Homeless chime in
on Israel/Palestine
[Re: “Explaining Israel,” Letters, July 30] I’m one of many wandering spirits, but unlike most you’ll see, I’m neither boozer nor druggie (anyway, where should I get money for that?). Therefore my senses are sharp, and what I’ve really grown disgusted about is “(un)holy warriors” like Barry Merson!
It’s unbelievable that a representative of a people who could’ve been totally obliterated, if a certain war had ended differently, now claims the same “divine mission” as those 70 years ago claiming sorts of the same! The Jewish majority in Israel should know better and vote for sensible people who could bring a real peace!
Besides that (as their present government clearly stalls to buy time), I think a letter campaign (why not initiated by your readers and your paper?) to Barack Obama and his administration (the only power who could put enough pressure on Israel to give back the occupied territories—hey, remember what happened after May 1945?), could create a lasting peace, a peace that even would diminish “The Base” (a double wordplay on and against al-Qaeda). So even Montrealers (and every “crusader”) will get more peace themselves? So get writing!
P.S. I will be in East QC. when this arrives. You are the stationary ones!
And thanks to you who donated the stamp!
>>Joel Canjuck, formerly
of Sophia Street, Vancouver,
passing thru MTL
Re-re-explaining Israel
[Re: “Re-explaining Israel,” Letters, Aug. 6] Thanks to John Dirlik for reminding us of the root of the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict (perhaps not the best term, since there is a gross imbalance of power between the two), the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people that was at the root of the founding of the state of Israel, and has continued unabated for over 60 years. Between 400 and 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed, and many of those sites are now towns with Hebraicized names. About three quarters of a million Palestinians were either expelled or terrorized into leaving, with Israel illegally refusing them return to their homes. I write as a Jew who, when I was still ignorant of the falseness of the lies we were fed regarding the way Israel was established, once lived in Israel, loved it deeply and called it home. No longer.
>>Mira Khazzam
[Re: “Re-explaining Israel,” Letters, Aug. 6] This is becoming routine. I write some facts about Israel and the Jews and one of the usual crowd of adversaries responds with the usual propaganda.
I stand by all of the facts that I stated in my letter of July 30 and add a few more. Zionism is Judaism in action as well as the renewal of the Jews. Today’s Jews are the descendants of the ancient Israelites and are the legitimate owners of Israel by right of inheritance. Israel makes up 0.2 per cent of the Middle East, yet there are those who somehow cannot be satisfied with the other 99.8 per cent.
There was once a time when hostility toward Jews was usually directed against us as individuals. Now much of that hostility is focused on our collective existence centred in Israel. Only the Jews are systematically denied collective legitimacy by much of the world. Not much has changed.
For almost 2,000 years our enemies told us, “Get out! Go home!” Now we that we have finally gone home they still say “Get out!” Well, the Jews are home to stay. Get used to it.
>> Barry Merson
Lil Wayne, AC/DC
and the cops
I work downtown, finished around six on Wednesday and took a walk over to the Bell Centre where the Lil Wayne show was. More cops than fans on streets, cops on foot, in cars and vans, on horseback, in paramilitary looking outfits, paddy wagons, people getting pulled over all over the place. I left, terrible atmosphere...
Segue to Saturday, Aug. 8. I go to the Olympic Stadium with a friend after work, on a whim, we found tickets immediately coming up the metro ramp, went outside, thousands of people, drinking alcohol, smoking, grooving. What it used to look like at the corner of Atwater and Ste-Catherine (before a show, in the day), and like about, uh, eight cops. We went to a dep, bought a six pack, drank it outside the dep, along with 60–80 other people, smoked a doobie, right there on the sidewalk... just chillin’, no cops anywhere.
Why so confrontational at the Lil Wayne show? They say to counter a gang presence. At the AC/DC show, I saw people getting out of limos on Viau…let’s just say the guys had tats, and looked like they rode bikes, and had bodyguards (even bigger guys with tats that looked like they rode Harleys too...). And nobody cared, as it should be.
So what was the arrest tally at Lil Wayne? And at AC/DC? I dunno, there’s a story there somewhere. Maybe somebody should write it...
>> Blewsy Boy
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