Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

""

The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

Think I'm the greatest thing since chocolate-covered strawberries? Think I'm certifiably insane? E-mail me at segacs2.at.yahoo.ca.

Buy me a present! Visit my Amazon Wish List.

Frequently asked questions about me and this blog.

Atom site feed

Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

---

<< List
Jewish Bloggers
Join >>

 
8:47 PM
This is it for me for 2002, folks. I'm heading off on vacation tomorrow. The skiing should be great but I'll be without internet access for the week. I'll be back shortly after New Year's, at which point posting will resume.

So have a good one, everyone, and try not to let any of the discussions get too out of hand while I'm gone. Best wishes for a Happy New Year.

|

 
3:47 PM
Syria is denying Israeli allegations that Iraq is transferring banned weapons to them.

"This accusation against Syria is ridiculous because Syria signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and called all Arab states to make the Middle East clear of weapons of mass destruction whether nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Damascus.

Oh, why didn't you just say so? You say you're innocent, therefore it must be true. You even signed a treaty! Gee, I feel so much better now. (Insert heavy sarcasm here).

|

 
4:59 PM
Merry Christmas to all you Christians out there. Enjoy the holiday!

|

 
2:53 PM
What if you had a party and nobody came?

The Progressive Conservative party has gone from Canada's oldest and most prominent political party to a small group of peripheral candidates who seem to only get votes in the Maritimes. But that's not the only problem they've been facing these days. With Joe Clark retiring, the Tories are in the midst of a leadership contest . . . only nobody wants the job.

Bernard Lord, the fluently bilingual young premier of New Brunswick, MP John Herron and John Tory, a veteran party strategist from Toronto, all opted out of seeking the leadership. Each had attracted organizational and financial backing within the party.

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie has said thanks but no thanks to Tory recruiters. Vancouver businessman Rick Peterson, highly touted in the party as a young, bilingual B.C. voice, says he won't make a leadership bid.

So far the only declared candidate is Heward (who?) Grafftey, a former cabinet minister.

It's really too bad, because the Tory party was an important player on the Canadian political scene. The stigma of the Mulroney years aside, the party did have some good contributions to make, without slipping into the worst aspects of the right like the Alliance.

In the meantime, I think there's a very big "help wanted" sign in the door of the party offices.

|

 
1:55 PM
Everyone claims that Iraq has illegal biological and chemical weapons, but the UN inspectors can't seem to find them. Now Ariel Sharon has an idea of why that might be: He claims Saddam is transferring the weapons to Syria:

Sharon said that Israel has information that "weapons he (Saddam Hussein) wanted to hide, chemical weapons, biological weapons, were indeed transferred to Syria."

He said that the information has not been fully verified. "We have some information to that effect. We are now working to confirm the information," he told Israel TV's Channel 2 in an excerpt of a program broadcast on the nightly news.

At this point, the information seems pretty tenuous. But if it does turn out to be true, it could have some pretty nasty implications, considering Syria is a member of the UN Security Council - and is one of Israel's sworn enemies.

|

 
12:09 PM
Elie Wiesel speaks out in support of war against Iraq. In an article in the Observer (via CJA), he says that while war itself is never a good option, sometimes - as in this case - it is the only moral option.

I find war repugnant. All wars. I know war's monstrous aspects: blood and corpses everywhere, hungry refugees, devastated cities, orphans in tears and houses in ruins. I find no beauty in it. But it is with a heavy heart I ask this: what is to be done? Do we have the right not to intervene, when we know what passivity and appeasement will make possible?

Is President Bush's policy of intervention the best response to an imperative need? Yes, it is said, and I am reluctant to say anything else. Bush's goal is to prevent the deadliest biological or nuclear conflict in modern history.

If the US, supported by the UN Security Council, is forced to intervene, it will save victims who are already targeted, already menaced. And it will win. The US owes it to us, and owes it to future generations. As the great French writer André Malraux said, victory belongs to those who make war without loving it.

To all the people who protest war on principle, I urge them to read the article.

|

 
11:53 PM
Sad, sad, sad. CNN's online poll asks readers what they believe are the top 10 news stories of 2002.

According to the results so far, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the terrorist attack in Bali, and the Russian hostage crisis are nowhere to be found in the top 10. But Martha Stewart and Winona Ryder's court cases were both on the list.

What does that say about American culture?

|

 
11:40 PM
Now here's something you don't see every day: Protests against the Left. In Venezuela, tens of thousands of protestors are marching to support a giant strike against President Hugo Chavez.

This isn't exactly breaking news. Chavez hasn't been winning too many popularity contests for a while now. But it occurs to me that we tend to associate large-scale strike or protest movements with the Left, but in this case, they're protesting because they consider Chavez too far left.

Pro- and anti-Chavez demonstrations have taken place almost daily during the work stoppage called by business, labour and opposition politicians on Dec. 2 to force Chavez to resign or submit to early elections.

They say Chavez's leftist policies and autocratic style have ruined the Venezuelan economy.

With all our focus on the Mideast, it's easy to lose sight of important developments in other parts of the world. But the situation in Venezuela is getting more out of control by the day, and certainly merits a close watch.

|

 
6:42 PM
Another tip from an e-mail from Judith: If you thought Concordia was bad, life for Jewish students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium is ten times worse. Ha'aretz reports that pro-Israel students are facing death threats on that campus:

"Jews in Belgium live today in a new reality, one in which they cannot express their sympathy for Israel in any way," reflects a historian at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Free University of Brussels. His angry comment came in response to death threats aimed at two Jewish students who put up pro-Israeli posters on campus earlier this month.

Benjamin and Nicole, who agreed to be identified only by their first names, study natural sciences at the Free University, and belong to the Friends of Israel association. Two weeks ago, they and a few other students put up some pro-Israel posters in the student
union area of the Brussels campus. The posters conveyed messages such as "Which was the first state in the Middle East which gave Arab women the right to vote," or "Terror attacks against civilians are an abomination." Along the bottom of the posters was
written "If you're for tolerance, don't rip this off the wall," in anticipation that a leftist group would be likely to remove the new posters.

The next morning, the two students received phone calls from an anonymous caller who had a Middle Eastern accent, and threatened to attack them. "We know who you are and where you live," the caller threatened, in the call to Nicole. "We also know that you have a brother, as well as the license number of your car and the place where you park it." The caller continued: "If the flyer isn't removed by the evening, we'll burn the car, and harm you and your family." Benjamin, 22, received a similar phone call.

The students reacted by taking down the posters, because those threats and follow-ups convinced them that their personal safety was at risk. But they later helped stage a rally that drew 1,000 people in support of free speech.

The point is, freedom of speech doesn't seem to extend to Israel's supporters on campuses around the world. Incident after incident of this ought to be enough for the alarm bell to sound. You can put up posters in support of Palestinians, Iraqis, Pagans, Wiccans, the Falun Gong, snowboarding, amateur radio, or people who pick their noses. That's all allowed. But any kind of pro-Israel activity is being met with extraordinary efforts to shut it down.

|

 
6:38 PM
Reader Judith tipped me off to this story in the Jerusalem Post about the opposition of Israeli Arabs to dividing Jerusalem.

Now, it's been the traditional assumption that, in the mideast conflict, the Jews want an undivided Jerusalem under Israel control, and the Arabs want either an internationalized Jerusalem or a divided one, or some combination thereof. But it's of course a faulty assumption to lump the two "sides" into homogeneous groups, all with the same opinion. But as proof that many Israel Arabs aren't exactly enamoured with the Palestinian Authority, a group has launched a campaign against dividing Jerusalem:

Dividing Jerusalem would mean bringing Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Force 17, and the Tanzim into the Arab-controlled parts of the city, a group of Jerusalem Arabs warned Saturday.

Members of the group, headed by Zuheir Hamdan, one of the mukhtars of the Sur Baher neighborhood, met over the weekend to discuss the Labor Party's new platform, according to which the city would be divided.

[. . .]

"It's strange to see that many Israelis haven't drawn the lessons from the events of the last two years," Hamdan told The Jerusalem Post. "An Israeli withdrawal [from east Jerusalem] would bring all the gunmen of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front to Damascus Gate, Mount Scopus and Mount of Olives. They will turn Jerusalem into Gaza."

Hamdan, who spearheaded a campaign against the division of Jerusalem during the Barak government, said he now planned to launch a similar drive "to explain the dangers involved in bringing the Palestinian Authority into the city."

[. . .]

"I believe the majority doesn't believe in Arafat's corrupt and tyrannical rule. Look what he's done in Lebanon, Jordan, and now in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has brought one disaster after another on his people."

[ . . .]

"We are also going to send messages to US President George Bush, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdallah telling them that Jerusalem and the Aksa Mosque don't belong to Arafat," he said.

"We will tell them that there should be a referendum among the Arabs in Jerusalem so they would be able to decide on their own future," the mukhtar said. "We won't accept a situation where we are led like sheep to the slaughterhouse."

The above article just serves as another warning about the dangers of making sweeping assumptions.

|

 
10:02 AM
I'm back after taking a day off from blogging. Of course, the news never seems to take a day off.

Palestinian elections have been delayed yet again. And this time, it seems that they have found a seemingly foolproof way to delay democracy indefinitely.

Blaming Israel's continuing occupation, Palestinians have postponed elections scheduled for next month and say the vote won't take place until 100 days after Israeli troops have left the West Bank.

Since Israeli troops are unlikely to leave the West Bank until terrorist attacks cease, and since terrorism continues to be encouraged and funded by the present PA leadership, this is an ingenious way for Arafat to remain secure in his position as dictator while simultaneously blaming Israel, as usual.

Israeli elections have their own problems, of course. The Likud party is dealing with allegations of bribery and vote-buying. Israel is fallible, like any democracy. None are immune - Canada included (do the names Alfonso Gagliano and Lawrence MacAulay ring a bell?) - and Israel is dealing with its problems openly and in the best way it can. Sharon has pledged to expel any member of his party involved in corruption. But while Palestinian supporters around the world criticize Israeli democracy on a daily basis, they never stop to realize that at least Israel has democracy, flawed though it may be. Whatever else the Palestinian Authority has been, it has never been democratic.

|