Segacs’s World I Know

The Unite the Right talk is back:

Merger talks between the Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance have made a death-bed recovery and could result in an historic deal before the end of the week, sources said Wednesday.

I have to admit that every time I hear the phrase “unite the right”, it really makes me wonder . . . I mean, what exactly is right-wing about the Tory platform lately?

But the real question is, what will the resulting party be? Will it follow the Alliance on foreign policy and the Tories on domestic social issues, or vice-versa?

It kinda reminds me of the old joke of how in heaven, the Swiss run the banks, the French do the cooking, the Germans make the cars, and the the British run the police. In hell, the Swiss make the cars, the French run the banks, the Germans run the police, and the British do the cooking . . .

I flipped on the TV at 9 for the West Wing, only to find Law and Order CI on in its place. When I checked NBC’s website, all it says is that tonight’s West Wing episode will be aired in 2 weeks. No explanation. Even next week is a repeat. I want my West Wing fix!

Today’s weather was miserable – high winds, power outages, heavy rain . . . but in New York it was much worse, where 10 people died and dozens more were injured when the Staten Island ferry crashed:

A New York ferry slammed into a pier while docking in high winds on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens more as passengers’ limbs were severed and others leaped into the choppy water to escape being crushed in the wreckage.

At least 34 people were hospitalized after the Andrew J. Barberi ferry crashed at the end of its 25-minute, 5.2-mile run to Staten Island from Manhattan and tore a huge gash down the side of the bright orange boat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The boat which can hold up to 6,000 passengers was carrying commuters heading home from Manhattan to the city’s more residential Staten Island borough. It was unclear how many people were on board.

What an awful tragedy. Reports are also that the ferry’s assistant captain attempted suicide after the crash. And the rescue operations are still going on at the scene.

I hope they at least wait until the families have had a chance to mourn a bit before the inevitable finger-pointing and blame-shifting begins.

So the big news today is the bombing in Gaza that killed three Americans:

The convoy targeted by a roadside bomb was heading to Gaza City where a cultural attache was due to interview Palestinian students hoping to receive scholarships for post-graduate studies in the United States, Palestinian officials said.

All the news stories are making a big deal over that – as though the lives of the dead guards would be worth less if they were there for some other purpose.

But this is big news. And not just for the cynical reason that, to the media, dead Americans are more important than dead Jews. That’s old news. However, the “show restraint” commandment that the world keeps issuing to Israel won’t go over too well with the US government, that’s my prediction. The Palestinians are already quaking in their boots about the response. Even the terrorist groups aren’t bragging openly:

Militant groups denied responsibility for the bombing — a rare attack on foreigners in the uprising — and it was condemned by Palestinian officials including President Yasser Arafat, who said he had ordered an investigation.

Of course, that’s only the official condemnation. We all know from experience what those are worth.

A better gauge of sentiment is the reaction in the street:

Six U.S. investigators who arrived under Palestinian police escort to examine the scene of the bombing were forced to leave after youths from Jabalya stoned them and their vehicles.

And it took about 5 seconds for the media to start blaming US support for Israel as the cause or “justification” for the attack. It’s the old “maybe if we’re nicer to the terrorists, they won’t hate us so much” school of thought.

Yeah right.

The negotiated peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians with no negotiating authority is back in the news:

In a cover letter for the Geneva Accord sent to Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, the Palestinian and Israeli participants write: “None of us represents our respective peoples in any binding sense.”

I wrote about this last year, when I first heard about it, and said it was a bad idea. And I still think so now.

The plan itself actually sounds pretty decent:

The unofficial deal envisions a Palestinian state in 98 percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

It gives Palestinian refugees — who fled or were forced to flee their homes during the 1948 Mideast war — three options, but blocks the possibility of having them resettle in large numbers in what is today Israel.

[ . . . ]

Under the treaty, the Palestinians would have sovereignty over the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, while Israel would control parts of the Western Wall which runs alongside the compound.

It’s pretty close to what a final agreement should probably look like, IMHO. And you can understand why people, frustrated with ongoing terror and violence, would want to work towards a solution. (Side note: What do you figure Peres thinks of having his name put on equal footing with Arafat’s? Does Arafat really believe he can paint himself as a “moderate”?)

But the main problems with this aren’t going to go away. The plan can only work if there’s a true commitment on the part of the Palestinians to live peacefully as neighbours with Israel. As the ongoing campaign of terror indicates, there is no such commitment. And as far as I can tell, there’s nothing in the plan about stopping terrorism, enforcing security for the Israeli people, or destroying the terrorist infrastructure.

Perhaps more importantly, anything Israel “concedes” in this unofficial, unsanctioned agreement, will probably be adopted as a jumping-off point for Palestinians in the next round of negotiations. Arab nations will scream and point fingers for years to come that the Israelis “promised” to give up half of Jerusalem and 97% of the West Bank and Gaza. And any Palestinian obligations in this deal will be conveniently forgotten, as they were in the Road Map, the Taba agreement, and pretty much every agreement they’ve ever endorsed.

Israel has everything to lose here and nothing to gain. And the people involved in this plan are undercutting the government. I don’t blame them for being mad.

Update: Lynn isn’t too impressed by this “agreement” either.

It was another usual, run-of-the-mill, blame Israel day at the UN:

Israel’s security fence, dubbed the “racist colonial wall” and “expansionist conquest wall” by Arab envoys at the United Nations, is currently coming under harsh criticism by members of the UN Security Council.

At an open debate on a Syrian-sponsored draft resolution that deems the fence “illegal under relevant provisions of international law,” and demands that it be “ceased and reversed,” ambassador after ambassador has stated that in erecting the fence, Israel was over-reacting to terrorist attacks against its citizens.

Well, nobody will ever accuse the UN of overreacting to terrorism . . . or of reacting at all.

Work’s been crazy lately and I’m exhausted, so blogging has been a bit light lately. Hope to be back on a more normal schedule soon.

Everyone’s fed up with “Bennifer” – which is why the promotion for their new movie together, “Jersey Girl”, won’t be featuring them:

Although Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are international A-list stars, the studio that’s distributing the couple’s next film has decided it’s better off not talking quite so much about the leads of the film. Even though folks can’t seem to get enough of the tabloid regulars, Miramax has decided to “spin” the advertising around their next film, Jersey Girl, more around director Kevin Smith.

[ . . . ]

Lopez has only a small part in Jersey Girl and her character actually dies fairly early on into the script.

With the way “Gigli” bombed, this is probably a fairly sound strategy. But if Kevin Smith was entertaining notions of crossing over into the mainstream with this film, after leaving his Jay and Silent Bob Askewniverse behind, then he won’t be able to count on Jen and Ben’s star power to do it.

I suppose this is what passes for “educational viewing” in the Palestinian territories (via Meryl Yourish):

The official television station of the Palestinian Authority has begun broadcasting a video clip depicting the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports.

PMW Director Itamar Marcus said the clip, which was broadcast twice within the past week, demonstrates that PA TV “continues to promote and glorify violence.”

The video shows hands clutching stones springing up at various points on a map of Israel, he said, followed by the Palestinian flag emerging and covering the entire area of the Jewish state.

Palestinian television, you will note, is run by and controlled by the Arafat-led Palestininan Authority. They seem real interested in peace and compromise, doncha think?