Saturday, September 12, 2009 - Motzei Shabat

1. I'm Guessing This Is The Least Of His Worries - Lebanon's Madoff charged with with fraud | Middle East | Jerusalem Post.



2. Didn't They Say That They Won? - Hamas seeks new doctrine after Gaza War failures | Front Lines - the week that was | Jerusalem Post. From the safety of the command bunker under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza no doubt....


3. Is Anyone Really Buying This? - Iranian defense minister: Nukes against our religion | Iran news | Jerusalem Post. They mean the Religion of Peace, right? What else is against their religion, pray tell?

4. Well, Maybe Putin Is - Putin: Russia has no reason to doubt Iranian nuclear program | International | Jerusalem Post. This is even more interesting given Bibi Netanyahu's secretive visit to Russia this past week.




6. More TIFF Reaction - Even the Toronto Star, not known for being pro-Israel, thinks that the TIFF protesters are full of it - TheStar.com | Editorials | Tel Aviv tiff at TIFF.


7. More More TIFF Reaction - This letter was in yesterday's Globe & Mail and seems to sum things up quite well:

Tom Wolfe wrote that, in New York in the late ’60s, the “radical chic” – wealthy, socially prominent elites who support radical causes for social status – embraced the Black Panthers because support for groups such as the NAACP had become too mainstream to impart status.

Today, there’s nothing more high status for the radically chic than to hold pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli views. That other regimes in the world are far worse abusers of human rights is not their concern.

Remember, it’s not about social justice – it’s about social status.

Louise Morin, Toronto



9. Remember That Financial Meltdown Thing From Last Year? The day everything - and nothing - changed - The Globe and Mail.




12. NFL Season - The season begins in earnest tomorrow - there are going to be lots of unhappy coaches - but can they told this rants?

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Friday, September 11, 2009

1. Tragic Anniversary - Today is the 8th anniversary of 9/11. Here are some columns on the subject - Pajamas Media » Eight Years After 9/11: Are We Getting Complacent? and Pajamas Media » We Say ‘Never Forget’ — But Do We Really Mean It?.

One very worthwhile story that is a longer read is A Reporter at Large: The Real Heroes Are Dead : The New Yorker. I read the piece when it first came out in The New Yorker, and found it very moving. I found that it put the events of 9/11 into sharp personal focus. If you are then sufficiently interested, take the time to read "We Were Soldiers Once....And Young" - read the book - as opposed to watching the movie.

Whatever you think of David Letterman, you should watch this:


2. TIFF continued - The controversy about the so-called "Toronto Declaration" and the Toronto International Film Festival continues - the Festival actually opened yesterday. here are good comments from Pajamas Media » An Open Letter to Jane Fonda and the Toronto Film Festival Boycotters, Artists for censorship - The Globe and Mail, Academic & cultural boycotts: Selective, sordid, silly | Op-Ed Contributors | Jerusalem Post and There's justice, and then there's propaganda - The Globe and Mail.

I re-read the Declaration - the text of which is here. I find several things objectionable, but will only focus on a few. First on my list is the equating of Tel Aviv with the so-called occupation. To me this is evidence that the Palestinian leadership, their acolytes, hangers-on, fellow-travelers and sympathizers think that all of Israel is occupied. I would disagree with them even if they suggested that only the West Bank and Gaza were occupied, but at least in that case I can respect an honest debate on the issue. But if they think that Tel Aviv is part of occupied territory, then there is simply nothing to discuss.

Second, is the deliberate use of accusatory & inaccurate terminology - Israel's "aggressive wars" and its "brutal assault" on Gaza. What would the signatories say about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, launched by Egypt and Syria on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar? What about the unrelenting rain of rockets on Sderot and Southern Israel over many years prior to Operation Cast Lead?

Third - where are all these people on other world issues - the Congo, Darfur, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and so on? Naomi Klein was interviewed on CBC today and allegedly said that she would protest if the city in focus was Beijing or some other such city. Maybe so, but one never hears much about that - she does not need a film festival to use as a platform.

Fourth - a variant of the old expression is that "...even if you put perfume on a pig, it is still a pig..". So, at the end of the day, their position is not tenable despite all the caveats and flowerly language:
  • their reliance on such well-known anti-Israel advocates such as Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu to label Israel as an apartheid regime destroys any possible credibility they might have.
  • the suggestion that Tel Aviv is not a diverse city is absolute foolishness.
  • did Tel Aviv or the Israeli Government somehow prohibit Palestinian filmmakers from submitting entries for the festival?
  • what is wrong with drawing attention to Israel's phenomenal achievements in medicine, science and culture - why don't the Palestinians do a Brand Palestine campaign to celebrate similar achievements - is it because they cannot?
  • where is the outrage and concern for the million or so Jews who were kicked out of so many Arab countries in 1948?
So in my opinion, this is just the same old tired group of rabble rousers (I will single out (Jewish) Canadian Judy Rebick in particular) taking another opportunity to take a shot at something Israeli.

And to me the ultimate irony is that the film that was withdrawn and seemed to spark the whole "boycott" is Covered by John Greyson, which deals with "... violent response to the opening of the first queer film festival in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina." Does anyone really doubt that this film could be shown in Israel - Tel Aviv or elsewhere - as a matter of course? Could it be shown in Gaza, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and so on? I rather doubt it.

3. They Should Watch These Videos At Their Smarmy Boycott Parties:

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3. Tell The TIFF-sters about These - FrontPage Magazine - The Other Occupations










12. Were You Ready For Some Football? The NFL season started last night - finally - and all I can say is OUCH!



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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

1. Are You Kidding Me? How do you spell hypocrisy? S-W-E-D-E-N! This is absolutely unbelievable - well, actually, nothing shocks me anymore - Commentary » Blog Archive » Sweden’s ‘Sensitivity’ Double Standard.

I know that I sound like a broken record (do kids today even know what a record is?) - but how can the government of Sweden one minute refuse to condemn the terrible unsubstantiated allegations published so recklessly in the Aftonbladet newspaper on the basis of not interfering with freedom of the press, but then turn around shortly afterward and ask a museum to remove potentially offensive art.

In my opinion, it is not a coincidence that the first case of non-intervention involved Israel, and the second case of intervention did not. So is it anti-Semitism? This is the broken record part - seems to me that this clearly falls into the second of Natan Sharansky's "3D tests" of anti-Semitism:
"The second "D" is the test of double standards. When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel's Magen David Adom, alone among the world's ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross - this is anti-Semitism."
Comments?



2. More Hypocrisy - Commentary » Blog Archive » The Latest Human Rights Watch Bombshell - so I take stuff from HRW with a pound of salt.



3. TIFF - Here are some letters that were published in today's Globe and Mail - Sept. 9: Letters to the editor - The Globe and Mail. Also see Chris Selley: Leonard Cohen, Naomi Klein and boycott politics - Full Comment.







9. I'll Take Victor Davis Hanson Over Pat Buchanan Any Day - and twice on Sunday - VDH's Private Papers::The Second World War - Seventy Years Later

10. Carter the Elder - sometimes, many times, our elders dispense wise and mature advice - but not always - Elliott Abrams - What President Jimmy Carter Missed in His Op-Ed on the Middle East - washingtonpost.com





13. A Voice In The Wilderness - Tarek Fatah: Abandon the doctrine of jihad





17. Interesting Take On the Settlement Issue - Last year, we hosted Aluf Benn in Halifax for the start of our local United Jewish Appeal campaign. He is the author of this interesting piece - In Olmert's footsteps - Haaretz - Israel News.




19. Extra Entry - I normally post either 10 (representing a minyan - for those unfamiliar, see here), 12 (a boring dozen) or 18 (symbolic in Judaism of life - good explanation here) entries in my blog. Today I have added a nineteenth - why, you ask?


Well, in 1965, Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs - deserving of special mention, I'd say.

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

1. What Makes These Guys Experts? Maybe they should leave their ivory towers and come live in Israel for a while. RubinReports: Tough love for Israel? Imposed Solution? The Ignorant Arrogance of the Advice-Givers. Also interesting from last week is - Don't make me laugh | Columnists | Jerusalem Post.




3. What Would A Real Liberal Do? - Pajamas Media » Real Liberals Should Support Israel











10. Media Bias 101 - Commentary » Blog Archive » Wishing It Were So - a simple example that is likely multiplied hundreds of times daily.




12. NFL Football Is Almost Here - To celebrate, check out (one of the clips is an example of the Latin maxim "sic transit gloria mundi" - often translated to mean "glory is fleeting - it shows David Tyree's amazing catch in the Super Bowl from 2 years ago - meanwhile, he just was released by the New York Giants this preseason):


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Sunday, September 6th, 2009

1. Racism, Xenophobia, Ignorance, Anti-Semitism and more - Saudis Nix Israeli Planes over 'Contamination' - News Briefs - Israel National News. Please - (sarcasm ON - set to max!) - let's prop up this atrocious regime - oh, they have oil???? Never mind. Sorry I brought it up. They are the "good guys".



2. Showing Their True (Cowardly) Colors - Hamas commander may harm Schalit if brother not part of deal | Middle East | Jerusalem Post - and this is who the anti-Israel types is in love with? They can have him and his disgusting ilk. I think it's time for these guys to have some IDF-induced lead poisoning.


3. The First Two Stories Bring Me to This - FrontPage Magazine - How to Defeat the Left
4. I Guess It Will Make A Nice Museum - Renovation work begins on medieval Polish synagogue | Jewish Features | Jerusalem Post. In 2005, while on the March of the Living, I was in some synagogues in Poland - all of which (other than the Nozyck Synagogue in Warsaw) were nothing more than museums - a bitter reminder of the extermination of Poland's Jews and the fact that Poland today is almost completely "Jew-less" - from a 1939 Jewish population of about 3,000,000, there are now, some 70 years later, less than 5,000 Jews. That means that for every 600 Jews in Poland in 1939, there is now 1 single, solitary Jew. That is the epitome of genocide and ethnic cleansing.


5. Swedish Foolishness - Bildt cancels Israel trip amid tensions between nations | Israel | Jerusalem Post - oh, and it has nothing to do with the "Organ Theft Affair". What are we, stupid?



8. Revisionist View of History - Faster, Please! » Comrade Stalin Sues to Save his Good Name. Maybe he should retain the ACLU. And why complain when you're #1?



10. The Beatles - this article contains some very interesting information as to the significance and popularity of The Beatles - Still relevant after decades, the Beatles set to rock 9/9/09 - CNN.com.

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