Politicizing Tragedy

I have observed over the years that whenever there is something like a school shooting in the U.S., there are two reactions. The progressive side calls for gun reform; the gun-loving right's political stooges proclaim, "Now is not the time to politicize tragedy."

Yet that is exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu, a profoundly evil man, in my view, did after the terrible murder of the young Israeli embassy officials in Washington.

I was frankly disgusted by the Prime Minister's words, his exploitation of a tragedy for his own selfish purposes. His words also carry an assumption that jewish lives matter far more than the over 50,000 Gazans who have thus far been sacrifice in the retaliation for the October 7th attacks. The collective punishment of Palestinians, a war crime in itself, is normalized as an appropriate response to that attack, which took 1400 Israeli lives

An I am not alone in this disgust. Martin Regg Cohn, a man who spent many years as a Middle East correspondent, has this to say about Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s primary purpose is to save his political skin at home.

This is a domestic political stratagem masquerading as military strategy.

Hamas has already been largely eviscerated. To eradicate the militant movement entirely, as the prime minister keeps promising, would force more innocent people to pay an incalculable price that no one should bear.

In his pursuit of political salvation, his evasion of any responsibility for the attack, he has alienated much of the world,

Last Sunday, Canada joined France and the U.K. in releasing a formal statement that condemned Israel for its renewed deployment of firepower and weaponization of food shipments in Gaza.

“The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” the three governments declared, adding pointedly that some of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers had crossed a line by suggesting ethnic cleansing:

“We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate.”

The European Union and the United Nations have also called out Israel for withholding food and medical aid in a cynical bid to demoralize an entire population so that people will turn on Hamas.

Netanyahu, however, is nothing if not brazen in his defiance of the rest of the world. Indeed, his response to the above condemnation was unequivocal, accusing 

Canada, the United Kingdom and France of giving Hamas “a huge prize” by threatening to take action against Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

This defiance is made possible by the absence of countervailing influences within i his cabinet.

His early war cabinet — which brought in opposition National Unity party chair Benny Gantz and then-defence minister Yoav Gallant has been disbanded (Gantz departed and Gallant was fired as defence minister for dissenting from the most outlandish plans).

Now, the prime minister depends for his political survival on bellicose cabinet ministers from far-right parties that do not countenance co-existence with Palestinians in peacetime or wartime.

Regg Cohn ends with a lacerating assessment of Israel's leader:

His calculations are based on personal political survival rather than Israel’s national interest, its international standing, and Palestinian co-existence.

That, by all sane metrics, makes Netanyahu manifestly unfit to hold public office. 

UPDATE: Here is Netanyahu at his demagogic 'best' as he rebukes Canada, the UK and France over its condemnation of Israel's starvation of Gazans:

 

Finally, A Modicum Of Integrity

The images of the carnage in Gaza are hard to look at. Innocent men, women and children maimed and dead are scenes only the deeply depraved could welcome. And the destruction continues apace, with The Guardian reporting this morning that 14,000 babies could die in the next 24 hours of starvation.

In the midst of this darkness has come a small ray of light. Canada, the UK and France are saying enough is enough. The three countries

threatened action against Israel if it does not stop a renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions, piling further pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli military announced the start of a new operation on Friday, and Mr. Netanyahu said earlier on Monday that Israel would take control of the whole of Gaza. International experts have already warned of looming famine.

“The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law,” said a joint statement released by Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank,” the statement said, adding later: “We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions.”

They have every reason to act. 

Earlier that day, Israel’s military declared an entire city a combat zone, airstrikes killed more than 60 people, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel’s army would “wipe out” what remains of Palestinian Gaza.

Has there ever been a more bald statement of genocidal intent? 

Bowing a little to international pressure, Netanyahu is allowing a trickle of aid:

.... the UN said nine trucks of aid had been cleared to enter. This is less than 2% of daily shipments before the war, when Palestinians in Gaza were well fed and the strip had its own agricultural sector, and will make no meaningful difference to the crisis now gripping most of its 2.3 million population.

Even that miniscule amount was too much for some. 

Netanyahu’s decision to allow even a trickle of food in to Gaza had been attacked by far-right critics including members of his own cabinet. On Monday he shared a video on social media explaining his hand had been forced by close allies.

Back here at home, 

Fen Hampson, chancellor‘s professor and professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said Monday’s trilateral statement still represents a “shot across the bow” of Israel from three nations driven by profound humanitarian concern for those in Gaza. It also underscores Mr. Carney’s desire to rebuild transatlantic ties in a meaningful way at a time when Canada is facing challenges from its closest ally, the U.S.

Whether any of this will make a difference, given that Israel seems only concerned about U.S. support, remains to be seen. The trilateral statement, however, is a welcome voice of sanity and morality puncturing what has been, up to now, the West's deafening silence amidst the genocidal war Israel has been waging since October 7, 2023.

 

 

A Brave Young Man

I sometimes wonder, had social media existed in its present form when I was teaching, would I have posted as I do today? Would I have been willing to risk my career in order to address issues of importance and controversy? While it's true I used to be a prolific letter-to-the-editor devotee and had many articles published, receiving the imprimatur of a newspaper, with its specific guidelines and restrictions, is far different from publishing one's thoughts in a blog or any other social media forum.

Would you jeopardize your career and your future to stay true to your principles? One young man, Logan Rozos, has made that brave, principled and dangerous choice. Please watch the following video of his valedictory address at his NYU graduation ceremony. Listen carefully to his words. I will discuss the immediate consequences afterward.

We live in a time when any criticism of Israel is conflated with raging anti-semitism. We live in an age when groupthink demands that the carnage, the eradication of innocent Palestinian lives, be interpreted simply as acts of self-defence. However, to deviate from the official narrative, to address the monstrously malignant actions of Israel today, can only be seen by fair-minded people as a singular act of courage.

But there are consequences for rectitude. The backlash from the university was almost immediate.

New York University said it is withholding the diploma of a student who used his commencement speech to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza and what he referred to as the United States’ “complicity in this genocide.”

 Pro-Israeli groups demanded that NYU take action after footage of the speech was shared online. The university issued an apology the same day and announced it would withhold the student’s diploma while it pursues disciplinary action against him.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a Wednesday statement that the student “lied about the speech he was going to deliver” and misused his role “to express his personal and one-sided political views.”

“NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him,” Beckman said. 

Perhaps that craven response is to be expected. After all, universities are under assault from the Trump regime, and many seem willing to abandon their traditional positions as bastions of free thought and expression.

When it comes to facts that portray the truth about Israel's genocide in Gaza, it would seem that American First Amendment rights protecting free speech are quickly jettisoned.

The New York and New Jersey branch of the Anti Defamation League wrote on X that it was “appalled” by the speech, adding: “We are thankful to the NYU administration for their strong condemnation and their pursuit of disciplinary action.”

Another group, #EndJewHatred, suggested the speech would violate the university’s student-conduct guidelines, which were updated last year in response to a lawsuit over three Jewish students’ allegations of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Criticism now must be very qualified and limited.

In April, the former head of medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) alleged that there was a “climate of fear” among major universities after NYU canceled a lecture she was due to give. Officials at the NYU’s medical center told her references to the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid in her planned presentation could be seen as “anti-government” and “antisemitic,” she said.

I don't want to end this post leaving you with the impression that Rozos has no support.

In a statement Thursday, Afaf Nasher, the executive director of the New York branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the student “for using this opportunity to demand an end to the bloodshed in Gaza” and demanded NYU end its disciplinary process against him.

In closing, there is a line from King Lear that I have been thinking a lot about in recent weeks.  Albany rebukes his wicked wife Goneril for her terrible mistreatment of her father, the king:

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. 

That's all I have to say.

The Fallout Continues

I admit to taking a certain pleasure in reporting bad news about the U.S. That it is being sanctioned by Canadians for its abysmal treatment of such a reliable trading partner seems only right and just.

Although it is not just Canada boycotting travel to the U.S., we are a sizable source of their tourism woes.

International visitor spending in the U.S. is expected to drop by $12.5 billion (U.S.), falling to $169 billion by the end of 2025, down from $181 billion last year, according to new data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). This marks a 7-per-cent decline from 2024 and a 22 per cent drop compared to the last peak of American tourism in 2019.

The U.S., home to the world’s largest travel and tourism sector, is the only country among 184 economies analyzed by WTTC and Oxford Economics that is projected to see a decline in international visitor spending this year.

The U.S., in my view, has been a dangerous place to visit for many years, its love of guns and violence and a deeply rooted suspicion of "the other" overshadowing its many attractions. The realization of that danger has become more pronounced since Don Trump began his second term as president.

 ... hundreds of thousands of Canadians are deciding not to vacation or take day trips to the U.S. Incidents like the detention of European tourists at U.S. borders and a new policy requiring foreign nationals staying over 30 days to register have further discouraged international travel to America.

”(The decline) is not related to the economy in general,” said Frédéric Dimanche, director of Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. “It’s really more a question of attitudes towards the U.S. and Trump, whether (travellers) are against the policies, against the politics, whether they’re concerned about the security issues when crossing the border.” 

It would seem that this decline will take a long time, if ever, to reverse.

The WTTC  [World Travel and Tourism Council] forecasts it will take until at least 2030 for the U.S. tourism industry, worth nearly $2.6 trillion, to recover to pre-COVID levels.

Dimanche said consumer perceptions of the Trump administration won’t change over time, and it will take years for the tourism industry to rebuild tourist confidence.

Being a relatively safe country, one hopes that Canada will position itself to be an attractive travel alternative. There is much to be said for a holidaying in a locale where every second thought isn't for the personal safety of oneself and one's family.

 

A Demonic Presence

Although I don't believe in him, there are times when I think the devil is alive and well,  wielding his chicanery from the White House. While I realize such hyperbolic assertions are probably unworthy of this blog, consider the 'evidence'.

The devil is traditionally depicted as the sower of discord. Disunity, division, suspicion, hatred and chaos are his main calling cards, withs goodness equated with weakness. As Shakespeare said, "...goodness to the vile seem[s] vile". There are countless examples to demonstrate this dominant ethos in Donald Trump's Amerika, but the following encapsulates it nicely:

At the end of the report, Andrea Mitchell speculates that Elon Musk might have influenced the decision to 'rescue' these Afrikaners. Given that Trump is shunning all other such attempts at assuaging the suffering of others (mainly non-whites, by the way), I think the explanation is simpler: he is appealing to his racist base and sending the powerful, malignant message that people of colour have little value. Again, what better way is there to sow discord than that?

How are churches feeling about the Afrikaners? Well, Episcopalians want no part of them.

The Episcopal Church has severed a four-decade-old relationship with the federal government, citing its moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa the Trump administration had declared refugees.

The hearty ‘nee’ (‘no’ in Afrikaans) from the religious denomination marks an extraordinary act of protest. The Episcopal Church long had participated in resettling refugees fleeing persecution and war in their home countries, Religion News Service reported. 

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Sean More, said this:

Rowe told his fellow believers that it had been “painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.”

“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” he continued. 

And, of course, as the NBC report makes clear, Trump is bringing down the hammer on most other groups.

The order comes even as the White House has executed sweeping actions to remove undocumented immigrants from the global south, sometimes scooping up permanent U.S. citizens in its net.

Fair-minded people worldwide are not fooled by Trump and his divisive, diabolical tactics. The Evil One (if I may be permitted a bit of literary licence), however, must be laughing with delight.

UPDATE: I came across a paragraph in an article by Bruce Arthur about the reinstatement of the late Pete Rose to the MLB, thereby rescinding a 'permanent' ban and making him eligible to be considered for Hall of Fame induction. The following, I think, captures the morally tortured tenor of the times:

This is a time of vice and wickedness, however, and a time of freedom from consequences for bad behaviour. It’s also a time of compliance, for some. The American government is making flying more dangerous, education more stupid, health more precarious, scams more rewarding and corruption more common. [MLB commissioner Rob]Manfred, notably, met with U.S. President Donald Trump on April 17. After Rose’s death, Trump brayed that Rose should get a complete pardon. Trump’s brain is stuck in the 1980s in many respects, but he also is attracted to anti-virtue like a fly to feces. 

Keeping Up The Pressure

Despite their president's avowals that Canada has nothing the U.S. needs,  many Americans are discovering (much to their shock, I'm sure) otherwise. As I have written before, Trump's threats to our sovereignty, his open contempt for our country, his extortionate, Mafia-like tariffs have all stiffened Canadians' resolve to assert their national pride and show their anger toward the U.S.

In addition to widespread boycotts of American products, perhaps the most obvious and stinging rebuke is Canadians' ongoing refusal to travel to that country.

Travel by Canadians coming back from trips to the U.S. dropped sharply in April, according to preliminary data from Statistics Canada.

Return trips by Canadians coming back from the U.S. by air dropped by 19.9 per cent, and return via land borders dropped by a whopping 35.2 per cent compared to April of last year.

Canadian return trips by air from the U.S. in March were down 13.5 per cent compared to March 2024, and return trips by car for that month were down 31.9 per cent.

That decline has led to airlines making big schedule changes.

WestJet is pausing nine routes between the U.S. and Canada as demand dampens for travel between the two countries.

A spokesperson for the airline confirmed the following suspensions in an email to CBC News:

• Vancouver-Austin (May through October)
• Calgary-Fort Lauderdale; Edmonton-Chicago; St. John's-Orlando; and Winnipeg-Orlando (June)
• Kelowna-Seattle-Tacoma; and Winnipeg-Los Angeles (June through August)
• Edmonton-Atlanta; and Winnipeg-Las Vegas (July through August)

Westjet is not the only airline making adjustments. 

Toronto-based Porter Airlines ...  told CTVNews.ca that 80 per cent of total network capacity during the summer peak period is now dedicated to domestic flights. The figure is up from a previously planned 75 per cent.

Westjet is also scheduling more domestic flights, as we opt to patronize our own country. 

Air Canada is a bit more circumspect in discussing its changes.

When asked whether it was changing its routes or flights, Air Canada told CTVNews.ca in an email Friday that it is “adjusting capacity” to U.S. sun destinations, using smaller aircraft and reducing routes in response to the changing market demand.

“We continue to monitor demand and will make adjustments accordingly,” wrote the country’s biggest air carrier. It also said it adjusted its non-stop Vancouver-Washington Dulles flights to connect in Toronto.

It said it has experienced “some softening in the transborder market,” with bookings on the cross-border market overall down about 10 per cent from April to September.

The Montreal-based airline reduced capacity for routes to U.S. leisure destinations such as Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona, Bloomberg reported March 28.

Our product and travel boycotts, by all reports, are having tangible effects. We should take satisfaction in inflicting economic pain on the giant to the south.  The bully may be much bigger than us, but our solid, principled ways of standing up to it should gladden the patriotic hearts of all Canadians.

 

  

 

 

 

A Chill Comes To The Neigbourhood

That chill would be the one brought by ICE agents, who descended upon a Worcester Massachusetts neighbourhood to arrest an 'undesirable'.

Police say two people were arrested when a crowd of people tried to interfere with an ICE operation in Worcester on Thursday. The incident has generated a lot of anger in the city.

Crowds swarmed around federal agents on Eureka Street as they took a woman into custody. 

A witness describes what she saw. "The mom as she was being detained too, she was screaming, I don't know if she was being hurt as she was handcuffed, but she was truly screaming," Dali RaRocha said. "Those are the screams I have truly engrained in my ears right now." 

The scene was captured on video: 

Scenes like this are becoming commonplace in Amerika, and no one seems to be immune, as New Jersey's mayor found out recently, arrested for allegedly trespassing at an ICE facility:

Newark, New Jersey mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Elizabeth on Friday as the mayor and members of Congress joined demonstrations demanding answers from Donald Trump’s administration about the conditions inside, marking a major escalation of immigration protests surrounding the facility.

Videos from outside the facility shows a chaotic scene with masked federal officers pushing against a crowd in the detention center’s parking lot as Baraka is shoved towards the building and then placed in handcuffs.

New Jersey’s interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba — Trump’s personal attorney — accused the mayor of trespassing and ignoring warnings from federal law enforcement agents to leave.

Alina Habba,  a former Trump attorney and devout loyalist who is doing very well for herself (currently the interim State Attorney for New Jersey), issued a statement dripping with both irony and hypocrisy. She sanctimoniously intoned,

“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW”

Except her boss, of course. I'll leave it at that, as words often fail me when I try to describe the rapid and seemingly irrevocable devolution of the 'United' States into fear, suspicion, and anarchy.