrote that, and he was
right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Understanding what
happened in Gaza this summer means understanding Hezbollah in Lebanon, the rise
of the Sunni jihadis in Syria and Iraq, and the long tentacles of Iran. It
requires figuring out why countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia now see
themselves as closer to Israel than to Hamas. Above all, it requires us to
understand what is clear to nearly everyone in the Middle East: The ascendant
force in our part of the world is not democracy or modernity. It is rather an
empowered strain of Islam that assumes different and sometimes conflicting
forms, and that is willing to employ extreme violence in a quest to unite the region
under its control and confront the West. Those who grasp this fact will be able
to look around and connect the dots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Israel is not an
idea, a symbol of good or evil, or a litmus test for liberal opinion at dinner
parties. It is a small country in a scary part of the world that is getting
scarier. It should be reported as critically as any other place, and understood
in context and in proportion. Israel is not one of the most important stories
in the world, or even in the Middle East; whatever the outcome in this region
in the next decade, it will have as much to do with Israel as World War II had
to do with Spain. Israel is a speck on the map—a sideshow that happens to carry
an unusual emotional charge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Many in the West
clearly prefer the old comfort of parsing the moral failings of Jews, and the
familiar feeling of superiority this brings them, to confronting an unhappy and
confusing reality. They may convince themselves that all of this is the Jews’
problem, and indeed the Jews’ fault. But journalists engage in these fantasies
at the cost of their credibility and that of their profession. And, as Orwell
would tell us, the world entertains fantasies at its peril.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-58594873735287963292014-08-25T16:48:00.000-07:002014-08-25T16:48:13.415-07:00Four Arab taxi drivers injured as Hamas mortars slam into Erez terminal<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/08/F140824EI01-635x357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/08/F140824EI01-635x357.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 10px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A man injured by a mortar shell is rushed to the emergency room after arriving at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon on August 24, 2014. <br />(photo credit: Edi Israel/Flash90)</span></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">From </span><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>The Times of Israel</i></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">On Sunday afternoon, the Erez crossing
point into Israel was hit by a barrage of fire from Gaza. Several Israeli-Arab
taxi drivers — whose job is to transport Palestinians from Gaza for medical
treatment in Israel — were hurt in the onslaught.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">An outraged Israeli-Arab Erez crossing
official, who spoke to Army Radio from a secured area at the crossing during a
subsequent rocket attack, lambasted Hamas for not caring about the well-being
of the Palestinians in Gaza.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“This is an organization that cares about the [Palestinian]
people? They’re shooting at the Palestinian terminal,” said the staffer. He stressed
that, despite the rocket barrages, the crossing had not closed for emergency
medical cases, and that two Gaza females were evacuated “20 minutes ago” via
the crossing for life-saving surgery in Israel, and that other taxi-drivers
were on hand, “as always,” to transport emergency patients.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hussein Abu-Einam, an eyewitness on the
scene, told Army Radio: “The [drivers] sat in a shed and waited for the
passengers and their relatives who were leaving Gaza for Israeli hospitals
Ichilov and Tel Hashomer. Then seven shells fell — just one after the other. We
didn’t have time to flee; it was a matter of a second.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Palestinians regularly seek medical
treatment in Israel – 180,000 of them in 2013. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Even Hamas
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sends his family to Israel for treatment; over
the past two years, Israel has treated the terrorist’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-hospital-treats-Hamas-PM-Haniyehs-granddaughter-332193"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0076b4; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">granddaughter</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">and his sister’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4265787,00.html"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0076b4; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">husband</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Palestinians in Gaza seeking medical aid in
Israel generally use t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">he Erez Crossing, and Israel has
struggled to keep it open throughout Hamas’s current war against Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Some 50 people were scheduled to use
the Erez crossing Sunday, but after the barrage, Kamil Abu Rokan, the Director
of the Crossings Point Authority of the Defense Ministry, and General Yoav
Mordehai, the Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories
(COGAT), closed the crossing to all traffic except for life-saving cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Eli Bean, head of Magen David Adom {the
Israeli Red Cross}, said the paramedics who were dispatched to the crossing
were forced to treat the injured taxi drivers under fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“During treatment, we were forced to
deal with a number of sirens and mortar explosions fired at us. The mortar
shells fell very close to those who were injured,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Up to 11 mortar and rocket rounds
landed near the crossing, the army said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The IDF said it retaliated against a
hidden launch site in the northern Gaza Strip, from which the concentrated
barrage was launched.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Last week, a temporary ceasefire ended
when Palestinian terror groups in Gaza renewed rocket launches at Israel hours
before the declared lull in fighting was due to expire. Exchanges of fire have
continued unabated since, with near continuous rocket barrages emanating from
Gaza and Israel launching airstrikes on Hamas targets across the coastal
enclave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/08/daniel--e1408737356380-635x357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/08/daniel--e1408737356380-635x357.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel Tragerman, murdered by Hamas, August 22, 2014. <br />May his memory be a blessing.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">Four-year-old Daniel Tragerman of the
southern Kibbutz Nahal Oz was killed by shrapnel on Friday, after a mortar
shell exploded outside the Tragerman home. The family said they only had a
three-second warning from when the siren sounded, and didn’t have enough time
to enter the fortified room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15.75pt;">More than 570 missiles have been
launched from Gaza into Israeli territory since Hamas broke the latest
ceasefire on August 19, five days ago, the Foreign Ministry said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 16.8pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Many of these have been launched from
“various civilian facilities exploited by Hamas terrorists,” the ministry said
in a press release.</span></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-33899667267120705522014-08-21T10:48:00.000-07:002014-08-21T11:04:40.020-07:00Hamas and Islamic Jihad attack humanitarian aid entering Gaza, as usual<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://saraya.ps/timthumb.php?src=uploads/General/140708103606U0pv.jpg&h=200&w=350&zc=1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://saraya.ps/timthumb.php?src=uploads/General/140708103606U0pv.jpg&h=200&w=350&zc=1" height="227" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Islamic Jihad took credit for a recent attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Kerem-Shalom-crossing-used-to-send-humanitarian-goods-to-Gaza-targeted-by-rocket-371865">Today</a></span>,
Hamas or one of its terrorist allies in Gaza, fired a </span><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">107 mm rocket</span><span style="line-height: 18pt;"> at the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">Kerem Shalom border crossing
between Israel and Gaza.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Indeed, Palestinian terrorists have targeted
the Kerem Shalom crossing throughout their current war against Israel. What makes this bizarre is that
this is the border crossing where nearly all humanitarian aid enters Gaza. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Since the beginning of the war, more than 5,000 trucks
carrying tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian goods, including medical
equipment, food, fuel, gas, and other goods have crossed via Kerem Shalom into
Gaza.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Why do Gaza hospitals have medicine and other
medical supplies? Because the Israeli army keeps the border open. Why don’t
Gazans starve? Again, because the IDF protects this crucial border crossing and
ensures that supplies get into Gaza. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">On a couple occasions, the terrorists have even
managed to briefly close the border. For example, on August 10, an Israelis
spokesman <a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2014/Pages/Rocket-attack-forces-closure-of-Israel-Gaza-border-crossing-10-Aug-2014.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">announced</span></a>:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">After continuous and intentional rocket fire at the Kerem
Shalom Crossing this morning and this afternoon, during which trucks carrying
flammable materials to the Gaza Strip were almost hit, we took the exceptional
decision to close the crossing in order to protect the lives of workers and
traders.</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">Of course when the terrorists succeed in closing the border, they close down all
humanitarian aid to Gaza.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18pt;">But these on-going attempts by Hamas to prevent aid from
entering Gaza have gone largely unreported in the international press. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">Human rights groups
haven’t protested, the UN remains silent, and pro-Palestinian groups are
utterly indifferent. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">As the </span><a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/gaza-terrorists-again-attack-aid.html#.U_YuoPldXz4" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Elder
of Ziyon</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"> remarks: “You almost get the impression that they would prefer to
have Gazans starve so they have something else to blame on Israel.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><br /></span></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-16820999291776077262014-08-15T08:32:00.000-07:002014-08-21T10:58:01.421-07:00We're not getting all the news from Gaza, just the news Hamas wants the world to hear<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Gaza-Hamas.jpg?edef5f" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static.ijreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Gaza-Hamas.jpg?edef5f" height="212" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23.66666603088379px; text-align: start;">Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV reports on Hamas rocket fired from next to his hotel</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 13.9pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 13.9pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Hamas
manipulated and intimidated the media in Gaza. Why was that kept from us?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">by<b> <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/alanjohnson/"><span style="color: #234b7b;">Alan Johnson</span></a> </b>in<b> <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/">The Telegraph</a><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #585858; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Alan
Johnson is the Editor of <a href="http://www.fathomjournal.org/"><span style="color: #234b7b;">Fathom</span></a>: for a deeper understanding of Israel
and the region and Senior Research Fellow at the Britain Israel Communications
and Research Centre (BICOM). A professor of democratic theory and practice, he
is an editorial board member of Dissent magazine, and a Senior Research
Associate at The Foreign Policy Centre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;">
<i><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">We should
normally say if our reports are censored or monitored or if we withhold
information, and explain, wherever possible, the rules under which we are
operating. – Section <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-war-practices-accuracy/"><span style="color: #234b7b;">11.4.1 of the BBC Editorial Guidelines</span></a> on
accuracy and impartiality in times of War, Terror and Emergencies<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Foreign Press Association (FPA)
issued an astonishing protest yesterday about "blatant, incessant,
forceful and unorthodox" intimidation of journalists in the Gaza Strip by
Hamas<b>. </b>"In several cases," they complained, "foreign
reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over
stories." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The FPA said this amounted to
"denying readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground,"
adding<b> </b>"we are also aware that Hamas is trying to put in
place a 'vetting' procedure that would, in effect, allow for the blacklisting
of specific journalists. Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA.<b>" </b>The
statement raises a lot of questions. Here is one: why have British broadcasters
not mentioned any of this to their viewers?</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Let's review what we know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Indian television station NDTV
broadcast and posted on its internet site on 5 August <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/ndtv-exclusive-how-hamas-assembles-and-fires-rockets-571033"><span style="color: #234b7b;">a report</span></a> by Sreenivasan Jain showing
rockets fired from a tent next to his hotel. In the accompanying text on NDTV’s
website, Jain wrote that it was published "after our team left the Gaza
Strip – Hamas has not taken very kindly to any reporting of its rockets being
fired. But just as we reported the devastating consequences of Israel’s
offensive on Gaza’s civilians, it is equally important to report on how Hamas
places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of
civilian zones." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">In <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/three-men-a-tent-and-some-shrubs-the-backstory-of-our-hamas-report-572088"><span style="color: #234b7b;">an article</span></a> published subsequently, Jain
wrote of "the fear which hobbles the reporting such material: fear of
reprisals from Hamas against us", asking "how long do we self-censor
because of the fear of personal safety in return for not telling a story that
exposes how those launching rockets are putting so many more lives at risk,
while the rocket-makers themselves are at a safe distance?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/wsj-hamas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.algemeiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/wsj-hamas.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hamas spokesman being interviewed at Al Shifa Hospital, which doubles as Hamas's military command centre</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">More and more examples of
intimidation of journalists by Hamas are seeping out of Gaza:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Israeli filmmaker Michael Grynszpan <a href="https://www.facebook.com/michael.grynszpan/posts/10152140390486065"><span style="color: #234b7b;">described on Facebook</span></a> an exchange he had
had with a Spanish journalist who had just left Gaza. "We talked about the
situation there. He was very friendly. I asked him how come we never see on
television channels reporting from Gaza any Hamas people, no gunmen, no rocket launcher,
no policemen. We only see civilians on these reports, mostly women and
children. He answered me frankly: 'It's very simple, we did see Hamas people
there launching rockets, they were close to our hotel, but if ever we dare
pointing our camera on them they would simply shoot at us and kill us.'"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">An <a href="http://aijac.org.au/news/article/trapped-in-gaza-how-hamas-punishes-reporters-for"><span style="color: #234b7b;">op-ed</span></a> in <i>The Australian</i> and
other sources including <i>The Jerusalem Post</i> <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Gaza-reporters-tweets-Hamas-using-human-shields-368689"><span style="color: #234b7b;">noted</span></a> that after Nine Network reporter
Peter Stefanovic tweeted that he had seen rockets fired into Israel from near
his hotel, he was threatened by pro-Hamas tweeters and warned: "in WWII
spies got shot".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Wall Street Journal's</span></i><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> Nick Casey posted a photo of a Hamas spokesman being interviewed
from a room in the hospital along with this tweet: "You have to wonder
(with) the shelling how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a
safe place to see media." After "a flood of online threats", the
tweet was deleted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">John Reed of <i>The</i> <i>Financial
Times</i> was reportedly threatened after he tweeted about rockets being
fired from the same hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Following his departure from Gaza, Italian
journalist Gabriele Barbati <a href="https://twitter.com/gabrielebarbati/status/494131918732926976"><span style="color: #234b7b;">tweeted</span></a> on 29 July. "Out of #Gaza
far from #Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati.
Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa
Abou Dagga wrote an<a href="http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/hamas-al-qassam-offices-are-next-to.html#.U-iyA-NdU26"><span style="color: #234b7b;">article for French newspaper Libération</span></a>, on
July 23, detailing how he was "detained and interrogated by members of
Hamas's al-Qassam Brigade at a room in Shifa hospital next to the emergency
room" and was forced to leave Gaza immediately without his papers. The day
after publication, Mr Dagga asked Libération to <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2014/07/24/tu-dois-quitter-gaza-au-plus-vite-et-arreter-de-travailler_1069701"><span style="color: #234b7b;">remove his article from their website</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">RT correspondent Harry Fear was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fadi.arouri/posts/10153070224241758"><span style="color: #234b7b;">told</span></a> to leave Gaza after he tweeted that
Hamas fired rockets into Israel from near his hotel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Hamas manipulation of the media is
not always so crude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">As reported in <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-warns-residents-against-revealing-downtown-gaza-launches/"><span style="color: #234b7b;">Times of Israel o</span></a>n 11 July, the Hamas Ministry
of Interior in Gaza published a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxzZ5cm8ZCw&feature=youtu.be"><span style="color: #234b7b;">video in Arabic</span></a> advising on
"cautious and effective" social media engagement on Facebook and
Twitter during Operation Protective Edge. It contained such directives as
"Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or
Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank …
Don't forget to always add 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent citizen' in your
description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Hamas has also actively interfered
with bomb sites in order to gain PR advantage. <i>The Washington Post's</i> Sudarsan
Raghavan <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/04/a-reporter-explains-what-its-like-being-trapped-in-the-gaza-propaganda-war/"><span style="color: #234b7b;">detailed</span></a> how Hamas staged events and
scenes to evoke sympathy. By way of illustration, he was taken to photograph a
mosque that had been bombed, and discovered that someone had
"prepared" the scene and placed a prayer mat and burnt Quran pages.
"The symbolism was obvious, almost too perfect. It was clear that someone
had placed them there to attract sympathy for the Palestinian cause. A
television crew spotted the pile and filmed it. Mission accomplished."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-left: 23.8pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Hamas ensure reporters are exposed to
casualties by insisting that spokesmen could only be interviewed in the
courtyard of the Al-Shifa hospital, as described by <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4556016,00.html"><span style="color: #234b7b;">Ynet News</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The long Hamas record of shutting down news bureaus, arresting reporters
and cameramen, confiscating equipment and beating journalists has already
been <a href="https://cpj.org/tags/hamas"><span style="color: #234b7b;">documented</span></a> by
the <a href="http://www.cpj.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #234b7b;">Committee
to Protect Journalists</span></a>. In the latest conflict Hamas wanted to
reduce the reports coming out of Gaza to what<b> </b>Reinhold Niebuhr once
called "emotionally potent over-simplifications". Journalists from
India, America, Norway, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and elsewhere are
complaining. Will we now hear from the Brits?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mVjDiI1xm4U?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.75pt;"><span style="color: #282828;">P.S. Check out this broadcast from Lebanon in which a Hamas spokesperson expresses </span></span><span style="color: #282828;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.75pt;">Hamas's annoyance with journalists who were "fixated on the notion of peace." The spokesperson explains Hamas's policy of having "a chat" with journalists who don't follow Hamas's narrative and how they deported journalists who filmed where Hamas fired their rockets; e.g., from school yards, </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 23.66666603088379px;">hospitals</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.75pt;"> and hotel parking lots.</span></span></span><span style="color: #282828; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.75pt;"> </span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-54202940446806912142014-08-14T15:02:00.000-07:002014-08-14T15:03:29.453-07:00Palestinian terrorist rocket hits Egypt, kills one child, injures two<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/02/18/sinai-tourist-bus-blast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2014/02/18/sinai-tourist-bus-blast.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Israel isn't the only country in the Middle East that has to deal with terrorism: Photo of Egyptian tourist bus bombed by terrorists, Feb 16, 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span class="articleLocation">CAIRO</span> Aug 13 (Reuters) - One child was killed and two others were wounded when a rocket landed on their home in the Egyptian town of el-Mattallah south of Rafah, near the border with Gaza, security and medical sources told Reuters on Wednesday.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
Sara Salama, 13, died while her brother Khaled, 8, and sister Rahaf, 2, sustained serious injuries and were taken to hospital.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
The rocket impact is the third to hit the area in recent weeks, security sources said, adding that Egyptian authorities were investigating the incident.</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Most
likely these rockets hitting Egypt are misfires; Hamas or one of the other terrorist
groups that makes its home in Gaza, firing missiles towards Israel, hoping to
kill Jewish children, but they’ve missed Israel completely and murdered an
Egyptian child instead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">It’s
possible, though, that Hamas is firing rockets into Egypt deliberately, trying
to send a message to the Egyptian authorities that Hamas is just as capable of
terror against Egypt as it is against Israel – more so, as Egypt doesn’t have
Israel’s defences. – Brian <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-61454067154467390842014-08-09T19:40:00.002-07:002014-08-25T16:59:49.138-07:00Hamas kills Palestinians<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2014/07/a3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2014/07/a3.jpg" height="251" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hamas rocket firing from Gaza residential area</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17pt;">As I write this,
Israel has finished withdrawing all its troops from Gaza and Hamas has at last
agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire, which everyone hopes can be transformed into a
long-term ceasefire. (No one expects Hamas to actually make peace.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This same ceasefire
was on the table three weeks ago, but Hamas rejected it. That rejection led to the
deaths of another 1,600 people, maybe half of them civilians, and to the
levelling of several Gaza neighbourhoods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Israel has bombed the buildings used
as rocket factories, weapons depots, and sniper posts. They’ve levelled
buildings used to conceal entrances to Hamas’s many military tunnels and
bulldozed other buildings looking for more tunnels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And what Israel
left standing, Hamas itself destroyed. Hamas booby-trapped houses wherever they
operated, wiring much of Gaza to self-destruct. On one street alone, the
Israeli army found 19 of the 28 houses rigged with improvised explosive devices.
(See </span><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/how-gaza-became-one-big-suicide-bomb-20140803-zzxgn.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Given that Hamas
operates exclusively in residential areas and has turned homes, mosques, schools
and hospitals into military posts, it’s a wonder many more Palestinian
civilians haven't been killed. Only Israel’s extraordinary efforts has kept the death
toll down. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/made/bf20ff0b6dded448/opi-bomb-shelter_72114_539_332_c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/made/bf20ff0b6dded448/opi-bomb-shelter_72114_539_332_c1.jpg" height="246" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Israelis run for bomb shelter. Residents in the south have only 15 seconds from when a siren sounds until a rocket hits. For mortar shells, they have even less time to seek shelter. Fortunately mortars can't fire deeply into Israel. But on Aug 22, Hamas did succeed in murdering a 4-year-old Jewish child with a mortar strike on his community near the Gaza border.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17pt;">Israel tries to hit
only military targets and encourages civilians to leave areas it operates in, leafleting from the air, providing maps and directions to safe zones, even
telephoning and texting individuals to urge them to leave target areas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hamas of course
takes no such precautions. To date, it's fired more than 3,300 missiles
toward Israel, attempting to murder innocent civilians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fortunately, Israel
has invested billions in defensive measures. Throughout the country, sirens
warn of incoming attacks, and almost every household and building has a bomb
shelter nearby. Moreover, Israel now has the Iron Dome system that shoots down
rockets headed for inhabited areas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's all worked.
Hamas hoped to murder thousands of innocents. Instead all their rockets have killed just
three civilians on the Israeli side: one Bedouin, one foreign worker, and one Jew. {As of Aug 22, one more: a 4-year-old Jewish boy.}<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hamas rockets have
killed many more Palestinians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.barenakedislam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Bt4UccoCEAERKnC.jpg-large-e1407476709235.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.barenakedislam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Bt4UccoCEAERKnC.jpg-large-e1407476709235.jpeg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map showing first 280 Hamas rocket strikes within Gaza</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17pt;">These rockets are
purely terror weapons. They can’t be aimed at anything smaller than a town. In
fact to date, </span><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/06/idfs-protective-edge-numbers-475-hamas-rockets-struck-within-gaza-up-to-1000-terrorists-killed/" style="line-height: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">450</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17pt;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span>of Hamas’s projectiles
missed Israel entirely and fell within Gaza.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How many
Palestinians have these misfired missiles killed? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Like Israel, Hamas
has invested huge resources in making itself immune to attack from the air.
They’ve built elaborate underground bunkers and many tunnels – miles and miles
of tunnels built by child labour. Their “nimble bodies” makes children ideal
for this work. But children are also fragile. </span><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">According to
Hamas official</span>s</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">,
by 2012 at least one hundred and sixty children had died digging tunnels for
Hamas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Note that civilians
are barred from sheltering in these tunnels. The underground bunkers keep Hamas
commanders and fighters safe. The tunnels were built to store weapons and to
enable terrorist attacks into Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As 450 Hamas
missiles rained down on Gaza, the civilian population was defenceless. Hamas
did not leaflet the areas where they were operating to warn civilians to clear
out. On the contrary, Hamas directed them to stay. And there were no warning
sirens and no shelters that civilians were allowed to hide in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/finnish-hamas.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.algemeiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/finnish-hamas.png" height="252" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finnish journalist reporting Hamas rocket being fired from the parking lot of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We happen to know
that in one barrage Palestinian terrorists hit both Al-Shifa Hospital
and a playground in Al-Shati refugee camp, apparently with Fajir-5
missiles, which carry a 100-kilogram warhead. The strike on the playground
killed ten Palestinians, nine of them children and injured 46.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another errant terrorist
missile apparently hit a UN School in Beit Hanoun which was being used as a
shelter for Palestinian civilians. Fifteen were killed and as many as 200
wounded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In addition to
the rockets, Hamas regularly fires small arms in the residential areas where it
operates. Hamas’s weapon of choice is the RPG29, a shoulder-fired anti-tank
missile that can penetrate thick reinforced-concrete walls. I wouldn’t want
gunmen running around firing those off in my neighbourhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How many
Palestinians has Hamas killed? We’ll never know. It’s not the sort of information
Hamas shares with the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But there’s
nothing new about this. On June 24, during the run-up to the current war, a rocket Hamas fired at Israel fell within Gaza, killing a three-year-old girl
and injuring three other Palestinians (</span><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182127#.U-LwhPldXz4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">). And throughout the previous nine years, Hamas
rockets have killed and injured as many Palestinians as Israelis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhiVDfxJy4O01LawbpI75AzzNqSEhqzrW1PjnLqBj_KSbvbtEJFX3BIUQsdy19r5vkuyIVd7OiJ-TQ7encAgEE8TwrIqFGbJFzaJ2kSS5t13JocfEP_A3wTvdjEe1ptoTW274OxyzeusCdgJ2QsSMj7sDqACBpJrvZx5_U7KgZt51YKNMQAFVya_qpNfGNAPchCq05Btw=" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhiVDfxJy4O01LawbpI75AzzNqSEhqzrW1PjnLqBj_KSbvbtEJFX3BIUQsdy19r5vkuyIVd7OiJ-TQ7encAgEE8TwrIqFGbJFzaJ2kSS5t13JocfEP_A3wTvdjEe1ptoTW274OxyzeusCdgJ2QsSMj7sDqACBpJrvZx5_U7KgZt51YKNMQAFVya_qpNfGNAPchCq05Btw=" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flyer showing Israelis how much time they have to find a shelter after a warning siren</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s a
widespread notion that Israel can’t win in wars like this, because when Israel
defends itself against terrorist attacks, it only creates more terrorists. I
don’t buy it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Polls of
Palestinians have shown Hamas losing popular support ever since they beat Fatah
in the 2007 election. The most recent poll, taken in June, showed that Hamas is
deeply unpopular: </span><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183382#.U-OpCPldXz4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">88%</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> of Gazans want
the Palestinian Authority to take over from Hamas; 70% thought Hamas should maintain its ceasefire with Israel and 57% supported PA president Abbas's position that the Palestinian government should renounce violence against Israel. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Obviously Gazans didn't get what they wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There have been
reports of deep anger at Hamas and of a Hamas spokesman being beaten by a crowd
(</span><a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4555631,00.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">). This should
surprise no one. Hamas’s policy of endless war against Israel has brought
nothing but poverty, destruction and death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If I were living
in Gaza, I’d want to pull the Hamas commanders out of their nice safe bunkers
and string them up on the nearest lamp pole.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">*</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Postscript: </span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Hamas
broke the ceasefire two hours it was set</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"> to expire on Friday morning and began once
again firing rockets toward Israel. These continue to fall indiscriminately on Israel
and Gaza alike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Diplomatic efforts
continue in Egypt, and there still appears to be a good chance that a longer
term truce will emerge. However, it’s also clear that Israelis have had enough.
This is the third small war Hamas has provoked in seven years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">If Hamas and the other
terrorists groups won’t stop firing rockets, Israelis favour taking Hamas out completely, even knowing this may cost the lives of hundreds of their young
men.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Note: A slightly shorter version of this article appeared in the <a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/"><i><span style="color: blue;">Jewish Tribune</span></i></a>.</span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jewishvoiceblog.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F07%2FIDFBlog-seconds-640x639.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhiVDfxJy4O01LawbpI75AzzNqSEhqzrW1PjnLqBj_KSbvbtEJFX3BIUQsdy19r5vkuyIVd7OiJ-TQ7encAgEE8TwrIqFGbJFzaJ2kSS5t13JocfEP_A3wTvdjEe1ptoTW274OxyzeusCdgJ2QsSMj7sDqACBpJrvZx5_U7KgZt51YKNMQAFVya_qpNfGNAPchCq05Btw=" -->Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-122346942405317752014-08-03T19:14:00.001-07:002014-08-25T16:51:48.282-07:00Is it time to boycott the Toronto Star again?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6280/945/1600/iran%20holocaust%20cartoon%201.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6280/945/1600/iran%20holocaust%20cartoon%201.gif" height="290" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entry to Iran's Holocaust cartoon contest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">The </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Toronto Star</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;"> has long held a bias
against Israel. Some decades ago, the Jewish community became sufficiently fed
up to boycott the paper, and then its news coverage did improve.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But one
thing that never changed is the unrelenting loathing of Israel expressed by the
Star’s political columnists. Month after month, Haroon Siddique, Thomas Walkom,
Antonia Zerbisias, Rick Salutin, have suggested that Israel is the most
contemptible place in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the
Star may have hit a new low with a recent column from Heather Mallick titled
“Gaza? That’s history stomping its foot.” In her bizarre column, Mallick
asserts that Israel attacks Palestinian civilians and does so because, as Jews,
Israelis can’t get over the Holocaust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where to
even begin? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First,
it’s a malicious lie that Israel attacks civilians. Israel targets Hamas
fighters, commanders, and weapon depots. For its part, Hamas deliberately puts
Palestinian civilians at in harm’s way by launching attacks from next to homes,
</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183505#.U95URvldXz4"><span style="color: blue;">schools</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.debka.com/article/24146/Israeli-Air-Force-takes-out-40-mosques-cum-rocket-stores-brings-new-drone-into-Gaza-operation"><span style="color: blue;">mosque</span><span style="color: blue;">s</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;"> </span>and </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/01/finnish-tv-reporter-at-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-its-true-that-rockets-are-launched-here-from-the-gazan-side-into-israel-video/"><span style="color: blue;">hospitals</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;"> </span>and using them as weapons’ depots. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.idfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Shujaiya-square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.idfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Shujaiya-square.jpg" height="400" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/20/shujaiya-hamas-terror-fortress-gaza/"><span style="color: blue;">A neighbourhood in Gaza</span></a>, where Hamas launched rockets at <br />
Israel from a mosque, a hospital, a cemetery & a playground</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Israel
goes to great lengths to urge civilians to leave areas coming under attack –
not only leafleting from the air but also telephoning and texting individuals –
extraordinary measures never before attempted by any other army in history. But
while Israel begs Palestinian civilians to clear out before attacking, Hamas
instructs them to stay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As former
president Bill Clinton recently noted, Hamas’s “</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><a href="http://www.thetower.org/0719-bill-clinton-hamas-crass-strategy-is-to-kill-palestinians/"><span style="color: blue;">crass strategy</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">” is to turn public opinion against Israel by deliberately
raising the Palestinian body count. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In this
moral equation, Mallick comes down on the side of Hamas. She condemns Israel
phoning civilians to warn them of impending attacks, sneering at the practice
as “almost beyond belief.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="line-height: 17pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">Mallick
needs to listen to the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council.
On Palestinian TV, he explained why Palestinians should hesitate to join the International Criminal Court. </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">“E</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">ach and every missile” Hamas launches against Israel “constitutes a
crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at
civilian targets,” he explained.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In contrast, he went on, “M</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">any of our people in Gaza
appeared on TV and said that the Israeli army warned them to evacuate their
homes before the bombardment. In such a case, if someone is killed, the law
considers it a mistake rather than an intentional killing, because [the
Israelis] followed the legal procedures.”</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As for
Mallick’s accusation that Jews “lash out” at Palestinians because we can’t get
over “the hurts of history” and because we’ve “learned the wrong thing” from
the Holocaust, it’s a nasty slur, but not original. It’s a trend
among antisemites to use the Holocaust as a club with which to beat Jews, and it's a trend that's seeped into the mainstream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In its
crudest form, antisemites accuse Jews of inventing the Holocaust to
extort money from Germans or sympathy from gullible gentiles. Alternatively
Jews are pictured as the new Nazis, having been sent to “Auschwitz and Dachau
not to suffer, but to learn” as the
Greek newspaper <i>Ethnos </i>put it in a cartoon back in 2002. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/img/greece_ethnos_cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/img/greece_ethnos_cartoon.jpg" height="400" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Israeli
soldier: “Don’t feel guilty, brother. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We were not in Aushchwitz and Dachau to
suffer, but to learn.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">If
Mallick would simply visit reality, she’d find Israel’s war with Hamas easier
to explain. In the past nine years since Israel left Gaza, Hamas and other
terrorist groups have fired 14,000 rockets and mortar rounds from Gaza into
Israel, attempting to murder innocent Israelis.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Previous
short wars reduced the rain of missiles, but Hamas provoked the current crisis
by again sharply increasing their rocket fire. Israel’s aim is to end this
ceaseless terrorism, and Hamas knows it can stop this war anytime. All it has
to do is agree to live in peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To her
credit, Mallick calls Hamas’s rocket attacks “vile,” but she also states that
“Palestinians are right to fight the Occupation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve
always supported negotiations and peace, so I’m dismayed that Mallick endorses
fighting, particularly as Palestinian violence has generally been terrorism.
But I’m also bewildered. Does Mallick not know that Israel pulled out of Gaza
in 2005? What “occupation” does she imagine Hamas is fighting?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: x-small;">Hamas broadcast this sermon on July 25, calling for the extermination of Jews</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">As for
the West Bank, its ruler, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, has called on
Hamas to accept a ceasefire and has </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.66666603088379px;">publicly</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;"> questioned what Hamas can
possibly hope to achieve by firing rockets at Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In any
case, throughout its 27 years of existence, Hamas has never pretended its
purpose is to end Israel’s defensive occupation of the West Bank. It’s insisted
that it intends to destroy Israel and to kill Jews. Full stop. And no one
watching Hamas’s actions can doubt their sincerity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Indeed,
just last Friday, July 25, Hamas broadcast a religious sermon, stating, “Our
doctrine in fighting you {the Jews} is that we will totally exterminate you. We
will not leave a single one of you alive.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is
what Hamas is all about. But it’s not something you’ll ever see reported in the
<i>Toronto Star.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In her
column, Mallick also asserts that terrorists will slaughter Canadians in
revenge for Israel’s war with Hamas. This at least is original. To my knowledge
no other pundit in the world has suggested such an unlikely scenario. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don’t
know if Mallick is really so crazed that she believe this or if she cynically
hopes to make Canadians fear that Israel is putting us all in danger. But I do
think it’s time to remind ourselves that whenever we buy the <i>Toronto Star</i> or advertise in the <i>Star</i>, we’re paying for that paper to
continue slandering Israel. I think it’s time we stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.66666603088379px;">Postscript</span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;">: Col Richard Kemp who spent 30 years fighting terrorists for the British army gives a good overview of the difficulties of fighting an enemy who wants to increase their own civilian body count <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4570/gaza-civilian-casualties"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17pt;"><i>Note" </i>A slightly shorter version of this article appeared in the<i> <a href="http://www.jewishtribune.ca/">Jewish Tribune</a>.</i></span></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-88328559834915983652014-04-13T19:16:00.001-07:002014-04-27T09:31:16.255-07:00Ding dong the witch is dead – Democracy shows it’s alive and kicking in Quebec<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Pauline Marois planned to
fire Jews, Musims and Sikhs,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">but on election
night, she was the one who got the boot.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Seeing the PQ crushed in the recent Quebec election made me
feel like dancing in the streets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">More than two-thirds
of Quebecers voted for federalist parties and against the separatists. And it’s not just that they voted
against sovereignty; they voted against the PQ because they don’t even want to
talk about sovereignty anymore.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Just as wonderful, we no longer have to look forward to the spectacle of a Canadian provincial government firing people from their jobs because of their religion. The PQ
had hoped to ride a wave of xenophobia to a majority government and it didn’t
work. Compared to the threat of having to go through another referendum,
Quebecers just didn’t care that much about whether people wore hats or hijabs, lids or kippas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s possible that in the end, the PQ’s “values charter”
actually worked against them. For one thing, Quebecers realized that doctors, daycare
workers and teachers were actually going to get fired if they refused to remove
their kippas, hijabs or turbans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Incredibly, for weeks,
Quebec media let the PQ get away without admitting this – until a PQ candidate
came out and proclaimed that of course they’d be firing people. And then Pauline
Marois, the PQ leader, admitted it, too: Really, how else can you ban religious
symbols unless you’re going to fire people who refuse to take them off?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Once this sank in many Quebecers realized that the whole thing had gone a step too
far. Sure, many small town Quebecers are suspicious of people who wear funny hats and won't eat pork, but firing them for this? That's not nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Also, Quebecers realized that the PQ could have brought in
most of their charter of values without an election at all; that the only point
of the election was to get a majority; and then the purpose of values charter
would be to force a showdown with Ottawa as a prelude to a referendum. And does Quebec want another crisis? Non, non, non!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Possibly the most significant outcome of the Quebec
election was the voter turnout: 72%. That’s huge – much larger than voter
turnout for most elections in Canada. Of course, that’s great because it makes
the rejection of Quebec independence and of the PQ's xenophobic charter of values even more decisive. But it also shows that democracy is alive and
kicking in Canada. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">We hear much hand-wringing about how fewer and fewer people
vote. Pundits continually suggest it’s because people believe politicians are
all equally terrible. That low voter turnouts show a fundamental flaw in our
democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">This is mostly nonsense. People don’t vote because Canada
works well. Countries where almost everyone votes are the countries in the
biggest mess. Usually, people are turning out in huge numbers because some recently
deposed dictator has been denying them their right to choose their own leaders for decades. Or
people turn out in droves because their country is in crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Canada is precisely the opposite. On voting day many people
can’t be bothered to go out to the polls because it doesn’t matter enough.
Regardless of who gets elected, they’re not going to screw things up too much. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But in Quebec, this formula for voter indifference broke
down. The vote did matter. Quebecers decided the PQ was going to create a
national crisis (again). So voters came out in great numbers. They crushed
the PQ, and buried the nightmare of a sovereign Quebec under an avalanche of
ballots. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-78582175041892428542014-03-31T15:40:00.000-07:002014-04-21T16:40:04.346-07:00Toronto Director of Education Chris Spence works a couple weeks in 2013, paid $242,000<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/archives/sunnews/straighttalk/media/2013/01/20130111-194442-g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/archives/sunnews/straighttalk/media/2013/01/20130111-194442-g.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">It was revealed this week that Chris
Spence, the disgraced former director of the Toronto District School Board, was paid $241,000
in 2013 plus $1,000 in taxable benefits. But in 2013, Spence worked for less
than a month. A couple weeks into January, it was discovered he had a long – and continuing
– history of plagiarism, and Spence resigned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">According to the Globe & Mail: “The
TDSB defended Mr. Spence’s salary. ‘That amount takes into consideration the
director’s severance following his departure from the TDSB,’ said spokesman
Ryan Bird.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Lovely. So that means Spence was
paid about $20,000 for the couple weeks he worked, then got a severance package
worth $220,000. And who says crime doesn’t pay?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I blogged about this back in January
of 2013 when it happened. It seems I underestimated the size of Spence’s severance
package, but the point I made back then remains the same: there was no reason
to give him any severance package at all. But rather than firing him, the Trustees
decided to let him retire and walk away with $220,000 that should have gone to
the teachers and other TDSB employees doing their jobs without cheating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">That's one more reason to vote out <b>all </b>the trustees who are supposed to be running our school board. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I'd be more than happy to hear about trustees who are doing a good job, but if we have any good trustees, they're obviously out-voted by the bad ones. And if you have any doubts on that score, start reading <a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-toronto-school-board-financial.html"><b><span style="color: blue;">here</span></b></a>.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">P.S. Fourteen months since Spence’s
history of plagiarism was discovered, the University of Toronto is still investigating whether Spence should have his PhD withdrawn for plagiarizing his
dissertation. Of course, he was granted his PhD by </span><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/search/label/OISE" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="color: blue;">OISE</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">, and they’re
mainly interested in a student's political views. So it may be they’re
disinclined to withdraw a degree for a little thing like cheating.</span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-89889699133527499902014-03-17T05:09:00.000-07:002014-03-17T05:09:12.215-07:00Parti Quebecois candidate spreads neo-Nazi myth, PQ leader calls her "eloquent"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jewsnews.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Louise-Mailloux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jewsnews.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Louise-Mailloux.jpg" height="242" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noted bigot and PQ candidate <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px; text-align: start;">Louise Mailloux</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 12.6pt;">Parti Quebecois'
candidate Louise Mailloux has been spreading a myth originally invented by the
Klu Klux Klan and since adopted by numerous neo-Nazi groups. According to the
PQ candidate and the neo-Nazis, Jews use kosher certificates to steal money
from non-Jews and then use the cash to fund nefarious schemes.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mailloux doesn’t spread
vicious myths just about Jews. She doesn’t like Muslims or Christians, either. According
to her, Muslims are running the same “rip-off” with hallal meat as the Jews
with their kosher foods. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">“This is a religious tax,” Ms. Mailloux said on
a March 2012 edition of Bazzo.tv, a panel show on Tele-Quebec, “and it’s a tax
we pay directly to mosques, to synagogues and to religious groups. It’s a theft.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">As for Christians, </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mailloux says baptism is like rape. So is circumcision, according to
Mailloux. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Centre for Israel and
Jewish Affairs called on the PQ to debunk the “urban legend of the kosher tax,”</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"> Instead, PQ Leader
Pauline Marois endorsed her candidate, saying she’s a respected academic who
has thought long and hard about these issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 15pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“Her writings are eloquent, I respect her point of view,” Ms. Marois said.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/07b/news/politics/article17496017.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/ryr206_Elxn_Que_PQ_20140314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/07b/news/politics/article17496017.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/ryr206_Elxn_Que_PQ_20140314.JPG" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 18pt;">“The Parti Québécois is not an anti-Semitic party,” </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: start;">Pauline Marois declared to much chuckling.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">No surprise there. In the current Quebec
election, the PQ’s entire strategy is based on intolerance. The PQ is campaigning
on its so-called secular charter. Aimed primarily against Muslims, the charter
bans government employees and workers in hospitals, schools and day cares from
wearing religious symbols such as a head scarf or Star of David.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Unfortunately, part of what makes Quebec
distinct is that it’s always been less tolerant than the rest of Canada (see more <a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2009/12/our-quebecois-problem.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>). </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mailloux isn’t just some nutcase (though she is that). She’s a professor
of philosophy and a prominent Quebec feminist. And the PQ is tapping into a
deep well of suspicion against Jews and Muslims. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Quebec n</span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">ewspapers
and TV programs regularly run stories that detail how much of the food eaten in
the province is certified kosher or halal – as if this is somehow a problem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1353987258_kkk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1353987258_kkk.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under Quebec's secular charter, large, ostentatious crosses will not be allowed.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">And the urban legend of a
kosher tax has made the rounds in Quebec for years. Back in 2008, Quebec’s Bouchard-Taylor
commission</span> reported that among Quebecers “the most fanciful information
is circulating” about kosher food. And then went on to debunk the myth
of a kosher tax.</div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">But while Jewish groups object to the PQ’s
support for antisemitism, Quebec’s feminists have been silent about </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mailloux’s trivialization of rape. Again, no real surprise. Mailloux is
one of their own. Also, Quebec feminists tend to support the PQ and often share
Mailloux’s hostility to religious groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mailloux’s support of
a myth spread by neo-Nazis and the KKK does raise a particular question: What
does the PQ’s secular charter have to say about government employees dressing
in white sheets? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to rumour, the
PQ leader</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">
has responded: “Of course, the white sheets are allowed. These are not
religious symbols. But there must be no burning of crosses. Other symbols are
okay. If they want to burn a swastika in someone’s front lawn, well that is not
a religious symbol, is it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-91128732463173272212014-03-03T15:34:00.002-08:002014-03-03T15:34:13.684-08:00Caught between the nationalists and the Russians - a tricky time for Ukraine's Jews<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.vosizneias.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/kiev-ukraine-anti-semitic-graffiti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.vosizneias.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/kiev-ukraine-anti-semitic-graffiti.jpg" height="247" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Antisemitism isn't new in Ukraine, this photo of antisemitic graffiti in Kiev is from 2009</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16pt;">Antisemitism
has been a feature of Ukraine since the Middle Ages, and in recent weeks,
Jew-haters have been taking advantage of the unrest to attack synagogues and
beat up and stab Jews. Moreover, the nationalist / anti-Russian forces include open
antisemites, and two antisemitic parties have been included in the new nationalist government.</span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16pt;">On the other hand, many Jews took part in the protests that helped
install the new government, and most observers believe Russians
(and their far-left supporters in the West) are trying to label the
nationalists – all the nationalists – as Nazis when clearly most are not. Indeed, the Ukrainian chief rabbi, has accused the Russians of staging antisemitic attacks to justify their invasion (<a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/03/03/news-opinion/world/ukraine-chief-rabbi-accuses-russians-of-staging-anti-semitic-provocations"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>).</span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">From
Canada, it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on, but I think the notion that
Jews should support Russia’s invasion of Crimea is nuts. I mean apart from not
wanting the Russians to re-establish their nasty empire, since
when has Russia ever been good for the Jews?<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16pt;">Besides,
in the longer term, I’ll put my money on a nationalist Ukrainian government
that wants to turn toward the democratic West, not a </span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21.33333396911621px;">Ukrainian government</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16pt;"> that wants to cozy up to
authoritarian Russia. And if neither of these options work out, well as Abraham
Cooper points out, Israel is only a plane ride away, and so is Canada, for that
matter…<o:p></o:p></span></span></h1>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ukraine-Anti-Semitic-T-Shirts-620x465.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ukraine-Anti-Semitic-T-Shirts-620x465.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supporters of Ukraine's antisemitic Svoboda party with t-shirts reading "Beat the zhids {kikes}"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Tough Times Again for Ukraine’s Jewish Population</span></h1>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Abraham Cooper, <a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/">the algemeiner</a> (U.S.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are now witnessing the latest
round of violence and tragedy in the Ukraine. And not for the first time,
hundreds of thousands of Jews in that embattled country, perhaps as many as
400,000, find themselves between a rock and a hard place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Historically, Jews in Ukraine have suffered disastrous losses
during times of upheaval. During the Cossack uprising of 1648-57, led by Hetman
Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 15-30,000 Ukrainian Jews out of a total population of
51,000 were murdered or taken captive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The organized violence against the
helpless and impoverished Jews in the Ukraine in the 19th and early 20th
century spawned a new word in the lexicon of hate - <em>pogrom</em>. Many of our
grandparents fled the Ukraine, arriving on American shores penniless with
little more than a dream of a safe haven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">During the Russian Revolution and
ensuing Civil War, another estimated 30,000-100,000 Jews were killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The total civilian losses during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine
is estimated at 7 million, with more than 1 million Jews shot by Einsatzgruppen
killing squads and Ukrainian collaborators in Western Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To be sure, the Jewish community has not been center stage in
the current epic struggle for Ukraine’s future. The just-deposed Prime Minister
represents the still powerful pull of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Putin has always
made it clear he will not accept a Ukraine that is tied to NATO or the European
Union. So far he’s used the economic carrot of cheap oil and other incentives,
but possible military intervention in Eastern Ukraine, with its significant
Russian population — cannot be dismissed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On the other side are Ukrainian activists who rallied around a
Euro-centric vision of the future. <em>Anyone
and anything</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>that
insists on a link to Moscow and the memories of 70 years of tyrannical Soviet
rule is out of the question. Unfortunately, among the masses of people who
braved beatings, bullets, and death, were members of the nationalist Svoboda
party, some of whose leaders have openly expressed anti-Semitic views.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Against this unsettling backdrop, after last month’s beating of
two Jews, Kiev’s Chief rabbi has <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.575732" target="_hplink"><span style="color: #004276;">called on the city’s Jews to leave</span></a>.
Now comes word that unknown perpetrators <a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/02/24/news-opinion/world/east-ukraine-synagogue-hit-by-firebombs" target="_hplink"><span style="color: #004276;">hurled firebombs</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>at the Giymat Rosa Synagogue in
Zaporizhia, located 250 miles southeast of Kiev. That house of prayer opened in
2012 – a sign of Jewish renewal in the Ukraine – was built on the spot where
the Jews of that community were ordered to gather before being deported by the
Nazis to their deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It goes without saying that Jewish institutions are bolstering
security and it has been reported that some public events have been canceled.
One can only wonder what kind of Purim and Passover await our Jewish brothers
and sisters in the Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What will members of Europe’s third largest Jewish community do?
Will they stay or go? The late Simon Wiesenthal imparted sage advice when he
said, “Where democracy is strong it is good for Jews and where it is weak it is
bad for the Jews.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #252324; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We can only hope and pray and that the forces of true democratic
values and inclusion win the day in the Ukraine. That would be a blessing for
all its people. In the meantime, today’s Ukrainian Jews are free to ponder an
option their forefathers could only dream about. Israel is but a non-stop
flight from Kiev. Look for those flights to be extra crowded in the days ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://jta-live.alley.ws/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Svoboda_rally_human_chain-350x233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://jta-live.alley.ws/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Svoboda_rally_human_chain-350x233.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Member of Ukraine's antisemitic Svoboda party form a human chain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt;">
<b style="line-height: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ukrainian nationalists strive to shake off
allegations of anti-Semitism</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Anti-government
protesters say Nazi name-calling is propaganda designed to undermine their
movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">From <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/">HaAretz</a>, Israel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Ukraine’s struggle for independence
is plagued by memories of fascism. Nationalists fought more than once against
the Soviets in the last century, even when it meant aligning with Nazi Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">This is a
country that both idolizes and condemns a former leader who collaborated with
the Nazis – Stepan Bandera. He is denounced by many Ukrainians and Jewish
groups for mass killings, but he is also beloved for refusing to rescind the
proclamation of an independent Ukrainian state in 1941.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">In the past,
Ukrainian Jews suffered pogroms and government-sanctioned persecution, and
anti-Semitism is still a threat. For instance, the opposition coalition, which
includes the Svoboda party, has been criticized for far-right extremism.
Complaints have been filed against Svoboda’s leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, for
alleged incitement and racist remarks, such as saying Ukraine was headed by a
“Muscovite-Jewish mafia.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">When
Ukrainian nationalists and far-right groups began protesting against Viktor
Yanukovych’s government on Kiev’s Maidan Square, many Western and Russian media
outlets called the demonstrations fascist with anti-Semitic undertones. Armed
and masked protesters brandished nationalist symbols linked with the fascism of
yesteryear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">This
included the Celtic cross, which has replaced the swastika for many modern
white-power groups, and the wolf-hook SS insignia. There was also the symbol
14/88. The 14 represents a 14-word slogan used by white nationalists, and the
88 stands for “Heil Hitler” – H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Finally,
there was the Black Sun occult symbol, with which the Third Reich adorned a
castle hall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Some
researchers and protest groups say the allegations of fascism and anti-Semitism
are propaganda to undermine the protests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
right-wing and nationalist umbrella group, Pravy Sektor, grabbed center stage
after January 16, when Yanukovych approved laws that criminalized participation
in anti-government protests. The movement’s press secretary, Artem Skoropadsky,
called the fascism accusations “forms of official Russian propaganda that
successfully change the meaning of ‘nationalism’ to ‘Nazism.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Anton
Shekhovtsov, a Ukrainian researcher of European far-right groups and a fellow
at the Radicalism and New Media Research Group in Britain, has said neo-Nazi
groups are only a very small part of the protest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">“The
movement is tolerant of other organizations’ extremist views but does not
necessarily support them,” Shekhovtsov said. “They don’t exclude people and
want to unite protesters for a stronger opposition.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Some Pravy
Sektor protesters on the Maidan sported yellow armbands with the wolf hook
symbol revealing their specific political party affiliation—that of the Social
National Assembly (SNA), a largely Kiev-based neo-Nazi organization. Other more
openly anti-Semitic parties are White Hammer and C14, the neo-Nazi youth wing
of the Svoboda party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">According to
Pravy Sektor’s press secretary, the movement consists of many different groups
and individuals. “This is not just a long-term rally, but a national,
liberation movement,” he said in early February.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Timothy
Snyder, a history professor at Yale, summarized the name-calling in an article
for The New York Review of Books. He called it an “attempt to reduce the social
tensions in a complex country to a battle of symbols about the past.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Heroic
picture of the past</span></strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Protesters
have marched carrying photos of Bandera and under red-and-black flags of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the nationalist paramilitary and later partisan army
that fought both the Nazis and the Soviets. On Maidan Square, these images
represent the history of war and struggle for Ukraine’s sovereignty, not
Nazism, said Vyacheslav Likhachev, a researcher at the Euro-Asian Jewish
Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">According to
Likhachev, “the provocative symbols have to be understood in the context of a
Ukrainian, heroic picture of the past. In a contemporary context, it is not
correct to associate Bandera with neo-Nazis.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Two attacks
on Kiev Jews took place in one week in January and added fuel to the name
calling. Also, last Saturday, a Ukrainian rabbi called on Kiev’s Jews to leave
the city, fearing that the small community could fall victim to the increasing
violence. At least four Jewish protesters were killed during demonstrations in
the days leading up to Yanukovych’s ouster by parliament. Overall, more than 70
Ukrainians were killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Many media
outlets began equating the attacks and the rabbi’s comments with the protests
in general, which suggested that the protesters were anti-Semites and that the
Jewish community was a target.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Likhachev
says the four Jews killed were victims of police brutality and sniper shots;
they weren’t targeted as Jews. “Jews are in danger because of the bigger
problem of violence, which affects all Ukrainians,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Josef
Zisels, a vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said that “the Jews of
Ukraine participate in protests, though not as a community but as citizens of
Ukraine who are tired of the cynical actions of the government.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt;">Pravy Sektor
and other protesters have dubbed themselves the defense forces of the protests;
they’ve actually provided some stability. For example, the protest leaders have
proposed that Kiev synagogues be guarded, along with streets in Jewish areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16pt;">
<br /></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-24419384323440224322014-03-02T19:25:00.000-08:002014-03-03T14:52:15.310-08:00Russia invades Ukraine; the Canadian Peace Congress blames Canada<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bartamaha.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ukraine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.bartamaha.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ukraine.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian troops in Ukraine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As Russia invades Ukraine, the Canadian Peace Congress has issued a statement condemning the US, the EU, NATO and especially Canada for our "imperialist ambitions" in Ukraine. Not a word about Russian troops crossing Ukraine's border and taking control of strategic sites in Crimea.<br />
<br />
Why? Because the Canadian Peace Congress has no interest whatsoever in peace. It's purely a far-left, anti-Western group. And more's the pity, far too much of our supposed peace groups are much the same.<br />
<br />
I've pasted in the lunatic statement from Canadian Peace Congress below this lovely old clip from South Park:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/bOR38552MJA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">The deteriorating crisis in Ukraine is extremely dangerous. There is an immediate threat of a regional or world war. Interference by foreign powers in complex internal affairs has widened divisions and deepened the crisis, and has even helped strengthen openly fascist forces within the country.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">The Canadian Peace Congress is particularly concerned that the US, EU and NATO – the most powerful forces of imperialism – have been manipulating and encouraging the conflict, in an effort to provoke “regime change” in Ukraine and bring about a realignment of Europe in the process.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span id="more-231" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></div>
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In particular, we are concerned that the situation in Ukraine is a key element in NATO’s ongoing strategy of expansion in Europe, and encirclement of Russia. It is notable that, as the crisis in Ukraine developed, NATO has become increasingly aggressive both in its efforts to draw Georgia into the military alliance, and its drive to install missile defence weaponry in Poland.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Canada, a member of NATO, has sent Foreign Minister John Baird to Ukraine with the clear purpose of encouraging the pro-EU and pro-NATO faction that has taken over the present government in Kiev. This follows on a unanimous motion in the Canadian Parliament in January, that voiced support for anti-government protests and encouraged sanctions.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Canadian Peace Congress asserts that it is the sole right of the peoples of each country to determine the path of their social, economic and political development, free from foreign interference. The Canadian government’s efforts to meddle in Ukraine’s internal affairs, and to use the crisis to pursue imperialist ambitions, is shameful and should be denounced.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Please contact Members of Parliament now, and call upon the government to immediately stop its interference, and prevent war in Ukraine. Click <a href="http://www.canadianpeacecongress.ca/emails-for-members-of-parliament/" style="border: 0px; color: #787878; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Emails for Members of Parliament">here</a> for a list of email addresses for all Members of Parliament.</div>
P.S. Over in Britain, the Stop the War Coalition has adopted much the same stance as our own Canadian nutters. The Economist Magazine has gone through the bother of analyzing Stop the War's anti-Western response toward the crisis in Ukraine <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2014/03/britain-and-ukraine"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.<br />
<br />Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-14535825938721462792014-02-24T16:51:00.000-08:002014-02-24T16:51:18.822-08:00Abbas doesn’t want to flood Israel with Palestinians; many Palestinians beg to differ<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/files/2011/12/Abrams-UNRWA-20111213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/files/2011/12/Abrams-UNRWA-20111213.jpg" height="246" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Arab wars against Israel turned 100s of thousands of Palestinians into refugees.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon the children, grandchildren and </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
great-grandchildren of these refugees have been declared hereditary refugees,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
sustained by the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency, a special UN </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Agency created to keep the Palestinian as refugees, rather than actually settle </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
them and improve their lives. Read more <a href="http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/12/19/ending-unrwa-and-advancing-peace/#more-2390"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15pt;">Here’s
a good news, bad news story. President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has publicly </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15pt;">declared he doesn’t want to flood Israel with Palestinians and thus turn
it into a Palestinian state. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15pt;">This is enormously important, as every Palestinian
political group – without exception – has always said that every one of the millions
of great grandchildren of the Palestinians made into refugees by Arab against
Israel have an inalienable “right of return” to Israel. And of course this
would change Israel from a Jewish state to one more Arab state – full of people
with a deep and abiding hatred for Jews.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Obviously,
Israel is never going to agree to commit national suicide, so the end of the conflict
has always depended on Palestinians giving up on this fantasy of flooding
Israel and turning it into a Palestinian state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Now
Abbas has actually had the courage of saying he doesn’t want to do this. That’s
very good news. But here’s the bad news. Abbas didn’t say this to a Palestinian
audience, he said it to Jewish Israeli students, members of the One Voice peace group. And
he didn’t go so far as to outright renounce the “right of return” or admit
there is no such thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">But
still he was hammered by Palestinian groups. What’s the bottom line here: It’s
possible Abbas is a partner for peace; but he’s opposed by the Palestinian people …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/large/403.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/large/403.jpg" height="228" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Palestinian President Abbas takes question from Israeli student</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<b style="line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Palestinians: Eight Million
Refugees Must "Return" to Israel</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 7.5pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">by <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Khaled+Abu+Toameh"><span style="color: #da5724;">Khaled Abu Toameh</span></a><br />
February 21, 2014 at 5:00 am</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas is facing criticism from Palestinian refugees for
saying that he does not want to "flood" Israel with millions of
refugees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Abbas made his
statement during a meeting in his Ramallah office earlier this week with dozens
of Israeli students – the first direct encounter of its kind between the
Palestinian Authority president and Israeli youths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Abbas has also come
under criticism for breaking a ban by Palestinian activists on meetings with
Israelis. The ban has been imposed over the past few years by
"anti-normalization" activists who oppose such meetings between
Israelis and Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Abbas's controversial
remarks about the "right of return" highlight the difficulties facing
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in his efforts to achieve a peace agreement
between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian reactions to Abbas's
remarks show that the issue of the refugees remains a sensitive and explosive
one that could torpedo any agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Abbas told the
Israeli students that the claim that he was seeking to "flood" Israel
with five million refugees was nonsense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">"There is
propaganda saying that Abu Mazen [Abbas] wants the return of five million
refugees to destroy the state of Israel," he <a href="http://www.wafa.ps/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=168576"><span style="color: #da5724;">said</span></a>. "This is not true at all. All what
we said was: Let's place the issue of the refugees on the table because it's a
sensitive case which needs to be solved in order to end the conflict and so
that the refugees would be satisfied with a peace agreement. But we are not
seeking to drown Israel with millions in order to change its demography. This
is nonsense."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Representatives of
Palestinian refugees rushed to issue condemnations of Abbas, accusing him of
relinquishing the "right of return" of millions of Palestinians to
their former villages and towns inside Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Lebanon, where
some 450,000 Palestinians live in several refugee camps and are exposed to <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3770/lebanon-apartheid-laws"><span style="color: #da5724;">Apartheid Laws</span></a> that deny them access to many
jobs and economic, health and educations services, Abbas's comments were
received with deep resentment. During an emergency meeting in one of the
refugee camps in Lebanon, Abbas was accused of "abandoning the right of
return and harming Palestinian rights."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The refugees <a href="http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=54178"><span style="color: #da5724;">said</span></a> they
were particularly enraged over the fact that protest letters they sent to the
Palestinian Authority embassy in Beirut were totally ignored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Dr. Esam Udwan, an
expert on refugee affairs, was <a href="http://felesteen.ps/details/news/110554/"><span style="color: #da5724;">quoted</span></a> as
saying that "Abbas's statements have caused damage to Palestinian
rights." Accusing Abbas of providing Israel with concessions in return for
nothing, Udwan said, "These remarks reflect Abbas's conviction that the
issue of the refugees is ineffective and they have no right to return because
this would mean drowning Israel. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is completely unacceptable. Who said that
there are only five million refugees? The real number is eight million. Abbas
mentioned the five million who are registered with UNRWA and benefit from its
services. But there are millions of others who do not receive services from
UNRWA and are not registered with it. This does not mean that they should be
denied the right of return."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Ali Huwaidi, another
expert on refugee affairs, also lashed out at Abbas: "Regardless of
Abbas's statements, the right of return is guaranteed, individually and
collectively, through UN resolutions. The refugees will not give up their right
no matter where they are living today. Abbas is worried about flooding Israel
with five million refugees while Israel has brought one million people from the
former Soviet Union and no one complained about this. Our refugees will not accept
any alternative to their right to return to their homeland and we do not care
what Abbas's position is."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Many Palestinians
said that Abbas was not authorized to make any concessions or speak on behalf
of the refugees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This was not the
first time that Abbas had come under attack on the issue of the refugees. Last
year, Abbas told an Israeli TV station that he personally does not want to
return to his former hometown of Safed in northern Israel. That comment too was
seen by his critics as a sign that he was willing to "surrender" the
"right of return" for millions of refugees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Referring to Abbas's
stance on the refugees, the Palestinian online newspaper <i>Rai al Youm</i> <a href="http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=53861"><span style="color: #da5724;">wrote</span></a>,
"President Abbas has given up his personal right to return to his hometown
of Safed. He said he does not want to return to his home and will live in
Ramallah. This concession, in our view, is a big sin because President Abbas
should set an example for his people and not make concessions on their rights.
We call upon President Abbas to stop speaking about the issue of the refugees
because they haven't authorized him to make any concessions on their right of
return."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also joined the chorus of Abbas critics. The
group said in a <a href="http://prc.org.uk/portal/index.php/ar"><span style="color: #da5724;">statement</span></a> that Abbas's comment about the
refugees was a "dangerous concession" which reflected only his
personal position. "The Palestinians are not bound by these
statements," the PFLP said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hamas, Islamic Jihad
and other Palestinian groups have also strongly condemned Abbas's statements as
"dangerous," adding that he does not have the authority to speak on
behalf of all refugees. The groups also attacked Abbas for holding
"warm" meetings with the Israeli "enemy."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The reactions to
Abbas's statements concerning the issue of the refugees show that any agreement
that Abbas reaches with Israel under U.S. pressure will not signal the end of
the conflict with Israel. They also show that millions of Palestinians continue
to believe that one day they will be allowed to move to Israel, regardless of
whether a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and
east Jerusalem or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-7990558394547740932014-01-31T12:10:00.000-08:002014-01-31T12:10:12.743-08:00Scarlett Johansson opts for peace over bigotry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/zxq4ziu-wrI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The
antisemitic charity Oxfam has had a longstanding loathing for the only
democracy in the Middle East. Oxfam doesn't get too upset about Syria where the
government has killed 130,000 civilians (and counting) in the course of a bloody civil war. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Oxfam doesn't mind Gaza at all, even though it's run by a terrorist group that
oppresses the people of Gaza and openly dedicates itself to killing Jews. Oxfam
isn't even too fussed by North Korea, a government busily starving its
population. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In fact the
only country on earth that Oxfam believes should be boycotted is a liberal
democracy that safeguards the rights of all its citizens, regardless of
ethnicity, creed or colour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Now Oxfam
has parted ways with its most important "ambassador," the actress Scarlett
Johansson, who has raised tens of millions of dollars for Oxfam. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">You can't do
an ad for SodaStream, they told her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Why
not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Apparently
because SodaStream is a model of Palestinian-Israeli cooperation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">SodaStream
makes carbonation kits so you can make your own pop at home. SodaStream o<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">perates
a manufacturing plant at the Mishor Adumim industrial park, inside the West
Bank, 10 minutes from Jerusalem. The plant employs Israeli Jews and Arabs and
Palestinians – including in management level positions. <u1:p></u1:p></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;">Additionally, the company provides Muslim employees with a company
prayer room and break time so that they can pray – as well as benefits for all
employees which includes transportation to the facility, subsidized daily
meals, medical aid, maternity leave, vacation and a pension plan.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;">SodaStream employs more than 500 West Bank Palestinians, making
the company the largest single employer of Palestinians outside of the
Palestinian Authority. Moreover, as SodaStream is a profitable, forward-looking
company, it pays good Israeli wages – which are two or three times the average
wage in the West Bank.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">All this makes SodaStream a special target for the anti-Israel
crowd, which just hates the idea of peaceful cooperation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 17pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Oxfam told Johansson it’s either us or SodaStream. Johansson chose
SodaStream. It’s a no-brainer really: peace and cooperation over bigotry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/Image/oxfamantiisraelposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/Image/oxfamantiisraelposter.jpg" height="400" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oxfam revived the blood libel for this poster, urging people to boycott the only democracy in the Middle East.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-51570932800866219002014-01-30T15:20:00.002-08:002014-01-30T15:20:28.578-08:00<div>
Here's an old piece from the Palestinian intellectual Ahmad Khalidi. Khalidi represents a large Palestinian constituency....</div>
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<a href="http://www.barenakedislam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Abbas-Zaki.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.barenakedislam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Abbas-Zaki.png" height="221" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large;">Thanks, but no thanks<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">Statehood does not offer the equitable and fair solution the Palestinian
people deserve</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #005689; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Ahmad Samih Khalidi</span></u></b><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> senior associate member of St Antony's College,
Oxford</span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: #005689; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Guardian</span></u><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">, Thursday 13
December 2007</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The Palestinian state has now become the universal standard for all
solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The international community
applauds the concept. President Bush proudly proclaims it as his
"vision". The Israelis have come to it belatedly, after years of
steadfast refusal and rejection. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">{Actually, the Israelis accepted Palestinian statehood in 1947 when the UN attempted to partition the land into Jewish and Arab states. The Arabs violently rejected the plan and attempted to destroy Israel at its birth. They failed and the Palestinians have refused to make peace ever since, which is why today there is a Jewish state but as yet no Palestinian state. But back to Khalidi...}<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Today Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, not only supports the idea
but proclaims it as an existential Israeli interest: without it, Israel is
fated to disappear under dire assault from the ever-expanding Arab population
in both Israel and the occupied territories. This apparent human tide may yet
bring disaster to the Jewish state, by demanding equal civil rights to those of
the Jews themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 9.75pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">But statehood as such is a relatively recent addition to Palestinian
aspirations. The main Palestinian impetus after the disaster of 1948 was that
of "return"; it was more about reversing the loss of Arab land and
patrimony, than the fulfilment of classical post-colonial self-determination,
via statehood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Driven into national concussion by the catastrophic forced displacement
of 1948 and up until the mid-1960s, the sense of a separate "Palestinian"
national identity all but disappeared. This "lost consciousness" was
only reversed by the emergence of Fatah under Yasser Arafat in the Arab
diaspora in the late 1950s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">It was only after the 1967 debacle that a new Palestinian national
identity began to take shape. At its core was the notion of the armed struggle
as a galvanising force. Armed struggle, according to Fatah, restored
Palestinian dignity and gave the Palestinians a say in determining their
future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Statehood and state building had no real place in this scheme. Indeed,
the first tentative proposals to establish a state in Palestine (ie the West
Bank) were rejected as defeatist and a betrayal of the national cause. This was
certainly not an exercise in institution building, land acquisition and state
building by stealth, as in the Zionist movement before 1948. After the 1973
war, Fatah's leaders turned to the notion again. This was largely the result of
a realistic reading of the balance of power and a recognition of the limits of
what force, on the part of the Arab states or Palestinian irregulars, was
likely to achieve. Eventually, in 1988, Arafat himself backed the idea of a
Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as a historic compromise; Israel
behind these borders would get 77% of Mandatory Palestine, and the Palestinians
would be reconciled to the remaining 23%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 9.75pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Today, the Palestinian state is largely a punitive construct devised by
the Palestinian's worst historical enemies; Israel and its implacable ally, the
US. The intention behind the state today is to constrain Palestinian
aspirations territorially, to force them to give up on their moral rights,
renege on their history and submit to Israel's diktats on fundamental issues of
sovereignty. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 9.75pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Its core is the rump Palestinian Authority that is now fundamentally
sustained by the IDF presence on the West Bank. The PA is increasingly being
turned into an accoutrement of Israeli occupation; its function is to serve
Israeli security interests as designated by Israel itself and the US military
teams that have been overseeing the buildup of Palestinian security forces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">It is very unclear how an independent state can be built on the spears
of the very force that is occupying it. Or how state institutions can be
constructed while the occupation continues to determine every aspect of
Palestinian life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The notion of a state was an offshoot of the Palestinian struggle and
not its nodal point. Nonetheless, there was a period from the mid-1970s onwards
when the state could have represented the point where Palestinian national
aspirations met the boundaries of what is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Now this concept is less attractive than ever. Olmert demands of
Palestinians that they must give up their history. President Bush decides for
them what their borders and rights must be. And Tony Blair wags a finger and
tells Palestinians that they won't get a state at all unless, it meets his high
standards (sic) of governance .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The temptation is to say, thanks, but no thanks. Under such
circumstances, Palestinians may just opt for something else. Palestinians could simply continue to say no to a state that does
nothing to address its basic needs. Either way, its hard to see how Israel can
win this struggle in the long term.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p>{On the other hand, with these attitudes its impossible to see how the Palestinians can ever end the struggle. The past 66 years since Israel's founding should have taught them that they can't win, but if like Khalid, they continue to reject Israel's legitimate presence in the land and continue to reject a state living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state, their struggle never end. It's an oppressive future they're leaving to their children.}</o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-83076271571418125872014-01-27T08:58:00.002-08:002014-01-27T08:58:22.996-08:00Michael Zwaagstra: Enough about "white privilege," kids need basic knowledge<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/1/5/1262713051552/Burning-book-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/1/5/1262713051552/Burning-book-001.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; text-align: start;">Print-based literacy, "an unfortunate example of the neo-liberal agenda"</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://michaelzwaagstra.com/?p=377" target="_blank">Michael Zwaagstra</a></span>'</span>s </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">recent </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">experience of teacher's school</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">Education
schools and teacher colleges have long been obsessed with issues of race and culture to the
detriment of the academic basics. I experienced this personally during an
education graduate course I recently completed. Throughout the course, the
professor and students made repeated references to “white privilege” and
frequently bashed Western civilization for being racist and sexist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">During one
of our discussions, the professor even suggested that there is too much focus
on reading and writing in public schools. In her opinion, reading and writing
was only one form of literacy and other forms deserve equal attention. Many
students backed up the professor’s position. One of them went so far as to
argue that the excessive focus on print-based literacy is an unfortunate
example of the so-called neo-liberal agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-40312050166238761422014-01-12T16:16:00.000-08:002014-01-12T16:16:00.242-08:00Toronto schools pay high prices for small jobs<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">With School Board elections less than a year away, it's a good time to start reminding ourselves why we need to get rid of many of our school trustees.... </span></b></h1>
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<a href="http://www.artizans.com/images/previews/MOU402.pvw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="341" src="http://www.artizans.com/images/previews/MOU402.pvw.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 6.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 6.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">By:</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> Moira Welsh and Kevin Donovan </span><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Staff Reporters, The Toronto Star,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #aaaaaa; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Published
Jun 21 2012</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Here’s what taxpayers were charged for
work done at Toronto public schools:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Installing a $17 pencil sharpener: $143
to put in four screws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The installation of a sign on a
school’s front lawn: $19,000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">An electrical outlet on the wall in a
school library: $3,000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A “breakfast club” kitchen: $250,000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">When the librarian at the electrical
outlet school saw the bill she hit the roof, wondering at “the number of books
that could have been purchased with $3000.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A Star investigation has found examples
of charges that are out of whack with the amount of work done. The work in
question was carried out by some of the 900-strong maintenance and construction
trades people who have an exclusive contract with the </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Toronto District School Board. In the case of
the electrical plug, the job took four hours, but taxpayers were billed 76
hours, which sources say was done to account for the time of idle workers who
had no assignments that week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Principals, trustees and parents say
that much needed work on Toronto’s aging schools is not getting done.
Principals were terrified of repercussions from their management and the union
and would not go on the record for this story. Some who have complained say
they have been threatened by the union with losing their jobs if they speak up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Union boss Jimmy Hazel, when first
asked about these high costs two weeks ago, unleashed a stream of profanity at
a Star reporter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“We don’t need to f------ prove
anything to anybody about costs,” Hazel said. “A s---load more work was done to
justify the cost of that plug job I can tell you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The TDSB’s chief facilities officer,
Angelos Bacopoulos, said in an interview that the board realizes they have a
serious problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">“How widespread it is, I do not know,”
Bacopoulos said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">He is trying to fix the system, but
faces opposition from the union. The contract with the union expires this
August and negotiations will begin in September, a TDSB spokesperson said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">{Update: the Provincial Liberal government
went over the head of the Toronto Board and renewed basically the same
sweetheart deal with the same scuzzy unions.}<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Each year, principals at the almost 600
public schools across Toronto submit requests to get work done. Under a
longstanding agreement with Jimmy Hazel’s Maintenance and Construction Skilled
Trades Council, almost all of that work must be performed by its members, who
are TDSB employees. Projects larger than $1.5 million, or those requiring
special skills, can only be done by companies whose workers are part of
affiliated unions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Principals are given budgets for
repairs at their school and are asked to prioritize the work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">When the call came in early 2012 to
install a new electrical outlet in the library (the librarian wanted to plug in
a projector and create a new “learning space” for students) at Albert Campbell
Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, it seemed like an easy request. Since it
involved electrical work, union rules required two TDSB electricians to be
dispatched. The job, which involved attaching a plug to the library wall and
then running cable through the suspended ceiling to an electrical panel, took
two hours (four person hours in total).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">TDSB emails show about $2,000 was
refunded to the school’s account after the principal complained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A source with knowledge of this project
told the Star that the four person hour electrical outlet job was padded with
72 additional hours to justify paying the salary of other electricians who had
no work to do. The source also told the Star that Hazel has now determined that
he has too many electricians, and as many as seven have recently been laid off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">At the Toronto Catholic District School
Board, a school system about half the size of the public board, only 70 workers
are employed full-time. Other work is contracted out. Spokesperson Angelo
Sangiorgio said it would not “make sense” to employ more because there is not
enough plumbing or electrical work to keep trades people busy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Another job the Star looked into
involved installing a pencil sharpener at Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate in
2009. The school purchased the sharpener at Grand and Toy at a cost of $17.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Principals and custodial staff have
long been told that Hazel’s union must do the bulk of the work at schools. The
principal at the school, Rick Tarasuk, requested installation of the sharpener
and a crew was sent out by the TDSB. The sharpener has five screws. It was
installed with only four screws under a bookshelf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Tarasuk was shocked at the cost and
raised the issue at a meeting of east end principals. TDSB director Chris
Spence was in attendance and vowed to have the charge reversed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Later, when the Star asked Hazel why it
cost $143 to install the pencil sharpener, Hazel passed on TDSB emails that
labelled the charge a “clerical error.” Sources say Hazel then called school
Tarasuk and threatened to use his influence to have him fired. Hazel told the
popular principal he would do this by “going upstairs” to the school’s board of
directors. Hazel told the Star in an email this week that while “I can’t have
anyone fired,” he is going to talk to TDSB director Spence and complain about
Tarasuk because he thinks the principal’s conduct could rate “termination” in
most workplaces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The TDSB has told the Star that it has
now sent a message out to school caretakers (who work for a different union) instructing
them that they may install pencil sharpeners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And at the school board, this is what
they call progress.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-20826361935031748432014-01-10T17:02:00.000-08:002014-01-10T17:02:30.560-08:00Reality check ~ Canada is the most highly regarded country in the world, not the pariah Liberals think we are<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Back on July 1, I wrote a piece for
Canada Day about how certain self-proclaimed radicals are persuaded that Canada
is an awful place, and even if Canadians don’t see it, the rest of the world,
they claim, looks at Canada as a pariah state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Except, as I pointed out, this is
nonsense. According to extensive polls, among people throughout the G7
countries, Canada is the most highly regarded nation in the world – and has
been for three years running. (See <b><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2013/07/canada-abode-of-earthly-evil-or-pretty.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a></b>.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Now in a piece for the National Post, Michael
Den Tandt has picked up on the same discrepancy between the received wisdom of
Canada’s supposedly ruined international reputation and the actual research
that precisely the opposite…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 8.55pt; mso-line-height-alt: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16pt;">On foreign policy, Tories closer to Main Street than
critics suggest<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Stephen Harper and his Conservative
government have, it is a given, laid waste to Canada’s formerly sterling
international reputation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="name"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">By Michael Den Tandt, Postmedia News</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"> </span></span><span class="timestamp"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">January 3,
2014</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">We know this because various and sundry former diplomats, led by the
venerable Paul Heinbecker, have been telling us so for years. They’re
backstopped in this by a cohort of thoughtful, stern-minded academics, most
recently the University of Ottawa’s Peter Jones writing in Thursday’s Globe and
Mail, saying more or less the same thing: Harper and foreign minister John
Baird are blinkered Visigoths, stomping about the world stage with their
good-versus-evil, black-versus-white world view, shattering the fine china of
international diplomacy as they go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This portrait is eagerly embraced by
the opposition parties, of course, because it helps create ideological distance
between them and the government — a logical necessity if change (beyond putting
new behinds in old seats) is ever to be embraced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">But then along comes something like the
New York and Copenhagen-based Reputation Institute’s list of the world’s 50
“most reputable” countries — an online survey of 27,000 respondents from across
the G8 — to give that thesis a hard shake. The G8 includes the United States,
the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia. If this sampling, published
last summer in Forbes Magazine, is to be believed, Canada’s international
reputation is in fine health. Indeed, we’ve topped the ‘global reputation’
survey for the past three years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">What’s truly intriguing is the list of
countries with which Canada shares top billing. In second place in 2013 was
Sweden; after that in descending order came Switzerland, Australia, Norway,
Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, The Netherlands and Austria. The countries in
Canada’s immediate peer group, in other words, include the very northern
European social democracies with whom Harperland is often disparagingly
compared by Canadian critics on the Left. How can this, be if our
reputation abroad is in such a terrible state?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">No single opinion survey can be the
be-all-end-all, obviously. Where an annual snap-shot such as the Reputation
Institute’s can be helpful, though, is in providing an anecdotal reality check
of some of the more extreme assumptions emanating from the Harper-hating half
of Partisan Canada, or Partisan Nation, to borrow the current handy convention.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Partisan Nation exists primarily in
cyberspace. It reaches full flower on Twitter. Its membership spans all federal
political parties. Members share a barely sane belief in the sanctity of their
chosen political heroes, and an equally bug-eyed capacity for demonizing
opponents and their opinions. In this mostly imaginary world Justin Trudeau is
the shiny pony and Stephen Harper Beelzebub himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The irony: Liberals and New Democrats
who trade in demonology, caricaturing Conservatives as Rush Limbaughs in
hockey sweaters, are themselves engaging in “black-and-white” dogmatism. In the
process they habitually blind themselves to the areas where the Tories are
strong, which impedes their ability to counter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">It’s this intellectual inwardness that
broke the Liberal party’s back from 2004 on, and now threatens to do the same
to the New Democratic Party’s great beachhead of 2011. Partisans simply cannot
believe that not all reasonable, good people on Main Street grasp the singular
brilliance and inevitability of their worldview. So they keep repeating it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Surely the starting point for any
useful analysis of political reality should be, well, reality? Among people I
bump into in daily life, on those rare occasions when foreign policy comes up
at all, most agree with Harper and Baird that Canada should support democratic
Israel and oppose theocratic Iran; agree with them that Chinese state-owned
companies’ interest in the resource sector should be met with deep scrutiny and
caution; agreed with their decision to join in the 2011 Lybia campaign but keep
clear of any possible military engagement in Syria last year; thought the early
Liberal and NDP opposition to Canada’s involvement in the Afghan war was daft;
but wholeheartedly endorsed the eventual decision to pull Canadian soldiers
out, with the last expected to leave in March. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Paul Heinbecker, declaiming from the
op-ed pages of the Globe and Mail or the airwaves of the CBC, is a remote voice
indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Bottom line? The selling point of
Harper’s Conservatives has never been their personalities, his included. The party
wins because it provides policy that millions of Canadians, albeit often with
nose pinched between thumb and index finger, consider to be the least bad
alternative, and that millions more simply agree with. For government critics
to stubbornly insist this isn’t true, whether in foreign policy or another
area, is not noble. It’s a recipe for another Tory victory in 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-23205450051036700822014-01-09T08:47:00.002-08:002014-01-09T08:47:39.950-08:00A new low: Taliban commander tries to turn his ten-year-old sister into a suicide bomber<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/images/120399/1_22_032404_hussam_abdo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.foxnews.com/images/120399/1_22_032404_hussam_abdo.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hussam Abdo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">Using
your ten-year-old sister as a human bomb is a new low </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;"> –
even for terrorists – but t</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">he
Taliban aren’t the first to use children as human bombs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">Ten years ago in 2004,
the Palestinian terror war against Israel was losing its effectiveness, as the Israelis
were managing to block the large majority of attacks. The terrorists tried
using women as bombers, but they were caught as regularly as the men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">So
the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades tried a new tactic: using a child as a human
bomb. They sent Hussam Abdo, a mentally delayed 14-year-old, on a suicide
attack. Fortunately he was stopped at a checkpoint. "I don't want to blow
up," he told Israeli soldiers, who helped him remove his suicide belt without
harm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">From <i>The Washington Times</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17pt; line-height: 120%;">Afghan girl, 10, says Taliban brother forced her
into suicide bomb plot<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">By<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="fn"><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/cheryl-k-chumley/"><span style="color: #164a6e;">Cheryl K. Chumley</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">An Afghan girl, 10, said she was forced
to carry out a suicide attack, which failed, on a local police station in
Helmand province, sparking an outrage from President <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hamid-karzai/"><span style="color: #164a6e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Hamid Karzai</span></a> and
the international community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">“Children are the future-makers of the
country,” he said, in a statement reported by <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/cnn/"><span style="color: #164a6e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">CNN</span></a>. “They should be taken
care of, and education opportunities should be provided for them. They
shouldn’t be used as a tool for suicide attacks.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 120%;">It’s not clear how the suicide bombing
was thwarted, But the girl, known only as Spozhmai, is only one of several
children who have been used as a tool of terrorists in Afghanistan. CNN reported that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/afghan-police/"><span style="color: #164a6e; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Afghan police</span></a> discovered
41 children between the ages of 6 and 11 who were integral to militants’
suicide bomb plots in the last 12 months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2509091416757471214.post-47889387486176798252014-01-08T12:54:00.000-08:002014-01-09T08:35:19.403-08:00Court says it's okay to cut funding to antisemitic group that supports terrorism<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commentisfreewatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://commentisfreewatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/red.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Pro-Palestinian" activists stop by to see neo-Nazi friends in Syria</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">In a victory for common sense, the courts have
decided it’s okay to cut government funding to the Canadian Arab Federation
because they’re antisemitic and supports terrorist groups. It would have been
nice if the court had added that in any case it’s up to the government to
decide who to give money to, not the courts, but basically, this is an
excellent decision.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">Back in 2012, the government also cut funding for
Palestine House, for much the same reasons. See <a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2012/02/canadian-government-cuts-funding-to.html"><span style="color: blue;"><b>here</b></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 130%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Federal Court upholds government stopping funding
to Canadian Arab Federation over concerns it appears to support
terrorist organizations<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<h1 style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt;">
<span class="npauthor"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 130%;"> </span><b style="line-height: 110%;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 110%;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/author/sbellnp/"><span itemprop="name">Stewart Bel</span>l</a></span></span></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="line-height: 110%;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;"> </span><span class="npdateline"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;">|</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;"> <span content="2014-01-07T16:49:49+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" property="dc:created"></span></span><span class="npdateline"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;">January 7, 2014</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;"> </span></span><span class="npdateline"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;">| Last Updated:</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;"> <span content="2014-01-07T22:25:51+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" property="dc:modified"></span></span><span class="npdateline"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 110%;">Jan 7 5:25 PM ET</span></span></span></span></h1>
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<span class="npauthorlinks"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/author/sbellnp/" style="outline: 0px;"><span style="color: #3366cd;">More from Stewart Bell</span></a></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </span></span><span class="npauthorlinks"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">|</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </span></span><span class="npauthorlinks"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://twitter.com/StewartBellNP" style="outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3366cd;">@StewartBellNP</span></a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">TORONTO — A
government decision to stop funding the Canadian Arab Federation over concerns
it appeared to support terrorist organizations and anti-Semitism has been
upheld by the Federal Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">In dismissing an appeal launched by the Toronto-based
pro-Palestinian lobby group, Justice Russel Zinn ruled the decision to not
renew the $1-million in annual funding was reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">“All of the statements and actions raised by the Minister can,
in my view, reasonably lead one to the view that CAF appears to support
organizations that Canada has declared to be terrorist organizations and which
are arguably anti-Semitic,” the judge wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">The CAF had received 74% of its budget from a federal program
that funds language training for new immigrants. But after he became Minister
of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney brought that to an end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">He said he wanted to ensure the government was not financing
organizations that apologized for violence or terrorism. In a 2009 email, he
described the CAF as “radical and anti-semitic” [Sic] and called the funding
arrangement “shameful.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">The CAF, whose president had once called Mr. Kenney a “whore of war,”
could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But three Jewish organizations
applauded the ruling, which was released Monday night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">“It’s particularly disturbing to think that an organization that
holds views so diametrically opposed to Canada’s values was given a mandate to
integrate new Canadians,” said Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and
Jewish Affairs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">The court detailed six specific incidents behind the
government’s decision, including a 2006 pamphlet that attacked Liberal MP Bob
Rae and his wife for their involvement in the Jewish community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">At a 2009 rally organized by the CAF and other groups, the flag
of the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah was flown and a protester
screamed, “Jewish child, you are going to f—cking die. Hamas is coming for
you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">The CAF’s website had linked to videos and images of Hamas
operatives undergoing training, as well as the flags of Hamas and Islamic
Jihad, Palestinian terrorist groups notorious for their suicide bombing
campaigns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="color: #333333;">The CAF’s vice-president Ali Mullah also attended a conference
in Cairo where Hamas and Hezbollah delegates were present. (Ali Mullah was also in Cairo on behalf of CUPE. See </span><a href="http://brians-op-eds.blogspot.ca/2009/01/world-movement-of-terrorists-and.html"><span style="color: blue;"><b>here</b></span></a><span style="color: #333333;">) In addition, the CAF
had honored Zafar Bangash, who “has referred to Canadians as ‘infidels or
non-believers’ in the past and reported on the September 11 attacks in a way
that was unsympathetic to the victims,” the court said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">The court rejected the argument that the Mr. Kenney had
restricted free expression on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, saying there was
no connection between the program funding decision and the CAF’s advocacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 110%;">Mr. Kenney said the court judgment was “a vindication of common
sense. Groups who express apparently hateful views or who defend terrorist
organizations should not receive taxpayer funding, period. This is especially
true for organizations charged with the integration of newcomers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Brian from Torontohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00509900661542494184noreply@blogger.com0