What if you had a boycott and no one cared?

I watched Larry King Live last night on CNN only because I wanted to watch Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams face-off against Heather and Paul McCartney. I was winching every time Larry King said NEW FINLAND instead of Newfoundland. And someone needs to tell Heather that there are no humane weapons in war. I gathered that geography is not Sir Paul’s strong suit but it is all good as Danny Williams managed to convey effectively that sitting in a studio in Prince Edward Island does not mean that you are geographically located in Newfoundland.

I swear watching the McCartney’s in action were just a fount of fun facts. Like who knew that whale watching is one of Canada’s most successful industries? Does that mean we can shelve the softwood lumber talks? Or that there is an international boycott of Canadian Fish and Seafood? I ask, WHO KNEW? Apparently, the boycott isn’t that much of a success as Canadians are still pulling in $3.3 billion a year from fish and seafood exports.

According to this site most sealers are fisherman and the rationale for the boycott of Canadian fish and seafood products is to make the fisherman feel it in their pocketbooks so that they will not hunt seals. I am not sure how effective that kind of rationale is; its’ kind of like punishing grocers for selling apples by not buying bananas.

Hunting seals is no more unethical than the routine slaughter of cows, pigs, chickens or the harvesting of fish that end up packaged nice and neat in the grocery store. There is no difference. End of story. One more thing. Red Lobster and the Olive garden have been targeted by animal rights wingnutters for not joining the boycott against Canadian Fish and Seafood products. Three guesses where I am taking the Tribe out for dinner tonight.

Trailer Blog Boy

Who would have thought that there would be both a left and right wing Kinsella in the Canadian blogsphere? Abeit, the right-wing could be more aptly characterized as the low rent version. And who would have thought that Ian would have the misfortune to meet both in cyber living?

Just call me stained and proud but can Sir Paul claim the same?

Let’s get this out in front first. I was never a Beatles fan though I did have to removed from church for singing out loud the Beatles song “She loves you” when I was two which was a huge top 40 hit at the time. If I recall the story correctly the priest proclaimed in a homily that St. Paul said and I sang “yeah, yeah, yeah”. My mother was mortified for years over that. So Sir Paul and I aren’t on a friend’s footing basis as I do know how to hold a grudge.

The ex-beatle Sir Paul McCartney is quoted in a Toronto Star article that the annual seal hunt is a stain on the character of the people of Canada. Well, I think that overblown has been aging doped out rock stars present the best case for euthanasia that might possibly persuade me to change my belief system.

The annual seal hunt off the East Coast is a “stain on the character of the Canadian people,” music legend Paul McCartney said today as he and his wife Heather staged a high-profile, anti-hunt protest on barren ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The megastar couple called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the centuries-old commercial slaughter by buying back hunters’ licenses and promoting eco-tourism instead.

“We don’t want to see the local people suffer,” McCartney said after the couple got on their bellies to get a close-up look at newborn harp seals sprawled on an ice pan about 20 kilometers northwest of the Ils de la Madeleine. “But, from what we hear, it is quite a small amount of their annual revenue and this could be easily sorted out by the Canadian government, if they care to do it.”

One of the most annoying aspects of living in this age is this concept that the government represents some kind of Welfare Corporation whose only function is to provide magically for all. Well there is nothing magical about the largess of the government and the government uses the threat of force to line the public purse and usually before I actually have the money in hand which I earned without the participation of the government - I might add.

How wearisome it is to read that “we don’t want the local people to suffer. But, from what we hear, it is quite a small amount of their annual revenue and this could be easily sorted bout by the Canadian government, it they care to do it.” Sir Paul wants us to believe that he cares about the suffering of the local people except that if he really cared he would know that money earned by the sweat of the brow does more for the human psyche than having to rely on the charity or largess of strangers. But if Sir Paul really truly cared about the welfare of the local people he would pony up and take on burden himself rather than attempting to shovel one more responsibility unto those who already overburden by the Canadian taxation system or he could just shut up and buy a few seal coats for his friends or distribute them to the poor.

If the seal hunt is stain on the character of Canada just colour me stained and proud. And if disagree, you can kiss the black on my mink that covers my ass because Bambi does not live in my world. And if you are stained and proud too -don’t forget to Eat an Animal for PETA Day on March 15, 2006.

The Neverending Quest to being the World's Foremost Victims

Interesting report in Ha’aretz Daily concerning the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip:

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday ordered the Karni crossing between Israel and Gaza to remain closed pending a re-evaluation of the situation that will take place on Saturday night. According to Israel Radio, Mofaz decided to keep the Karni crossing closed despite earlier promises to open it indefinitely to humanitarian aid for Palestinian residents. The IDF had been expected to reopen the commercial terminal following mounting international pressure and warnings that food supplies in the Strip were dwindling and likely to run out.

Senior defense officials were to meet Thursday to discuss plans to open the crossing in light of warnings of terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip. "We had already informed the merchants that Karni would open," said Salim Abu Safiyeh, director-general of the Palestinian Border Authority. "The continued closure is causing humanitarian and economic harm to the Palestinian people, and threatening a real shortage in food supplies." The news Wednesday that Karni would open prompted Palestinian farmers to cancel plans to dump hundreds of tons of produce that has nearly spoiled while it waited at the crossing to be exported to Israel and Europe.

Israel closed the crossing for 21 days between January 15 and February 5. It was closed again on February 21 after a mysterious explosion in the area and has remained closed because of "continued security alerts," an IDF spokeswoman said.

But stocks of wheat, sugar and cooking oil are dwindling in Gaza and could begin to run out within two or three days unless Israel reopens the strip's main crossing point for goods, United Nations officials said on Wednesday. David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said humanitarian conditions had deteriorated since the January 25 Palestinian election, which the Islamist militant group Hamas won by a landslide. The UN attributed the growing problems to Israel's closure of the Karni crossing and other security measures. "This is getting to precarious levels," Shearer told Reuters.

It does sound pretty dire and desperate for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip if this border crossing isn’t opened, but its from an article in the Jerusalem Newswire Service that one learns that Karni Crossing isn’t the only border available to the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority Tuesday rejected an Israeli offer to use an alternative exit point from the Gaza Strip for local agricultural goods after Israel was forced to close northern Gaza's Karni Crossing amid security concerns. Jerusalem agreed upon withdrawing from Gaza last summer to keep Karni open, but a failed attempt by terrorists to tunnel under and bomb the facility last month led to what is now a three-week closure.

Southern Gaza's smaller, more easily protected Kerem Shalom Terminal was proposed as a temporary substitute, which was promptly turned down by the Abbas regime.

Senior Israeli officials accused the PA of attempting to further tarnish the Jewish state's image at the expense of its own people, noting the politically-motivated decision will damage the Gaza economy and prevent the import of staple products.

Is there no end to the rationalizations for the forced suffering of the Palestinian people that the leadership of the PA won't utilize in its efforts to remain the world's foremost victims?

Good Ahead, Call me a Racist.

The Manifesto I linked to yesterday as caused a stir among some in the Canadian Islamic community according to this Toronto Star article:

Islamism is the new totalitarianism, according to a controversial manifesto published this week in European papers and signed by 12 prominent writers worldwide, including Toronto's Irshad Manji, and Salman Rushdie, who remains the subject of a fatwa for his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses.
(…)
Some Canadian Muslims deplored the manifesto.

"It's quite a childish kind of ranting of these people. I also note a kind of desperation in their tone," said Zafar Bangash, President of the Islamic Society of York Region. He said some of the signatories are lapsed Muslims, including Rushdie. "All of these people are misfits as far as Muslims are concerned. What they are saying is quite racist and is Islamphobic."

The manifesto will serve only to increase Islamophobia, which is already on the rise, said Jamal Badawi, professor emeritus at St. Mary's University in Halifax. Depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist in the cartoons, which were reprinted in Europe, the U.S., and three publications in Canada, implied that he preached terrorism. The cartoons fostered the idea that Muslims who follow his path are terrorists who should be subjected to mockery, hate and violence, he said.

Muslims in Denmark were also critical of the manifesto, according to a news story to appear in Jyllands-Posten today, said the paper's night editor Steen Hansen. "They think it's too confrontational, too right-wing extremist." He would not comment on why the paper chose to run the manifesto. The editor-in-chief of the paper has taken the position that there will be no comment on the matter, he added. The manifesto was one of at least three to appear this week, calling for calm in the Muslim world in the wake of weeks of violent protests in which dozens of people have been killed.

Yesterday, nationalreview.com, the Web base for the conservative American news magazine of the same name, published "A Muslim Manifesto," calling for an end to the violence. "A zeal for Allah is rightful only when it is expressed in an enlightened manner, since Allah himself has ordained a restrained response," wrote Mustafa Akyol, a writer and journalist based in Turkey, and Zeyno Baran, director of International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center.

Baran said yesterday that reaction after the first day of the posting was generally positive. If moderates fail to speak up, Islam will be taken over by political extremists, she said. "If you politicize Islam then it's not Islam anymore and the whole religion becomes polluted by that," she said. "It is for the moderate Muslims and the average Liberal Muslim a huge threat that these people are becoming mainstream. Moderate Muslims have to start speaking out against them."

Funny how those same Canadian Muslims who think the Manifesto are racist and promote Islamphobia are never offended enough to speak out against the widespread practice of slavery in certain Islamic countries run under Sharia law.

Speaking for myself, the widespread use of torture, beheadings, stoning, slavery, honour killings, wife abuse, the persecution of gays, and the whole burka thing in Islamic countries is by far a far bigger turn off in my eyes than anything written in the Manifesto. And those protest signs reading “Behead anyone who says Islam is Violent” in the neverending Looney Tune cartoon saga do not serve to convince anyone who is not Muslim that there is a benign quality to radical Islamism that the rest of us are missing.

But far more disturbing is how any criticism of radical political Islamism is now met with denouncements of “racism” which has become the new catch phrase to silence the alleged critics of Islamism in our multi-cult pc western world. A brief memo to all concerned; Muslims are not a race unto themselves no matter how they might want or aspire to be. It has also been my experience that Muslims come in all shades and colours, and furthermore, I rather be a called a racist than be a practicing jew hating, misogynistic, homophobic slave trader and/or owner living under the protection of state run Sharia law.

There is a fate that no one deserves

But sadly many face the absolute grim barbarism of it. Fred at Gay and Right:

Saba Rawi is a 30-year-old gay Iranian now facing imminent deportation back to the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Netherlands.

Saba, who lived in the northern Iranian city of Rashd, was arrested for kissing his boyfriend on the street-the boyfriend was able to flee arrest. Saba was tortured by the police and raped by a police officer, who, using the threat of a prison term, blackmailed Saba into signing a letter saying he was not harmed by the police and that his rape was at the hands of others. Saba signed the letter under this horrific pressure-and then managed to flee Iran.

Saba eventually arrived in the Netherlands. That was some four and a half years ago. Since then, Saba has been serving as the Dutch representative of the Persian Gay and Liberation Organization, the largest Iranian gay group.

After the worldwide protests against the hanging of two gay Iranian teenagers in Mashad last July, the Netherlands was one of several countries to have temporarily suspended deportations of gay Iranians who had not been granted asylum. But that Dutch suspension has now ended, and Saba-who inexplicably had his request for asylum refused, and his deportation ordered-now will find himself in a Dutch court once again, on March 8, to present his final appeal against deportation back into Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiery furnace for gay Iranians.

If the Dutch government sends Saba back to Iran, he will face arrest, prison, and perhaps even execution, a fate that has befallen so many other victims of Iran's lethal anti-gay pogrom. The Netherlands has an international reputation as a defender of human rights but this new threat to deport Saba and other gay Iranians is a shameful blot on that reputation. Yet our U.S. national gay orgnizations-including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force-have maintained a discreet silence on the crisis facing Iranian gays, and none has raised its voice in public on behalf of Saba.

We demand a halt to deportations of gay Iranians by ALL countries, including the Netherlands. And we ask that deportation proceedings against Saba Rawi be halted immediately, and that he be granted permanent asylum by the Dutch government. This we ask in the name of our simple, shared humanity.

We also ask our readers to take five minutes to phone, fax, e-mail, or write immediately on Saba's behalf to H.E. Boudewijn J. van Eenennaam, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, at The Royal Netherlands Embassy, 4200 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. The phone number is 202-244-5300; the fax number is 202-362-3430. The ambassador can be reached via e-mail at webmaster@netherlands-embassy.org.--Written on behalf of Gay City News by Doug Ireland.

The last lesson that the holocaust should have taught us is that we are all the 'other' in someone's eyes. If they come for one of us, it is only a matter before they come for all of us.

The Manifesto

Here's a copy that no major daily newspapers in Canada will endorse:

Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Add me to the list not only because we can but we must.

(tipped off via LGF & Translated by Agora)

Gimme shelter from this new age

I believe it was the summer of 2003 that the Tribe and I traveled by bus to visit my Dad at his summer cottage outside of Kingston. The bus was packed with some people left standing but we managed to scoop up four seats together. It was also the year that Star of David’s started to appear at my door with the immortal phrase “Kill the Jew”. My youngest son had yet to master the art of quietly talking in public places. Just as the bus pulled out of the station to began the four hour journey Isaiah Sender pops his head up over the seat and announces his biggest fear in his loudest voice. “Momma, how do we know there are no suicide bombers on the bus?”

With all eyes on me I came up with the best answer I could on the spot and I told him that this was Canada, and we don’t kill Jews here, so we are safe on the bus. That trip would not have made much of an impression in my memory if the sighs of relief I heard were only my children’s. No doubt I had been watching far too much news coverage in front of the youngest and made a mental note to ease up around the children.

My little trip down memory lane was triggered by this article by the controversy of children’s book entitled Three Wishes that is geared to four 9-11 year olds that is currently on the Silver Birch Reading Program. The Canadian Jewish Congress is asking that other Ontario boards to do the same as the book deals with the Israeli-Arab Palestinian conflict. The Toronto Star carried this report:

The York Region District School Board has already pulled the non-fiction book by award-winning Simcoe writer Deborah Ellis from its Silver Birch selection list, and the congress is asking all English-language boards across the province to do the same. Three Wishes hasn't been banished from the York board's libraries, but a memo went out to teachers and librarians saying that the book, which features interviews with children on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is not appropriate for children in Grades 4 to 6, especially when read without the context that teachers might provide in the classroom. The children Ellis interviews in the book discuss suicide bombings, anti-Semitism, guns and soldiers.

In one interview a 12-year-old Palestinian girl talks about how she would have made her sister a special breakfast if she'd known she was going to blow herself up that day. "She is a martyr and is now in paradise ... I would like to join her there ... I don't think it would hurt if I blew myself up," says the girl.

"Our position is we don't ban books," said York superintendent Lyn Sharratt in an interview from England, where she is attending a conference. "We felt it was inappropriate in terms of age classification. The Silver Birch is for students of junior grade levels and we felt it would be more appropriate to be used in Grade 7 to 12, with teacher direction."

The board reviewed the book after a teacher and superintendent expressed concerns.
Normally Silver Birch books aren't reviewed in the same way as texts used in the classroom. They're usually promoted in school libraries and read outside class to encourage recreational reading. Children must read half the selections to be allowed to vote on the award winner. (There's no cash prize to the author.) A Feb. 8 letter to the library association from the congress outlines 17 passages from Three Wishes that it suggests are inappropriate because the book doesn't provide enough context or detail.

The letter says the book portrays Israelis as "brutal occupiers," and Palestinians as "murderers who are so intent on killing Israelis that they are prepared to blow themselves to shreds." Palestinian and Israeli children in the book discuss what it means to live near borders dividing Israel and living under the surveillance of their worried parents and gun-carrying soldiers.

"Sometimes, in bringing an issue down to a level everybody can understand, you squeeze all the context and a lot of the substance out of the discussion, so what you're left with is not a discussion of the Middle East situation, what you have is a book about kids talking to other kids about how they feel," congress director Len Rudner told the Star. "This is not a question of taking the book off the shelves, although some schools may draw that conclusion themselves. This is about considering the audience and acting in a responsible fashion," he said. "What you're left with is a book where, in a fair number of instances, you have kids saying: Maybe suicide bombing is a viable alternative, or maybe it's understandable or maybe it's a career choice for me.

"It either convinces children that maybe blowing up your enemy by strapping explosive devices to yourself is not such a far-fetched thing, or it advances the message these people are crazy and people like that can't be trusted. Just imagine how those kind of messages can play themselves out in a schoolyard," said Rudner. But Larry Moore, executive director of the library association, says the congress is taking issue with statements by the children in the book rather than the work in its entirety. "The book is perfectly good for children but the adults can't cope with it," he said. It does not incite violence but rather encourages children to talk to one another, he added.

Silver Birch books are selected from about 200 Canadian titles a year by a committee of about 20 public and school librarians who are looking for topical, entertaining and educational reads. Students pick their favourite books after their schools hold a voting day in early May. Because the Silver Birch Award is designed for three grade levels, selections often appeal to the younger or older range of recommended readers, said Moore, who added that all reviews of Three Wishes have been good. "We have yet to find a review that doesn't support it. They're all pegging it as Grade 5 and up," he said.

The language of the book may very be easy for 9-11 year olds to grasp but I fail to comprehend why this is suitable subject material for a 9-11 year old to read. Whatever happened for 9-11 year olds reading Charlotte’s Web, Redwall, James and the Giant Peach, Harry Potter, Sideways, Chronicles of Narnia or even Bill Nye the Science Guy? I see no virtue in a 9-11 year old child learning that out there in the world there are other children their age who perceive that the cold blooded murder of innocents is desirable or a way to be guaranteed a place in heaven.

I don't play Slave City

Just a few short comments as I haven’t had a great deal of free time in the last few days to read or blog much but this piece in the Jerusalem Post caught my eye. I gather anti-semitism is more than a little entrenched in all levels of government in UAE, and according to this US State Department’s Annual Trafficking in Persons Report (dated June 2005) slavery seems to be alive and well in the UAE as well. Furthermore, the US State Department has listed the UAE as a Tier 3 offender country, and I quote from the 2005 annual report on The Trafficking in Persons, page 219.

The government of the U.A.E. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Despite sustained engagement from the U.S. government, NGOs, and international organizations over the last two years, the U.A.E. Government has failed to take significant action to address its trafficking problems and to protect victims. The U.A.E. Government needs to enact and enforce a comprehensive trafficking law that criminializes all forms of trafficking and provides for protection of trafficking victims. The government should also institute systematic screening measures to identify trafficking victims among the thousands of foreign women arrested and deported each year for involvement in prostitution. The government should take immediate steps to rescue and care for the many foreign children trafficked to the U.A.E. as camel jockeys, repatriating them through responsible channels if appropriate. The government should also take much stronger steps to investigage, prosecute, and convict those responsible for trafficking these children to the U.A.E.

During the reporting period, the U.A.E. made minimal efforts to prosecute traffickers. Despite the ongoing trafficking and exploitation of thousands of children as camel jockeys and women in sexual servitude, the government made insufficient efforts in 2004 to criminally prosecute and punish anyone behind these forms of trafficking.

All of which should make all of us a tad suspicious on how exactly Dubai Ports World manages to keep its operating and administrative costs in order and cost efficient.

What is the world coming to when even the Amish have an inner geek?

I have to admit that I wasn’t really reading Joey the Accordian Guy until I met him briefly at last month’s Toronto Blog-a-whatever-you-call-it-meet-up. Now I check in regularly and today’s top story is why.

POT Meet KETTLE: Dubai Ministry of Education Recalls Book for Racism

LGF brings attention to this recent Khaleej Times article about an education kafuffle in Dubai, UAE:

Close on the heels of the cartoon controversy raging across the Muslim world, it is the turn of an upscale American school in Abu Dhabi to ruffle Muslim sentiments by teaching lessons that allegedly ''smell of racism.''

Over 100 copies of the social studies text book, 'World Cultures' taught to the sixth grade children were confiscated by the Ministry of Education yesterday, for allegedly presenting Islam and the Muslim countries including Gulf states in a negative light while glorifying Israel on the other hand, Khaleej Times has learnt.
It has been accused that chapter 25 of the book running from page 599 to 614 contains a deluge of derogatory remarks against Islam and the Muslim world, for example, dubbing Middle East as one of the most dangerously explosive areas in the world and the Muslim conquest of India as the most bloodiest in the world history, to mention a few.

The sub chapters clubbed under the title 'North Africa and the Middle East' also elaborate on the religion and life-style of Israel with pictures. "Israel is one of a few democracies in North Africa and the Middle East today. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco are all kingdoms; the country of Syria has sponsored terrorism by giving aid to radicals in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, known as the PLO," read excerpts from page 610 of the book, copies of which Khaleej Times possess.

Juma Salami, Assistant Undersecretary to Foreign Private Education said that the book published by Silver Burdett Ginn has a racist tone and is insulting to the country's religion and culture. "It is not a community school and a good number of Muslim and Arab children are studying there. By incorporating the book in the syllabus, the schools have failed to show respect to the religious sentiments of the host country."

Accusing the book of promoting a hate culture, the Asst. Under Secretary said the "World Cultures' is least objective and balanced in its political and social content and hence is unfit to be taught in schools. "While there are clamour for change in the Middle East, one has to understand that these are the books coming from the so called 'free world'. This is a typical example of how textbooks are used to manipulate the thoughts of young minds," affirmed Juma.

This is not the first time the Ministry of Education launched an investigation into the textbooks used in the private schools. Last April a textbook called “We play together; we stick together” caused an uproar in Dubai reported the Khaleej Times:

DUBAI — Education authorities here have promised to review a book taught in an international private school that features a photograph of two Jewish children sporting plaited hair and yarmulke. Dr Obaid Butti Al Mohiri, the Director of Curriculums Centre at the Ministry of Education, said he would order the withdrawal of the book for primary Class I of the Dubai International School if the complaints raised were found genuine.

Several teachers of the school telephoned Khaleej Times, complaining against the picture, captioned ‘We play together; we stick together’, featured in the book Friends Forever. The teachers said that of all the pictures in the book, the students reacted sharply to only this picture.

I understand that the UAE are alleged to be our allies in the fight against Islamic terrorism but I just can’t shake this nagging feeling that UAE values are so very far apart from our own they might as well play for the other team. If they really are committed to freedom let them stock Heather Has Two Mommies in the libraries of schools in Dubai and can the Anti-Zionist rhetoric from all levels of the public discourse.

Clear and present danger

Now that the Iranians have reached a somewhat mysterious much ado about nothing deal with the Russians; which appears to be only an agreement on principle to reach an agreement if this Toronto Star article is accurate. Of course, the agreement to reach an agreement is off if Iran is referred to the UN Security Council on March 6, 2006 by the IAEA. What I want to know is Arafat negotiating from beyond the grave for the Iranians? I swear as each day goes by it’s like Arafat has a legacy that just keeps on giving.

Furthermore, I am hardly comforted by the fact that so much rides on the ability of the Russians to police Iran’s nuclear enrichment cycle. For give me for my bias but the country that did more than any other country to set the Iranians on the nuclear Armageddon is hardly the state I would place any trust in.

I found this latest pearl of warning in Ha’aretz:

If the United States launches an attack on Iran, the Islamic republic will retaliate with a military strike on Israel's main nuclear facility, an advisor to Iran's Revolutionary Guard said. The advisor, Dr. Abasi, said Tehran would respond to an American attack with strikes on the Dimona nuclear reactor and other strategic Israeli sites such as the port city of Haifa and the Zakhariya area. Haifa is also home to a large concentration of chemical factories and oil refineries.

So Washington farts and the Jews get it.

Lebanon has earned another condemnation from the UN reports Ha'aretz;

The Lebanese government publicly admitted recently, for the first time, that it had permitted the delivery of a convoy of arms from Syria to Hezbollah. The United Nations responded by issuing a condemnation.

According to Lebanese sources, Lebanese soldiers halted a convoy of arms-laden trucks from Syria at an army checkpoint in the Lebanon Valley on January 31. However, the Lebanese Defense Ministry ordered the soldiers to allow the convoy to proceed. A report on this incident then reached the UN's special envoy to the Middle East, Terje Larsen, in New York, and Larsen instructed his staff to investigate. Eventually, the Lebanese government admitted both that it had allowed the convoy to pass, and that the arms had been destined for Hezbollah.

The UN then published a statement condemning the Lebanese government for having blatantly violated UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which, inter alia, calls for disarming the country's militias. The arms in the convoy originated apparently from Iran. It is not known how many trucks were in the convoy or what arms they carried. Arms smuggling from Syria into Lebanon has been going on for years, seemingly with the knowledge of the Lebanese government. In this fashion, huge quantities of arms from Iran and Syria have reached Hezbollah in recent years, including massive quantities of Katyushas and other rockets that are stationed in batteries in southern Lebanon and are aimed at Israel.

However, this is the first time that the Lebanese have publicly admitted the existence of these convoys, much less that it has been authorizing arms deliveries to Hezbollah. The convoy's passage was apparently approved by the office of Defense Minister Elias Murr, in coordination with the office of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud. According to a statement published by the UN on February 13, the UN forces in Lebanon were initially unaware of the convoy's passage, though reports of the incident reached them later. When the news reached Larsen, he demanded clarifications from Beirut, adding that if the reports were true, the action constituted a gross violation of Resolution 1559. Larsen's office is responsible, inter alia, for overseeing implemention of this resolution, which was passed in September 2004.

In response, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's office confirmed the convoy's arrival, but did not specify for whom the arms were destined. At the same time, the UN contacted the Lebanese Defense Ministry, which informed it that the arms were destined for Hezbollah. The ministry added that the army permitted the transfer of weapons to the "resistance" forces - i.e. Hezbollah - in accordance with a decision made by the Lebanese government.

Following receipt of this information, the UN published a second statement, in which it condemned the incident as a grave violation of Resolution 1559, expressed concern and demanded that Beirut take steps to prevent a repetition. Hezbollah claims that it is not a "militia," and therefore, the resolution's demand that all Lebanese militias be disarmed does not apply to the organization. This interpretation has also been adopted by the Syrian government, Lahoud and several Lebanese cabinet ministers. As a result, Hezbollah has enjoyed preferential treatment compared to other Lebanese militias.

If Hezbollah is not a militia then I am the mother of all. The Cedar revolution will be still born until Hezbollah’s potential to threaten and bully all the neighbors ends once and for all.

Mark this down on your calendars - March 15, 2006 - Eat Meat!

The Fourth International Eat An Animal For PETA Day is officially set for March 15, 2006. Last year, I had big plans but emergency dental work put a damper in the festivities (almost sounds like nothing ever changes in my life) and so only the tribe was able to fully participate. This year I have high hopes and am thinking BBQ.

The Shape of the Cross to Come

Not only is all not well in Gaza for secular Arab Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but the area’s 1,500 Christians are currently going through a bad patch as well according to this CNS report:

Extremists are threatening to blow up the Palestinian Bible Society in the Gaza Strip if the people who work there do not close up shop and abandon their ministry by the end of February, a Christian source told Cybercast News Service. The threat appears to be the work of Islamic extremists who are determined to drive Christians out of the area. Arab Christians are taking the threat very seriously, said a Palestinian Bible Society information officer who asked not to be named. There are only about 1,500 Christians living among an estimated 1.2 million Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip.The Palestinian Bible society has been in operation there since 1999.

Eleven local Palestinians staff the center, which includes a Christian bookstore that sells Bibles. Scriptures are displayed on large billboards, and at the front of the store is a sign that says: "God's Word is Life for All." Above the shop are computer rooms, multi-purpose halls and a library that is open to the entire community.

The trouble started three weeks ago, the source said, when a pipe bomb exploded around 11:00 one night outside the Bible Society, which is located in Gaza's city center. There were no injuries. Two weeks later, an unknown group left threatening pamphlets at the front door of the Bible Society warning that the building would be blown up if the premises were not vacated by February 28.The pamphlets threatened the landlord for dealing with "infidels."

According to the request of Palestinian Authority security officials, when the situation worsened several days ago, forcing the Bible Society staff locked the doors while they continued working inside. But then came a threatening phone call, warning them that locking the doors wasn't enough - that they should take the threat seriously or risk harm to themselves and their children. "We are waiting for a miracle," said the Palestinian Bible Society information officer. "The Bible Society is committed to the continuation of its ministry and service to the Palestinian people, and God will see us through this crisis."

The article does mentioned an unnamed source from Hamas who has offered to protect the Christians, but suggests that Hamas hand’s are currently tied as Hamas has yet to “officially” take control of the Palestinian Authority…Ahem, well Hamas has been in charge of the Gaza Strip municipality for some time……

Actually this reminds me of an editorial cartoon that ran in the National Post a few years ago that I cut out and put on my fridge. The first box showed Arafat issuing instructions to the Palestinian Authority to arrest all the terrorists. The second showed Arafat’s men all turning their guns on each other.

Who Knew?

I found the Muppet Personality Quiz at Daimnation! I really thought I would score Miss Piggy. Instead I rated this:

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

It has been so long since I watched Sesame Street that I cannot even remember Animal but isn’t the Annual Eat an Animal for PETA Day coming soon?

Hamas covers all the traditional bases

Raise your hand if you really didn’t see that this was coming and then slap your face really, really hard. Taken from the Jerusalem Post:

A Hamas legislator announced that his movement was planning to introduce the Islamic sharia into the law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The proposed law means that all women would be required to cover their heads in public places and those who commit adultery may be stoned to death. It also means that some convicted murderers may be beheaded in public squares.

Azzam al-Ahmed, chairman of Fatah's parliamentary list, was speaking to reporters during a joint press conference in Gaza City with Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar. The two met at Zahar's home in the context of Hamas's efforts to form a broad coalition that would bring together as many factions as possible.

The meeting was the first of its kind since Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas formally entrusted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh with forming the new cabinet. Fatah has agreed in principle to join a Hamas-led cabinet, Ahmed announced. "Fatah is seriously considering joining a Hamas cabinet," Ahmed said. "We haven't rejected the idea, but neither have we accepted it. We are seriously studying it." He said, however, that Fatah was inclined to join the new cabinet only after agreeing on a joint working program with Hamas. He added that the two sides had agreed on most of the political and economic issues concerning the Palestinians, including the need to implement major reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator who participated in the talks with Ahmed and other Fatah representatives, said that while the two parties agreed on internal issues, there was still a need to reach an agreement on the future of the peace process with Israel. "The main problem is with the agreements that were signed by the PLO and Israel," he said. "Hamas has its own stance regarding whether we should abide by these agreements."

Bardawil said Hamas was eager to include Fatah in the new cabinet. "We want to form a broad coalition with as many factions as possible," he said. "For us, Fatah's participation in the cabinet is very important." Ahmed Abu Halbiyeh, a newly elected Hamas legislator, said and he and many of his colleagues had plans to replace the existing law with the sharia teachings. "The Palestinian Authority's Basic Law is anyway based on the sharia," he noted. "We must reactivate this phrase when passing new laws."

Ah, yes that old tyme religion – absolutely nothing like it, though I am not sure that the public beheadings will be such a shock as public lynchings have remained quite common in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas. But so much for all those who were betting on Hamas mellowing its religious fanaticism once the burdens of municipal garbage collections and other such-like governance responsibilities was placed squarely on Hamas’ shoulders.

Put yourself in Israeli shoes for a minute

Imagine the outcry if Mexico was firing rockets into the United States daily. How realistic would it be for the American government to sit back and just watch as rockets reined down on Texas. Five Kassam rockets are shot into the Western Negev in Israel yesterday and 14 would be suicide bombers have been apprehended in the last three weeks by the Shin Bet (Israeli security forces) according to this Jerusalem Post report:

Thursday morning, five Kassam rockets were fired into the Western Negev from the former Gaza Strip settlement of Dugit. The rockets landed in open territory, and no one was wounded and no damage reported.

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky revealed that 14 potential suicide bombers have been arrested by the IDF and Shin Bet throughout West Bank. According to Kaplinsky, the majority were arrested in northern Samaria.
In recent weeks, the IDF has stepped up its activities against terrorists operating in the West Bank and currently continues widespread operations in the Nablus area, where three Palestinian fugitives including an expert bomb maker have been killed, a bomb factory has been blown up and senior terror commanders have been nabbed.

In Kabatiya south of Jenin, troops uncovered an empty Kassam rocket, a 40-kilogram bomb and fertilizer used to manufacture explosives hidden in a cave near the town. The findings only served to strengthen existing security assessments that, after the disengagement from Gaza, terror groups would shift their efforts from Gaza to the West Bank in an attempt to improve their capability and manufacture Kassam rockets there, placing major cities and towns in Israel under a direct threat.

I cannot help wondering why the Israeli government tolerates these daily rocket barrages. Thank the heavens for small mercies as relatively few Israelis have been harmed by them to date but the government seems to utterly impotent to coordinate any kind of an effective response to these attacks originating from the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. It seems quite likely that suicide bombers are still being sent out in significant numbers and it is only a matter of time before either a successful suicide attack is launched or Kassams start reining down on Jerusalem as well. Of course, the acting Prime Minister of Israel does not consider Hamas a strategic threat to Israel either.

Just what exactly cannot be blamed on the Zionists?

Just in case you missed who was responsible for the bombing attack on a Shia Mosque the President of Iran spells out who the perpetrators were in this report from the Jerusalem Post:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel on Thursday for the blowing up of a Shi'ite shrine's golden dome in Iraq, saying it was the work of "defeated Zionists and occupiers."

Speaking to a crowd of thousands on tour of southwestern Iran, the president referred to the destruction of the Askariya mosque dome in Samarra on Wednesday, which the Iraqi government has blamed on insurgents. "They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the US-led multinational force in Iraq.

The interesting thing about the Iranian president is how he manages to blame absolutely everything on Zionists and/or the “occupiers” but what I want to know is how far is Ahmadinejad willing to go to keep this up? Are there any appreciable limits on what can be blamed on the Jews?

How long can Israeli Prime Minister go without taking off his rose coloured glasses?

If ever there was a reason why acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should not be acting, let alone deserve to be Prime Minister of Israel - Ynetnews Online has captured the rationale in full in Olmert’s own brief words:

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he disagrees with a recent Shin Bet assessment that a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority constitutes a strategic threat on Israel. "I highly respect the Shin Bet director, but I do not agree with his assessment," Olmert said, referring to Yuval Diskin's remarks two days ago.

Shin Bet is the Israeli internal intelligence and security force – the equivalent of the RCMP in Canada or the FBI in the United States. Quibbling over the meaning of intelligence reports with your Security Director is nothing new, but to suggest that a Hamas run Palestinian Authority does not constitute a strategic threat to Israel is not only just willful blindness but national suicide.

Feeding my monkey

As a political junkie there is nothing like Israeli politics to feed the monkey on my back. This exchanged taken from the Jerusalem Post:

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced off with Likud Leader Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday, in what Knesset members called "the most fierce" Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting this session.

Even as the Knesset convened for a special session to vote on launching an investigation into the Amona evacuation, Olmert told the committee that the day after elections he could rule against such a committee, and was likely to do so. "I will not allow such a committee to be established against our security forces," Olmert declared.

MK Arye Eldad (National Union) promised Olmert that the Knesset would vote against the committee, if the prime minister's office took it upon themselves to launch an investigation. "No such investigation will be launched," Olmert said. "You are sitting here blaming me for telling the police officers to use zero tolerance against settlers throwing rocks. But I will not be blamed."

"How is it that you came here today without cavalry?" asked MK Effi Eitam, whose injury during the Amona evacuation aroused controversy after the source of his injury, which he claimed was from a horse-mounted policeman, was disputed by security officials. "I was told that you were coming unarmed," answered Olmert. "Do not interrupt me as you interrupt horses." Eitam responded by asking the acting prime minister if he intended to raze unauthorized Beduin buildings as well. Olmert replied that he has acted more in this regard than all the other "blabbermouths."

Meanwhile, MK Taleb a-Sanaa called Eitam a racist and an inciter of hatred against Beduins in the Negev. A-Sanaa accused Eitam of running his election campaign at the expense of the Arabs, Israel Radio reported. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended the government's decision to give the Palestinian $50 million in taxes owed to them by Israel on February 3, saying that the Palestinians used the money to repay debts to Israeli companies and to pay salaries, but not for terrorism. Olmert and Netanyahu exchanged barbs over the transfer of these funds, with Netanyahu lambasting Olmert for his decision to continue transferring money. "The entire Palestinian Authority has turned into Hamas in the wake of the new parliament's swearing-in ceremony," Olmert said, promising that he would not, "distinguish between shades."

The acting prime minister said that 50 percent of the money transferred to the PA from Israel had been distributed among Israeli companies who were providing the PA with services, and the remainder was used for salaries. "This means that the chances are low that the money would be used for terror," said Olmert.

When Netanyahu argued that he, as Finance Minister, had not been given the choice to transfer funds to the PA, Olmert quipped that in his term in the Finance Ministry he had experienced, "free will" to make decisions regarding money transfers.
Netanyahu also attacked Olmert for allowing the Palestinian elections to take place in an environment generated a Hamas victory. Referencing Former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, Netanyahu accused the government of responsibility for Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections by disengaging from the Gaza Strip this past summer. "Sharon would not have allowed the elections in east Jerusalem to take place," burst Netanyahu.

Say what you will but you haven't lived as a PJ until you see watch the video clips of the Knesset sessions. Nothing in Canadian politics compares and it sure beats Paul Martin with his guitar or Harper in a cowboy hat.