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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9:55 PM
Yet another suicide bombing in Israel - this one in a Haifa restaurant. At least 19 killed, including a 1-week-old baby girl, and over 60 injured.

This makes me sick. But what makes me sicker is the reaction that the bomber's family had to the news that their daughter was now a murderer:

Jaradat, who had finished her legal studies in Jordan five years ago, was supposed to finish her required apprenticeship next week before qualifying as a lawyer, her family said.

They were shocked to hear she was responsible for the bombing, "but we are receiving congratulations from people," Thaher Jaradat, her younger brother said. "Why should we cry? It is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her," he said.

What peace process? What peace partner? When they stop rejoicing in the death of innocent people, then, maybe there will be something to talk about. Until then, just more sadness, more violence, more tears.

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3:51 PM
Our neighbours to the south aren't wasting much time in further restricting the rights of women, by legislating a ban on partial-birth abortions:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a ban on "partial birth abortions," bringing anti-abortion forces within easy reach of a long-sought victory.

The U.S. Senate is expected to act within weeks, sending it to President Bush, who plans to sign it.

The procedure, often distorted by anti-abortion activists and misunderstood by most (male) legislators, is really only used when a fetus is severely deformed and there's a risk to the life or health of the pregnant mother. But this new law aims to eliminate it, without providing an exception to protect the health of pregnant women:

Opponents of the ban say it is unconstitutional because it does not provide an exception to protect the health of a pregnant woman. Some also argue that the bill will actually apply to other more common abortion techniques, not just one particularly troublesome one.

New York Democrat Louise Slaughter said that backers of the ban are distorting it to suggest that it is a common procedure undertaken cavalierly on healthy fetuses. She argued that it is most often used when there are severe fetal deformities. "These are not children who will be born and run around the room," she said.

I'm no fan of abortion but I think that the worst thing a government can do is to restrict the rights of a woman to choose. And this bill isn't even aimed at people who callously abuse abortion as a form of birth control. Instead, it's aimed at women whose health or even life may be at risk from a troubled pregnancy.

This is Congress practicing medicine - and not too well, for that matter. Legislators should stay away from meddling with the private reproductive rights of women.

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10:27 AM
This morning's Gazette has an interview with Irshad Manji, the Muslim-Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam (which, incidentally, is on my Amazon wish list - hint, hint). Manji, a 34-year-old lesbian feminist from Toronto, writes about how Islam needs a wake-up call to shake it out of fundamentalism that has become mainstream, and to modernize it:

Manji advocates a reformation she calls "Operation Ijtihad."

"We have a glorious opportunity here in the West to revive Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. It's a tradition called the ijtihad, which sounds a lot like like jihad (or holy war). And it comes from the same root, to struggle. But ijtihad is the very antithesis of violent struggle. It's all about independent reasoning, independent thinking."

Western Muslims must lead the way, she said, "because we already enjoy precious freedom to think and express and challenge and be challenged. All without fear of state reprisals."

I've heard critiques of Manji's writing style as overly prosaic and full of sweeping generalizations. I haven't read the book myself so it's hard to judge. But Manji herself seems fairly tough and thick-skinned to criticism - which, I suppose, one would have to be in order to withstand the inevitable barrage of criticism that's sure to come her way for publishing this book. And that in itself, IMHO, makes it worth a look.

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11:33 PM
Sheldon Kirschner in the Canadian Jewish News writes about Israel's strategic blunder in trying to deal with Arafat:

Israel's formal decision to remove him seems to have strengthened Arafat, who is widely regarded as the iconic guardian of modern Palestinian nationalism and a shrewd politician.

By all appearances, Arafat's stock has risen, both among the Palestinian masses and in the international arena.

Palestinians have staged vigils in front of his compound, promising to protect him from harm. It hardly matters whether these love-ins were fabricated or genuine.

More importantly, Arafat wields full authority over the PA once again. Arafat forced his first prime minister and rival, the hapless and ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas, to resign after refusing to cede control of the all-powerful security forces. Ahmed Qureia, Abbas' would-be successor, is completely beholden to Arafat. Israel has gone on record as saying it will not co-operate with "anyone taking orders directly from Arafat." So that leaves the already tattered road map peace plan in shreds.

The road map was in shreds long before it even began. But that's beside the point.

Israel, in trying to threaten Arafat, has managed to undo years of efforts to sideline him and make him irrelevant in one fell swoop. And so now it has to deal with him again.

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3:29 PM
Canadian Foreign Pushover - er - Minister - Bill Graham met with the president of the Arab League today, and came away singing the anti-security fence tune:

After meeting with Foreign Minister Bill Graham, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said of the decision [to go ahead with the fence construction]: "The impact is negative, that is clear.

"The impact on the peace process is negative ... it is destroying the peace process, the road map and any chance of a peaceful outcome."

Talking to reporters, with Graham at his side, Mussa added: "These measures are provoking the Palestinians."

Graham added: "The construction of the wall destroys prospects for peace. It is unwise."

The wall prevents peace. Sure. The bombers blowing up busloads of small children, they're not doing anything. But the defensive wall built to keep these bombers out, now THAT is the biggest obstacle to peace.

Of course, Graham has it backwards. Israel is under attack. So what is it supposed to do?

It can't launch counterstrikes to defend itself - the world condems it for that.

It can't use curfews or checkpoints to try to prevent terrorists from slipping through - the world condemns it for that, too.

It can't even build a wall to try to defend itself even psychologically, if nothing else. Cause Israel gets accused of "provoking" the Palestinians and being "unhelpful" to the peace process for that too.

Hey Bill, get a fucking clue, ok? Israel isn't gonna sit back and wait to be destroyed. I know that's what you'd do if it were up to you . . . which is why it's a really damn good thing it's not up to you.

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9:27 PM
What deranged high school educator could possibly think that this would be in good taste:

The Blue Blazes Band would perform a historically accurate show titled "Visions of World War II" featuring flags and music to represent the combating nations.

It would include a student running across the field with a Nazi flag and the tune composed by Franz Joseph Haydn that later became "Deutschland Uber Alles."

Mr. Grissom didn't anticipate the response his group received while performing at Hillcrest High School on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

You want to accuse these people of spreading hate or of being bigots but you can't even do that. The most you can accuse them of is sheer, utter, total stupidity. I mean, a Nazi flag at a high school football game???

(Via Damian Penny).

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10:03 PM
The irony seemed to escape Mayor Gérald Tremblay, when he campaigned against Anne Myles in the Beaconsfield/Baie d'Urfé borough by-election on the grounds that she can't speak French.

Myles ran on Tremblay's ticket in the original election, and then later quit his party to run as an independant. Tremblay's stung, and is trying to save his megacity against the demerger movement, which Myles staunchly supports, by pushing forth a decentralization vision.

I guess he doesn't realize that the only reason Myles' French ability is at issue in the first place is that predominantly anglophone Beaconsfield and Baie d'Urfé were forced to become part of this megacity.

Just demerge already and get it over with!

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8:37 PM
Former Palestinian security minister and relative "moderate" Mohammed Dahlan was part of Mahmoud Abbas's puppet cabinet, so he ought to know a whole lot about not being able to get much done. He said that he wouldn't want to be a part of the new Ahmed Qurei cabinet even if he were approved, because it will be powerless:

Dahlan said he does not want to join the council, which includes all the security chiefs, several officials, Qurei, and Arafat, since it will not be able to make any decisions.

A source close to Dahlan said the members on the council are all rivals and the one who will be in charge is Arafat.

Dahlan was brought into the Abbas government supposedly over Arafat's objections, and has a reputation as being against terrorism and violence.

Of course, people keep getting drawn into these Palestinian power-play shows as though they're real . . . as though the "moderates" aren't just playing a part for the media . . . as though anyone could get into government over Arafat's objections. It's all an elaborate hoax that people keep swallowing. And central to that hoax is that if Israel would just (insert action here), then the Palestinians would make peace tomorrow.

This new puppet government won't be any different than the old one.

And I'm starting to come to the conclusion that Bush is wrong, that democracy isn't the best precondition to impose on the Palestinians at this stage.

Democracy is a great system . . .when supported by the people. But its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness in a population that is more resistant to change than its leadership. Look at Canada's attempt to push through gay marriage, to the opposition of a large portion of the population. When the people aren't ready for something, in a democracy, the government is usually too weak to make it happen.

So when you have a population that's less than amenable to drastic change, then it takes a very strong leadership to push this change through. And a courageous, visionary leadership, capable of being ahead of the times and seeing possibilities that the population may not be ready for yet. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have no such leadership. Instead, they have Arafat, a corrupt dictator content to push them around and fan the flames of hatred and violence when it suits his personal ends.

But a free and open election tomorrow among the Palestinian people would probably result in the election of Hamas.

It's utter racist nonsense to say that the Arab countries can't deal with democracy. But it's political reality to say that democracy can't be externally imposed upon a population that isn't yet ready for it. No country in the world came to democracy without first trying a whole host of other options for decades, centuries, or millenia. It's still relatively new to the Western World, in the grand scheme of things. And it works - precariously, shakily - but it it works here, because the values of the people are in line with the values of free and open government.

So maybe instead of insisting on democracy before heading back to the bargaining table, Bush and the outside world should insist that the Palestinians come forth with some form of leadership willing to denounce terror and embrace reconciliation - whether their populations like it or not. And they should insist that this leadership has the backing and means necessary to enforce this. That can't easily be propped up externally either - the West has backed enough corrupt dictators in its day, and has yet to learn its lesson - but there are more options within middle east politics for this form of government. The power structures and economic and social realities need to catch up before democracy can have an honest go.

It'll happen. And sooner, rather than later, most likely. But it can't happen right now, as these cabinets - each more of a joke than the last - are showing us.

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8:20 PM
When you're selling water in the desert and it starts to pour, sorry dude, you're outta business, better start selling umbrellas instead.

That's marketing 101. Sometimes you have to rethink your business because of changes in demand, trends, or technological developments.

The major record companies haven't seem to have caught on yet. Like the British, unwilling to see the pink sky indicating the sun setting on their empire, the record labels are reacting to online file swapping in a reactionary, defensive, scrambling way that's sure to only alienate their market in hopes of hanging onto the disappearing role of a retail middleman for as long as possible.

So by suing hundreds of fans, the major labels are choking out their last gasp in trying to tell us that in order to have the privilege of listening to music, we must pay them billions of dollars a year to make it available to us.

Is online file-swapping stealing? Sure it is . . . from the artists. But the RIAA, which has launched the lawsuits, represents the largest record labels in the United States. These are the companies who have been ripping off artists for years, and have nice big fat legal departments mainly because they've been at the receiving end of so many lawsuits themselves. They convinced the musicians that they were absolutely essential if they wanted to get a record pressed, played, and purchased. And they convinced retailers and, ultimately, consumers, that it was their way or the highway.

Then along came the highway - the information superhighway, to borrow a bad clich� - and suddenly the demand end stopped needing the labels. The record buyers could be record freeloaders, thanks to a click of the mouse. And yeah, it was stealing and all, but it didn't seem much different from taping a song off the radio, or a movie off TV with a VCR.

The artists, however, are still convinced that they need the labels, because what online file-swapping has yet to do is to set up an alternative business model that will make them any money. So they cling to the labels like life-preservers. Still, such a model will evolve. It's bound to. Because any model that relies on something artificial like lawsuits to try to put the genie back in the bottle must be on its way out.

The artists are necessary in the business model because they create the music. The fans are necessary because they consume the music. But the labels? If we no longer need them to create and distribute the CDs, then they'll need to find other uses (they're still important in terms of artist promotion and building image and hype) or shut up and get out of the game. And don't let the door hit ya on the way out.

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11:25 PM
60-second recap:

Climbed out of a long black hole today - fever's come down (mostly) and I'm finally feeling more like a human being than flattened truck remains. Pop quiz: which of these things don't belong? Bed rest, chicken soup, fluids, blogging. Yeah, you guessed it.

So even though tons has happened this week, I have no intention of recapping all of it - heck, I probably don't even know about most of it. So please refrain from the irate comments about my failure to mention such-and-such, k? Thanks a bunch.

I did catch a few interesting headlines, this week, though, and made somewhat fuzzy mental notes to blog them later. Israel marked Rosh Hashanah with the senseless murders of two people, including a 7-month old baby, by Islamic Jihad terrorists. The Palestinians have assembled a new Arafat puppet cabinet that is sure to make zero progress towards erradication of terrorism. Nigerian Amina Lawal, who faced death by stoning on charges of adultery and became an international symbol of oppression of women, was cleared.

Bush and Blair came out singing No Regrets about the war on Iraq, (though I don't think to the same tune as Tom Cochrane). Speaking of musical legends, singer Robert Palmer passed away of a heart attack.

Closer to home, a local private French high school put in its bid for a stupid discriminatory act of the week award by expelling a Muslim girl for wearing a hijab. The Alouettes clinched first place in the East. And the Hell's Angels mega-trial ended with a bunch of guilty pleas.

Onto next week.

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