Saturday, April 9, 2011 - motzei Shabbat

1. Letters To The Editor #1 - persistence pays off - here are 3 letters that were published in the Halifax Herald this week - I happen to know one of the authors......



Outrageous article

Re: "Polarizing book speaks truths," April 3, by Matt Semansky.

This article outrageously refers to Israel as being "racist" and "fascist." Israel, as most enlightened people know, is an incredibly multicultural country with a rich cultural mosaic and an incredibly tolerant society.

Consider this if you will: An Arab (Salim Joubran) serves on the Israeli Supreme Court, the former Miss Israel (Rana Rasian) is Arab, the captain of Israeli soccer team Hapolel Tel Aviv (Walid Badir) is Arab, the former deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Majalil Wahabi) is Druze.

Israel has accepted thousands of African refugees fleeing for their lives and welcomed thousands of Ethiopian immigrants. Jews and Arabs sing and dance together, swim at the Dead Sea, and are educated and shop together.

Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.

Mike Fegelman, Executive director, HonestReporting Canada

Reach out to Jews

I was dismayed but not surprised that Hamas and Fatah have opposed teaching the history of the Holocaust to Palestinian children starting in September ("Hamas warns UN," March 27). Many young Canadians who study this genocide are horrified to the point of being physically sick. The systematic murder of six million Jews is beyond fathoming.

Let’s bring this matter closer to home. What have we done to build bridges of understanding between the Jews and Gentiles who live here in Halifax? In view of the history of tensions between Jews and Christians, what have local church denominations done to show solidarity with their Jewish brothers and sisters?

April 11 marks Holocaust Day (Yom HaSho’ah) and April 19 marks Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut). It would be refreshing if even one church reached out to a synagogue saying: "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Jennifer and Kirby Smart, Kentville

Regarding Nakba

Re: "Selective criticism," (April 3 letter) on Israel’s "Nakba law." The law allows that government to withhold or reduce budgets from government-funded bodies which deny Israel’s existence.

A sovereign state passes a law, amended after adhering to a truly democratic parliamentary process, that seeks to cut the budgets of institutions and bodies that reject its basic values. The state does not aim to minimize or ban criticism — everyone is still allowed to voice their views. It is just that the state will not finance its own critics and those who harm it.

Perhaps it is just me, but such a step seems reasonable, even a step that more states should adopt. Does it make a difference that the state is Israel?

Maybe, for once, the reflexive Israel bashers should instead concern themselves with events elsewhere in the Middle East — such as protesters shot by their own governments in Syria and Libya, women and gays being stoned to death in Iran, Christians being murdered in Egypt and Pakistan, and UN workers being murdered in Afghanistan. There don’t seem to be many letters from them about those subjects.

Mark David, Halifax

2. Hamas - The Hamas terrorists have started acting up again - firing 120 missiles into Israel since Thursday. One such missile hit a bus carrying Israeli schoolchildren, and there is a strong suspicion that the bus was deliberately targeted.


So, what would happen in Mexico fired the same number of missiles in the US, Poland lobbed 120 missiles into Ukraine, or Spain let a few loose at France? But these are attacks against Israel - so the rules are different. The silence from the world is again deafening.

And not that it should matter, but just to be clear, we are talking about missiles being launched from an area in which there are no Jews (except perhaps Gilad Shalit) and which Israel unilaterally evacuated in 2005, uprooting thousands of settlers and communities. Oh and the missiles are being launched into an area that was always within the boundaries of 1948 Israel. In any event:


And here's a guy who finally got what was coming to him - Hamas militant killed in Gaza strike was 'physically' involved in Shalit kidnapping - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News - though I think that his death was too quick and easy. Anyway, I'm sure he's finding out now that he's in a special area of hell with the rest of the world's dead terrorists and that there aren't any 72 virgins waiting for him.


3. Letters To The Editor #2 - from today's National Post:

Re: Hamas Fires Missile at Israeli School Bus, April 8.

One need not look further than Hamas's English website to understand that Hamas has no intention of ever living at peace with Israel and returning to a "calm," as this article suggested. After specifically targeting a school bus with Jewish children, Hamas proudly took responsibility and claimed that "The operation left two Israeli settlers injured."

Israeli settlers. That is not a reference to Israeli settlers who have moved to lands captured in 1967; this refers to Israeli school children who have the misfortune of living within Gaza rocket range. In Hamas's eyes, all Jews in Israel are settlers -it doesn't matter if they live in Sderot, East Jerusalem or Eilat.

Yet Israel is supposed to negotiate with these barbarians.

Joseph Schwartz, Thornhill, Ont.

I read with revulsion that Hamas fired a missile directly at an Israeli school bus. While I would actually expect no less from this terror organization, I am still reeling. Israel responded and evidently five unfortunate Palestinians were killed. I am now waiting for the cries of "disproportionate response" from the usual suspects. And I guess they're right; Israel's response was disproportionate inasmuch as a proportionate response would have been for the Israelis to attack a Palestinian school bus.

Thank goodness that this is not how a moral and democratic nation such as Israel responds to unprovoked attacks. Israel has no choice but to defend itself to stop these attacks and cannot let the assaults continue without Israel's evidently amoral enemies paying a price. No other civilized nation would have done less.

Howard C. Tenenbaum, Thornhill, Ont

3. Waging War - I think that the West has largely forgotten the price one has to pay to defeat evil - reminds me of the saying that you should never bring a knife to a gun fight. Or, to put it theatrically, try this from "The Untouchables":




4. Goldstone - New Attacks on Israel Bring Goldstone Controversy into Focus - Commentary Magazine. And doesn't this story surprise the heck out of you - Europeans, UN: We Stand by Goldstone Report - here's an understatement if there ever was one:
"How can these countries simply ignore Goldstone's recantation and plough ahead as if his claim that Israel targeted civilians were true? According to Shepherd, anti-Israel sentiment has become so strong in Europe that that the truth is less important for those nations than advancing their goals vis-a-vis Israel."

Maybe the EU and the UN should read this opinion - A victory for moral clarity in the Middle East



5. Antisemitism - I do not like people who automatically scream prejudice as soon as something bad befalls them - but I have little doubt that the UN/EU story above, Israel Apartheid Week and the BDS Movement, to name but only three examples - is antisemitism through and through. Yes, the Boycott of Israel Is Anti-Semitic - Commentary Magazine. And if antisemitism is your thing - I've got a travel idea for you - Spain: The "Most Anti-Semitic Country in Europe": Hudson New York

6. Speaking of Apartheid - and false accusations - South African Charge of Israeli Apartheid Rings Hollow : Hudson New York










Here is a modern adaptation of the old joke to the effect that the Jews wandered 40 years in the wilderness because Moses would not stop and ask for directions.......



12. Shoah - after the Second World War, when the vanquished Nazis just became ordinary Germans and the highest levels of the Western Allies decided that help was needed to hold back the Communist hordes, it became fashionable to think that the atrocities of the Shoah were really only committed by the Nazi leadership and the ideologically fanatic SS. There is tons of evidence to the contrary - and here's another - Rape, Murder and Genocide: Nazi War Crimes as Described by German Soldiers - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International


13. Scapegoat - the concept being contained in the Torah (Vayikra (Leviticus) 16.22), I guess everyone thinks that Jews and Israel need to be scapegoats for all time - ONLINE ONLY: The Israel Scapegoat | Standpoint
But now we've seen evidence that the overriding concerns of the jobless, imprisoned, censored, bullied and bloodied peoples of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria have not, in fact, been the real estate habits of ultra-nationalist Jews in the West Bank, much less the fractiousness of the Netanyahu cabinet or the sacredness of the Temple Mount. The momentum and direction of history was better guessed at by Facebook and Twitter than by the Guardian or the BBC. One might have imagined that Israel, if only temporarily, was about to be consigned to the periphery of the what-went-wrong debate.
14. The Suit With No Occupant - Andrew Klavan's latest





17. Home Grown Concerns - it's only a matter of time before something really bad happens here - Alex Wilner: Canada grows its own terrorists Full Comment National Post

18. Back to Passover




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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousApril 10, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    Mark we are so lucky to have you. This was a stellar issue and yes I read and saw everything. Your tenacity, conviction and presence of mind makes me proud to be a fellow Jew. A.S.

    ReplyDelete

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