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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4:46 PM
A little comic relief

California students face a daily dilemma:



(Hat tip: Marieke)

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2:56 PM
"Instigate, don't retaliate"

Hockey fans will recognize the above statement as good advice for players looking to avoid the penalty box, since refs are more likely to penalize a retaliation than an initial provocation. (At least, this was true in the old NHL; things have changed a bit now.)

I can't help but wonder if there are hockey fans running Hezbollah. Because this has so far been a foolproof strategy for them: Instigate a conflict by kidnapping some soldiers and launching some rockets, and watch the world penalize Israel for its retaliation. Two minutes for bombing.

Maybe it's time to give the Israeli army some hockey coaching. What could we tell them that would help? "Keep your head up"? "Communicate with your teammates"? Actually, the best hockey-esque advice I think Israel can hear right now is to avoid pissing off the refs any more than necessary, even if they are about as biased as they get. Hezbollah's never going to play by the rules, but Israel needs to remember that it is bound by them. By all means, play some solid defence, but don't get dragged into playing Hezbollah's game.

Any hockey coaches out there who want to elaborate?

(Here's a thought: Maybe we could settle this whole conflict in a hockey match! Israel against Hezbollah. Or, even, Israel against Hamas. With all the Russian immigration in the past number of years to Israel, we're pretty much assured victory).

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11:29 AM
Supposedly impartial journalists?

Think again:

A group of Israeli journalists on Thursday renounced their membership in the International Federation of Journalists, after the organization's General Secretary refused to retract his condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces' bombing of the Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station in Beirut.

[ . . . ]

The IDF attacked the Hezbollah's TV station shortly after it began its offensive in Lebanon last week. The IFJ said in a statement last weekend that the strike is "a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy of using violence to silence media it does not agree with."

Anyone else involved in a war who bombs communications networks is simply following good military strategy. When Israel does it, of course it's part of the worldwide Jewish media conspiracy to silence opposition voices. Duh.

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8:36 PM
Evacuation efforts in Lebanon

Lebanese Montrealers are demonstrating, blaming Israel for the civilian deaths in Lebanon and pointing a finger at the Harper government for what they see as its pro-Israel stance and for failing to do enough to help Canadian civilians evacuate. It was the first of four planned demonstrations against Israel being held this week in Montreal.

Meanwhile, IDF sources are saying that Hezbollah is preventing civilians from evacuating in Lebanon. I guess they're more useful as human shields or as propaganda martyrs than as living, breathing people. (Via Meryl, who rightly uses the word "despicable", though I can't imagine why she would be surprised).

It's sad that two communities being victimized by the same group are so at odds with one another. But then, that's how groups like Hezbollah operate, manipulating people and playing groups against one another. Sadly, this too is nothing new.

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8:24 PM
How to help

"Moving our children to safety" is a campaign launched by the Jewish Agency for Israel to send Israeli kids living in Northern Israel to summer camps in central and southern Israel. Not only will this help bring them to safety, but it will also provide some much-needed relief for these kids, supposedly on summer vacation, from being cooped up indoors and in bomb shelters amidst the daily tensions of war.

Harry has more about this program:

While giving pizza to soldiers is a noble cause, this is a chance to make a difference in a child's life. Many of these immigrants just made aliyah from Ethiopa a few months ago and have spent the last few nights and days crammed into the bomb shelters of the absorption centers where they live.

For Montrealers who wish to contribute, Federation CJA has set up an Israel Crisis Relief Fund, which will be supporting this program, among others. They have a handy online donation form, so please give generously.

By the way, Canadian Magen David Adom can also use everyone's support - in general, but especially right now.

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7:51 PM
On the radio

As an extension of the news article, my friend Iris was interviewed on 940 News Radio this evening. Listen to the clip here.

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1:35 PM
Some sensible analysis

There's no shortage of analysis about the crisis in Israel and Lebanon out there. This piece is a breath of fresh air.

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12:29 PM
Meanwhile in Iraq

Remember Iraq? They must be getting kinda antsy over there with the fact that they're getting zero media coverage these days, because today's publicity stunt took the form of a suicide bombing that killed 59 people:

The explosion, some 50-100 metres from the gold-domed Shi'ite shrine of Kufa, tore through the van shortly after it had pulled out of the busy market with a group of labourers.

"A man driving a Kia van with an Iraqi accent came and said: 'I need labourers'. After the labourers got on and packed the vehicle he exploded the car," said witness Nasir Faisal.

Pretty horrific way to jump up and down and scream "hey, look at me!".

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12:09 PM
Family in Haifa

My friend Iris was interviewed by the Gazette for a piece on what it's like to be here in Montreal and be worrying about family in Haifa:

"They're okay, a little frightened but okay," Meshoulam said yesterday.

"Part of me would like my mom to come back to Canada, but she and my stepfather feel they should stay to support Israel.

"On the other hand, I feel guilty being here in Montreal while they are going through all of that over there," she said.

It's more than that, of course. This is the first time she has had to watch a war or conflict involving Israel from the "outside" in over a decade. All the things we take for granted - the biased media coverage, the sensationalist headlines, the twisting around of the facts - are, well, I can't say they're new to her, because she's not that naive, but they are things that she hasn't had to experience directly until now. We've been trying to keep her sane by not allowing her to sit and scream angrily at CNN on TV for more than a few hours a day.

The Gazette also interviewed the mother of one of her best friends, who also lives in Haifa:

"People say to me, why do you let your daughter stay in Israel? Bring her home! I tell them, 'She is home.' I have no sense she should come back to Montreal.

"It is easy for people here to talk, but Israel on a daily basis is a good place. People here don't get that. You don't just get up and run away.''

For the moment, the article doesn't require subscription to read, so read the whole thing.

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12:02 AM
Candid camera

Everyone's making a really big deal about the remarks that Bush made at the G8 summit without realizing his microphone was on, and the fact that he *gasp!* swore!

Bush replied: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

Gee, you think?

Some people find Bush's candor refreshing. Others seem to have a more realistic take:

No one in the media seems to notice (or maybe they notice but they don't care) that this isn't candid, frank or dramatic. It's the kind of simplistic blowhard chitchat my relatives exchange during 'NFL Today' commercials. You know... just git 'em to do it. Git someone to git 'em to do it.

Is that the best Bush can do?

My question exactly.

There's been a long-running debate among observers of Dubya as to whether he really is that dumb, or if his "plain-spokenness" is partly an act to help him win votes. Certainly his aversion to words with more than two syllables is nothing new.

But if, even off-camera, Bush's understanding about the political situation in the mideast really is that oversimplified, then I think we all ought to be more than a bit concerned. Even if he was, in this case, perfectly right in what he said, it still has that "duh" quality to it that's so pervasive in so much of what Bush says even publicly.

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3:15 PM
Habs off-season tracker

Perezhogin signed a one-year deal. Yet another case of young talent being locked in for the short-term only. What will things look like at this point next year, I wonder?

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3:11 PM
Lexicon

Ha'aretz publishes its dictionary for the crisis.

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2:31 PM
Looking for escapism?

Want to watch something other than CNN? Clerks II opens this weekend.

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2:22 PM
And right on cue...

Harper is under attack for his "pro-Israel stance"... at least, according to Reuters:

The decision by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a pro-Israeli stance is unwise and could cost him votes in the next election, particularly after seven Canadians were killed by an Israeli attack, political observers and commentators said on Monday.

Harper's Conservatives, who took power in February after 13 years of Liberal rule, have a fragile minority and rely on support from other parties to govern.

Harper is widely expected to call an election in the first half of next year but to win a majority he will need to start winning seats in major cities like Toronto and Montreal, both of which have large ethnic Arab populations.

"A lot of Lebanese voted Conservative (in the last election) because they were tired of the Liberals," said Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations.

"Those who would have been swayed to vote Conservative will not do so (next) time," he told Reuters.

Note how the article only vaguely refers to "commentators", before quoting a clearly biased interested party that makes no sense on the key issue because most Arab-Canadians didn't vote Conservative in the first place.

This is nothing more than a thinly-veiled editorial disguised as news. I can sleep well at night knowing that such a high quality of journalim exists.

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11:31 PM
Canadian deaths in Lebanon

Seven Canadians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon today.

Oy. No matter what the facts of the matter are, the average headline-level informed Canadian is going to automatically side against Israel now.

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12:35 PM
Reactions

From an MSN conversation last night between a local friend and her friend in Haifa (paraphrased):

"How are you?"
"I'm great!"
"Great? How can you be great?"
"Seeing a new guy and he's amazing!"
"But how are you with what's going on in Haifa right now?"
"A bit nervous... let me tell you about him though. I really think he's 'the one'."

In the meantime, more rockets have hit Haifa and this time, there were injuries and fatalities. Not to mention the constant barrage of rockets that keeps raining down on the north. People have got to be scared.

Here are some reactions from Israeli bloggers on how they're coping:

Allison wonders how to go on with daily life:

The government tells people from Tel Aviv northward to "be alert."

OK, so I'm alert. Now what?

I'd love some specific instructions. Let the kids go play at their friends' house or not? Go grocery shopping or not? Dentist appointment?

I guess I'm supposed to keep doing it as normal, but ALERTLY. Fat lot of good alert will do me if I'm in the dentist's waiting room and hear a siren for a one-minute warning till a missile hits.

Meanwhile, Harry can't tear himself away from the news:

Today was a bad day. I got ZERO work done today. Eight dead in Haifa. Fifty wounded. The bodies of the three missing sailors were found. And more and more missiles landing. Over 800 missiles and mortar attacks thus far.

Spent pretty much every second of the day reading news sites and blogs and watching television. I know I'm not the only one. A friend of mine who works at a fairly large corperation here IM'ed me earlier that everyone at his company must be surfing and not working because the network keeps crashing. Another friend's company's entire customer support system sits in Carmiel and the company is backlogged with hundreds of customer requests.

I went out briefly for some shwarma. Lots of people were out and about. Everyone of course was talking about the situation but the sense of detachment still exists. It's just too surreal for people around here. I'm sure that will change as the missiles land even more south.

Lisa, who is angry about the whole thing, blogs about the absurdities of this war:

We watch each other's television broadcasts, we talk to one another, and then...we bomb each other.

This morning a friend of mine called from Gaza. He's not a journalist, not a politician - just an ordinary Palestinian guy in his twenties. He lives down the street from the offices of Hamas's Ministry of the Interior in Gaza, which was bombed a few days ago by an Israeli fighter plane. He has about two hours of electricity a day in his house and about as much running water. But he called me to ask if I was okay, after he saw on Al Jazeera television that Nasrallah was threatening to bomb Tel Aviv. "I'm worried about you," he said.

And late, late last night I chatted via Instant Message with this Lebanese blogger, while he sat on the roof of his apartment building and watched Israeli fighter planes bomb Beirut.

Speaking of which, here's a post from the Lebanese blog that Lisa linked to:

A week ago, I might have told you that my heart broke because my favorite World Cup team lost� I almost cried. Now I would do anything to watch my team lose - and bring down my sense of disappointment to that level again.

What I feel now, as a citizen, and what everyone feels is disappointment, anger, anxiety, frustration. We�re scared and locked up at home. War came in a day. War in one day.

Of course, there are thousands of personal accounts from Israeli and Lebanese bloggers "from the ground". I was only highlighting a few from some of my regular reads. But things are getting worse, and all I can do is watch in fear and hope that people stay safe, somehow.

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