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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6:49 PM
Rainy Saturday

It's like Murphy's Law of Weather or something: it's always nice during the week and rainy on the weekends. Or at least it seems like that.

Heavy downpours last night and today brought back flashbacks of the 1987 flood. That time, we ended up with an early emergency evacuation from day camp and three inches of water in our basement. This time, it doesn't seem like there will be any consequences more serious than some water accumulation on the street corner. Nonetheless, all this rain is causing my apartment to feel like a sauna, humidity-wise... and my hair is very unhappy. It's protesting. Which brings me to the other Murphy's Law: when you pay to get your hair done, the weather will suck. Always.

Rain rain go away.

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11:31 AM
Duh alert:

Saudi government funding terrorist groups? Someone explain to me why this is news to so many people?

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10:59 AM
Embassy bombings in Uzbkistan:

The American and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan were targeted by suicide bombers today:

Simultaneous bomb attacks struck the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan as well as the state prosecutor's office in the capital Tashkent Friday, killing at least two people and wounding five.

The action appeared clearly coordinated, days after the start of a trial in Tashkent of 15 suspected Islamist extremists on charges of trying to overthrow the ex-Soviet state in connection with attacks in March that killed nearly 50 people.

The three late afternoon blasts in Uzbekistan, a mainly Muslim country that backs Washington's "war on terror" and hosts a U.S. airbase, appeared to have been triggered by suicide bombers, almost certainly on foot.

I'm willing to bet most Americans and Israelis didn't even know they had embassies in Uzbekistan. Well, they know now. Two people were killed at the Israeli embassy; no injuries were incurred at the American one.

And of course, there are no eyebrows being raised anymore. It's just assumed to be logical for terrorists to target Americans and Israelis: the coalition of the international bullseye.

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11:06 AM
Harry Potter and George Bush

Damian Penny links to a post by James Lileks talking about how the theme of many Democrats these days is that terrorism is invented; George Bush is the only threat:

As Teddy Kennedy said in his convention speech: "The only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush." It's really quite simple, isn't it? We live in a manufactured climate of fear ginned up by war-crazed neocon overlords. There is no threat. The only thing we have to fear is Bush, who sits as we speak in the Oval Office sucking the marrow from Whoopi's shin-bones.

If so, I wonder why anyone agreed to the stringent security policies that characterize this year's conventions. Why the bomb-sniffing dogs? Why the snipers? Why the metal detectors, the invasive inspection of bags? Is it all an elaborate defense against Bush crashing the party and setting off a bomb belt, shouting God is Great, y'all!

No, they're fearful of something else.

Damned if I know what, though. Damned if I know.

Reading this reminded me of something, and I racked my brain until I realized what it was: the same thing happened in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

(Er, for those of you who haven't read all five books yet, what are you waiting for? And, um, spoiler alert.)

The parallels are uncanny: the real world is fearful of Islamist terrorism. The wizarding world is fearful of Voldemort. In both cases, it's easier — and more reassuring — to believe that a known, relatively benign quantity is inventing the threat for some self-serving purpose. It sets our mind at ease to assume that, without Bush, the problems will disappear. Just as it set the minds of the wizards at ease to believe that Harry Potter and Dumbledore were inventing the story of Voldemort's return in order to serve their own ends. To face the other possibility — that they were telling the truth — was too frightening for people to contemplate.

Dumbledore — the wise, great Hogwart's headmaster — is certainly no comparison to George W. Bush. But the theory is the same. There's something real behind the politics, the hype, or the threat. But much of the Western world is in denial.

In Harry Potter's world, he and Dumbeldore had to suffer for a better part of a year before the truth of Voldemort's return was made obvious to even those people who most wanted to deny it. In reality, one would assume that September 11th was evidence enough of the reality of the threat of terror — but the real world doesn't even take that as proof. With idiots like Michael Moore calling 9/11 "fiction", and the conspirazoid-freaks talking about how Israel, or Bush, or a Zionist cabal, or some combination thereof, were really behind the attacks... it's easier to blame and attack what you don't fear, than to face what you do, I suppose.

Just one more way in which Harry Potter's world mirrors our own. And, in both cases, we're stuck waiting for the next installment to see how it ends.

Update: Seems I'm not the only Canadian with Harry Potter on the brain these days.

Update #2: Jonathan had similar reflections last year when he first read Order of the Phoenix. He's pegged the book as pro-war, and is bemused by the fact that it was penned by a self-described leftist. Go figure.

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3:37 PM
Michael Moore's latest fan:

Osama Bin Laden's half-brother liked "Farenheit 9/11" - though even he thinks that Moore is full of shit:

"It's a moving film," Yeslam Binladin, a Geneva-based tycoon and one of the al-Qaida leader's 54 siblings, said in an interview with the French magazine VSD.

"I even laughed at times," said Binladin, adding, "but a lot less when he states errors or inaccuracies about my family, knowing perfectly well that he's deceiving the public."

I hope it heartens Michael Moore to count the Bin Laden clan among his fanbase. I wonder if he'll take their criticisms of his habit of playing loose with the truth seriously. Probably not.

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3:15 PM
Say what?

I don't always agree with L. Ian Macdonald, but I generally think he's fairly intelligent. So that's why I was so surprised to read, in the midst of an article expressing wonder that Kerry isn't leading Bush in the polls, a nonsensical statement like this:

There weren't terrorists in Iraq under Saddam, but there are now under the American occupation.

No terrorists in Iraq under Saddam? Really now? What would you call Saddam's sons? Saddam himself? Or perhaps systematically gassing his entire Kurdish population doesn't count as terrorism.

Well, I guess Macdonald is just being a typical Canadian in his dislike for Bush, and is letting that dislike affect his thinking.

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3:07 PM
Blame America

Terrorists blow up a mosque in Afghanistan to prevent people from registering to vote, and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) blames the United States:

Arguing that aid groups were now being specifically targeted, MSF issued a stinging rebuke to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, saying they used aid to help win a "hearts and minds" campaign and garner support from Afghans skeptical of their intentions.

"MSF denounces this attempt to co-opt humanitarian aid, to use humanitarian aid to win hearts and minds," MSF secretary general Marine Buissonniere told a briefing, adding that in doing so it had endangered the lives of humanitarian workers.

In other words, MSF is mad at U.S. forces for treading on what they see as their turf.

Their argument - that the blurring of the line between traditionally-objective humanitarian work and non-objective military work has led to the targeting of humanitarian aid workers - is not without foundation. But the prevailing culture of some of these aid organizations is neutrality without a moral compass; in other words, they're so conditioned to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses wherever they work, that they've bought into the US-is-evil rhetoric of most of those countries.

Do you think MSF has noticed that, in striving to be as apolitical as possible, it has actually become a darling of left-wing politicos and America-bashers everywhere?

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12:34 AM
The suspects in the UTT firebombing last Passover will not be charged with a hate crime:

Both Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and B'nai Brith Canada say they will not press for hate crime charges to be added to the counts of arson and conspiracy against two young men in connection with the firebombing of the St. Laurent United Talmud Torahs library in April.

Both organizations agree that the hate provisions in the Criminal Code of Canada do not appear to apply in this case. They do, however, expect that if there is a conviction, hate motivation will result in a stiffer sentence, as the law provides.

"It's ironic because this was a deeply hateful act targeting a Jewish school, but we are stuck with a Criminal Code that has less than perfect wording," said David Birnbaum, executive director of CJC, Quebec region.

I'm no lawyer, but to me this seems ridiculous. What point is there in having hate crime legislation if it can't be used in an obvious case like this one?

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12:16 AM
Arab nations refuse to condemn antisemitism.

European nations claim to be shocked:

Arab states at the United Nations are trying to foil a proposal to raise a vote condemning anti-Semitism in the General Assembly this September.

At a closed meeting held recently in New York, UN ambassadors from Arab and EU countries met and the Arabs made clear that they do not accept the initiative for the UN General Assembly to condemn anti-Semitism.

The blunt language used by the Arabs describing their opposition, and their plans to use diplomatic means to prevent the resolution from reaching a vote, shocked the Europeans, said a UN source.

Allison's not shocked. Neither am I. Neither should anyone who's been even semi-conscious in the last decade or so.

The lame reasons? They hardly even bear repeating, but for what it's worth, here are some of the excuses:

Jordanian Ambassador to the UN Prince Ziad Hussein argued that the resolution would reinforce the tendency to call any criticism of Israel, anti-Semitic. Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed Banone, said that the seminar against anti-Semitism was a terrible idea and a decision would only divide the world body. Arab League Ambassador Mahamas Hani warned that a UN resolution condemning anti-Semitism would have a negative impact on the Middle East.

The Arab states are so blatant about their hatred of Jews that one would almost assume that they are making themselves look bad and doing their causes a disservice with how obvious they are being. But they know as well as we do that they can get away with it. After all, they've been getting away with it all along.

Israel has repeatedly tried to get the United Nations to pass even seemingly obvious resolutions condemning terrorism, suicide bombings, or even the targeting of civilian children. In each case, the Arab countries have blocked them from even coming to a vote. This time, the resolution is one that there doesn't seem to be any legitimate argument against, and yet the Arab countries are again insisting that there is no place for a condemnation of antisemitism in the United Nations.

Why do we even bother? Why haven't we written off the UN by now?

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12:03 AM
Meanwhile in Sudan...

Kofi Annan has issued an urgent appeal for relief funding for Darfur:

Frustrated by a chronic funding gap for the U.N. relief effort in the Darfur region of Sudan, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will issue an urgent appeal Wednesday to wealthy European, Asian and Middle Eastern governments that he believes have been too stingy in addressing the humanitarian crisis, senior U.N. officials said Tuesday.

It only took 30 thousand deaths, 180 thousand refugees fleeing into Chad, over 1 million people displaced from their homes, and more than 2 million in desperate need of food and medical treatment before Annan intervened.

It makes me think - not for the first time - that Mark Steyn said it best: "The problem is, by the time you've gone through the UN, everyone's dead."

The politically-correct will continue to rant and rave about the only "legitimate" action being that taken through the United Nations. But I bet if the 30,000 people who have already been ethnically cleansed in Sudan while the world stood idly by got a vote, they would have a few choice words about waiting for the UN to take action.

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11:40 PM
The Zahra Kazemi story continues to get media attention, as her son pressures the Canadian government to keep fighting for justice:

The son of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi is "totally unhappy" about the way Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew has responded to his call for a government commitment to get to the bottom of his mother's murder case.

Stephan Hachemi had been calling on Pettigrew to impose diplomatic sanctions against Iran for failing to find the person responsible for his mother's murder.

"The Iranian ambassador has nothing to do in Canada right now," Hachemi told a news conference Tuesday. "He should be expelled. The embassy should be closed."

It's understandable that the son of a murdered woman is grieving and lashing out. And the government seems to be paying attention.

But what really bothers me about this whole affair is not so much that Canadians are angry about the lack of justice in this case, but that nobody is nearly angry enough about the lack of justice in every other case in Iran. Canada spends years appeasing a brutal dictatorship that has suppressed virtually every human right we take for granted. Those Iranians don't count. But when an Iranian who happens to have Canadian citizenship is the victim, she counts. We shrug off thousands of unexplained murders, but when Zahra Kazemi is the victim, suddenly everyone is expecting the kind of fair and transparent justice system that lives up to Canadian standards.

It's not unusual for countries to react much more strongly when their own citizens are victimized. But the hypocricy gets to me. Iran is not a democracy. It's not a very nice place to live, especially if you happen to be, say, female, or non-Muslim. And it's in danger of acquiring nuclear weapons, in which case it might be too late to curb the threat.

And while Canadians continue to issue a "tsk tsk" about the Zahra Kazemi case, we are simultaneously following the Europeans, not the Americans, in softpedalling this new nuclear threat and refusing to take a hard line. This is but one of a long list of the things that the Canadian government just doesn't get.

Israel gets it, however:

Iran's ability for nuclear armament should not worry just us but the entire free world and moderate Arabic countries as well, according to Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen Moshe Ya'alon.

And of course, if and when Israel takes matters into its own hands, and the United Nations issues a routine condemnation of Israel for having the courage to do so, Canada will likely be right there on the General Assembly floor, loudly... abstaining.

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10:47 AM
Crisis in Gaza? What crisis?

It's easy for Arafat to deny any crisis when journalists receive death threats for reporting it:

Palestinian journalists covering the ongoing crisis in the Palestinian Authority complained over the weekend that they had received death threats from the various feuding parties.

As a result, many of them said they have stopped covering the internecine fighting. Others said they were continuing to report on the power struggle, but without having their names mentioned for fear of reprisal.

"Many Palestinians working with the foreign media in the Gaza Strip are being threatened," a journalist in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post. He said the threats were coming from all the parties involved in the internal strife

[ . . . ]

The Gaza City rally was either downplayed or completely ignored by the Palestinian media. Al-Quds, the largest daily newspaper, instead carried a story in which it said Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip continued to express their support for Yasser Arafat by staging marches and issuing statements.

So much of the world continues to stubbornly insist that the Palestinian government is democratic. Freedom of the press would seem to be a basic requirement for that to hold true, and yet, here's just further evidence that journalists are only allowed to report one thing: anti-Israel news stories. Anything else could get them shot.

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