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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3:44 PM
More fun news from Concordia (where else?) as a CSU-appointed hearings panel ruled that it's ok to draw a swastika on an Israeli flag:

A student panel at Concordia University has dismissed a harassment complaint against activist Laith Marouf for drawing swastikas on an Israeli flag during a March 12 protest at the downtown campus.

In a 2-1 decision, the board ruled that while "Marouf's gesture was in very poor taste," it was made during a tense confrontation and did not qualify as harassment under the university's code of rights and responsibilities, or warrant expulsion or other sanctions.

Adam Spiro, the finance student and Hillel member who filed the complaint, said he's disgusted by the decision.

"It sends a terrible message," he said, noting his paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors. "It says that in the heat of protest, there are no boundaries.

"It legitimizes the swastika as a symbol of political discourse, which it's not. It's the worst symbol of hatred, racism and the genocide of 6 million Jews."

So what is this, complaint number 912 against Laith Marouf that he gets tossed out? He was banned from Concordia two years ago, along with his buddy Tom Keefer, for spraypainting anti-Israel vandalism and threatening a security guard. But the university lifted that ban, and he's been merrily shit-disturbing and displaying his intense hatred ever since. Apparently anything goes as long as you wrap yourself in the Palestinian flag and make ridiculous excuses for your actions, like this one:

At a May 14 hearing, Marouf testified he drew "the inverted swastika, the Hindu circle of life, not the Nazi swastika" on the Israeli flag, as a lesson in symbolism. However, he conceded he realized some people might not make the distinction and would be deeply offended.

Maybe it's just cause it's Friday, but I can't seem to stop laughing at that one.

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3:35 PM
Oh, before I forget, today is Friday the 13th.

For those of you who are interested, you can read up on the superstition behind the date that gave Friday the 13th such a bad rap. And of course, if you're looking for a little good fun scare, you can always rent the horror movie that goes by the same name.

To us Jews, apparently, 13 is supposed to be a lucky number. Boys become bar mitzvah at age 13, there are 13 months in the Jewish year if you count leap year, and when Israel declared independance in 1948, its provisional government deliberately had 13 members for good luck. With Friday being the start of the Sabbath, arguably Friday the 13th is one of the luckiest days of the year.

Or, if you're like me and not at all superstitious, you can just view today as the day between Thursday the 12th, and Saturday the 14th. Either way, I hope it's a good one!

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3:25 PM
To those of you who may have noticed that blogging has been extraordinarily light lately, don't think it's cause nothing's been going on. Quite the contrary. Actually, we've simply been doing some renovations in the office, so access to the web - or even to my computer - has been spotty at best. I hope to return to normal blogging pace by next week.

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2:26 PM
Oh god.

I knew something like this would happen. I knew it was only a matter of time since the "road map" talks began until the terrorists would murder more innocent people to prove their point.

Now, 16 people are dead and 112 more wounded in the latest horrific bus bombing in Jerusalem:

Sixteen people were killed and another 112 were wounded when a Hamas suicide bomber, dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, detonated his explosives belt on a bus in downtown Jerusalem Wednesday.

Minutes after the attack, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a car in Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians, including two Hamas terrorists, one of whom orchestrated a series of recent rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns.

[ . . . ]

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack as revenge for Israel's strike Wednesday on the organization's co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi, which left him wounded. The claim came in the form of statement aired on television networks, Hamas spiritual head Ahmed Yassin.

Now, the two sides are further away from peace than they probably ever were. And I'd like to be able to say that this shattered some great white hope of mine, some optimism that maybe this time things would be different. But instead, I just feel a sort of resignation and numbness to the whole affair. It's hard to feel let down, never having gotten my hopes up in the first place.

I want to be able to make some noble speech about how these innocent Israelis were heroes, how they didn't die in vain but in the pursuit of peace. But it would be nothing but an insulting, ridiculous lie. These people were no more heroes than you or I, and they no more deserved to die than any of us. They were ordinary citizens, going about their ordinary lives. They got on a bus, or went shopping at a market, and their lives were stolen.

And so, the familiar song and dance begins again. Israel retaliates. The world condemns violence "on both sides" without making the distinction between the instigator and the defender. Arafat pays lip service to "condemning" terrorism, while continuing to fund and encourage it. Abbas expresses sadness but says he's unwilling to confront Hamas. Israelis mourn. And then it all begins again, until the next time.

So to all the people out there who want to sacrifice the lives of these sixteen people, and those of hundreds of others, I say fuck that. It's enough already. How many more terrorist bombings of busses, cafes, restaurants, or nightclubs will it take until we get the message? We don't have a partner for peace. We never had a partner for peace. All we have is an enemy who wants nothing more nor less than to see every last one of us dead.

And to those of you who say that their intent was to kill this latest round of peace talks, and that cutting off the talks would just be giving them what they want, well, that may be. But I don't care anymore. How many times do you extend your hand in friendship, only to have it slapped, before you stop offering it?

16 people are dead today for no other reason than the fact that they wanted to live. There's no logic anymore. There's only sadness and senselessness.

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7:57 PM
FrontPageMag has an open letter by Oubai Mohammad Shahbandar that, IMHO, ought to be required reading for everyone: (via Wadi)

When I, a proud American of Arab decent and Muslim faith, took a stand on behalf of the liberation of my oppressed Iraqi brethren, the ASU Muslim Students' Association personally attacked me for not being a real Muslim and announced to the ASU student body in editorials in the student paper that I Oubai Mohammad Shahbandar was a hater of Arabs and Muslims. There was no press conference by the president of this university or anyone else in his administration in behalf of this Muslim victim of Islamist hate.

We didn't land on terror, terror landed on us. But our professors tell us America is to blame, our universities sponsor "educational" programs designed to install in the American student a sense of shame for being American, and yet here we are on the cusp of a great struggle in human history between the forces of decency and democracy and tyranny and terror. Yet we are told America is to blame for terror.

[ . . . ]

This August I will be heading to Israel to study counter terrorism under a program hosted by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy. I, a Muslim Arab was able to attend this program largely due to the gracious sponsorship of David Horowitz, a Jew. No multicultural sensitivity class made that possible. I will not stand idly by as our professors and our universities pave the road for terror's long march into humanity's last sanctuary of freedom.

What contribution will you make to the cause of liberty, to our nation's security?

I am a Muslim American Arab and I am willing to fight for my country. How about you?

Yes, go read the rest.

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11:33 PM
The Devils win the Stanley Cup in a fairly boring 3-0 shutout game 7.

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