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

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

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11:57 PM
And as I am about to go to sleep before figuratively marching to Jerusalem tomorrow, more horrifying news from the literal Jerusalem as another two suicide bombings kill at least four people.

When will the madness end?

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10:31 PM
Good ol' Svend Robinson is at it again. The NDP MP has nominated the International Solidarity Movement for the Nobel Peace Prize:

The nomination, published on the ISM website, was confirmed to the Jerusalem Post on Friday night by Jake Wilson, an aide to Mr. Robinson.

In his letter of nomination to the Nobel committee, Robinson, who is the MP for Burnaby-Douglas and the international human rights advocate for the New Democratic Party(a Canadian opposition party), said that the ISM's contribution to advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East was "without parallel".

"This organization's selfless efforts to promote peace and protect the lives of innocent civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict clearly merit international recognition," wrote Robinson.

Hahahahahahahaha.

Nobody takes Svend Robinson seriously anymore. But this goes beyond the pale. The ISM has been caught sheltering terrorists and has been supporting the intifada through political action for years. I mean, the Nobel Peace Prize? Might as well give it to a murdering terrorist like Yasser Arafat . . . oh, wait, they already did.

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10:26 PM
Of course all of the news today focused on the bombings in Morocco. The death toll has risen to 41, and 33 suspects have been arrested who are tied to the radical Islamist group Djihad Salafist.

The major media outlets are all over this story, of course. But in the meantime, there was another attack in Israel. A young married couple from Kiryat Arba were killed in Hebron by a suicide bomber:

A married couple was walking in the street near the square when a suicide bomber wearing a white shirt posing as a yeshiva student raced out of the nearby Arab cemetery gate, ignored soldiers at a nearby position who called out for him to stop, and raced towards the couple and blew himself up.

This latest bombing is just another sign that the Palestinian extremists are going to do everything they can to stop even baby steps towards peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

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9:09 PM
There were four car bombing attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, and at least two were targeted at Jewish locations:

Local journalist Aboubakr Jammai told the BBC that witnesses had spoken of "many dead" as well as numerous injuries.

Mr Jammai said he knew of four attacks that had taken place near an Hispanic centre, a hotel, a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery, although he said there were reports that there had been as many as six explosions.

He said that the attack on the Hotel Safir in the old part of the city had been a suicide attack and that at least eight people had been killed in that incident alone.

More terrorism. More people dead. And another "who would've thought?" target. With all the talk about Riyadh, about the US and Britain as possible targets, and even the warnings in Kenya, who on earth saw this coming?

Update: CNN is reporting that at least 20 people have been killed in the bombings. One of them was apparently targeted at a Jewish nightclub, but it was closed for Shabbat so it was (thankfully) empty. Another bomb exploded in front of the Belgian Consulate, for reasons that are as of yet unclear.

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11:37 AM
With the March to Jerusalem coming up this Sunday, I'm happy to hear that the weather forecast is predicting sunshine and a high of 22 degrees. Sounds like it will be a perfect summer day.

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11:11 AM
Chief Palestinian negotiator and spokesman Saeb Erekat has resigned:

Erekat, an ally of President Yasser Arafat, tendered his resignation on Thursday after being excluded from [Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas's negotiating team, which is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday, a Palestinian official said on Friday.

It's hard to tell what the political implications here will be. On the one hand, it can be seen as another key Palestinian figure refusing to support Abbas, thus weakening his new and shaky power in the Palestinian Authority. On the other hand, Eraket was a terror supporter and apologist, and the only thing quicker than his propensity for invention of facts was his automatic finger-pointing at Israel no matter what was going on. Not exactly the qualities needed in a negotiator.

His resignation has not yet been accepted so it's possible this whole thing is just a scheme to get attention, and he'll be right back in his position within days. It's always hard to figure out what will happen in an iron-fist dictatorship that is trying to pass itself off to the world as having made nonexistant democratic reforms.

The bottom line is, this is unlikely to affect the talks between Sharon and Abbas due to take place tomorrow.

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12:44 AM
Season finale night on NBC tonight . . . no, I won't spoil them for those of you who haven't seen them yet. But Friends was predictable but hysterical, Will and Grace was quirky but the ending was kinda unexpected . . . and wow, was that an amazing ER or what?

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4:39 PM
There's more conflict between the Hasidic Jewish community and a group of bigoted xenophobes in Outremont. First, they opposed the Eruv on the grounds that the wire is visible and it bothers them or something similar. Then, they lobbied against a zoning change that would have allowed a synagogue to expand. Now, they're opposing a bus service between Montreal and New York that is geared towards the Hasidic community, many of whom have friends and relatives in New York and make the trip regularly:

Even more important than convenience - the bus made three stops in Outremont, picking up people almost from their doorsteps - is that the bus service offers kosher food, separate seating for men and women, and prayer time, Werzberger said.

The bus service has existed for about 30 years, he said, and nobody had complained about it until a small group of residents started lobbying council.

"There is a small group of people in Outremont who have made it their raison d'être to make life difficult for the Hasidic community. They come and bang in at the councillors and sometimes you just cave in to this kind of pressure."

The credibility of the residents who keep complaining about the Hasidic community is long gone. The only question is, will the borough council cave into their pressure?

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11:57 PM
Sometimes I just really miss Dennis Miller Live.

I was skimming some of his past rants up on HBO's site this evening, and came across the classic one on media bias, and I can't help but lament that he no longer is coming out with these on a weekly basis:

In today's information economy, the old journalistic mandate of "Get it fast, first, and right" has been downsized to just getting it fast and first. Today's idea of an "investigative report" is one they remembered to run a spell-check on. And the line between fact and opinion gets stepped on more frequently than the feet of a circus clown slow-dancing with a scuba diver.

[ . . . ]

The sad truth is, we don't object to the slanted nature of our news because being told how to think is easier than figuring it out for ourselves. Media bias is just the latest in a long line of American labor-saving devices that began with the cotton gin and will likely end with us swaddled in our full-sensory La-Z boys, while a holographic Wolf Blitzer gnome dances on your man-breasts and yips, "Bad stuff happened to other people in the world today, but not to you, Pumpkin. That's the news. Have another bear claw."

Let's be honest with ourselves. You want the truth? You can't stay awake for the truth. We want police chases, mudslides, and world leaders caught on tape having sex with their daughter's piano teacher. We don't give an embryonic rat's ass about Enron, the Middle East, or the new Campaign Finance Reform bill because it's way too complicated and depressing. When we come home from a hard day at the office, all we want is to kick our feet up on the coffee table, pop open a cold one, turn on the television, and be reassured that everyone in the world is more fucked up than you are, especially the people reporting on it.

At this point, Dennis would end with his trademark "Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." But he rarely was.

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11:47 PM
StatsCan released the latest census figures on religion, and the results were pretty predictable. Most Canadians are Christian, there are a bunch of Muslims and Jews . . . but 20,000 claimed to be Jedi: (via Jon)

The 20,000 Canadian followers of Obi-Wan Kenobi pose little threat to the major religions.

That number came as a result of an e-mail campaign that urged people to respond "Jedi" when asked about their religion in the 2001 Census. Similar campaigns were even more successful in other countries such as Britain, where more people said they were Jedis than called themselves Jews.

Canada's Jedis are concentrated in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

May the force be with you.

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11:05 PM
My reaction to tonight's West Wing: HOLY SHIT! (Pardon my French.)

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2:36 PM
They had to know.

Al Qua'eda, or whatever offshoot of it that is responsible for the Riyadh suicide attacks, is a highly-organized terrorist network full of evil murderers. I'm sure they've been called every name in the book, and they more than deserve all of them. But one thing they are not is stupid.

So then why would they attack within Saudi Arabia, risking the anger of the Saudis?

"Saudi Arabia is committed to...striking with an iron fist all who are tampering with the country's security," [Prince Saud al-Faisal] told a news conference in Riyadh.

"Whoever did this will regret it because they have unified this country's determination to extract this cancer (terrorism) and ensure that it doesn't return."

Why, with their hatred of the West and of the United States in particular, would they do anything that would align the terrorist-supporting Saudi regime further with their "strange bedfellow" ally, the United States? Why would they risk a backlash from the Arab world? I mean, they had to know, didn't they?

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10:08 PM
Ah, families . . .

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4:15 PM
Damian Penny turned me onto a great blog by Israeli journalist Alison Kaplan Sommer entitled An Unsealed Room. Worth checking out.

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1:51 PM
Among the reactions to the Riyadh bombings, predictably, the only ones with any teeth are coming from the countries who have proven willing to back up their talk with action. Canada's reaction is ringing especially hollow:

"I want to express my outrage at what happened in Saudi Arabia," Chretien said.

He said some of the Canadians apparently were injured, but none died in the attacks in Riyadh.

Of the terrorists, Chretien said: "I think they will never win in using these tactics."

He said there was no evidence Canadians were specifically targeted, saying the attacks were "against Westerners in general."

Added Foreign Minister Bill Graham: "It is important we root out terrorism."

And how exactly do you intend to do that, Mr. Graham? By sending peacekeepers armed with toy guns from Toys 'R Us? By asking the UN to "pretty please" do something?

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9:27 PM
Ariel Sharon is making a symbolic gesture by agreeing to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Prime Minister. This gesture is more one of goodwill towards the US, particularly in light of Colin Powell's visit to Israel, than it is to the Palestinians. But it's also a signal that Israel would be willing to work towards peace . . . if a true peace partner exists.

Sharon is probably just as aware as anyone that Abbas (or Abu Mazen, as he is better known) is no more a partner for peace than the Pope is a candidacy for Chief Rabbi. But he has to at least give him this chance, or risk losing face internationally as the deal-breaker in this current push towards peace. Israel's reputation in Europe is already rock-bottom, but Sharon needs to at least give the American plan a chance, because Israel needs American support. So Israel has to go through the motions, knowing full well that the Palestinians can never and will never hold up their end of the bargain. But when this latest effort falls apart, it's important to Sharon's government that it not appear to be Israel's fault.

Abu Mazen, for his part, doesn't seem to want to let Israel get away with this. He's planned talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad to - he says - try to talk them into halting attacks against Israel:

Abbas "will try to convince the Palestinian factions to end terror attacks...there is a chance that Hamas has changed its position and will agree to end attacks," following the Iraq war and the ensuing US pressure on Syria to shut the offices of Palestinian groups in Damascus, Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said. "Of course these talks will not go on indefinitely," he said.

Abbas is not naive, not by far. He didn't get to be a senior member of the Palestinian Authority by being so innocently idealistic - or so innocent, but that's another story. He knows full well that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad will never agree to halt attacks. He also knows that they wouldn't be able to carry them out without the backing of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. And at this stage, he can't afford another all-out power struggle with Arafat, even if he wanted to - which, by all indications, he doesn't.

It's easy for Abbas to claim he "tried" to halt attacks, and then later to say he has no control over the extremist factions. And then to turn around and point the finger at Israel for whatever counter-measures the Israeli army needs to take in response to the inevtiable step-up in attacks. In the meantime, Abbas will order his police force to seek out the terrorists and arrest a few token ones (probably with the full advance knowledge and consent of the terrorist leaders) and then blame Israel again when the talks fall apart.

Everyone knows this. But they all go through the motions anyway. *Sigh*.

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10:25 AM
Today's the day when we celebrate those who gave us life . . . and who have been putting up with us ever since. Happy Mother's Day!

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