Friday, September 18, 2009 - A Brief Post Before Rosh Hashanah

I extend warm Rosh Hashanah greetings for health, happiness and prosperity to all visitors to this site - whether "regulars" or those who "come by chance" - thank you for your support.



Now, on to the latest posts.

1. Goldstone Fallout - In the interest of full disclosure, I will start with an admission in response to a question asked indirectly of me by someone who follows my blog - I have not yet read the report.


I have looked at small parts of it, and fully intend to review it all, but as of this moment I have not read it. I normally read source materials before commenting on them, but the size of the report has prevented me from doing so. The unspoken next question from that person is - how I can comment on the report if I have not read it?

On this issue, as is my custom on all issues, I have linked to what are, in my mind, very reputable sources. I have every confidence that those sources are well aware of the content of the report. This is clear from the many excerpts from the report that are included in their commentary. Quite frankly, I will be rather surprised (to put it mildly) if once I read the report, I come to a different conclusion.

So, with that in mind, I refer you to the following links:
2. It Never Stops - UK labor unions approve Israeli goods boycott | International | Jerusalem Post - I try my best not to utter inappropriate language on this blog, but I'm sorry - after all the vile anti-Israel material over the last couple of weeks in particular - I have no choice.


The UK Labor Unions that passed these resolutions - and their hangers-on and fellow travelers - who are too many to mention but include CUPE Ontario, the TIFF Protesters, Swedish blood libel publishers - you can all go to hell.

Those of you who know me will recognize this language as being especially mild and circumspect - if you'd like more detailed and colorful language as to my thoughts on the subject, please contact me directly.

3. This Is A Charmer Too - To the people at the United Church who were behind this brilliant initiative - United Church helped fund ‘anti-Jewish’ group - Holy Post - why don't you get on the same bus as the people and groups I referred to in item 2?

4. Want To Bet This Is True? IAEA report says Iran can now build the bomb | Iran news | Jerusalem Post - of course, the IAEA denies it, but they have the credibility of a small pebble.

5. I Hope That I Do Not Fall Into This Category - Works and Days » The Rise of the Uncouth.





8. TIFF - Great letter to the Editor in the Globe & Mail from Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

TIFF tactics sad, regrettable

More than a week ago, the Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation was drafted, a concerted attempt to decry TIFF’s choice of Tel Aviv as its spotlight city. I have watched with dismay as many of my colleagues have signed this open letter. The reputation of the Toronto International Film Festival has been targeted. As a long-time supporter of such an important event, I find this sad and regrettable.

For the first time in my experience of attending the festival, a tone of partisanship has been cast on a cherished oasis of civility and artistic free expression. The organizers of the Toronto declaration rashly proclaimed that this interference came from an outside government – the State of Israel – but this serious charge has never been substantiated.

A film festival is an event that should stir controversy and discussion. This should come from the films and the filmmakers themselves. Questions of national history and identity must be presented and discussed. Are the signatories of this declaration aware of the numerous Arab and Palestinian voices programmed in this year’s edition?

What I resent about the Toronto declaration is that for the first time in the history of this magnificent event, an agenda was imposed before the festival even began. The programmers were insultingly charged with shady collusion and political naivety. In fact, they were just doing their job.

Atom Egoyan, filmmaker, Toronto

9. Just As Important A Date As September 1, 1939 - Pajamas Media » Still Dis-Putin’ History After All These Years

10. Let's Not Forget Iran - Faster, Please! » Countdown to Friday

11. What Is Wrong With This Story? Apart from the obvious scandalous story, I do not believe that it targets Jews or Israel - The E. F. Hutton of Prostitution by Rich Lowry onNational Review Online. This story has even outraged Jon Stewart - see:


12. I Gotta Love You Rosh Hashanah - a follow-up to a great Passover video by the same performer

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Wednesday, September 16th, 2009


I want to focus on just one thing today - the release of the so-called "Goldstone Report" - with the formal name of:

HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES
Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict

The entire report is available here - if you can stand to read it. Here is the official response of the Israeli Government.

To absolutely no one's surprise, the UN probe alleges Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza | Israel | Jerusalem Post. I do not even know what to say. Yet again the Useless Nations has condemned Israel based on the most tenuous "evidence" imaginable - to me, this is the now totally discredited "Jenin Massacre" on a much larger scale.

It's a big deal - even Ha'aretz, the liberal Israeli newspaper says quite correctly that 'UN report accusing Israel of war crimes is prize for terror' - Haaretz - Israel News. Also to the same effect, see -History News Network. Other fallout includes Israel girds for diplomatic war over 'biased' UN Gaza report - Haaretz - Israel News. Aluf Benn, who visited Halifax last year, penned this provocative piece - Aluf Benn / In wake of Gaza probe, how can Israel go to war again? - Haaretz - Israel News.

From a legal perspective, examine CAMERA: Goldstone Report Endorses Unreliable Witnesses and this article by Irwin Cotler, the respected Canadian expert on international law.


Meanwhile, here is background on the man behind this report - Goldstone’s Gambit: The Man Behind U.N. Report – Forward.com. And to complete the picture, Goldstone's daughter protests that Goldstone's daughter: My father is a Zionist | Israel | Jerusalem Post. Please, spare me.....

I could go on and on with linking to articles, but the foregoing gives you the idea.

Here are some vital things to remember:
  • even suggesting that Hamas and Israel are anywhere near the same moral and legal plane is simply obscene;
  • it is outrageous that the Goldstone "Fact-Finding" Mission (0f the Human Rights Council HRC) in effect prejudged Israel's "guilt" from the start. The HRC didn't even wait for the investigation to begin before declaring Israel has caused "massive violations of human rights.”
  • The Goldstone Mission's one-sided mandate focusing overwhelmingly on Israel ignored all evidence of Hamas' human rights violations past and present. The mandate of the commission was so prejudicial that many candidates refused to head the Mission, including Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland who said it was "guided not by human rights, but by politics."
  • Leading democratic members of the HRC -- including the European Union, Japan, Canada and Switzerland -- all refused to endorse the mandate for the “fact-finding” mission out of concern that it was flawed and biased.
  • The Human Rights Council has consistently discriminated against Israel. It has condemned democratic Israel more often than all the other nations of the world combined.
  • Like Canada, Israel is committed to investigating any allegation of wrongdoing and does so regularly, but could not be expected to cooperate with a UN body so profoundly prejudiced against it.
In closing, I think that this excerpt sums up matters well:

"...here we are on the eve of the Jewish days of judgment, confronted with a report written by a Jew called Goldstone providing terrorists around the world, not to mention the enemies of the Jewish state, with the very weapon they have been waiting for so impatiently. Heartbreaking."

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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

1. A Terrible Loss - Israel pilot Assaf Ramon, astronaut's son, dies in F-16 crash -- latimes.com



2. Another Disgusting Blood Libel - Organ theft reports picked up by Arab media | Middle East | Jerusalem Post - where are the howls of indignation from civilized peoples?

3. What Do You Expect From a Country That Won't Allow Jews To Overfly Its Territory? - and not for security reasons either. Last week the moderate Saudis refused to allow Israeli planes to fly over holy cities because that would result in contamination. So does this story, coming at a time when Israel and Saudi Arabia have a mutual major enemy in Iran, really surprise you? - Saudi Arabia steps up boycott of Israel | Middle East | Jerusalem Post

4. TIFF - here's a bunch of B-S as far as I am concerned - Signing protest letter was rash, Fonda says - The Globe and Mail. This is the Van Jones defence - "I did not really read it before I signed it". Sorry, Jane - as the saying goes - "that dog won't hunt". Seems you've been down this road before - including regrets over some of her Vietnam activities.



6. Naomi Klein - I think that someone once said that it you cannot say something nice about someone, then you should not say it. Well, I have less than nothing nice to say about her, but I will be true to the adage and I will let the fantastic Hillel Neuer do it for me - The strange, enduring rage of Naomi Klein.




8. Do You & Hanoi Jane Use The Same Publicist? And the guy still sees nothing wrong with it - Human Rights Watch Official Suspended Over Nazi Memorabilia – Forward.com








12. A Guide For the Perplexed (modern version) - The Ettinger Report




14. Political Correctness, Quebec Style - No sign French lost Plains of Abraham - Guys, take it from me - 1759, Plains of Abraham - YOU LOST - 250 YEARS AGO - ADMIT IT!!!



16. A Fair Question To Consider - Is Canada broken? - The Globe and Mail. As long as the Bloc Quebecois (a party devoted to sovereignty for Quebec, mind you) dominate federal electoral politics in Quebec, it is very hard to envision any majority governments. And as we have seen this week, the opposition threatens to drag down the minority government until they see how unpopular another election will be and/or their personal popularity starts to fall rapidly.



18. Forget Iran, Forget anti-Semitism - This Is Serious!! Fiddlers on the Wane – Forward.com

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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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