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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11:06 PM
Well, I guess I won't be travelling to Saudi Arabia anytime soon (via Damian):

Visas will not be issued for the following groups of people:

• An Israeli passport holder or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp.
  
• Those who don't abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviors. Those under the influence of alcohol will not be permitted into the Kingdom.
  
• There are certain regulations for pilgrims and you should contact the consulate for more information.
  
• Jewish People

Oh well, there go my travel plans. Damn.

I guess I'll just have to settle for going to Israel instead. (Countdown: 4 1/2 months - woohoo!)

Update (Friday Feb 27): Damian notes that the restrictions listed above - as well as the others regarding women - have disappeared from the Saudi tourism site since yesterday. I notice that they still appear in Google's cache, though I wonder how long that will last too.

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8:31 PM
Okay, Friends is totally shamelessly copying Sex and the City...

One finale where the girl returns from Paris for the old boyfriend is enough, thanks, I don't need to see it twice.

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2:29 PM
Lowest of the low:

The strike tactics of Urgel Bourgie union workers give a whole new meaning to the word "disgusting":

. . . 50 striking Urgel Bourgie workers cheered as [Judy Anthony's aunt's] casket was loaded into a hearse outside a funeral home. The strikers then formed a raucous cordon around the departing cortage.

"When they brought my aunt's casket through the doors, that's when the cheering and the clapping and the yelling started," Anthony recounted.

"And as all the cars (bearing about 60 family members to the church service) went through this horrible gauntlet of strikers, they kept waving and shouting and clapping and cheering.

"It was like they were at a soccer match in Europe."

Anthony said the antics were especially hard on her 73-year-old uncle, who had just lost his wife of 50 years.

About 300 Urgel Bourgie unionized funeral directors, office workers, undertakers and support staff walked off the job Dec. 9 after their demands for better pay and greater job security weren't met by the century-old chain of funeral homes.

If you ask me, the only case the union members made is that they should all be fired for incompetence. The nature of their jobs demand that they treat grieving people with respect and dignity. No matter what their problems with management consist of, there's no excuse for this kind of behaviour.

Anthony said her family bears no ill will toward the funeral company, which she said did an excellent job with limited resources. But she had little sympathy for union members.

"The clapping and the cheering are what got to me the most," she said. "How can somebody who actually works in this industry clap and cheer a casket?"

How indeed?

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11:30 AM
Is it just me, or are people in my field taking a bit of a beating in the press lately:



Hey, I'd still rather be in advertising than a lawyer joke.

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1:53 PM
Israel to world: let us exist!

Meryl cites a Maariv article about the victims of terrorism and the reasons for the security fence, and discusses how the world of terrorism is a small one:

It's a small world, the world of terrorism. My sister-in-law's cousin died in the World Trade Center. Everyone in my area knew someone who lost someone, or knew someone who knew someone. Even in a metropolitan area of what, 10-12 million?

Israel has about 5.4 million Jews. More than 7,000 Israelis have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks since September of 2000. You do the math. I'm not up to figuring how many September Elevenths that works out to. But I know that per capita, it's far more than we lost.

The math has been done a number of ways. I've picked one. If we round the number of people killed and injured on 9/11 off to 10,000, in a country with approximately 250 million people, then on a per capita basis, the terrorism Israel has faced since September 2000 works out to about 30 September Elevenths.

30 times.

The actual number isn't important. What is important is recognizing that Israel is about out of options. There is nothing the world will let Israel do to defend its citizens. It can't counter-attack. It can't use "excessive" (read: any) force. It can't even build a fence. Could you imagine the world trying to tell the United States, after 30 September Elevenths in a row, that it has no right to go after Osama Bin Laden? And yet, that's what happens with Israel's polities of targeted assassinations against terrorists, or its house-to-house searches or bulldozing of the homes of suicide bombers.

I remember having, a few years ago, a discussion about the various forms of antisemitism that have evolved throughout Jewish history. Someone made the observation that one of the reasons the Holocaust was so much worse than, say, the Spanish Inquisition, is that the Inquisition allowed Jews to live if they converted to Christianity (or, in most cases, pretended to and didn't get caught), while Hitler and the Nazis killed all Jews, converts, children of converts, or even those with a Jewish grandparent. Jewish law permits beraking just about any rule in order to save a life. But in the case of the Holocaust, there was no action that would allow a Jewish person to save his own life. There was nothing that anyone could say, or do, or renounce even, that would satisfy the murderers. They were targeted not for what they did but by the mere fact that they existed.

To borrow an analogy, Israel too is targeted not by what it does but merely because it exists.

Israel's enemies won't be satisfied with a pullout from the territories, or with a peace negotiation, or with granting Palestinian statehood, or with a rewriting of state laws, or with any action that Israel could possibly take, short of wiping itself off the map. Hamas doesn't want Ramallah; they want Tel Aviv. It's written in their charter, in black and white.

Israel's enemies that won't let it exist and its friends won't let it defend itself. What does that leave us with? Israel has a right to exist, and to defend that existence. If a fence is needed to prevent more terror attacks and defend that existence, then Israel is within its rights to build it.

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12:41 PM
Reuters gets it wrong yet again with another misleading headline:

Israel, Palestinians Take Barrier Case to U.N. Court

Palestinians told the opening session of World Court hearings into the legality of Israel's West Bank barrier Monday that the vast network of walls and fences would deny them a viable independent state.

Israel stayed away from the U.N. forum's landmark foray into its conflict with the Palestinians, arguing that the court in The Hague had no right to rule on the case.

In the second paragraph, the article states clearly that Israel is staying away (actually, boycotting) the hearings. So then why the headline that suggests that Israel somehow instigated this sham of a case?

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10:57 AM
Is it just me, or is the "tax the rich more" mantra getting a little old to anyone else, too?

I'm tired of hearing that everything is the fault of "the wealthy" or "corporations". I realize it's easier to blame those we envy. I understand that "corporations" are widely perceived as the big, bad bogeymen and that, because we don't identify faceless corporations with actual people, it's simple for us to advocate raising their taxes. After all, it's better than raising our taxes, right?

Sometimes I wish that - just once - a politician would have the courage to tell it like it is. That is, to say that, while, yes, rich people should pay more tax than poor people because they can afford it, there are limits. And that the flip side to over-taxation in the highest brackets or for corporations is a lagging economy and less jobs for the "little guy". If instead of the faceless corporations, people saw the faces of the employees facing layoffs and unable to feed their families, people might see it differently.

Or maybe not. "Blame the rich" is just too tempting, isn't it?

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10:44 AM
Say it ain't so!

London is planning to phase out double-decker busses in order to comply with EU regulations about making public tranist more wheelchair-accessible.

I have no problem with accessibility, but the double-decker bus is too quintessentially London to simply disappear. Couldn't the busses be refitted to make the first level wheelchair-friendly but still keeping the second story?

Update: Thanks, Tom, for saying it ain't so. Not all the double-deckers are on their way out; only the cool vintage ones. So I guess it's only partially so.

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5:22 PM
True love is... my mom inviting me over for the evening so I can use their satellite dish to watch the Sex and the City finale.

You're the best, mom!

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11:36 AM
And again.

There's been another suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed at least seven and wounded over 62:

Al-Aksa Brigades claimed responsibility for attack, which took place one day before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague is scheduled to begin hearings over the West Bank security fence.

Among the dead and wounded were a number of young students. Reuters is reporting that the attack took place near a hotel where US Jewish organization leaders were meeting. All the reports seem to have focused on the fact that the ICJ hearings are about to begin.

What is there to say? What else could there possibly be left to say, that's any different from last time, or the time before, or the time before that? Besides sympathy for the victims and their families, concern for scared Israelis, disgust for Arafat and his terrorist band, and disdain for the world that seems to want to condemn Israel - the victim - in every instance, what else can anyone say?

Only this: I fear that if Sharon continues on the path of rewarding terrorist attacks - or seeming to - through unilateral pullouts and tearing down sections of security fence, it will only fuel the terorrists' fire and encourage more attacks. And more innocent people will die.

Sick. All of it.

Update: Lynn has more about the PA's connection to terror.

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