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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2:03 PM
Rantisi dead?

Early reports say that the IDF has blown up the car of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. No indications of whether Rantisi himself is among the dead. This is all very preliminary.

Please let it be true!

Update:Haaretz says they got him. Still waiting for confirmation.

Update #2: An LGF commentator posted a link to Israel Channel 10, who is reporting the story live. If you speak Hebrew, and have Media Player, go see.

Update #3: Channel 10 has changed its status on Rantisi from "killed" to "critically wounded". Two of Rantisi's guards were apparently killed in the missile strike, but Rantisi seems still to be among the living. They're showing shots of Rantisi in the hospital, after being rushed there by ambulance.

Update #4: They're back to saying his status is "killed". Seems he was pronounced clinically dead at a Gaza hospital. Reports still conflicting. Also, they are reporting that the expected US reaction is an assertion that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Update #5: All the news outlets are confirming it now. Reuters. CNN. FoxNews. BBC. He's really dead.

Update #6: CNN says that the three people killed were Rantisi, a bodyguard, and Rantisi's son, Mohammed, 20.

And of course, the PA is spewing its usual threats about retaliation... just like it did after Yassin's assassination. But the wall did its job, and the large-scale "retaliation" (i.e. attempted murder of innocent civilians to "avenge" a murdering terrorist) has thankfully not materialized. Even the Israeli reports seem a lot less fearful today than they did after Yassin's death.

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1:57 PM
Harry isn't impressed by how the voting on Sharon's disengagement plan will be taking place:

Am I the only one who is a bit worried about 200,000 members of the Likud party determining the future of Israel? Shouldn't the referendum be open to all Israelis, not just Likud? Last time I checked Ariel Sharon is prime minister of all Israelis not just Likud members. We should be wary of Likud's central committee and membership due to their voting track record. I mean, they voted a waitress into a top spot of their party list last election...

He follows up with a scary position statement by the "Manhigut" faction of the Likud party - a fringe element, no doubt, but in the grand tradition of fringe, the term "lunatic" wouldn't be too inappropriate.

I'm with Harry on this one. Luckily, most members of Likud aren't like that. But unfortunately, there are enough wingnuts that it makes the voting strategy a little suspect, to say the least.

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1:52 PM
A few surprisingly on-point Gazette editorials today:

Here's Norman Webster on the Khadr family and Canada's welcoming of terrorists:

In his book, Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the World, [author Stuart] Bell sums up: "Canada has tried to smother terrorism with kindness. ... It is perhaps a typically Canadian approach. But it is wrong, dead wrong."

And here's Ian Mulgrew on Svend Robinson:

The 52-year-old New Democrat MP always has had a flair for the dramatic and a penchant for look-at-me stunts. But this televised mea culpa topped them all. In one stroke, Robinson created the impression he was leaving politics because of serious psychiatric issues, while simultaneously wedging the door open for his return.

And back to hockey, on the national anthem booing saga:

Let's see what happens tonight when the series resumes in Montreal. We hope those Bell Centre louts who have booed the U.S. anthem in the past will take a cue from the class showed in Boston on Thursday, and at the very least stand in respectful silence.

On that last one, let's hope there's no booing at the game tonight at all - whether for an anthem, or for the game itself. Go Habs!

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5:52 PM
And on that note... it's sunny and beautiful out so I'm officially declaring the weekend begun.

Have a good one! And GO HABS GO!

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5:48 PM
Fadi Fadel has been released:

Thirty-three-year-old Fadi Fadel was kidnapped 10 days ago, leaving his Montreal-based family fearing for his life. A Reuters report earlier Friday said that he had been assaulted but Arab television footage showed him ecstatic and displaying no visible injuries.

The Syrian-born Canadian citizen was not released as quickly as some of the other kidnapped aid workers, probably because his captors "accused" him of being Jewish, Israeli, or even an Israeli Mossad agent. (Apparently to the Islamists, they're all equivalent accusations).

Fadal's parents, family, and the Canadian government spent a lot of time denying these "accusations". And precious little time saying anything about the fact that "Jew" and "Israeli" aren't dirty words. Perhaps that's understandable, as their goal was to secure Fadal's release. But it leaves an icky feeling in the taste of my mouth. Perhaps the Canadian governemtn didn't directly negotiate with the terrorists... but they sure played their game. If we spend a lot of time saying "release him, he's not Jewish", then isn't that almost like saying that it's okay to kidnap Jews?

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5:34 PM
Yom Ha'Shoah Post #4: Yellow Stars and Magen Davids:

One year ago, Meryl posted a very appropriate Yom Ha'Shoah discussion, in which she pointed out that in 1933 in Germany, the Jews were encouraged not to draw attention to themselves so as to avoid being harassed:

From The Testimony of Lucille Eichengruen:
Interviewer: What happened after 1933?
Answer: In 1933 the climate changed. There were restrictions, there were ugly incidents - we walked to school, children would beat us up. Children would yell at us and make nasty remarks. We were told to be quiet on the streetcar. We were told not to draw attention to ourselves, and slowly and gradually people began to leave. Students, teachers - it was a very unsettled situation. It was constant turmoil and for a child it was not conducive to learning.

"We were told not to draw attention to ourselves." It's what Jews used to do. It's what Jews had to do. It's what the world was used to Jews doing. That's why the German police told its Jewish population to stop wearing any outward signs of Judaism so they wouldn't be attacked by thugs — last year. It's one of the attitudes that got six million of us slaughtered then, and countless thousands more murdered over the centuries.

We don't keep our heads down anymore. We won't.

The Nazis didn't want the Jews to draw any positive attention... but they encouraged negative attention. Which is why they imposed the yellow star armband or patch. They wanted the Jews to keep their heads down - but to be easily identifiable for humiliation and harassment.

The yellow star was a symbol of shame and fear. But the outward symbols of Judaism that many Jews wear today - kippot, magen david or "chai" necklaces or even souvenir t-shirts from Israel with IDF logos or Hebrew lettering - are anything but. They're symbols of pride. They're saying, you can't label us because we're proud to advertise who and what we are!

I wear my magen david necklace all the time. (These days I also wear an Israel flag pin on my jacket lapel.) But even I removed my necklace before going touring around Europe. I told myself it was because I didn't want to risk breaking or losing it - same as the other jewellery I left at home. But if truth be told, I was also a little nervous about travelling with the star of david around my neck through the same countries that forced their Jews to wear yellow stars only a few short decades ago. I'm not proud of that. Far from it. But I didn't want to ask for trouble either.

Now it's two years later, and if I had to do it again I'd probably wear the star. Because I've learned that sometimes you have to wear your colours with pride, in order to let the world know that you will never again allow them to make you wear their colours with shame.

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2:13 PM
Ruling with an iron fist:

If the PQ wins the next election, they will overturn any municipal demergers that citizens vote for this June, Landry said today:

The Parti Québécois leader said that it is the Quebec government that is responsible for municipal borders and not the citizens. Landry's comments provoked murmurs in the audience.

Landry said that to demolish the megacities would be one of the worst things to ever occur in the political history of Quebec.

I lost track of how many double-negatives there are in that one.

Not that this surprises me too much, of course. It was the PQ that merged the municipalities in the first place, without consulting the people and while steamrolling over democracy. They've done it once; they can do it again. It wouldn't shock me.

And the Liberals are allowing demerger referendums as promised, but they're not exactly making it easy. Today is the last day to revise the electoral list, in a procedure that's so unclear that 9 out of 10 staunch demerger activists have no idea what they're supposed to do. Then, 10% of the people in each sector have to sign a register calling for a referendum, in order to have one. Most people don't know how to go about that, or even what the steps involved are.

No, Mr. Landry, the demolishing of the megacity wouldn't be one of the worst things to ever occur. That honour goes to the creation of the megacity in the first place.

The whole thing drives me nuts. Why is 50%+1 enough to take Quebec out of Canada, according to the PQ, but not enough to win back our cities that were stolen from us in the first place? I'd love to see Landry's reaction if the Federal government were to tell him that the Federal government is responsible for provincial borders and not the citizens.

Nobody ever said Quebec politics make sense. But the blatant disregard for the will of the people is just getting worse. And with Charest's approval rating in the toilet, Landry can pretty much say whatever he wants and still get elected next time around.

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2:04 PM
It's come to this:

After her army service and before starting university, an Israeli friend of mine worked for a while as a security guard at elementary schools.

All the schools have armed guards now in Israel, for obvious reasons. They guard entranceways, check bags of people going in, and basically stay on the alert for anything suspicious. It's sad but necessary. And as much as I hated my friend's choice of job, it did pay better than waitress or gas station attendant... and let's face it, these days it wasn't really any more dangerous. But as much as I love Israel, I was grateful that I live in safe, secure Canada, where schools don't need security guards.

Not anymore.

This morning, on my regular drive to work, I passed by a local Jewish elementary school, as I do every day. Yesterday was the first day of classes after Passover for the students there, and I didn't notice anything in particular since I went into the office very early. But today, I drove by while the kids were out in the schoolyard for recess. And in addition to the teachers at their regular posts inside the schoolyard fence, I couldn't help but see the security guard standing just outside. He was wearing a big jacket saying "SECURITY" in huge letters, and wearing an earpiece, and he was watching the traffic and all the people around the school with an alert, hardened look in his eyes.

He was the only guard I saw, but there may have been others. I understand why it's necessary. The U.T.T. firebombing makes extra security a necessity. From the parents' point of view, the more the better - anything to protect their kids.

But it also saddens me immensely that it's come to this. That here, in safe secure Montreal, we need security at elementary schools to prevent sickos with agendas from attacking children.

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9:51 AM
Last night's game was fun to watch. It's not over yet for the Habs.

But perhaps almost more notable than the game itself was how the Boston crowd reacted to the Canadian national anthem. In light of the recent booing of the US anthem at the two Bell Centre games, a notice was posted in Boston asking people to refrain from booing in retaliation. So what did they do? They cheered. Loudly. Now that's class.

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9:48 AM
Dignity or spin?

The Gazette thinks that Svend Robinson, by admitting his error, was "dignified" and "courageous".

Here's what Terry and Ted have to say about that: bullshit. And I agree.

Robinson didn't own up to the theft because he's such a great person. He did it because it was most likely caught on security camera. The guy has been a politician for 25 years - you don't think he knows a thing or two about spin?

His emotional, over-the-top news conference was self-serving claptrap - a way to control the story before it hit the media in a less-than-favourable way.

As for his medical problems, I would never belittle that, and I do hope he gets help working through it. But a lot of people go through worse every day, and by trying to make excuses, Svend is belittling the true courage of many of them. If you want to talk about "dignity" or "courage", one needn't travel far to find true examples of it. Michele is acting with enormous amounts dignity and courage. What she's going through ain't easy, and I wish her nothing but the best.

But Svend? Desipte what Damian or Burnside thinks, I'm sticking with my opinion: the way he acted wasn't about dignity, or courage. It was just about knowledge that the shit was about to hit the fan, and that he'd better do something to redirect it.

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4:18 PM
Svend update: The plot thickens:

CP is now reporting that Svend has offered a whole host of excuses for his departure - which seems to have been downgraded to a "leave" - ranging from medical to legal reasons. The "medical" reason seems to be "severe emotional stress"... apparently having something to do with an incident in which he stole an expensive ring at an auction:

Describing his past few months as a time in which he has experienced "severe stress," the seven-term MP for Burnaby-Douglas said "something just snapped" last Friday when he pocketed a ring during a public sale at an auction house.

"For some time now, I have been suffering from severe stress and emotional pain ," Mr. Robinson said during prepared comments. "...I have experienced great inner turmoil. The reasons for this are intensely personal and I'm not prepared to discuss them."

Yeah, I'd say theft is a "legal" problem. His comments really give an insight into how unstable the man is.

In the meantime, NDP Leader Jack Layton seems to think Svend deserves some kind of medal:

"Svend spoke about how he made a mistake and how he's taking responsibility for it," Mr. Layton said. "He did the right thing by going to the police. If everybody who made mistakes were willing to take responsibility for it the way Svend Robinson has just done today I think we would be living in a better world."

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for taking responsibility. But let's not pretend that owning up to a mistake erases it.

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2:39 PM
Everyone's talking about the latest so-called Osama tape, on which he supposedly offers Europe (but not the US of course) a "truce" if they comply with Al Qua'eda's demands.

The only question is which European country *ahem France ahem* will be the first in line to surrender. After all, appeasement worked with Hitler oh-so-well, didn't it?

In the meantime, Bin Laden is apparently ranting and raving in usual fashion about Israel and the Palestinians and swearing "revenge" for Ahmed Yassin's assassination:

"Our actions come in response to your actions of destroying and killing our people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. It is enough to witness the event that shocked the world, the killing of the elderly, wheelchair-bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, God have mercy on him, and we pledge to God to take revenge on America," the man on the tape said.

Something makes me wonder just how much Arafat appreciates the sentiment, though. Anyone remember this?

"I'm telling him (bin Laden) directly not to hide behind the Palestinian cause," Arafat said in an interview published in London's Sunday Times newspaper.

Bin Laden "never helped us, he was working in another completely different area and against our interests," Arafat said.

That was December of 2002, when Arafat - in English anyway - felt it wasn't savvy to be seen as being too cozy with Al Qua'eda. Now it's April 2004, and perhaps Arafat has learned that the world doesn't care. They'll surrender to terrorism... just as long as they get to trash Bush in the process.

We've come a long way.

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2:11 PM
Bye Bye Svend:

NDP member and Canadian MP (and general all-around pain in the ass) Svend Robinson is quitting politics:

The reason for the popular MP's departure from political life was not immediately known. Robinson, an outspoken figure on Parliament Hill, became Canada's first openly homosexual MP when he publicly declared his sexual orientation in 1988.

His aggressive stands on same-sex marriage, charter protection of gay rights and Palestinian autonomy - among other issues - have made Robinson a lightning rod for critics.

This is indeed big news. All the NDP members bother me, but Robinson is particularly annoying.

For the record, it's not the "openly gay" or "protection of gay rights" issues that bother me about Robinson. Far from it. On those points, I actually agree with him.

No, it's more due to things like this:

He was demoted from his international affairs critic's role two years ago after travelling to the West Bank, staging his own detention at an Israeli checkpoint and then accusing the Israeli military of murder and torture.

"I plead guilty. Yes, I am taking sides," Robinson said at the time.

"I am taking the side of peace over war. I am taking the side of the oppressed over the oppressor."

Oh, and let's not forget the time he nominated the ISM for a Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, I suppose they deserve it just as much as Arafat does...

Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, Svend.

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10:45 PM
Yom Ha'Shoah Post #3: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising:

It's been the subject of books, TV movies, and has become the stuff of legends. The fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto have gone down in history as the most identifiable group of Jews in the Holocaust (besides the Partisans) who didn't go to their deaths quietly, but who rose up against Nazi tyranny and fought back.

Symbolism, of course, was all that the uprising created. There are next to no survivors from those who fought. It took years of starvation rations, slave labour, and ghetto "liquidations" before a handful got together the spirit to even launch a fight. And they knew at the time that they were signing their death warrants. But it didn't matter, because they knew they were dead anyway.

But it would be wrong to assume that there is anything less heroic about those who did not participate... those who lived in other ghettos, or were rounded up and shipped to death camps... those whose small acts of heroism sometimes allowed them or their loved ones to survive - even if only for one more day.

The Jewish Virtual Library chronicles the amazing story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which has gone down in history as a symbol of resistance to tyranny despite insurmountable odds.

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5:01 PM
Big policy shift for Bush:

In a historic departure from US policy, President George W. Bush on Wednesday said Palestinian refugees should be resettled in a future Palestinian state, rather than return to Israel.

He also gave a nod to Israel's intention to retain control of West Bank settlement blocs by saying it would be "unrealistic" to expect a complete return to the Green Line as part of a final peace deal given "new realities on the ground."

Seems like Bush is actually willing to give Sharon's plan a chance, which ought to prop Sharon up politically for a while - if not Bush.

Of course, that's today's US statement. Tomorrow's could be totally different. If there's one thing Israel has learned the hard way, it's that its friends can sometimes hurt it even more than its enemies. At least with the states at war with Israel, there are no ambiguities about their stance on the issues.

The Israeli government is going to put the unilateral withdrawal plan up to a referendum vote... on my birthday no less. Personally, I think the plan is seriously flawed - if only because it grants concessions to the Palestinians that will have no effect on stemming the terrorism. It's a little naive to think that if Israel pulls back and builds a big wall, that the people on the other side of the wall will suddenly drop their bombs and guns and hatred and decide to declare statehood and implement infrastructure and industry and trade and all those great things that it takes to have a state. No, corruption breeds corruption.

But at the same time, most Israelis are so sick and tired of the status quo that they realize it can't go on indefinately. Since every single attempt at a negotiated solution has failed, a lot of them have got to be thinking that maybe it's time for Plan B.

Bush's approval means nothing elsewhere in the world, mind you. Just another example of the Great Satan backing the Little Satan.

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3:04 PM
Meryl's singing bread's praises. I don't blame her. There's nothing quite like a hot-out-of-the-oven Montreal bagel to end the long bread-free nine days of Passover.

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11:54 PM
Travesty:

The Gazette is going to start charging to access stories online.

Sure, it's not wonderful journalism... but the Gazette is still the main English-language daily in Montreal. As such, it's my primary news source.

The content will remain free only to people who subscribe 7 days a week. And no, I don't subscribe. Not only is it insanely expensive and a waste of paper, but it would also mean I'd have to go down to the lobby each morning to fetch the paper and bring it back upstairs to read it. Considering how my morning routine usually consists of rolling out of bed and rushing to work, the chances of me doing this are slim-to-none.

And now I won't even be able to read it online! If this keeps up, sooner or later I'll have no more free news sources to go to.

I wrote the Gazette a long angry e-mail to their posted address, [email protected] - which I assume is an alias for "[email protected]".

Dammit. I was already mad enough about the hockey game. I'm not having a good night here.

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11:03 PM
Thievery, I tell ya!

That was OUR game dammit! And they STOLE it!

*Sigh*... break out the golf clubs...

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6:12 PM
Yom Ha'Shoah Post #2: Hungary's dark days:

Today's headlines are screaming the disturbing news of a Palestinian bomb plot at the opening of a new Hungarian Holocaust Museum. Israeli President Moshe Katsav is scheduled to attend this monumental event, which, presumably, is the terrorist's excuse for trying to attack it:

Police arrested the spiritual leader of a small Islamic community in Budapest Tuesday during a visit President Moshe Katsav and suggested he was planning to bomb the city's Jewish museum. Two Syrians also were detained on related charges.

[ . . . ]

Police identified the suspect as a 42-year-old dentist of "Palestine origin" and said he was the spiritual leader of a small Islamic community in Budapest. He is a naturalized Hungarian citizen.
The suspect, whose name was not released, was charged with being involved in "preparation for a terrorist attack," said Police Lt. Col. Attila Petofi.

The irony of this couldn't possibly be clearer.

With all the extra attention being called to this inauguration, the spotlight has fallen on Hungary's chapter in the terrible events of the Holocaust. This year is the 60th anniversary of the deportation of nearly all of Hungarian Jews - who numbered over 600,000 - to ghettos, slave labor, and death. Few survived to tell the story.

Hungary was under Nazi occupation, which has allowed a sort of absolving of any kind of feeling of collective guilt in subsequent years. The fact that Hungary fell under another tyrannical regime - this time Soviet - after the war even further served to allow people to distance themselves from their past. Because surely Hungary suffered under both Nazism and Communism. But, as the new Holocaust Center's spokesman, Balint Molnar, says, this doesn't tell the whole story:

"For 60 years, there has been no debate about the responsibility of Hungarian society for the Holocaust. Under communism, everything was blamed on the Germans and a handful of Hungarian extremists. There was no discussion over the role of the wartime Hungarian authorities, the lack of resistance and the wholesale looting of Jewish property.

"The Holocaust in Hungary was not the private tragedy of the Jews," he said. "It is part of Hungarian history, as much as the revolutions of 1848 or 1956. Even now it is hard to comprehend the profound damage that has been done to Hungarian society."

The fact is, the vast majority of the Hungarian people stood silently by as the Jews were shipped off to slaughter. Many actively participated and helped the Nazis. There was, after all, a Hungarian branch of the Nazi party. The Holocaust wouldn't have been possible without the help or at least tacit acceptance of the populations of the countries in which it took place.

One of my great-grandmothers was Hungarian Jewish. Her family came to Canada and, because of that, my grandfather was lucky enough to be born here. So instead of being caught up by the war, he attended high school here in Montreal, got married, had kids, went on to be an accountant and found a company, retire, get a condo in Florida, and play a lot of golf. I can hardly even contemplate what would have happened if his mother stayed put in Hungary. I'm sure he can't either.

Hungary's role in the Holocaust isn't a new research topic for world historians and interested parties. It's been studied and written about extensively. The US Holocaust Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies even held a symposium back in 1999 to examine Hungary's role in the Holocaust in more detail. You can listen to some of the talks online. But for Hungary as a country, the opening of the museum - the first such memorial ever in Budapest - is an important milestone. It speaks volumes about the country's willingness to finally come to terms with its past.

And the attempt to bomb it speaks volumes about the challenges the world's Jews are still facing today.

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11:20 PM
Canadian antisemitism watch:

Toronto... Montreal... now Kitchener:

Officials with a Jewish cemetery in Kitchener, Ont., are trying to determine whether 12 headstones were knocked over this weekend as an act of vandalism, or a hate crime.

A dozen headstones were toppled sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning at the Beth Jacob Cemetery, as Jews prepared to mark the high holidays of Passover.

Trying to determine if it's a hate crime??? Is that like trying to determine if rain is wet? A friggin' cemetery was attacked - what do you call that, a hockey game?

The pattern is disturbing. The Ottawa Citizen had an editorial last week that was right on-point:

Still, the firebombing in Montreal represents a new level of depravity. The attack, though, is in one sense instructive: It demonstrates the nexus of anti-Zionism (hatred of Israel, the Jewish state) and anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews). Only a mind clouded with hate could think that burning a children's school in Canada is a legitimate way to protest Israeli government policies.

Antisemitism is on the rise because of so-called "anti-Zionism". The two are one and the same. Legitimate criticism of Israel's policies is one thing, but there's no excuse for the firebombing of schools, vandalizing of property, or the threatening of Jewish MPs. And it's exactly why the de-legitimatizing of the Jewish state is a direct attack on the notion of Jewish nationalism, or the Jewish people in general. Call it anti-Zionism or call it antisemitism, it's just plain disgusting.

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11:09 PM
When in doubt, blame Israel:

A case of mistaken identity might be delaying the release of Fadi Fadel, a Canadian aid worker held hostage in Iraq, his brother said Monday.

Ghayas Fadel said Arab television is reporting the aid worker is an Israeli agent, which would make him a valuable target for insurgents. "(The tape) shows him giving a different name and saying he's Israeli and this is what we've been trying to correct," Fadel said in an interview from the family home near Montreal.

"He has never been to Israel and has never had any contact with any Israeli organization."

It has not been established why Fadi Fadel would have said such a thing.

Ghayas Fadel said the Canadian ambassador in Jordan will help to confirm his brother's real identity at a news conference in Amman on Tuesday.

Fadi Fadel, a Syrian-born Canadian, was kidnapped by local militia in southern Iraq last Wednesday while working for the New York City-based International Rescue Committee.

The real story isn't why the Iraqis would force Fadel to claim to be an Israeli agent. That one's obvious, and a pretty standard tactic in the Middle East, where a simple suggestion that someone is Jewish or in some way connected to Israel is enough to make them out to be the devil incarnate. It's a convenient way of erasing any sympathy that the public in the Mideast might have had for Fadel.

No, the real story is the Canadian reaction... and how eager Canadian authorities are to state over and over again that Fadel has nothing to do with Israel, that this is false. It's almost as though they're validating the Iraqi rebel group's demonization of Israel.

As Canada negotiates for Fadal's release, I of course hope he makes it safely and unharmed. No humanitarian worker deserves this fate.

But at the same time, I almost wish that Canada was reacting more like the USA or Japan for their policies: "We will not negotiate with terrorists".

Kidnapping of aid workers is a form of terrorism. Allowing it to succeed means ensuring it will repeat.

It's been a long time since I've heard such moral clarity from Canada.

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9:53 PM
Playoff update:

All Eddie as the Leafs shut out the Sens 2-0 tonight. And you just gotta feel bad for Ottawa, cause they absolutely dominated the play, getting all the good scoring chances... gotta be frustrating after a while when you realize you're trying to score on a brick wall.

In any case, their win tonight puts Toronto in the lead of their series 2-1. Actually, all the Eastern Conference matchups are now in a 2-1 situation. Tampa Bay beat the Islanders tonight to break the tie there. New Jersey beat Philadelphia finally. And Montreal's win last night put us on the board, but we're still trailing Boston.

Speaking of Montreal, the media heat's all over Mike Ribeiro with accusations of crying wolf, after Boston accused him of faking an injury last night. Don Cherry ripped into him relentlessly tonight for being a crybaby. But he was clearly in pain... the close-up showed the trainer doing something that looked like he was snapping his arm back into place. Even I winced. He didn't practice today, so something's up. And Ribeiro's "smirk" at the Boston bench after being helped off the ice - which is what seems to be getting him into trouble - looked a lot more like he was just getting his game face back on to me. Ribeiro has been super all season and he really deserves better than to have the media and fans turn on him now.

And of course, in the ever-continuing shame saga, the US national anthem was booed yet again last night by the Habs crowd. Sure, it was only a minority of people, but it's really disgusting and unbecoming of a Montreal crowd. If they were booing for political reasons, shame on them; it's a hockey game. If they were booing for rivalry reasons, shame on them; the visiting team deserves respect. Either way, we ought to show more class than that.

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1:35 PM
Remembering Mauthausen:

LGF posted a letter written by Fred Friendly, a US master sergeant in 1945, who later went on to become president of CBS news, about what he saw when he liberated Mauthausen Concentration Camp:

Mauthausen was built with a half-million rocks which 150,000 prisoners - 18,000 was the capacity - carried up on their backs from a quarry 800 feet below. They carried it up steps so steep that a Captain and I walked it once and were winded, without a load. They carried granite and made 8 trips a day... and if they stumbled, the S.S. men pushed them into the quarry. There are 285 steps, covered with blood. They called it the steps of death. I saw the shower room (twice or three times the size of our bathroom), a chamber lined with tile and topped with sprinklers where 150 prisoners at a time were disrobed and ordered in for a shower which never gushed forth from the sprinklers because the chemical was gas. When they ran out of gas, they merely sucked all of the air out of the room. I talked to the Jews who worked in the crematory, one room adjacent, where six and seven bodies at a time were burned. They gave these jobs to the Jews because they all died anyhow, and they didn't want the rest of the prisoners to know their own fate. The Jews knew theirs, you see.

[ . . . ]

This is my Mauthausen letter. I hope you will see fit to let Bill Braude and the folks read it. I would like to think that all the Wachenheimers and all the Friendlys and all our good Providence friends would read it. Then I want you to put it away and every Yom Kippur I want you to take it out and make your grandchildren read it.

For, if there had been no America, we, all of us, might well have carried granite at Mauthausen.

I hate to post only an excerpt. Read the whole thing.

Yom Ha'Shoah is in six days. This letter made me think of something I want to do on this site. For the next six days, starting today (six to symbolize the six million), I want to post some sort of story or account to remember the Shoah. Today, thanks to seeing this letter, the story is Mauthausen.

Almost two years ago, on my tour of Europe, I visited the remains of the camp. They've turned it into a museum, you see. A museum of death, for us tourists to stop off at in between the beer hall and the white water rafting. Just another tourist attraction.

I had been learning about the Holocaust for nearly my entire life. I heard firsthand accounts from survivors, read books, saw films, went to Yad Vashem and to the Holocaust Museum in Washington... but nothing prepared me for that experience. I hadn't been before. Not on the March of the Living or on any of the trips that took groups to Poland or Germany or Hungary or the Czech Republic to bear witness. No, there was just this one experience and it caught me completely off guard.

That day, I wrote pages and pages in my journal. I couldn't stop writing, even for hours afterwards. Every impression. Every detail.

And I also took photos. I debated long and hard about that one. On the one hand, it seemed almost disrespectful to walk around with a camera taking snapshots. But then I realized it was probably the most appropriate thing I could do. To take photos. To write. To see it for myself and to show the photos to as many people as possible as if to say, here, here is proof that these horrors and atrocities happened and the more people who record witness accounts or take and publish photos or write about it or make films about it, the more the world remembers and the better we can counter the propagandists and antisemites who would claim otherwise.

So here are the photos that I took that day. I have a hard time looking at them myself. And these were of the memorials... taken nearly 60 years after the camp was liberated. But I still have a hard time looking at them. And I don't know if you will want to either. But it's important to witness, to remember.

Because my sentiment after walking out of the gates of Mauthausen - walking, you understand, free as a bird and getting on a bus and moving along to the next stop of our tour - was the same as Fred Friendly's: It could have been me.

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11:20 AM
A subtle but important shift:

The headline of this Haaretz story, about a thwarted attack on Netzarim, says a lot more than it lets on:

Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim foiled attack on Netzarim

Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed at least two gunmen in the pre-dawn hours Monday as the Palestinians sought to attack the Gaza Strip flashpoint settlement of Netzarim, military sources said.

[ . . . ]

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed joint responsibility for the operation. The three groups have increasingly cooperated in attacks on Israelis.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad... and Fatah.

The article later says that it's the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade wing of Fatah that was involved. But this is Haaretz - not the Jerusalem Post - now clarifying that the distinction between Arafat's Fatah and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is so irrelevant, it doesn't even need to be specified in a headline.

Finally, we get a little closer to the truth: Arafat directs and supports terrorism, and has no more legitimacy as a leader than any terrorist dictator thug - despite the West's attempt to legitimatize him as the "moderate" alternative to Hamas.

That's just BS. Hamas believes itself driven by religious purposes. Fatah is more strategic and pays lip service to secularism. But they're both after the exact same thing: no more Israel. Hence all this "cooperation", which the Western media is making out to be such a big deal, but, when you think about it, isn't really all that much of a stretch.

It's about time we called a terrorist a terrorist.

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9:53 PM
Key win for the Habs tonight! Woohoo!

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12:55 AM
Jab.

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