Last year’s deadly Gaza flotilla was a clear win for the Palestinians in their long conflict with Israel. This year’s version is shaping up as another. Ostensibly, the flotillas are about breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza and bringing needed aid to the 1.5 million people there. In reality they are about political pressure and public opinion.

As such, they are David and Goliath contests that Israel cannot easily win. For in the flotilla sagas, Israel is by definition Goliath. If it forcibly stops ships bearing aid, as it did last year at a cost of nine dead protesters, it risks being painted a bully.

The problem with Wolkam’s worldview is that it is not rooted in the reality. Last year’s flotilla was not a resounding political success for the Palestinians.

The images of Israeli marines boarding the ships armed with paintball guns and being senseless bludgeoned by armed thugs peace activists was not a win-win for the Palestinians or their public relation efforts. In fact, I am still humming Latma’s break out You Tube hit, ‘We Con the World’ by the Flotilla Choir.

The Israelis, for all their alleged ruthlessness, could not have staged a better photo-op than the reality – which was of armed peace activists running amuck with weapons. Of course, it does tend to tarnish your peace ‘creds’ when you harbour a convicted terrorist hijacker among your ranks. This is probably why this year’s flotilla stuck to a bona fide Hamas member instead.

And I wouldn’t risk throwing around the term ‘bully’ around so freely or someone might want to question the contingent of Dutch reporters who abandoned the opportunity of being embedded with the middle aged pacifists on board the flotilla and ask – ‘why?’. Of course, this also raises the sticky issue of what restrictions did the Toronto Star’s embedded journalist agree to for the ‘privilege’ of reporting live amongst the so-called Canadian contingent present on the Tahrir.

The danger of asking questions is how easily one question can easily spawn other equally uncomfortable questions. For example, someone might just resurrect this relatively current Jerusalem Post’s article and point out; if the Red Cross preventatives in the Gaza Strip do not believe there is a humanitarian crisis why does The Toronto Star and the flotilla organizers insist there is a need for humanitarian supplies….

Of course, Walkom – not being one to get bogged down by reality continues thus,

Israel says its Gaza blockade is meant to forestall rocket attacks. Palestinians call it collective punishment.

Now there are two possibilities why Walkom writes that the Israel blockade is ‘meant to forestall rocket attacks’. Either he doesn’t really know why the Israelis began the blockage or he is deliberately attempting to mislead the readership of the Toronto Star.

Simply put, the Israelis instituted the blockage of the Gaza Strip not because of rocket attacks launched by the Hamas government exclusively against Israeli civilians or even for the raid across the Israeli border by PRC members to abduct an Israeli solider in order to extort and blackmail the Israeli government into releasing duly convicted Palestinian terrorists. These acts alone are considered enough of a ‘casus belli’ for war among any normal nations; although, neither of these reasons are the cause of the Israeli blockage against the Gaza Strip.

The Israelis instituted the blockade against the Gaza Strip once Hamas successfully staged a violent bloody coup and overthrew the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas has no legal democratically elected authority to legislate or govern the Gaza Strip and the blockade was instituted by the Israeli government because Hamas, as a political entity remains committed to the use of terrorism to achieve its political aim and the destruction of the Israeli state.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s economy has been virtually destroyed. The blockade has stifled exports, effectively killing what had been a flourishing fruit and vegetable sector. It has decimated the fishing industry.

I would suggest if anyone killed the flourishing fruit and vegetable sector of the Gaza Strip; the Palestinians should shoulder far more blame than the Israeli blockade.

When the Israeli blockade was instituted in June 2007; the agricultural industry of the Gaza Strip was already decimated. The Israelis had disengaged from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 and handed over to the Palestinian Authority a multi-million dollar agricultural industry with complete functioning infrastructure.

Instead of practicing good husbandry skills, the Palestinian Authority allowed the greenhouses of the Gaza Strip to be destroyed and looted. The Israelis had literally made the desert bloom but you cannot do so without the green houses and a complex irrigation system. I can’t speak with any authority on the fishing industry but I wouldn’t be surprised that to learn the Palestinians have mishandled their fishing industry much like they have mishandled and abused their own agricultural industry.
And finally,

As the Star’s Jim Rankin has reported, those aboard the Canadian ship, Tahrir, are by and large middle-aged pacifists. One may disagree with their politics. But they hardly seem dangerous.

The flotilla activist may present the visual optics of middle-aged pacifists but make no mistake – this group is most certainly dangerous since the flotilla is actively providing cover and offering political safe refuge to one of the more vicious and ruthless military dictatorships within the Mid-East neighborhood.

If the flotilla membership was seriously concerned with the welfare of ordinary Palestinians of the Gaza Strip; they should be protesting and demanding Hamas give up military control of the Gaza Strip. Of course, no fun would be had – since there would be no Jews Israelis to bully, malign or demonize.

What is more disturbing to me, is the fact that the editors of the Toronto Star should know all these same facts, and yet, they still published Wolkam’s dribble anyway.

“Hello Uncle Erwin,

This is Amir writing you after reading what you sent to my father, Eitan. As you know, it was my unit and my friends who were on the ship. My commander was injured badly as a result of the “pacifists” violence. I want to tell you how he was injured so you could tell the story. it shows just how horrible and inhuman were the activists. My commander was the first soldier that rappelled down from the helicopter to the ship. When he touched ground, he got hit in the head with a pole and stabbed in the stomach with a knife.

When he drew out his secondary weapon-a handgun (his primary weapon was a regular paintball gun: “Tippman 98 custom”) he was shot in the leg. He managed to fire a single shot before he was tossed from the balcony by 4 Arab activists, to the lower deck (a 12 feet fall). He was then dragged by other activists to a room in the lower deck were he was stripped down by 2 activists. They took off his vest, helmet and shirt, leaving him with only his pants and shoes on. When they finished they took a knife and expanded the wound he already had in his stomach. They cut his ab muscles horizontally and by hand spilled his guts out. When they finished they raised him up and walked him on the deck outside. He was conscious the whole time. If you are asking yourself why they did all that, here comes the reason. They wanted to show the soldiers their commander’s body so they will be demoralized and scared. Luckily, when they walked him on the deck a soldier saw him and managed to shoot the activist that was walking him down the outside corridor. He shot him with a special non-lethal bullet that didn’t kill him. My commander managed to jump from the deck to the water and swim to an army rescue boat (his guts still out of his body, and now in salty sea water). That was how he was saved. The activists that did this to him are alive, now in Turkey, and treated as heroes.

I’m sorry if I described this with too many details, but I thought it was necessary for the credibility. Please tell this story to anyone who will listen. I think that these days you are one of Israel’s best spokesman.

Thanks uncle Erwin, Shabbat shalom!
Amir

Gruesome,nu? There is no shortage of barbarism in the world – decades before the Chen-chen’s thought of Beslan; the Palestinians had already carried out Ma’alot. I remember very clearly what occurred under the Ramallah sun which began in the Palestinian Authority police station, but more importantly, I remember clearly and how badly – it ended for the two IDF reservists.

What happened on the Mavi Marmara wasn’t pretty by anyone’s standards but I remain highly skeptical of this account and believe its the work of a Hasbarist run amuk. I admit the writer had me right up until the jump. Why? Well, quite frankly, I have seen individuals with intestinal injuries of the sort where the bowels are hanging outside the body. No one so injured in such a manner as described would be able to swim to safety. Shock is the body’s instinctive response to sever trauma and it shuts the down all but the most basic levels in literally minutes. Swimming requires a complex coordination of not only the body but the mind. The mind might be willing but the nature of shock would have shut down all cooperation within the body. Somebody has spent too much time watching re-runs of Die Hard and such like movies.

I have no idea who started this chain email which is now being posted on blog’s all over the world as the G-d’s honest truth. There might even be elements of truth intertwined within the tale the letter writer tells but the letter is a lie and a fake. And a lie is a lie and serves no one well. There are enough lies already told in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to keep historians busy for the next ten generations that we do not need to add more to it. The truth, simple and unadorned, should suffice.

To the bloggers who are swept up in this and who have an invested interest in promoting this letter as truth on your blog I suggest that you remember – it is your ability to think critically and pause before you hit the publish button on your blog that separates you from animals who react to any stimuli from pure instinct alone.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came for a few days visit to Canada and managed to piss off just about everyone. It is not that I particularly disagree with her views on abortion and the need for abortion funding to be included in any 3rd world maternal health strategy but her sharpened teeth have a little too much bite for any US Administration official considering the Obama Administration could not even get the cost of therapeutic abortions covered in a national health care plan.

Nor do I disagree with her view that the Harperites came up short on hosting an Arctic Ocean states conference with only 5 of the 8 Arctic Ocean states invited. It’s just bad form to grumble and whine in public when you’re a guest of the host nation. Just as there are inside voices for inside and outside voices for outside; diplomacy also requires a different voice for private and public forums.

All of which brings me to Afghanistan. It’s no secret that the Obama Administration is not happy with the Conservative governments pledge to Canadians to pull our troops out of Afghanistan by 2011. Even the dyed-in-the-wool-Harperites are not happy with the decision but most Canadians just don’t want to be there anymore. What the US government needs to be aware of is that there could potentially be an election any day in this country and the political loser will be whichever party publicly campaigns for extending the unpopular Afghan mission.

Canadians are tired. It’s been a long 9 year haul as we tried to tow the US line with minimal support while the US went off to have adventures in Iraq. You can quibble about who decided to go where-when but the fact remains – we came, we stayed and kept your place warm so its time the pottery barn rules are enforced. It’s time for you to do whatever you think needs to be done in Afghanistan. Go send Hillary to try to bully a few other NATO allies who you have not yet managed to piss off. Although, I suspect at the rate the Obama Administration is currently alienating allies; a second Obama term might see American without a single friend.

And one more thing – don’t send Hillary to negotiate with the Chinese over Iran. Bill would probably be the better choice unless you want the Chinese as alienated as the rest of us – just saying.

In a greeting to Jews worldwide, Obama declared that “the enduring story of the Exodus teaches us that wherever we live, there is oppression to be fought and freedom to be won.” In an official photograph released by the White House, Obama is seen dipping his finger into a cup of wine, as is the custom when recalling the 10 plagues in Egypt.

“This evening, Jewish individuals, families and their friends in America, Israel and around the world will gather around the Seder table to celebrate the sacred festival of Passover,” the president wrote in his Pessah message to Jews in the US, Israel and around the globe.

“With rich symbols, rituals and tradition, they will tell the story of the Exodus – the journey of the children of Israel from slavery to freedom, from grief to joy, from darkness to light, and from suffering to redemption.”

“The enduring story of the Exodus teaches us that wherever we live, there is oppression to be fought and freedom to be won. In retelling this story from generation to generation, we are reminded of our ongoing responsibility to fight against all forms of suffering and discrimination, and we reaffirm the ties that bind us all. These bonds are the source of inextinguishable courage and strength, and provide hope that we can repair this world.”

There are many messages in the Exodus and while Obama is free to take whatever message he wants from Passover but he’s missing the mark by a wide beirth if this is his message to Jews around the world for Passover. In fact, if I were to summarize the themes in Passover from a Jewish perspective; it would come down to the 4 declarative themes – made by G-d to the nation of Israel.

1. I will will take you out.
2. I will save you.
3. I will redeem you.
4. I will take you to be my nation.

I have yet to read any version of Haggadah which is read at the Passover Seder which even includes the name of Moses. Moses did not bring the Egyptians to grief nor did Moses bring forth pestiance or plague. Passover doesn’t teach us to fight oppression or remind us of our responsibility to fight against all forms of suffering and discrimination but I will agree is does remind us of who we are and whose nation we belong to. All of which goes to show why you cannot learn Judaism from a liberal and still have a hope of comprehension or an understanding of any depth.

In contrast to most ecumenical Jewish-Christian literature published today, this book makes no attempt to reconcile the Synagogue and the Church. Quite the contrary, The Let’s Get Biblical Study Guide was written in direct response to the growing effort of numerous fundamentalist Christian organizations which aggressively target Jews for conversion.

The book methodically brings to light the fundamental reasons why Judaism does not accept the Christian messiah. It illustrates how the core teachings and doctrines of the Church are incompatible with the cornerstone principles declared by the Prophets of Israel, and are opposed by the most cherished tenets contained in the Jewish Scriptures.

The Let’s Get Biblical Study Guide further shows how, over the course of many centuries, the Church systematically and deliberately altered the Jewish Scriptures in its authorized translations of the Bible in order to persuade its adherents that Jesus is the promised Jewish messiah. To accomplish this task, Christian translators manipulated, misquoted, mistranslated and even fabricated verses in the Hebrew Scriptures so that these texts clearly appear to be speaking about Jesus.

I cannot count the times where someone quotes from the Christian Genesis or Isaiah, citing chapter and verse in a discussion. This always causes me to reach up to pull down my Tanakh only to discover the chapter and verse cited is not the same as mine or the context bares no resemblance to the issue under discussion.

Currently, there is a debate in Israel about the foreign funding of NGO’s. It’s vociferous and brass in a kind of take no prisoners public free for all. This inspires Dr. Dawg with a longing and he admits to the desire to live in an alternative reality wherein he is an Israeli. I have my own Israeli alternative reality where I live in the Golan Heights on a moshav growing grapes and honey. I also get to paint outside in the afternoon sun. Of course, if we did live in our alternative realities – he would be doing his damnedest to have me evicted from my home…but not only would I be fighting tooth, nail and kippots every step of the way; I would still make better cholent.

I thought I would run a follow-up to illustrate one of the examples Dawg used in his post. Ha’aretz ran an article suggesting the Jerusalem Post ’summarily’ fired Prof. Naomi Chazen from their roster of columnists as a kind of pay-back for also being the president of the New Israel Fund whose agenda and sources of foreign funding have recently come under a great deal of criticism. Ha’aretz

Associates of Prof. Naomi Chazan attacked the Jerusalem Post on Saturday in the wake of the English-language daily’s decision to fire the former Meretz MK who is at the center of a right-wing campaign against the New Israel Fund, of which Chazan is president. “The issue now is freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” a source told Haaretz last night. “The paper took a stand against freedom of expression and Prof. Chazan regrets this to the depths of her soul.”

Except, well nothing is as it seems – including ‘freedom of speech and expression’. The Jerusalem Post terminated Prof. Chazen from their roster due to the fact their policy of not employing columnists who sue their employers in the name of ‘free speech and expression’. Personally, it sounds like a no-brainer editorial decision on the Jerusalem Post’s part but I will quote the Jpost and let everyone make up their own mind.

The Jerusalem Post has canceled Naomi Chazan’s biweekly column, after she and the New Israel Fund of which she is president threatened legal action against the paper over a recent advertisement.

The decision was taken by Jerusalem Post management after a legal threat was received at the paper from the NIF and Chazan’s lawyers.

Along with other publications, the Post last Sunday carried an advertisement criticizing Chazan and the New Israel Fund in the context of the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead.

In Friday’s paper, the Post carried an advertisement defending the NIF and Chazan against their critics.

Of course, in my alternative reality I might also be one of Ha’aretz’s litigators part-time so my source of income would remain fluid at all times. No doubt the law firm which handles Ha’aretz’s lawsuits thinks of the newspaper as their own brand of ‘annuity’ client.

Afterwards, deport Emily McCoy’s raggedy-vegan ass back to American – after she serves her jail term in a Canadian prison. And kudos to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea for acting with restraint and good grace when she encountered an American PETA thug bent on assaulting her to further PETA’s foreign political agenda.

By the way, be sure to mark March 15th on your calendars as its the annual official People Eating Tasty Animals for PETA Day.

Frankly, if I had my wish, we would be on our way out of Afghanistan not in, we would be letting Pakistan figure out which Taliban they want to conspire with and which ones they want to fight, we would be letting Israelis and Palestinians figure out on their own how to make peace, we would be taking $100 billion out of the Pentagon budget to make us independent of imported oil — nothing would make us more secure — and we would be reducing the reward for killing or capturing Osama bin Laden to exactly what he’s worth: 10 cents and an autographed picture of Dick Cheney.

Am I going isolationist? No, but visiting the greater China region always leaves me envious of the leaders of Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, who surely get to spend more of their time focusing on how to build their nations than my president, whose agenda can be derailed at any moment by a jihadist death cult using exploding underpants.

Could we just walk away? No, but we must change our emphasis. The “war on terrorists” has to begin by our challenging the people and leaders over there. If they’re not ready to take the lead, to speak out and fight the madness in their midst, for the future of their own societies, there is no way we can succeed. We’ll exhaust ourselves trying. We’d be better off just building a higher wall.

Exactly. I tried to suggest much the same thing and ditto on the Israeli and Palestinians. But I am not done with quoting Friedman yet.

Our presence, our oil dependence, our endless foreign aid in the Middle East have become huge enablers of bad governance there and massive escapes from responsibility and accountability by people who want to blame all their troubles on us. Let’s get out of the way and let the moderate majorities there, if they really exist, face their own enemies on their own. It is the only way they will move. We can be the wind at their backs, but we can’t be their sails. There is some hope for Iraq and Iran today because their moderates are fighting for themselves.

Has anyone noticed the most important peace breakthrough on the planet in the last two years? It’s right here: the new calm in the Strait of Taiwan. For decades, this was considered the most dangerous place on earth, with Taiwan and China pointing missiles at each other on hair triggers. Well, over the past two years, China and Taiwan have reached a quiet rapprochement — on their own. No special envoys or shuttling secretaries of state. Yes, our Navy was a critical stabilizer. But they worked it out. They realized their own interdependence. The result: a new web of economic ties, direct flights and student exchanges. A key reason is that Taiwan has no oil, no natural resources. It’s a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world. They got rich digging inside themselves, unlocking their entrepreneurs, not digging for oil. They took responsibility. They got rich by asking: “How do I improve myself?” Not by declaring: “It’s all somebody else’s fault. Give me a handout.”

Can I get an amen to that?

I remember 2001 very clearly and Afghanistan was meant to be the first strike in the war on terror against those governments who gave safe harbour to terror groups to export their terror operatives to anywhere in the world which did not mean their political litmus test.

I could even support the initial invasion of Iraq thinking it the next logical step in part of a larger strategy to confront one government after another who financed and gave safe harbour in promoting terror operates worldwide until eventually the last and mostly potentially deadly of the terror masters – the Mullahs of Iran would be surrounded by American allied governments. No sane government mapping out a war on terror would leave Saddam Hussain in power and at one’s back when confronting the last terror master. When the spring of 2005 came and went without America leading troops in a Syrian offensive I came to two conclusions.

Either the larger strategy of confronting all the terror exporting governments had been lost or there never was a ‘grand plan’ as I was led to believe. This lead me to doing a great deal of reading concerning the Soviet military adventures in Afghanistan. I mistakenly assumed the opposition to a Soviet-style government was based very similar reasons we in the west would have risen against any Soviet-style occupying government, and yet, deadly opposition to the Soviets was really only triggered all over Afghanistan when the Soviets sought to do things like enfranchising education for all females, establishing an older age of consent and enfranchising legal rights for women outside of Sharia Law.

To understand why these things were not discussed or fully aired when the West started to lend support to various ‘mujahideen’ movements operating in Afghanistan at the time it is important to remember the geo-political realities of the times. The West and the international communist movements lead by the USSR were in the midst of a ‘cold war’ with the West and battling via proxy. This was the height of Western political pragmatism of ‘they might be right bastards but they are our bastards’. Its the kind of political pragmatism which ultimately bankrupts itself and lead Western governments to support financially and militarily some of the most grievous and oppressive regimes. The societal consequences of this morally bankrupt pragmatism often lies at the heart or root of all our current conflicts.

Take a pause and think about this. If the west was not supplying or turning a blind eye to international arms dealers supplying weapons and ammo to the mujahideen forces in Afghanistan what would have happened? Eventually, Soviet military power would have been extended all over Afghanistan and the tribal mentality would have undergone profound changes resulting in a new societal frame work more conducive to the 21st century. Generally, medical and education standards would have improved significantly and Afghanistan’s satellite status as a client state of the Soviet Union would have fallen away as the Soviet empire imploded. And then what? After 30 years of Sovietization would the population remained as feudal and as backward as today? I can’t say as my crystal ball is out for repair but in retrospect I suspect it was the Afghani people’s best chance of entering the 21st century.

The Taliban were successfully overthrown in the fall of 2001 and since then, there have been a variety of mistakes which have lead which leads us today. Firstly, any armed insurrection needs money and lots of it. The Warlords of Afghanistan have consolidated their power base through the financing and controlling the illicit opium trade in Afghanistan. The one bright spot of Taliban rule was the destruction of the opium trade in Afghanistan. The revival of the illicit opium trade could have been avoided entirely by the allied forces if a coherent opium strategy adopted. In fact, considering the worldwide shortage of medicinal opiates; farmers in Afghanistan could have been licensed and controlled for growing the only ‘cash crop’ of the country rather than having Western forces seeking to destroy this war ravaged country’s only means of earning hard foreign currency. There was even a plan but it was ignored. One cannot live on world aid alone especially while the Lords of Kabul dipped first into the trough. This strategy also had the advantage of taking money directly out of Lords of War’s hands, and consequently, stiffling their ability to wage war. But did we do this? No, instead we fumbled the ball and let the Lords of War fill their coffers. Secondly, our blind support of any Afghan governance as long as it was not the Taliban.

For the West to succeed in bringing Afghanistan into the 21th century requires a complete societal occupation spanning generations and to be effective and demands Afghanistan be made into a modern colonial state complete with responsible governance. I cannot speak to the rest of the Western world but I am greatly reluctant to go ‘colonial’. So far, we are trying a new gentler form of ‘colonialism’ in that we will let Afghani’s rule themselves without much outside pressure in the guise of coaxing them with ‘gentle’ persuasion into adopting things like enfranchising the rights of women or adopting Western standards of human rights. So far its been a massive fail.

Furthermore, as long as we turn a blind eye to the innate corruption in the Afghanistan government and the breaches of human rights we are merely giving military cover to another brutal regime, much like the regime which was ultimately toppled by the Taliban in the first place. No one should forget the Taliban came to power riding a wave of popular revolt and could quite easily come back to power riding another wave of popular revolt. I have to give Unambiguously Ambidextrous a hat tip for bringing this TimesOnline report to light on this side of the Atlantic.

When Habiba’s elderly husband was badly beaten in a village brawl there was only one place, she said, that she could turn to for help and justice. Barefoot and weeping, the farmer’s wife, 50, trekked for four hours through Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains to meet the local Taleban commander. “My feet were bleeding and I cried the whole way but I didn’t care about my safety,” she said. “We are poor people. We know the Government doesn’t help people like us.”

Corruption and incompetence in President Karzai’s government — particularly at local level — have forced a growing number of people to seek the services of the Taleban. (…)A senior Nato intelligence official admitted this week that the Taleban “has a government-in-waiting, with ministers chosen,” ready to take over the moment the current administration failed. He warned, in a bleak assessment of the insurgents’ strength: “Time is running out. Taleban influence is expanding.”

The Taleban, which Nato says run shadow governments in 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, are only too willing to help settle local disputes. Their strict, if brutal, interpretation of Islamic law is often preferable to the lengthy and costly Government alternative. “My husband had a broken leg so he sent me to find Mullah Zafar,” Habiba said. “We don’t know anyone in the Government and we know they won’t solve our problems.” Mullah Zafar Akhund is the Taleban’s shadow governor in Jaghatu district, Wardak province, a short drive south of Kabul.

Habiba’s husband, Abdullah, who is 20 years her senior, fought with a neighbour called Qasim over water rights. Village customs prescribe which fields should be watered at which times. Habiba said that Qasim was stealing the water when it was not his time and turned violent when her husband challenged him. “I waited two hours to see Mullah Zafar,” she said. “He listened to my story and sent three of his soldiers to come back to my village. They spoke to the village elders who told them the same thing. The soldiers beat Qasim and ordered him to give us his water for seven nights.”

The return to power of the Taliban is almost preordined given our failure to significantly influence and establish responsible government throughout the country after 9 years of trying – abet ineffectually. We can pour more NATO troops and flood Afghanistan with American soldiers and demand they fight and die for a cause in which ordinary Afghans are reluctant to embrace. Or we could admit we just aren’t good colonists and use modern technology to firewall the country until such time that the Afghani people as a whole are willing to embrace a more westernized notion of governance and human rights. We can seriously impede and stone wall the country so even if the Taliban give safe harbour to the likes of Al Qaeda; Al Qaeda cannot use Afghanistan as a launching pad to export their violence into the wider world.

Speaking as a Canadian I am not on side for making Afghanistan as a new province of Canada and given the choice; I’d rather into discussion with the Turks & Caicos Islands becoming the next province of Canada. Besides, the Turks and Caicos holds a distinct advantage over the Afghans – in that they can freely decide to join the Dominion rather than being forced into that position due to military occupation. Finally, I cannot in good conscience demand any Canadian solider die in a fight for a cause which is not innately our own.

Israel Border Police officers shot at an American student’s laptop as she entered Israel via Taba, Egypt, two weeks ago. Lily Sussman, 21, wrote on her blog that border police subjected her to two hours of questioning and searches prior to shooting her Apple Macbook three times. “They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions?where are you going?” Sussman wrote, describing the experience.

“Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the ‘conflict’ here? What do you think? They quizzed me on Judaism, which I know nothing about,” she continued.

Sussman said that she then heard an announcement on the loudspeaker. “It was something along the lines of, ‘Do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage,’” she wrote on her blog. Moments later a man came to her and introduced himself as the manager on duty. “I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop,” Sussman said he told her.

“The security officers did not ask about my laptop prior to shooting it,” Sussman told Daily News Egypt. “They used the word ‘blew up’ when they told me they destroyed my laptop. I don’t know why they shot it.” Sussman said the guards also looked through the photos saved on her camera, flipped through her journal and asked her about a map a friend had drawn for her that pointed out a main street, central bus station and the hostel where she was planning on stayig in Jerusalem. She added that she had also been carrying an Arabic phrasebook, stamps from Syria, Qatar and the UAE and a Palestinians in Palestine guidebook.

The Israeli border police did allow Sussman to retrieve her hard drive and she is being compensated for the cost of her lap top. I could say Israel lives in a tough neighbourhood wherein most of the neighbours dream of the day when the Israeli state is pushed into the sea but that’s just rationalization.

Now let’s imagine you are a Canadian attempting to leave the US border – no wait – imagine you are a Canadian Science Fiction writer named Peter Watts and you are attempting to leave the United States and return to your own country when US border officials decide to stop and detain you from leaving the country – no wait – you don’t actually have to imagine how the US border officials of Lily Sussman’s country treat you – you can actually read about it in The Toronto Star:

For Peter Watts, life can be stranger than science fiction.

Watts – who has written six such books – was on his way back to Toronto last Tuesday after helping a friend move to the U.S. Before crossing the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, American customs officers pulled him over. He says when they began rifling through his car and luggage, he got out. They ordered him back in the car; he asked what was going on. What happened next has become the talk of the blogosphere: Watts too has waded in on it, posting that he was assaulted, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed and thrown in jail for the night, only to find that he was the one charged – with assaulting a customs officer.

Customs officials told the Star Watts was given directions “and became non-compliant…he did not follow directions and a physical altercation” ensued. An officer with the Port Huron police told the local newspaper that Watts “angrily” got out of the rental car and when he refused to get back in, they tried to cuff him and he became “aggressive.” In the melee, police said, Watts “choked” a customs officer.
“As a result of that he was detained and turned over to local authorities,” says Ronald Smith, chief customs and border protection officer at Blue Water, adding officers were conducing “outbound operations” stopping and inspecting vehicles after the toll booths but before they hit Canadian customs.

Watts empatically denies any such action. “I can state categorically that I did not choke anybody, I did not use profanity and did not raise my voice, I did not initiate any physical contact,” says Watts, who is also a marine biologist with a PhD in zoology. “All I basically did was use words to ask what was going on.”

If I had to choose between Israeli Border security shooting my Macbook and compensating me for it or taking a beating at the hands of US Border officials and then being arrested and charged with a criminal offense – I choose Israel. But hey, that’s just me.