Good news in Israel

Scott Saxon took time out from worrying about such matters as the Sudanese government's genocide in Darfur to inform us about the latest sin of that great evil, Israel ["Stealing home," Damn Right, Feb. 10]. We were told that the Israeli government was invoking the 1950 law that allowed for confiscation of abandoned Arab property, caused primarily by the building of the security fence.

There was no need then to reply to this article, because Saxon was right on two counts: they were doing it, and they were wrong to do so. One could have objected to his use of the term, "Arabs driven out at Israel's creation," since the vast majority left, rather than were driven out. It could also have been noted that in those early days, the law made sense, since these people are never coming back and have been held prisoners by their Arab brethren ever since, and the land was needed to settle the equal number of Jewish refugees who were driven out of Arab countries, or left, and were warmly welcomed by their Israeli brethren.

Why I am writing now is that I expected to see in the next issue an article by Saxon noting that the Attorney-General of Israel has negated the use of this law. He overrode the government. This is very good news!

One wonders in what other country in the Middle East such an event might have occurred. Unfortunately, Saxon forgot to write about it. In case that is still the case, I thought I would spread the good news to Mirror readers. That can accompany the even better news of the ceasefire since negotiated between the Israeli government and the PA.

Ariel Sharon is trying for a just peace and starting to confront the great Israeli myth adhered to by a vocal minority of its citizens, that they can have peace, keep control of all land west of the Jordan and have Jewish settlements in the middle of an independent Palestine. And Mahmoud Abbas has done more for peace and the welfare of his people in one month than his predecessor did in a decade! Let us all wish these two leaders wisdom, generosity and success.

» Ken Frankel

Love and AIDS in rehab

Thank you for the recent article about addiction written by Kristian Gravenor ["The dope on drugs," Kristian Perspective, Feb. 10].

Something that always strikes me about the testimonials Gravenor describes is the regularity of the downward spiral that people go on. It often starts with a choice to suppress the stress and heartbreaks of life and invariably ends up in rehab, prison or cemeteries. Thankfully, I only did rehab.

In some countries, however, getting into rehab care is not that easy, given funding constraints. Some programs are far too long, and drug users also risk institutionalization, not to mention the loss of day-to-day rights, such as having a lover. The rationale is, "You're supposed to be thinking about getting your life together," but in the age of AIDS, prohibiting condom availability in drug treatment programs with injection drug users about is too risky. At the very least, staff should be in a position to facilitate workshops about blood-borne disease prevention so that those who, for example, choose clandestine sexual relationships know how to use condoms.

While many criticize the "anonymous" programs (NA, AA, etc.), at the very least they often give people a social network of support, where such issues are addressed consistently.

» Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt, London, U.K.

History lesson

Of course, I expect that letters published by the Mirror or any other newspaper will be opinionated. However, when someone states something totally and obviously false as a matter of fact, it is up to the paper to either edit the error out, or provide the correct information.

Case in point: In a letter headlined "Yesterday's fascists" [Feb. 3], John C. Underwood writes: "After the war, no posters from the Legion were to be put in classrooms for Remembrance Day, directed Premier Claude Ryan. Might upset the children. Where was he during the war? Certainly not in it."

After the war? I presume Underwood is talking about the Second World War. Well, Claude Ryan was never the premier, and he only entered electoral politics in 1978. That was 33 years after the war ended. You would expect that a Montreal publication would have a better grasp of our political history.

And speaking of understanding history, columnist Kristian Gravenor writes about the worthlessness of his B.A. in history ["The diploma fetish," Kristian Perspective, Feb. 3]. In the column, he states: "The McGill library has a wall of books about the Dreyfus Affair that could crush you like a bug, all discussing a guy who took a rap for a minor military scandal."

It's hard to believe that anyone with a grasp of history would dismiss the Dreyfus Affair as "a minor military scandal." It was a major turning point in French history that began to point to an understanding that if "liberté, égalité et fraternité" was going to be anything more than a cute slogan, than it must apply to those who are not Roman Catholic.

The Dreyfus Affair also paved the way for the birth of the modern Zionist movement that was founded by Theodor Herzl. Herzl was a journalist covering the Dreyfus trial who came to understand the depth of European anti-Semitism when he saw how the French government and the French press handled Dreyfus.

Perhaps Gravenor's history degree might not have been so worthless if he had actually studied history.

» Helen Shapiro

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