Saw the movie The Life of David Gale today . . . and I must say that, though the acting was decent, I was fairly disappointed with the film’s message. Being against the death penalty myself, I thought there were much better arguments that could have been made. Without giving away too much of the plot for anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, the movie doesn’t succeed in proving that the system is flawed – though it clearly is. Instead, it shows a bunch of people trying to manipulate it in sick and twisted ways that seem contrived purely to keep the audience guessing.
But I guess it made me think about laws in general, and whether or not a law is legitimate even if it can be manipulated for political purposes. All laws are flawed because there’s always a drawback to having them. For example, we could argue that laws against hate speech are flawed because they deny freedom of speech. That’s the American position. Our Canadian position is that putting these limits on freedom of speech is the lesser of the evils, because of the detrimental effect that hate speech has on society.
In the case of the death penalty, though, I tend to think it’s the opposite. The death penalty – largely based on a biblical concept of “an eye for an eye” (which is false – the bible meant that monetary compensation should be paid) – seems the greater of two evils. Partly because it’s ineffective and partly because it’s morally wrong. Ineffective because it doesn’t deter murders or violent criminals, and morally wrong because, to “torture the cliché” (to borrow a line from the movie), two wrongs don’t make a right.
Kevin Spacey sure can act, though!
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And in the continuing charade that is Palestinian politics, Mahmoud Abbas has resigned as Prime Minister, ostensibly because of a power struggle with Arafat.
What gets me is that the international media is buying this second-rate acting job. Abbas never did a thing to try to curb terrorism. This lets him claim to the West that he was trying but had his hands tied. And it lets him escape the puppet role that they set him up for without actually trying to make any changes – because he never wanted to in the first place.
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The EU won’t blacklist them and Mahmoud Abbas won’t fight them – so why is anyone surprised that Hamas just keeps gaining power?
In the meantime, only Israel has shown a willingness to fight this terror organization, and it’s a costly fight indeed – for both sides. Today’s operation to kill senior Hamas commander Mohammed al-Hanbali cost the life of an IDF soldier and wounded four more. It also collapsed the apartment structure where al-Hanbali was hiding, meaning 28 Palestinian families became homeless. And of course, Hamas will clamour for “revenge”, which it will take out on more innocent schoolchildren riding buses, or grandmothers shopping in supermarkets, or teenagers at a nightclub.
The US and especially the EU calls this a “cycle of violence”, implying that it is an endless chain of morally-equivalent actions and reactions on both sides. They then tend to blame Israel on the ground that Israel is the occupying power and the Palestinians are being occupied. I suppose using those overly simplistic leaps of logic, this makes sense somehow.
But, of course, there is no moral equivalence between assassinating a terrorist murderer, and blowing up a busload of innocent civilians. None whatsoever. Israel is engaged in defence while the Palestinian terrorists are engaged in offence. Israel’s goal is peace and security; the goal of the Palestinians is the eradication of Israel. No, not the same thing at all.
Unfortunately, the world seems to think that the terrorists are reasonable people and that they should be tiptoed around and negotiated with. Israel knows that there is no chance of peace with Hamas, or an Arafat-led PA, calling the shots. So they’ll keep fighting this war against terrorism and the world will keep on blaming them for it . . . until it’s won.
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This has got to be the best gay pride sign of all time:
Must be tough being both gay and Jewish. Kind of a double-minority-whammy. At least this guy’s got a good sense of humour about it.
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It is beyond me why Israelis were surprised at what went on at the Pro-Palestinian UN conference Anti-Israel propaganda fest held in New York yesterday:
Postcards of a Palestinian child dwarfed by the Israeli fence, slide shows of Palestinian humanitarian crises allegedly caused by the fence’s construction, informational leaflets printed by the anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta, and maps of “Palestine” from the river to the sea from 1920, minus the caveat that Palestine was never a state, were all on display yesterday at UN headquarters in New York, where delegates from across the globe gathered for the International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People.
The theme of the two-day conference was “End the Occupation!”
Ridiculous allegations were also levelled against the security fence, delegates were urged to overlook and excuse Palestinian terrorism, and Rachel Corrie’s mother was called up to speak. ADL chairman Abraham Foxman wrote a letter to Kofi Annan urging him not to support this conference, which – surprise, surprise – was ignored.
And people wonder why Israel doesn’t trust the UN . . .
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I was over at Imshin’s blog and I decided to check out the Hebrew section, where spotted a link to this essay by Scott at AMCTLG.com entitled “The Stand”. It’s one American’s view about why supporting Israel is so important. If it were up to me, it would be required reading:
I stand with Israel. In the endless finger-pointing game of “who shot first? Who stops shooting first?” I point my finger squarely at the Arab world, and wait with Israel for them to make the first real move. I admire Israel, because it is a ridiculously small country with ridiculously brave people.
At this point most other authors would say, “if you don’t agree with me you’d better just skip the rest of this.” I almost did just that. But I changed my mind. If you don’t agree with the sentiments above I want you to read the rest of this very slowly. I want you to understand how stupid and ignorant you are. I want you to understand that being “for Jews but against Israel” is a contradiction that reeks of anti-Semitism. I want you to get so angry your blood fizzes. Because you see that’s how angry I am right now, and I feel like sharing.
Read the rest. Yeah, even you who disagrees. You know who you are.
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Well, it’s official: Benjamin Netanyahu will be returning to Montreal. But – perhaps wisely – he’ll likely stay far away from Concordia this time; he’ll be speaking at a local synagogue instead:
Netanyahu’s visit this fall will be as minister of finance in the government of Ariel Sharon. He will meet with Quebec business executives about investing in Israel.
The official nature of his planned tour contrasts with last year’s visit here – and to Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg – when he came as a private citizen. He was invited to Concordia by Hillel, the main Jewish organization on campus.
Various levels of security will be on duty the night of the planned synagogue speech, which Poupko said will be open to all “as long as they behave themselves.”
On the one hand, it would have been nice for him to be invited back to Concordia merely to prove a point about free speech. On the other hand, I wouldn’t put it past the same idiots to riot again, just like last year. At least this way, Netanyahu’s speech will likely be heard.
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This sums up pretty accurately how I feel about Canadian Idol:
People like [music journalist Kerry] Doole don’t believe a televised contest, one built around cover versions, is the best way to find Canada’s next musical star. “It can assess a very limited type of musical talent – the talent of mimicry,” Doole says. “The stress appears to be on vocal ability, rather than any kind of originality or creativity.”
For Canadian Idol’s detractors, that’s the central issue – since the contestants only do cover songs, it’s impossible to assess how much raw talent they have. After all, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell and Neil Young didn’t become music legends by singing covers.
“Ultimately, the only way you make music is by listening to your own voice, certainly not putting yourself in front of a panel that’s trying to create hit songs,” says Jim Cuddy, one of Blue Rodeo’s two front men.
In other words, it’s nothing but a glorified karaoke contest. Which is why I don’t watch it.
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Palestinian children will no longer be allowed to worship “martyrs” (read: terrorists) in schools . . . at least not in front of the TV cameras:
The Palestinian Authority Education Ministry has banned schools from hanging on their walls posters of “martyrs” killed in the violence over the past three years, threatening to punish anyone who defies the order.
The ministry has also issued instructions banning schoolchildren from participating in demonstrations or any other activities related to the current violence, including painting graffiti on walls.
[ . . . ]
“Despite all the difficulties, Palestinian children will prove that they are not different from other children their age in other parts of the world. Our children only want to live a normal life and be able to study,” said Humos.
I suppose if they feel repressed at school, the children can always attend camp Ayyat Al Akhras next summer. Al Akhras was a 17-year-old suicide bomber who murdered two Israelis, and she already has at least two camps named after her.
It’s going to take more than a phony bit of window-dressing for the media to reverse deep-set worship of violence and terrorism among Palestinian school children. Operation S.I.C.K., an acronym for Stop Inciting Children to Kill, has a lot more on the PA’s real policies concerning “martyr” worship – not just the ones they want shown on CNN.
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The Globe and Mail’s latest online poll asks readers who they think would be most to blame for the collapse of the “road map”: Palestinians, “Palestinian militants”, or Israelis. And at the moment, 67% have said Israelis.
These polls aren’t exactly scientific. I have to assume that some pro-Palestinian site is directing thousands of votes over there to flood the poll. But even at that, it seems pretty ridiculous, when you consider that the Palestinians have made absolutely zero steps towards fulfilling their end of the bargain, comapred to all the concessions Israel has made.
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