More peace talk

With regards to Ken Frankel’s missive to the Mirror (May 2, 2002) and his “statistical” analysis of the Jewish community with regards to support for Peace Now!: it seems that while the voices calling for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East crisis are perhaps in the minority, they are indeed there, and must be heeded. After all, what alternative is there? Further provocations and historical grievances justifying more violence, in what is a circle jerk ending in mutually assured destruction?

Or has Mr. Frankel never actually been to Israel? If you had,sir, you might have noticed that “they” are everywhere—Arabs, that is to say, Palestinians, live and work in every Israeli city. They simply aren’t going anywhere and neither are the Israelis. It’s high time to put history aside, or rather to repeat the historical times when Arabs and Jews (Israelis) coexisted together cooperatively, peacefully. Those times were not so long ago, in a place that maintains a historical reference measured in millennia.

Let’s face it—the present paradigm of reciprocal punishment is so very painfully not working. People, young and old, are dying, as the young are being sent by the old to do their dirty work. And there is nothing to be gained but more pain from that way of thinking.

—Neil Schwartzman

Full spectrum

Your April 25 issue contained two Israel-bashing letters plus one full page of anti-Israel dissidents of Jewish origin [“Dissent in the diaspora”] and not a word from the other side of the spectrum. Fifty dissidents merit a full page, but 20,000 pro-Israel marchers are not even mentioned. Some accuracy in reporting! You may not be a journal of opinion, but one may expect some less than prejudiced journalism from Sasha’s paper.

—Benjamin Shara

Gallery gaff

Leafing through the Best of Montreal [May 9], I was stunned by the results of Best Galleries. How can your readers be so badly misinformed? The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is, as its title indicates, a museum, and private spaces rented out to artists such as ArteVISTA and Zeke’s are not actual galleries.

Is that to say that the Mirror is not doing a proper job in informing their readers about Montreal’s contemporary art scene? Many artist-run centres and commercial galleries are actively promoting local and international contemporary art and artists. These galleries deserve your respect and that of your readers. The Mirror has a responsibility in recognizing their outstanding work.

—Mark Lanctôt, director of the Association des galeries d’art
contemporain de Montréal

A BOM of her own

I have been living here for the past four years (I’m from San Francisco). I have more free time than anyone in Montreal and I know where to eat, ’cuz I don’t cook! Your Best of Montreal reader’s poll [May 9] misses the mark!

The best empanadas are at 910 Duluth E., made by the very loving Fatima. She and her ex-husband started Léle de Cuca, the Brazilian resto on Marie-Anne. The best Indian is in Parc-Extension, on Jean-Talon W.—it looks like a hole in the wall and the window says something like “Asian” food in medium-size letters. For $3-4 you can have a delicious Indian meal, complete with real chai tea and nan bread. The best Chinese is the demure looking Délice Flamboyant on St-Laurent between Pine and Prince-Arthur; the best eggplant I have ever tasted. The one thing that is right in your BOM is that the best fashion designer is the ever-sexy Yso.

Oh yeah: the best Vietnamese is chef Ha’s Souvenirs D’Indochine at 243 Mont-Royal W. The most desirable woman is Damali. She used to bartend at Roy bar, but dropped out to become the hottest car mechanic in Quebec. A billboard of her still hangs above the old Sam the Record Man store on Ste-Catherine. The most desirable man is some Vidéotron guy I saw in his van on Beaudry. Give me cable…

—Tania

Corrections

The photo in last week’s People column was not of Scientologist Darrell Schlereth, but rather of Kitchen Manager Stéphane Jaillet, whose profile appears in this issue, along with his photo, again.
Also, the e-mail address for Energy Healer Paul John Elliot [People, April 11] should have read pje@aie.ca. The Mirror regrets the errors.