Segacs's World I Know |
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Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.
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9.5.03
Federal Conservative Deputy Leader Elsie Wayne's remarks about gays and lesbians and how they should just "shut up" pretty much put the final nail in the Tory party's already sinking coffin: (Via Damian Penny) Elsie Wayne, the deputy leader of the Progressive Conservatives, said yesterday that homosexuals should "shut up" about their lifestyle and complained that Canadians should not have to tolerate gay pride parades, drag queens and same-sex marriages.To me, the scariest part is all the comments on the National Post's feedback page from people cheering on Elsie Wayne for her bigotry. When will people learn that hatred masked in self-righteous morality is still hatred? | 8.5.03
Global Television will be airing a documentary entitled Confrontation at Concordia, which will focus on the antisemitism on campus and on the tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions. The show will air tomorrow (Friday) at 9pm Eastern. (via Adam). | Update on Hillel lawsuit against the CSU: The Link is reporting that the lawsuit that Hillel launched against the CSU has been dismissed: In a judgement delivered last week, Quebec's Superior Court handed down a decision suspending Hillel's lawsuit against the Concordia Student Union until it exhausts its options within the University to resolve its conflict.It's worth noting that the article text says that the suit has been "suspended", while the headline reads "dismissed". (Update: The headline has now been changed to read "Court Suspends Hillel Suit". Think someone's reading my blog?) As best as I can ascertain, the door is open for re-filing if Hillel satisfies the court that it has exhausted its options within the university. However, this doesn't make much sense, since the university administration has no legal standing to intervene between Hillel and the CSU even if it wanted to. So I'm not sure what "options" the judge was talking about. The judge seemed to direct Hillel to approach the Board of Governers of the university, but even he acknowledged that the BoG has no power over the CSU: The judge ruled that Hillel could approach Concordia's Board of Governors, who according to him have "superintending and reforming power over all decisions affecting activities held at Concordia University or connected with the University," adding that the Board would appear to have the power to issue sanctions, if not against the Union, at least against those students who run it.Well, that last bit shows at least some minuscule amount of understanding about the workings of Concordia politics. In a press release, the CSU's VP Communications and favourite "we're not antisemitic cause we have Jews in our admin" poster boy, Aaron Maté, claimed victory for the CSU on this matter: "I welcome the Judge's ruling," said Aaron Maté, a CSU Vice President and 5th year Jewish student. "It's an important victory for all of those who have been scared and intimidated to remain silent on the Israel-Palestine issue out of fear of being labeled with the serious charge of anti-Semitism or "self-hating Jew". I hope that all members of the Jewish community, particularly Hillel and the leadership of the Canadian Jewish Congress, will recognize the serious damage that they are doing to our people by exploiting and undermining the meaning of anti-Semitism to intimidate and silence those who have the courage to defend Palestinian human rights."Oh yeah, cause Mate seems real scared and oppressed to me. Right. It looks like the CSU and their buddies turned what was a straightforward case of an unjustified attack on Hillel into a political issue about the Palestinians, as they always do. And this time it seems they got away with it. With the new CSU due to take office in a few weeks, some might argue that the whole lawsuit was moot in the first place. But that would be ignoring the principle of the thing. Hillel deserves nothing less than full reinstatement of funding, a sincere apology, and punitive damages for years of harassment and abuse. Obviously, this ruling is a serious setback to justice. | As expected, the news coverage of yesterday's rally focused on the miniscule number of counter-demonstrators who, despite being vastly outnumbered and not affecting the rally, decided to show up to steal the spotlight. The Gazette lead with the front-page headline "Pro-Israel Rally Targeted", which was about as misleading as the photo of the maybe dozen counter-demonstrators surrounded by riot police. La Presse had better coverage, with a large photo of a boy draped in an Israeli flag and the headline "15 000 Juifs de Montréal fêtent Israel". But the first paragraph of the article was again entirely dedicated to the counter-protestors. Only SRC relegated them to a tiny final paragraph, which even that is more coverage than they deserve. But the article itself showed the rally and related some of the words of the key speakers. Update: For anyone who's interested, MontrealMuslimNews has published its "take" on yesterday's rally. You'll notice that the article is filled with inventions, half-truths, and all-out lies. But then, the truth never seemed to bother them before. Absolutely disgusting. No matter so many of them hate Israel so much, if they're buying this utter crap as truth. | 7.5.03
And now to briefly describe today's rally: I'm always impressed at large-scale community showings of support. Today, thousands of Montreal Jews (organizers say 15,000) came out to stand up, show our colours, and be counted. Religious and secular, young and - as the speakers tactfully said, "not so young", Ashkenazi and Sepharadic, students, seniors, professionals, and working stiffs, from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum, all were there to wave the blue and white and to proudly exclaim that "Am Yisrael Chai!" Buses from all over the city brought people to Phillips Square. Luckily, the weather began to clear up and the sun even came through briefly. In the square, people were singing, talking, circulating, and picking up posters and flags. We then began to walk slowly down Rene-Levesque to Place du Canada. Unfortunately, it was necessary for us to be escorted by a large security contingent. I say unfortunately, because we ought to be able to show our support for Israel without having to worry about security. But since this does not reflect reality, the organizers took the necessary steps to ensure that the day would come off without incident . . . and they did an extremely good job. The rally was peaceful, orderly, and went off without a hitch. The theme of the day was peace. Left-wing and right-wing may not share the same vision on how to achieve peace, but everyone agreed that the ultimate goal is none other than Shalom. During the speeches, frequent choruses of "Heveinu Shalom Aleichem" and other peace songs broke out. And a plane flew overhead, carrying the banner "Canadians Support Israel". Apart from that, the day was centered around celebrating our widespread community support, within Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. An Israeli choir of young teenagers opened the event with singing and dancing in Hebrew. Speakers and distinguished guests included Montreal Mayor Gerard Tremblay, Federal MP Irwin Cotler, Provincial MP Russel Copeman, two representatives of the Christian communities - one from the Black community and one from the Asian, and the keynote speaker, former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard. The speeches were short and most followed a similar pattern. In addition to some of the invited community guests, Israel's ambassador spoke, as well as a representative of Hillel Montreal, among others. Most called for peace; all reaffirmed their pride in Israel and their absolute commitment to her existence and security. Only when Lucien Bouchard made an indirect reference to the Road Map and talked about the need for a Palestinian state was there some uneasiness in the crowd. There is a strong desire for peace in the Jewish community, but there is also a massive distrust of the process and of the supposed peace partner. But Bouchard, for his part, stayed mostly on course, as did the other speakers. The whole idea was to focus on what unites us, not on what divides us. Most of the crowd probably did not vote for Bouchard, and many were probably out demonstrating against him and his sovereigntist ideas back in 1995 or even since. But today, people were happy to accept help and support from anyone willing to give it, no matter what other political issues they may disagree on. Lucien Bouchard is now a private citizen, albeit a prominent one, and he chose to take a stand today in support of Israel. Through MP Russell Copeman, Jean Charest's government also leant its unequivocal support, thus uniting federalists and separatists, all standing together for Israel. The rally closed with the singing of O Canada and of Hatikva, and then the crowd dispersed rather quickly. On my way to the bus, I noticed a tiny group of perhaps a dozen pro-Palestinian protestors standing across the street, contained by riot police. They were outnumbered probably 1000 to 1 and I knew they were totally insignificant, but I was still dismayed to realize that the news reports on the event would likely focus on them and not on the main event. But I wasn't about to let that bother me too much. They're entitled to their views, but the sheer number of people out today waving the blue and white showed clearly where the widespread support lies. Israel is 55 years old. Today is a day of celebration. As a number of speakers pointed out, it is also only one day after Yom HaZikaron, the remembrance day for the far too many who have fallen. We cannot celebrate independence without recalling the hard fight to preserve it. We must never take Israel - or our Atzmaut - for granted. | Here are some photos from today's Yom Ha'atzmaut Rally in downtown Montreal, in support of Israel: 
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 | This stuff keeps coming out about so-called "good guy" Abu Mazan. It appears he was involved in funding the terrorist massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. An Israeli civil rights group has asked that U.S. and German law authorities open an investigation into Abu Mazan's role: While recent newsmedia profiles of Abu Mazen have accentuated the Palestinian leader's alleged "terrorism-free" personal history, the Shurat Hadin charges that in 1972, Abu Mazen, then a high ranking PLO official, provided financing for the terrorist attacks being perpetrated by Yassir Arafat's PLO faction Fatah under the nom de guerre Black September.The sad thing is that we seem to have such low expectations of anyone who can step up to assume a leadership role in the Palestinian Authority. It is pretty much taken for granted that someone who is truly against terrorism can never survive politically, and will never have any clout. So the U.S. and Europe are willing to overlook many things about the man they are backing, Abu Mazan. And they'll probably overlook this as well. | Am Yisrael Chai! Fifteen thousand people attended today's Yom Ha'atzmaut rally here in Montreal. I just got back and I don't have time to write extensively about it now, but this evening I'll post up a detailed account as well as some photos that I took with my trusty digital camera. It's great to see the community out in such strength, showing that no matter what happens, our spirit and our love of Israel will not be broken. | 6.5.03
The Jerusalem Post has an interesting interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, currently Israel's Finance Minister, about his plan to reverse the disastrous trends in the Israeli economy. Israel with a right-wing economic policy, focusing on lowering taxes, paying down the deficit, and privatization and decentralization? This should be interesting indeed. | Meryl Yourish isn't too afraid of the "road map", because she figures it's doomed from the start. And what's more, Dubya planned it that way: I think the President knows full well that the "Road Map" is doomed from the start. I think he knows that Arafat is still pulling the strings over there, and that terrorism is the lifeblood of the Palestinian Authority. And I think that President Bush is simply waiting for the failure of the Road Map before he tells the "Quartet" that it's time to dismantle the palestinian terror operations — just like Al Qaeda is being dismantled, and just like Iraq's dictatorship was dismantled.Well, planned or not, it's already a massive failure if week 1 is any indication. Anyone who thinks that this "road map" is going to lead to a real lasting peace is insane. | And in typical fashion, CBC Newsworld decided to commemorate Yom Ha'atzmaut by doing a newsmagazine segment on Abu Mazan, and how wonderful and peace-loving he is. No mention of the fact that Abu Mazan is a Holocaust denier and that he also supports continued attacks on Israeli citizens living in the Territories. (Both links via LGF). But then, it is CBC. What else can we expect from them but a bend-over-backwards-to-be-evenhanded approach that draws a moral equivalency between Israeli defense and Palestinian terror? | 5.5.03
"I'm just a man . . . in a silly red sheet . . . digging for kryptonite on this one-way street . . . " (Via Mark, but really via Josh who says Mark's trying to take the credit). | Oops! In advertising classes, profs would love to go on at length about the most famous ad blunders in history. The Chevy Nova story has reached urban-legend proportions, for example. Well, this one has gotta be added to that list. I'd hate to be the account exec responsible for this fiasco of an ad for the Hong Kong tourism industry:  (Via Elana). | 4.5.03
Amram Mitzna has resigned as the leader of the Labour party. This was not exactly unexpected, but given the high hopes that people had for him just a few months ago, it's a real indication of just how far the once-dominant Israeli party has fallen: Mitzna had been accused of attempting to lead the Labor party too far to the left. He has stated that if he were prime minister he would dismantle settlements unilaterally and negotiate with Palestinians despite ongoing terror attacks. He said that he was convinced Labor'sLabour was detached from the reality of the Israeli people. Mitzna, by all accounts, had good intentions, but he simply couldn't convince a terrorism-weary population that his vision was the way to go. It will remain to be seen what happens now to the party. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Mitzna's chief rival in the last leadership contest, is a good bet for a primary candidate. | It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that antisemitism is on the rise in the U.K.. Ha'aretz reports that the number of antisemitic incidents recorded in the first three months of 2003 was up by 75% over the same period last year: The CST blamed the sharp rise in anti-Semitism on anti-war campaigners who linked the Iraq conflict to the situation in Israel. Mike Whine, CST's media director, told the BBC, "The Iraq war fed anti-Semitism because groups from across the political and social spectrum alleged that the war was fought for `Zionist' interests."The English and the French may not like each other much, but it seems that something they've got in common is their hatred of Jews. But before we get too smug over here in Canada, our own numbers aren't looking that great either. The rise in antisemitism may not be surprising, but it does nobody any good to be complacent either. This is a red flag that's been waving in front of our faces for a couple of years now. And if history has taught us anything, it's that red flags are ignored at our peril. | With the gay marriage debate back in the papers, it seems like the idiots are crawling out of the woodwork once again. I honestly don't understand why people are so opposed to allowing gays and lesbians to marry. Fine, I can understand if certain religious institutions don't want to accept it. After all, religion is all about arbitrary prescriptions and proscriptions of lifestyles. But marriage itself - in the civil definition - is mainly a legal contract, and any law that discriminates against a portion of the population based on something they can't help ought to be scrapped. I mean, what is this, the eighteenth century? I thought we'd progressed beyond blaming homosexuality for the "immorality" of society. Being gay is like being a redhead, or being left-handed. As I myself am both red-haired and left-handed, I certainly wouldn't want any laws discriminating against me on either count. Just as I can't help those, gay people can't help being gay - nor should they be made to feel like they're somehow inferior, or less deserving of the same rights as the rest of us. If they fall in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together, what's so wrong about giving them the same rights to marriage as the rest of us? Comments like this one baffle me beyond belief: Supporters of same-sex marriage cannot guarantee a secure future, for they have no historical, moral or scientific basis to do so. No one knows what the fall-out will be from having in essence a more gay society, as people increasingly accept and engage in homosexual behaviour.Oh yeah, cause gay people are out there in numbers trying to convince us unenlightened straight people to be more like them. Oh no wait, that's not gay people . . . that's religious people - people who think that somehow their "morality" needs to apply to everyone else and that they somehow have the right to dictate to others how to live. What does this person think, that if gays are given the right to marry, suddenly everyone will think it's such a great idea and decide to be gay? Some people are just really stupid. | |
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