letter to Globe re Wente and Harper

Is Stephen Harper the Dear Leader in Disguise?

Look at Harper! He loves his wife and children.
He isn't even unfaithful to his wife. What kind of politician is that?
He is also a proud Christian which enables him to also respect the
faith of others. Is this normal? He objects to the killing of Christians in sharia-ruled countries and unlike Obama, does not bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. Does
he not know that by bowing the crocodile will kill the others before it gets to him? And he is too rigid. He has taken a stand against the Danes in our north and against Chiquita Banana and the ecologists for dissing our oil. What kind of Canadian is that? Shouldn't he apologize? He has stood up for the democratic country of Israel which like Canada is fighting Islamism or fundamentalist Islam. Does he not know that Israel is made up of Jews and why is he not following the centuries old tradition of ignoring and trying to oppress them? Lastly of course, under his watch Canada is doing well financially despite the world wide recession. Surely he should follow the European example. As strange as it may seem, Harper believes in the fundamental Christan values of most Canadians, neither the fundamentalist Islam of Muslim countries nor the post-Christian lack of morals and character of Europe seems to temp him. He is certainly a strange leader, one somewhere between Kim Jong-il and Santa Claus that we should watch closely.

Toronto Sun

Rae, like his fellow liberal, Cotler, is great at expressing concern for the underdog but doing nothing about the problem when the opportunity arises. For them there is smoke screen but no internal fire.

Political correctness and expressions of surprise do not solve any problems. It's time to put the Rae days to a good use and change the system that has brought third world living conditions to our native Peoples in our north.

Globe Dec 20th re Hamas peace

Hamas is certainly showing the Christmas spirit. It is "willing" to let Israel go back to the 1967 "borders" which of course means that it is willing for Israel to give up more land. It is willing to stop indescriminate shelling of Israel as long as Israel fights back with its
own attacks. Furthermore, it is willing to move its headquarters to Egypt now that Syria is disintegrating and the potential new Egyptian Brotherhood government wants to eliminate the peace treaty with Israel. It is of course willing to have a hudna - a temporary peace, until it is strong enough to attack Israel again. It is not willing to recognize the state of Israel or to continue its efforts to obiterate it out of existence.

There, in a nutshell, is Hamas's Christmas spirit of peace. So Christians, go to Bethlehem in haste, because soon you, like Jews now, will not be able to go there in safety.

National Post, Dec 20th A17

Good old Father De Souza is expressing his hatred for Hitchens after he has died - ie doing exactly what he is accusing Hitchens of having done. Having read many of De Souza's columns I suspect that De Souza's real reason for the outburst of hatred is Hitchens criticism of Mother Teresa, the absolutely perfect Catholic and future saint. For De Souza, criticizing Catholicism is the ultimate sin. He ends his column with the hope that Hitchens now knows God's mercy. I hope so too as there is obviously no mercy, forgiveness, compassion or understanding in De Souza's cold, rigid heart.

Lawrence Solomon - Financial Post 17 Dec 17

It's always interesting to see "good" Jews like Lawrence Solomon display a bit of anti-semitic ignorance about Jews and Judaism and then hide their anti-semitism behind their religion. Although most Jews support Israel in one way or another, they never do so in conflict with their country - Canada - or in a way that would harm Canada. Most Jews, but certainly not all, support climate policy because of the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olum - the obligation to "save the world". Unfortunately in their need to save the world,by proceding on an incorrect path, like climate policy and Kyoto, they sometimes do harm. But don't we all. Perhaps Lawrence Solomon is so obsessed with Jewish guilt that he would promote a policy that favours Israel and which is contrary to Canada's interests, but most of us wouldn't.

Re: Jonathan Kay, National Post A16, Dec 16th

Jonathan Kay has again gone overboard in trying to discover the root of the American support for Israel. Americans are serious democratic Christians who are therefore supportive of a free and democratic Jewish state. In addition, America, democracy, and freedom are at war with radical Islam, an ideology that is trying to destroy both the U.S. and Israel.Contrary to what Jonathan suggests, the U.S.A is still a uniquely free country. It has not lost its stature as an icon of freedom because of Guantamamo, CIA prisons and the Patriot Act as Jonathan suggests, but has been forced to use these procedures as a way to protect its democracy and freedom. We should be sympathizing with Americans for being forced to act to protect themselves, not criticizing them. Jonathan"s psychological analysis of the American
psyche ridiculous. The root of the problem is not complex. It is self protection.

Who are the Palestinians by Ettinger

Who are the Palestinians?
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought”
"Israel Hayom” Newsletter, December 14, 2011
http://bit.ly/up8bJm
Contrary to political correctness, Palestinian Arabs have not been in the area west of the Jordan River from time immemorial; no Palestinian state ever existed, no Palestinian People was ever robbed of its land and there is no basis for the Palestinian "claim of return.”
Most Palestinian Arabs are descendants of the 1845-1947 Muslim migrants from the Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, as well as from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Bosnia, the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Kurdistan, India, Afghanistan and Balochistan.
Arab migrant workers were imported by the Ottoman Empire and by the British Mandate (which defeated the Ottomans in 1917) for infrastructure projects: The port of Haifa, the Haifa-Qantara, Haifa-Edrei, Haifa-Nablus and Jerusalem-Jaffa railroads, military installations, roads, quarries, reclamation of wetlands, etc. Illegal Arab laborers were also attracted by the relative economic boom, stimulated by Jewish immigration.
According to a 1937 report by the British Peel Commission (Palestine Betrayed, Prof. Efraim Karsh, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 12), "The increase in the Arab population is most marked in urban areas, affected by Jewish development. A comparison of the census returns in 1922 and 1931 shows that, six years ago, the increase percent in Haifa was 86, in Jaffa 62, in Jerusalem 37, while in purely Arab towns such as Nab lus and Hebron it was only 7, and at Gaza there was a decrease of 2 percent.”
As a result of the substantial 1880-1947Arab immigration – and despite Arab emigration caused by domestic chaos and intra-Arab violence - the Arab population of Jaffa, Haifa and Ramla grew 17, 12 and 5 times.
The (1831-1840) conquest, by Egypt's Mohammed Ali, was solidified by a flow of Egyptian migrants settling empty spaces between Gaza and Tul-Karem up to the Hula Valley. They followed in the footsteps of thousands of Egyptian draft dodgers, who fled Egypt before 1831 and settled in Acre. The British traveler, H.B. Tristram, identified, in his 1865 The Land of Israel: a journal of travels in Palestine (p. 495), Egypti an migrants in the Beit-Shean Valley, Acre, Hadera, Netanya and Jaffa.
The British Palestine Exploration Fund documented that Egyptian neighborhoods proliferated in the Jaffa area: Saknet el-Mussariya, Abu Kebir, Abu Derwish, Sumeil, Sheikh Muwanis, Salame', Fejja, etc. In 1917, the Arabs of Jaffa represented at least 25 nationalities, including Persians, Afghanis, Hindus and Balochis. Hundreds of Egyptian families settled in Ara' Arara', Kafer Qassem, Taiyiba and Qalansawa.
Many of the Arabs who fled in 1948, reunited with their families in Egypt and other neighboring countries.
"30,000-36,000 Syrian migrants (Huranis) entered Palestine during the last few months alone" reported "La Syrie" daily on August 12, 1934. Az-ed-Din el-Qassam, the role-model of Hamas terrorism, which terrorized Jews in British Mandate Palestine, was Syrian, as were Said el-A'az, a leader of the 1936-38 anti-Jewish pogroms and Kaukji, the commander-in-chief of the Arab mercenaries terrorizing Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.
Libyan migrants settled in Gedera, south of Tel Aviv. Algerian refugees (Mugrabis) escaped the French conquest of 1830 and settled in Safed (alongside Syrians and Jordanian Bedouins), Tiberias and other parts of the Galilee. Circassian refugees, fleeing Russian oppression (1878) and Moslems from Bosnia, Turkmenistan, and Yemen (1908) diversified the Arab demography west of the Jordan River.
Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad (American Publishing Company, 1969): "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, Palestine must be the prince…. Palestine is desolate and unlovely.” Analyzing Mark Twain's book, John Haynes Holmes, the pacifist Unitarian priest, the co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and the author of Palestine Today and Tomorrow – a Gentile's Survey of Zionis m (McMillan, 1929) wrote: "This is the country to which the Jews have come to rebuild their ancient homeland…. On all the surface of this earth there is no home for the Jew save in the mountains and the well-springs of his ancient kingdom…. Everywhere else the Jews is in exile…. But, Palestine is his…. Scratch Palestine anywhere and you'll find Israel…. There is not a spot which is not stamped with the footprint of some ancient [Jewish] tribesman…. Not a road, a spring, a mountain, a village, which does not awaken the name of some great [Jewish] king, or echo with the voice of some great [Jewish] prophet…. [The Jew] has a higher, nobler motive in Palestine than the economic…. This mission is to restore Zion; and Zion is Palestine.”
The Arab attempt to gain the moral high ground and to delegitimize the Jewish State - by employing the immoral reinvention of history and recreation of identity - was exposed by Arieh Avneri's The Claim of Dispossession (Herzl Press, 1982) and Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial (Harper & Row, 1986), which provide the aforementioned – and much more – data.

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative"
www.TheEttingerReport.com

Liege, Belgium, killings

NP A10. The Belgium killings in Liege by Nordine Amrani. Yes, for those interested, Nordine was a Muslim and this appears to be another jihadist outburst. It is too bad that the NP and most other papers didn't put in the man's religion. They would have if he were Jewish or an evangelist.

NP Dec 14th A16 re NY Times article

The statement of the NY Times that settlers have pursued a campaign they call "price tag" attacking Palestinian civilians and property is misleading. Price tag is a retaliatory measure putting a "price tag" on Palestinian attacks on Jews and Jewish property. It is the Arabs that are initiating the attacks, not the Jewish villagers. The New York Times implies that the "settlers" initiated the attacks for no reason except hatred. This is false

Some breast cancel tumours vanish on their own - NP Dec 14th

The fact that some breast cancers vanish on their own simply proves that medicine is still a lot of guess work. Doctors are not gods but gamblers with the relatively little knowledge that they have. Doctors know a little more than the average person so they are better at medical handicapping. However it is still playing the odds and some doctors are better handicappers than others.

Bullying - NP Dec 14th

I resent funding schools that teach homophobia etc under the guise of freedom of religion. Freedom of religion was not intended to mean freedom to teach barbaric customs and social attitudes. If the anti-bullying bill subverts hatred of all sorts, especially in schools, then I am all for it.

CBC support on A14 of NP Dec 13

The conclusion of the article is that we should support the broadcast of politically and socially left-wing anti-conservative, politically correct non-sense because it is spewed in both French and English. That sure makes a lot of sense

Settlements

Response to Canadian Jewish News article of Dec 8th T 51 "Settlememts an impediment to Peace." Message bodyYou can take the man out of the CBC but you can't take
the CBC out of the man. Harry Schacter, an ex-CBC employee
is still spouting the CBC's pro-Palestinian rhetoric. He knows better.
He talks about settler attacks increasing but fails to say whether Palestinian
attacks have also increased. He also fails to mention whether the attacks
by Jews were defensive in nature and whether the attacks by Arabs were
drive-by shootings or terrorists attacks. Without knowing the reasons for the
attacks his statistics are anti-Israel and without any real substance. He also
says that 10,000 olive trees have been damaged or destroyed by his hated settlers.
How many of these trees were destroyed because the Arabs were using them as shields
for indescriminate attacks on the civilian Jewish population. How many of these were
cut down by the Arabs themselves to collect insurance and then blame the settllers
as has recently been proven by the photography unit (Tazpit) of The Legal Forum for the
Land of Israel.

Schacter also assumes that there is an occupation. A little reading of Grief or BenZimra
(both available at Amazon) would indicate that Judea and Samaria are Jewish territories
in international law by the San Remi Agreement. That land is at most disputed territory
and not "occupied" territory. For that reason, among others, the Fourth Geneva Convention does
not apply and the subsequent Conference of U.N. members, not including Israel, (a group that
has been consistently anti-Israel) is quite meaningless.

Schacter then refers to "extremist" settlers. If he had ever talked to any and visited them, as I
have, he would find them mostly to simply be ordinary Jews who wish to live in the heartland of ancient
Israel, including Shiloh which is a 2500 year old Jewish town, hardly a "new" settlement. Since he
mentions Gilo he should also know that that town is effectively a suburb of Jerusalem where most
Jews live, not for religious reasons, but because the real estate prices are cheaper.

Lastly and most importantly, Schacter suggests that if only the Jews would move their 500,000
Jews out of East Jerusalem and the West Bank there would be peace. Here he is just closing his
eyes to the nature of the Palestinians. When Israel became a nation in 1948 they did not claim the
West Bank and yet there was no peace. When Israel left Gaza there was no peace. The Palestinians
could have the land if they would let Jews live there in peace as the Arabs live in peace in Israel. But
no, a condition of peace has to be that the new country be Judenrein. Then the P.A. refuses
to eliminate the clause calling for the destruction of Israel from its Constitution, and when the Palestinians
are offerred 90% of what they ask for, they refuse it and start an intefada. Why Mr. Schacter is it necessary
for the Israeli government to warn Israelis against going near Arab villages if all the Arabs want is peace?
Why must the new state be Judenrein and why must the Arabs get 100% of what they want or refuse
to negotiate? No Harry Schacter, it is not the "Settlements" that are the obstruction to peace but
the anti-Semitism of the West Bank Arabs. It is easy to go with the flow of blaming Jews and Israel
for all the worlds problems, but it is not correct. For a Jew to repeat incorrect Arab arguments against
his own people is disgraceful.

Tom Friedman on Israel. National Post Dec 5 A15

Tom Friedman of the New York Times still doesn't admit that the problem
is not Israel but the Palestinians. They are a violent, misogynous, gay-hating, anti-Semitic group who would rather die a martyr's death than compromise with Israel or see it continue to exist. They cheer on their suicide bombers and gloat at the death
of Israelis and U.S. personnel. Prime Minister Salam Fayyard of the Palestinian Authority may want to see the Palestinians better off financially but he has done nothing to
change the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel culture, and he has not taken out
of their constitution the desire and obligation to destroy Israel. Furthermore he
is only one man who will undoubtedly be ignored if there is an amalgamation with Hamas.

Friedman and the New York Times is wrong. Israel cannot afford to support such a
radical group. It must annex Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and change
the death-wish culture themselves, That is the only way
for there to be any hope of long term peace.

Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox and signs.

It seems that the New Israel Fund has again gone overboard on its
not so secret battle against Orthodox Judaism. The solution to the
Jerusalem's ultra orthodox's defacing of signs showing women is to catch the perpetrators and charge them for defacing property or mischief. The New Israel Funds' solution of promoting signs showing women in all stages of nudity is neither reasonable nor a proper Jewish solution.

MacKay and helicopters

Although I don't agree with his excuses, let's cut MacKay some slack. He works
on our behalf at a job with huge responsibilities and 16 hour days. If he can save himself two wasted hours on a fishing boat by courageously using one of our helicopters then he should do so. It should be a perk that comes with the job.

First Nations

The National Post's coverate of Attawapiskat and the First Nations was excellent.
However although Lorne Gunter correctly attributed some of the misfortune to politcial correctness, he failed to say the specifics. In this case political correctness didn't let us tell the truth about First Nations Culture. It is partially their desire to live on beautiful lands, hunting and fishing as their ancestors did that causes their poverty. As long as we give them the choice of joining our society, and augmenting their needs when necessary, as we would for any citizen, that should be the end of our responsibility to them. It is not enough to change their name from "Indians" to "Native Canadians" to "First Nations". There is however another responsibilty. That is to insist that our laws are followed when they conflict with their culture. This includes responsibilty of their leaders for funding received by the government and enforcing all other Canadian civil and criminal laws.

The Sun, Sat Dec 3rd

The whole system of dealing with our Native peoples must be changed so that they are assimilated into Canadian culture, while of course maintaining the important (not the financial0 parts of their own culture. However this is the time that Native Americans are protesting the Keystone and similar oil agreements. Although I am against the Native Canadians' stand on this issue, fixing the funding of Native Canadians and their leaders must not be a way to solve the oil sales problem.

St. James Park, Toronto, occupation

I don't want to pay for the damage to St. James Park. Public space is meant for the use of the public, not for protesters, occupiers, or people who will disrupt the natural use of the space. In future let "occupiers" and their like, pay by the city demanding a deposit on all those who want to use public space as a place to
protest or disrupt the general use of that property. If the deposits are not forthcoming then charge the individuals with being a nuisance or public mischief or make up a new law to get rid of them.