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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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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2:47 PM
Weekend open thread

This is in response to those people who said it's "time for a new thread".

Here you go. You're welcome. Please try to be nice.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

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6:36 PM
Pre-Rita gas hoarding

As Texas braces itself for Hurricane Rita and millions of people evacuate, the chief concern of most Montrealers seems to be... the price of gas.

Sparked by fears of price hikes due to Rita, and by a few stations who started raising prices in anticipation, people began panicking, and topping up and hoarding gas. Traffic was a nightmare on the way home, as people lined up by the dozens at every gas station where the price was still reasonable, causing gridlock and - paradoxically - the consumption of even more gas. Even as I type this, a symphony of honking is ringing in my ears, from cars who are stuck on my street because of a lineup for a gas station two blocks away.

Ironically, today was car-free day in Montreal.

Seriously, though, here's hoping and praying for the safety of everyone in the affected areas, and that Rita doesn't cause the kind of devastation that Katrina did.

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10:34 AM
Simon Wiesenthal: 1908-2005

Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal, who became the most famous Nazi-hunter of all time and was personally responsible for bringing over 1,100 Nazi war criminals to whatever the closest approximation of "justice" could be, has died at the age of 96.

Wiesenthal took on the task of hunting down former Nazis at a time when nobody else would. He started off working alone. Today, his organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is a major NGO dedicated to combatting worldwide antisemitism.

Simon Wiesenthal is proof that one person can make an enormous difference. He may be gone but his legacy will endure for a very long time.

By the way, Canadians looking to make a contribution to the Center can use this link.

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5:25 PM
Forgetting their promise

Over two years ago, the British government pledged to highlight the issue of the "forgotten" Jewish refugees from Arab lands within the EU.

Well... nu?

I would like to know what has been done on this issue in the past two years. From the looks of it, not a whole lot.

Promises are easy to make. They're a lot harder to fulfill. And post-Gaza disengagement, this issue may well be even more relevant than ever before.

Then again, I suppose the British government is just continuing its long tradition of broken promises to the Jews...

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1:17 PM
"All of Palestine"

Meryl has Hamas's answer to those who dared hope that the Gaza withdrawal would be a step towards peace:

Hamas leaders vowed to continue fighting Israel as tens of thousands cheered and waved the group's green flags and masked gunmen hoisted assault rifles, rockets and anti-tank missiles.

"We will not rest and will not abandon the path of Jihad and martyrdom as long as one inch of our land remained in the hands of the Jews," said Raed Saed, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza City, using the Arabic term for holy war.

"We are celebrating our victory in Gaza and now we are headed toward Jerusalem, Nablus, Akko, Haifa, the Galilee and all of Palestine," he said.

"Sharon, you should know that we will win - the only language spoken will be the language of weapons. We are young people who aspire to die for Allah and for the weapons we are carrying."

Catch that language? Jerusalem (not "East Jerusalem"), Nabulus, Akko, Haifa, the Galilee and all of Palestine.

For the uninitiated, that means Israel.

I was cautiously optimistic at the start of the pullout plan, figuring that Sharon had a strategy and that this could at the very least break the stalemate and get Israel out of a region it didn't want in the first place. I have to sadly concede that those opposed to the plan were probably right - not for religious or ideological reasons, but because it set a very dangerous precedent in rewarding terrorism.

Just when the violence was starting to wane, just as the Palestinians were starting to believe that maybe their approach was a mistake, the Gaza pullout handed them a victory to re-energize their ranks and start up the bloodshed all over again.

I'd hoped I was wrong about that. It sadly appears that I was right.

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9:24 AM
Very, very skeptical

That's my sentiment about today's announcement of an agreement in principle on the part of the world's most despotic regime, North Korea, to abandon its nuclear weapons program:

North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program on Monday, defusing a high-stakes crisis, but skeptics said the deal hammered out in Beijing was long on words and short of action.

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China -- the other players in the six-party talks -- in exchange expressed a willingness to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees.

Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalize ties with the impoverished and diplomatically isolated North, which pledged to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The People's Democratic Republic of Death Camps probably sees this as a golden opportunity to milk the West for all they're worth, while pretending to give up weapons it has no intention of parting with. Or - worse - continuing to develop such weapons and then selling them to terrorist groups all over the world.

It's important to give diplomacy a chance here, especially since there doesn't seem to be any alternative. So I'll try to be cautiously optimistic for now... or at least fake it. But with an unstable dictator like Kim Jong-Il at the helm, though, who knows what North Korea will do next?

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