Category Archives: Israel

CCD applauds Harper government for withdrawal of support for UN ‘anti-racism’ conference

Anti-Semitism, Canada, Israel, Race, South-Africa, UN

Our good friends at the Canadian Coalition for Democracies have posted my father’s “positively prescient, brilliant and stirring piece”—their words—on their website. Dad’s 2001 op-ed warned against Jewish participation in the first, UN “anti-racism” convention of cannibal’s in Durban. But, as the CCD warns, here they go again. Has the US emulated Harper? I hope so. (Unrelated: A few years ago, in Canada, Stephen Harper and I exchanged e-mails about classical liberalism. He’s an amiable intelligent man. Unrelated: Here’s another link to a CCD post out of which I still get a kick.)

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, 23 January, 2008
Ottawa, Canada – The Stephen Harper government has withdrawn its support for a UN anti-racism conference scheduled to take place next year in South Africa, according to a media release today from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, said today that the conference, like its predecessor in 2001, “has gone completely off the rails… Canada is interested in combating racism, not promoting it. We’ll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance”.
“Canadians are shocked when they hear the clear and simple expression of reality by their leaders,” said Alastair Gordon, president of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD). “We are used to hearing double-speak from our politicians — fantasies that are at odds with the reality that most Canadians see and the values that they hold.”
The last UN anti-racism conference held in Durban in 2001 degenerated into a hate-fest of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel vitriol, while the most egregious human rights violators escaped criticism. The Toronto Star today reported that “all of the non-governmental organizations invited to the first conference have been invited back to the second, including those that were at the ‘forefront of the hatred’, some of which posted pro-Hitler posters at the 2001 gathering.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is in charge of planning for the conference, an entity that has directed 93% of its resolutions on human rights violations at just one nation – Israel. Iran is a member of the organizing committee, despite its government’s open call to wipe the Jewish homeland off the face of the earth.
“The Stephen Harper government has again demonstrated that Canada can project power as a moral leader in international affairs,” added Gordon. “A nation does not need a massive military to provide the moral leadership and clarity that denies legitimacy to Orwellian UN agencies that hijack the language of human rights to promote Jew-hatred.
“Stephen Harper has signaled that Canada will act on principle, regardless of UN consensus. This is the stuff of global leadership.”

Updated: Ilana In the Shower Sean Built

Aesthetics, Ancient History, Ilana Mercer, Israel

Here I am in the guest shower Sean built from scratch. (The link can be followed from the “Mercer Images” page.)
My choice of tiles was inspired by the ancient city of Caesarea in Israel, adjacent to the small village in which I grew up. Caesarea is a Roman city. It was built by Herod. Dusty blues, faded golds, luminescent whites—these are all colors one can find in the mosaics and marbles of this magnificent place.
You can read more about my inspiration here, and here. Or search the Internet for better visuals. The modern development is sheer luxury.
Click on the right-hand of the jpeg to enlarge.
This is Sean’s first tiling job (he thinks it’s his last, but I have news for him). It’s immaculate. (Is there anything this guy can’t achieve?!)
Have a Happy New Year.

Update #I: Due to the interest generated, here’s a wider angle on Sean’s handiwork.

Huckabee’s Hardcore On Israel

Elections 2008, Foreign Policy, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

I’ve been extremely critical of Huckabee. See “Ron Paul’s Electability” and “Huck’s For Huck—Paul’s For America.”

But I think I’ve just come across the only policy position Huckabee has professed that I rather like. Dr. Daniel Pipes disagrees:

“[T]rue connoisseurs of the Republican candidate for president are still wrapping their arms around this foreign policy insight delivered in a September interview:

‘If there is going to be a Palestinian state, it needs to be on land that doesn’t threaten the existence or security of Israel. There is a lot of available real estate around the world that would not be a direct threat to Israel’s security.’

James D. Besser, who conducted this interview, added that ‘Huckabee declined to offer suggestions about where that [real estate] might be.’ Uganda or Birobidjan, perhaps? (December 24, 2007)

Here Huckabee sounds just like the Likud Party once sounded. That may not be very pragmatic, considering that the Right in Israel perished a shot time ago, but why is it a bad thing?

Huckabee is certainly in line here with evangelical thinking—and my own. Come to think of it, I think I’ve just stumbled on the first Huckabee-held policy position that I like: quit pushing for statehood for these radical people.

Imagine Israelis Seeking Redress from Palestinians

Conflict, Ethics, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A Palestinian child was injured in an Israeli missile attack launched against a Jihadi in Gaza, that place where all is sweetness and light. The child is paralyzed, and Israel, rightly, has sponsored her care, until now. The Israeli Ministry of Defense wants the child to return to the Palestinian territory. I don’t believe it will come to that. The liberal courts will side with the child. Already a plethora of Israeli human rights organizations is working on her behalf.

Imagine, will you, the reverse situation. An Israeli survivor of a Palestinian suicide bomber wants the PA to treat life-long disfigurement and pain caused by shards of shrapnel, ball bearings and nails embedded in flesh and bone for life. Can you imagine Messrs. Abbas and Hamas of the PA assuming such moral responsibility? Not to mention that, other than cutting-edge killers, there is no state-of-the-art anything in the PA, much less medicine.