Wednesday, February 24, 2010 - 200th Edition!

1. Divisions Within Canada's New Democratic Party - For a very long time, Canada's political scene was dominated by the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. [The current Conservative Party is not "your father's" Conservative Party of Sir John A. MacDonald, John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney - that party, more properly known as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, merged with the Canadian Alliance in 2003 to form the Conservative Party of Canada].

In any event, a new party emerged in 1961 - the social democratic party known as the New Democratic Party, or the NDP. The party is definitely on the left side of the political spectrum. Despite considerable involvement over the years from the Jewish community, including from the late David Lewis, it has often taken very anti-Israel positions on issues that one would think would be rather opposite to the principles it purports to stand for.

[Another recent new party is the Bloc Quebecois - based entirely in Quebec and dedicated to the protection of Quebec's rights in the federal arena, as well as to sovereignty for Quebec. The Bloc currently holds 48 seats in the federal Canadian Parliament - 11 more than the NDP - and thus in theory, either party holds the balance of power in the current minority government situation. The Bloc has also been accused of having a less than friendly attitude towards Israel.]

Current NDP leader Jack Layton has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Two of the senior people in the NDP are expected to assist Mr. Layton with his leadership responsibilities - one of whom is quite pro-Israel and the other of whom is not. It will be interesting to see what will transpire - John Ivison: NDP flees from divisions over Israel - Full Comment.


2. More On The Dubai Takedown -



5. I'm Not Convinced - I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor - Declare a Palestinian State - NYTimes.com. And where did the figure of 6,000,000 Palestinian refugees come from? First - it is obviously a "charged" number that Palestinians will immediately claim to equal the most frequently cited number of Jews murdered in the Shoah, thereby (in my opinion) demeaning
the almost scared nature if that figure. Second - this broad definition of who constitutes a refugee - it is my understanding that descendants of Palestinian refugees under the authority of the UNRWA are the only group to be granted refugee status on the basis of descent alone. Why, you may ask, aren't the descendants of the larger number of Jews kicked out of all the Arab countries at the same time considered refugees with their own organization to look after them - well perhaps it is due to the fact that Israel, with assistance from the world's Jewish population, took in and resettled a huge number of those people rather than cynically use them as pawns. And it did so at a time when it had next to nothing in terms of national wealth.





8. This Might Be Awkward - Haaretz: Son of Hamas Founder Worked for Shin Bet – Forward.com - beats the heck out of the Montagues and the Capulets.

And look at the BBC story (BBC News - Hamas man's son Mosab Hassan Yousef 'was Israeli spy') with the incredibly moronic comment - "Mosab Hassan Yousef could not be reached for comment".

Gee - I wonder why??

(father - no longer among the living)

(son - hopes to remain among the living)


9. Have To Have An Iran Story - can't have a 200th edition without some Iran stuff.
And since Russia can't seem to make up its mind (I bet an Iranian nuclear missile landing somewhere in Russia in support of Russia's Muslim minorities might persuade them) - I am not going to cheer for its men's hockey team tonight in their Olympic quarterfinal game against Canada - (truth be told, I was never going to root for them). As we used to cheer in the bad old days of the USSR, "da da Canada, nyet nyet Soviet". GO TEAM CANADA - here are some great memories - especially when Mario Lemieux's 1987 Canada Cup winner (the third highlight below) was benefited by a non-call on an obvious hooking penalty that should have been called on Dale Hawerchuk - the referee was Don Koharski (a native of Nova Scotia!!!!! - great work)




10. Wasn't There A Movie About This? - Tunnel Vision: Convict Digs Out of Prison With a Spoon - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International. Oh yeah..... and if you don't have the time to watch the whole video, watch the following one!



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