Dirlik taking up
Raf’s space!

[Re: “Dirlik vs. Fischler,” Letters, March 25] For someone who has probably never set foot in Israel, John Dirlik claims to have intimate knowledge of the curriculum being taught “in countless settler yeshivas by legions of rabbis who serve in the IDF.” “Legions of Rabbis?” Is there an echo of the “Jewish Conspiracy,” or a whiff of the anti-Christ “Legions of Hell” here?

“The Rabbinical Legions of the IDF” must be the title to one of Dirlik’s hallucinatory depravations that seem to torment the poor man into his endless Goebbels-inspired falsifications and crude sophistic drivel.

Dirlik’s posturing as an anti-Zionist is merely a see-through veil for anti-Semitism. He, like all anti-Semites, is pathologically envious of all Jews as being intellectually and morally superior to him; and their God can beat up his God, if he has one, or did he have himself burned up in a Berlin bunker in ’45?

Dirlik should get a life, stop taking up Riff-Raf’s valuable space, and lay off the Jews. It’s not working for him.

>>Simon Wajcer

Zionism, not the
best thing ever

[Re: “April fool’s” Letters, April 8] Ken Frankel claims that critics of Israel only convince “the gullible masses.” Well, I used to be part of a different gullible mass, one taught that the Palestinian refugees who left their homeland in 1948 did so at the behest of Arab leaders. Not anymore. Israeli historians have since exposed this sheer fabrication and even right-wing Benny Morris’s acknowledges ethnic cleansing—though he regrets that the job was not finished. By ignoring Israeli scholarship, it is Mr. Frankel who chooses to remain part of the “gullible masses” that believe old and discredited propaganda. 

Mr. Frankel also congratulates the Mirror for finally having an edition “free of this Middle East War.” Is he disturbed by the existence of the conflict or just by the fact that the Zionists myths he has so long propagated keep being picked apart and dismantled before his eyes? Like the Israel lobby, Frankel desperately wants to hide Israel’s crimes and keeps trying to present a sanitized and “rebranded” Israel. It’s not working. No matter what packaging, the blood, suffering and humiliation of Palestinians seeps through.

As for the claim that Zionism was the “best thing that ever happened to us,” since when did Frankel become a spokesman for the Jews? I certainly never gave him permission to speak for me.

>>Mira Khazzam, Member, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal

[Re: “The big lies,” Letters, April 1] Insisting that the alleged ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is a “hate-filled” lie, Ken Frankel cites their 20 per cent portion of Israel’s population. Since, during Israel’s creation, the Palestinians constituted 68 per cent, “bungling Frankel” has once again only validated his opponents arguments. Keep it up, habibi.

>>Shirley Groves

Leave the
buskers alone

The new Montreal law forcing musicians and buskers to audition in order to obtain authorization to perform in the metro strikes me as absurd.

Beauty in music is often in the ear of the listener. We do not need judges or middlemen to weed out the riff-raff. Bad musicians usually get much fewer tips, and are discouraged to continue anyways.

Besides, half of the metro commuters these days do not listen to buskers—they walk around listening to their iPods. Let buskers and poor musicians alone.

Some areas in life simply do not need to be regulated.

>>Manish Patwari

Don’t block the box!

Are Montreal drivers the stupidest on the continent? Here’s a scenario for you. You’re at a busy intersection, the light is green, but the lane just ahead of you is full and barely moving. Do you go? If you answered yes, please hand in your licence.

But let’s continue: so there you are, smack dab in the middle because, like a sheep, you followed the car ahead of you, and the light changes. Now all traffic perpendicular to you is blocked and angry, and you’re sitting there like a doofus. Hey, great time to chat on the cell phone! Why not?! And don’t forget to lurch ahead and almost run over some pedestrians!

New York has a way to deal with this—they have huge blinking signs that say, “Don’t block the box—$500 fine” at major intersections. Apparently they are serious about it. Montreal needs that, desperately. Can we get some of those? To which I would add: “Don’t block the box—dummies!!” Baaaa!

>>Dave McIntyre

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