A discussion about genocide at the Munk Centre

On October 14, a panel convened at the Munk School of Global Affairs, under the auspices of the Raoul Wallenberg Legacy of Leadership Project, to discuss genocide in the modern world. I had intended to write about what was discussed there sooner, but my own foray into local politics kept me too busy to get to it until now. As it happens, that delay may have been fortuitous and added to the relevance of this post, since a panelist that night,  Jonathan Kay, has since been thrust into the spotlight for two very different reasons. One of them is the announcement a couple of days ago that he would be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of Walrus Magazine, a staple among Toronto's lefty, middlebrow readers;  a move that was bold, unexpected, and will undoubtedly raise the quality of that publication.

Additionally, some reflected glare from the spotlight thrust on Jian Ghomeshi, in the wake of revelations of his reported proclivity to violently assault women as a form of sexual foreplay, has also been thrust on Jonathan, who was a regular panelist on Ghomeshi's CBC radio show Q. As Editor for Comment and a columnist at the National Post, Jonathan has been commenting, quite rationally, on trying to separate Ghomeshi, the accomplished and charismatic radio personality, from Ghomeshi the (allegedly) vicious, narcissistic sexual deviate. Though many people have been infuriated at what they perceive as any attempt to mitigate outrage against a person who committed terrible acts towards women, Jonathan's is a valid argument. In the way that one can despise the personal beliefs and ideologies of Richard Wagner, yet still admire the music he created, separating the artist from the art requires intellectual examination and the courage to discuss honestly held beliefs in the tumultuous climate of the hysterical media whirlwind of the Ghomeshi scandal.

It's always a pleasure to hear Jonathan speak at an event such as the Munk Centre panel. Unfettered by the word number limitations of a newspaper column or the need to speak in talking points on radio or TV, one gets to hear from him detailed, insightful, intelligent, and often very humorous perspectives on contemporary and historical developments that have and are shaping our world.

The word I most frequently use in my descriptions of Jonathan is "reasonable." While that might be something that should seem a requisite quality for someone in the media or in a position of public influence, the unfortunate reality is that there are far too few media personalities who could be described that way. The fact that I have friends on the left who think Jonathan is a doctrinaire "right-winger," and very conservative friends who are convinced Jonathan has sunk into the quicksand of leftist dogma is actually, as far as I'm concerned, indicative of a balanced intellect who isn't married to any political or ideological position. It suggests he views issues, case-by-case, on their merits. Which isn't to say I always agree with Jonathan's positions, but I always expect they'll be sane and well-considered.

Now back to the Wallenberg Project panel about genocide.

In 1985, Raoul Wallenberg, who vanished under suspicious circumstances in Soviet-controlled Budapest at the end of the Second War and at that point was presumed to be dead, was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of Canada.

Wallenberg received that honor for his courageous accomplishment of saving tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi death camps, and another honor bestowed on his name is The Raoul Wallenberg Leadership Project. That effort is an initiative of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University.

Aside from Jonathan, the other panelists for the discussion were the eminent Liberal MP for Mount Royal and former Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler, and Global Brief Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Irwin Studin.

It's an obvious tragedy that ongoing discussions about genocide are necessary when the world should have learned the lessons of Holocaust and of the depths to which man can sink, and the unspeakable consequences of what can happen if the world fails to take action to prevent an onslaught of targeted mass murder. Yet genocides have occurred since 1945 in places like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Rwanda, and a genocide is still going on in Darfur.

Despite these atrocities, one of the points that emerged from the discussion is that while the incidences of genocides seems not to have abated, the magnitude of those crimes, compared with earlier times has, thanks to international awareness of them. We live in times where news is not confined to print journalists from relatively few newspapers. Now multiple cable all-news channels, and the Internet, social media, and smart phones can instantly draw attention to crimes such as ISIS' murderous campaign against Yazidis and pressure a relatively quick response. Whereas half a century ago, such monstrosities, competing with other domestic and international events, might have have only been a half column buried deep in the pages of The New York Times.

Which is not to say that genocide is a matter that need not concern us in today's world. One of the issues that ate up most of the panel's Q & A time came from an audience member's (ok, it was me) question about the degree of commitment that western countries have towards combating genocide when it becomes difficult for them. Jonathan during his talk recalled how the murders and mutilation of ten Belgian peacekeepers during the Rwandan genocide led to that country withdrawing all its forces, reducing the UN Peacekeepers' effectiveness and leaving Tutsi victims that much more vulnerable. I reminded the panelists of a similar occurrence the year before that, when following the killing and mutilation of American soldiers in Mogadishu, Bill Clinton withdrew US forces that has been in place to ensure that famine-stricken civilians were not easy prey for Somalia's warlords.

In reality, we have to understand that combating genocides are a combination of factors, including  altruism, a moral duty, and the not unreasonable expectation that global powers are more likely to be motivated to act when there is an element of self-interest.

Considering the night was dedicated to the memory of Raoul Wallenberg, it was quite natural that questions arose about contemporary anti-Semitism and the desire among some to commit another genocide of Jews. A general consensus among the panel was that the existence of the State of Israel has made such an outcome a near impossibility. Despite that country being surrounded by enemies, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and its master Iran and Hamas , who openly advocate for eliminating Jews, the Jewish State's military prowess and determination for survival, plus its existence as an ultimate sanctuary, are all factors that will confound the aspirations of those who want a second Holocaust.

Tragically, it is from within western societies, often on university campuses, that supporters of genocidal maniacs such as Hezbollah, hiding behind the lie of wanting "social justice," are doing their utmost to enable the would-be perpetrators of another Holocaust. Which makes exposing and standing up to such people all the more important today. Our failure to do so would be a betrayal of the lessons of history and of Raoul Wallenberg's courage which ultimately cost him his life.

A Hezbollah-friendly Public School Board candidate in Toronto

I'm running for Public School Board Trustee in Toronto's Trinity-Spadina. My opponent is someone who went out to speak to and support a pro-Hezbollah rally.  Now imagine if someone like that was making decisions about how public education was delivered in Toronto:

TORONTO - During the heat of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon in July 2006, Ausma Malik was front and centre at a peace rally denouncing the conflict and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s support of Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah missile fire.

Pictures from that day show the Muslim woman, wearing a headscarf and attending the University of Toronto at the time, outside the U.S. Consulate, speaking beside Ali Mallah, a well-known pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas activist and CUPE official...

... (Toronto Sun reporter Sue-Ann Levy) asked Chow at a Toronto Sun editorial board how she could align herself with a woman who reportedly contended publicly that Israel committed “state-sanctioned murder” and whether such a woman espoused “caring” values.

At first Chow, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, said she wasn’t 100% familiar with Malik’s background or her “foreign affairs point of view.”

Asked whether she checks people out before she endorses them, Chow said she does know “who she is”...

...Malik’s opponent for trustee, Richard Klagsbrun, who happens to be Jewish, said he is running to “rid the TDSB of the egregious politicization” that has made its way into the curriculum.

“Ms. Malik, a speaker at a rally that was out supporting an Islamist terror group ... represents much of what’s wrong with public education in Toronto,” he said.

See also:  

Downtown Toronto NDPers refuse to condemn actions of election candidate who spoke at pro-Hezbollah rally

Michael Coren steps into Toronto's pro-terror turds

Plus

US Homeland Security fires shot at Islamic goons attacking pro-Israel demonstration in Los Angeles:

Today, a terrorist was born

Newborn baby in Lebanon "joins" Hezbollah

No more federal dough for the sleazeball bigots at the Canadian Arab Federation

Background HERE

Apparent terrorism supporters and "arguable" anti-Semites of Canadian Arab Federation on the hook for Jason Kenney's costs in law suit

As reported on Eye on a Crazy Planet on December 24, and just now being noticed by the mainstream media, a Federal Court dismissed a request from the Canadian Arab Federation to review Former Immigration and Citizenship Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney's decision to de-fund the organization. The Court found it reasonable to conclude, as Kenney did, that the CAF appeared to support terrorism and was arguably anti-Semitic.

Among the factors upon which the Court made its decision were:

• CAF's President Khaled Muammar distributed emails attacking Liberal MP Bob Rae because of his wife's involvement with the Jewish community;
• The CAF honored the fanatical hatemonger Zafar Bangash, a shill for Iran's dictatorship who, when writing about the 9-11 terror attacks, was distinctly unsympathetic to the victims, and;
• CAF Vice President, Ali Mallah, attended what in essence was a terrorists' convention in Cairo.

But there's more good news still in the decision from Mr. Justice Russel Zinn. The cretins at the Canadian Arab Federation are on the hook for the Minister of Immigration's costs, which could run into the hundreds of thousands.

The CAF has indicated it is planning an appeal, but has not made any other comment so far.

From the Federal Court's judgement

Obama's best solution for Syria: Blast the living shit out of Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Who would have thought that a wretched, backwards little country about which few in the west ever think, let alone care about, could trigger one of the world's great conflagrations?

There are no good guys in Syria's civil war. We are at the deplorable point in world affairs that the despotic Russian President Putin has more credibility than US Secretary of State Kerry, when the latter has said "moderates" are in charge of Syria's rebellion and the former called him a liar.

A world war is not going to break out if the US bombs Syria to punish it for using chemical weapons against rebels. But it's worth remembering that just under 100 years ago, the assassination of an Austrian archduke in Serbia triggered a war which was responsible for history's greatest loss of life of soldiers in battle. The point being, these things have a way of getting out of hand when national leaders don't know what they are doing.

Barack Obama is not a President whose leadership inspires great confidence on the world stage. It is for that very reason that he does need to keep his word and launch a punitive strike in Syria. Not to teach Bashar al-Assad a lesson, but to keep the world from spiraling into the even more chaotic state of instability that would worsen if miscreant nations realized that American threats carry no weight.

Because of Obama's dithering and then mishandling of the Syrian file, he now has to strike.

But strike whom?

The west has nothing to gain and much to lose if the scales are tipped too far in either direction in Syria. However one of the reasons Syria is a linchpin in its region is its close relationship with Iran and its influence in Lebanon with the Iranian-proxy terror group Hezbollah.

Both Iran and Hezbollah have sent fighters to support Assad in the civil war.

American military intelligence knows precisely where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah fighters serving Assad's cause are stationed.

It is they whom the US should strike, and it should be done decisively.

Syrians would not be infuriated at the deaths of foreigners that insinuated themselves into their domestic affairs. Assad would not be toppled by the loss of the Iranians and Hezbollah auxiliaries. But a clear message would be sent, both to the reprobate Mullahs in Tehran, who have terrorized the Middle East since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, and to their subordinate stooges who maintain a stranglehold over domestic affairs in Lebanon through thuggery and intimidation.

Obama could accomplish a great deal if he has the resolve to push through the measure. It would restore him as a world leader, help stave off the collapse of American credibility, and even give the US President an opportunity to provide a "teachable moment" to the world's most vile rogues.

Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, Hamas operatives applied for CIA jobs

...The CIA found that among a subset of job seekers whose backgrounds raised questions, roughly one out of every five had "significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections," according to the document, which was provided to the Washington Post by former National Security Agency contractorEdward Snowden.

The groups cited most often were Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda and its affiliates, but the nature of the connections was not described in the document.

More HERE 

Love affair between two terrorist miscreants is over

BEIRUT - The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called on Hamas members and officials who are still present in Lebanon to leave the country 'immediately and within hours.' The decision comes as a response to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s role in the ongoing war in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Media sources close to the Palestinian national liberation movement Fatah in Lebanon said a Hezbollah senior security official informed Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, that all of those related to Hamas on the Lebanese territory became have become unwelcome.

Iran-sponsored terrorist group admits fighting for Assad in Syria's civil war

Hasan Nasrallah’s televised address provided the clearest public acknowledgment to date that his men are fighting alongside Assad’s troops and will continue to do so. As he spoke, Hezbollah and government forces were escalating an assault on the strategically important Syrian town of Qusair.

A staunch ally of Iran as well as Assad, Hezbollah has deepened its involvement in Syria’s two-year-old civil war in recent weeks, leading the push to drive rebels out of Qusair, near the Syria-Lebanon border. The group has long justified its stockpile of weapons as necessary to the “resistance” against Israel, and its growing role in Syria has stirred controversy in Lebanon.

McGill University to award honorary degree to the far left's favorite pseudo-intellectual half-wit

...In an essay, “The Professor of Parody,” renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum raised the issue of Butler’s style, calling it “ponderous and obscure” and “dense with allusions to other theorists, drawn from a wide range of different theoretical traditions…It bullies the reader into granting that, since one cannot figure out what is going on, there must be something significant going on, some complexity of thought, where in reality there are often familiar or even shopworn notions, addressed too simply and too casually to add any new dimension of understanding.”

Most famously, in 1998, philosophy professor Denis Dutton’s journal Philosophy and Literature awarded Butler first prize in its “Bad Writing Competition,” which claims to “celebrate bad writing from the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles.” Butler received the award for this 94-word  sentence that was published in the journal Diacritics:

“The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.”

Read all of Barbara Kay's column in The National Post

Hezbollah taking a beating from Syrian rebels

Bodies of 30 fighters belonging to the militant group Hezbollah arrived in Lebanon from Syria, Syrian opposition sources told Al Arabiya on Monday.

The sources added that Al-Quds Brigade commander, whose known by his nickname, Abu Ajeeb, was also killed in Syria in battles against rebels.

Reports have emerged that members of the Lebanese Shiite group were fighting with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels.

Former Hezbollah chief Subhi al-Tufaili told Al Arabiya in an interview earlier this week that at least 138 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the Syria fighting.

Tufaili added that Hezbollah, who is backed by Iran and the Syrian regime, was told to fight with the Assad forces in direct orders from Tehran.

However, the Shiite group has repeatedly stated that it was not taking part in the fighting in Syria.

More here

h/t Michael Ross

Bahrain declares Hezbollah a terrorist organization

The parliament of Bahrain approved a bill Tuesday declaring Lebanese-based Hezbollah a terrorist organization and called on the country’s Foreign Ministry to follow suit.

Legislators in Manama called on other Persian Gulf nations to also declare the Lebanese militia a terrorist group, according to Israel Radio.

h/t Meir W.

Former NDP leadership candidate Ashton throws weight behind terror-supporting anti-Israel group

A Canadian organization that has given vocal support to the terrorist organization Hezbollah is holding a fundraiser next week featuring NDP MP for Churchill riding in Manitoba, Niki Ashton. The deceptively-named Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East campaigns for a full boycott of Israel while sponsoring speakers who extol the supposed virtues of Hezbollah, which is listed by the Canadian and US governments as a terror group.

This Thursday, at Montreal's Delta Hotel, Ashton will be the keynote speaker at the anti-Israel group's fundraiser called "Experiencing Arabia." At this point, there is no word whether the experience will be authentic and Ms Ashton will be addressing the crowd in a face-covering burkah, only after receiving permission to speak from her closest male relative.

As Israel is facing new threats to its civilian population from attacks by Hamas, Ms Ashton is showing where her sympathies lie by siding with those who seek to destroy the Jewish state. This shocking ineptitude is is yet another sharp reminder that the New Democratic Party is nowhere close to having the people ready to form a government.

The frightening ramifications of the White House dissembling over Bengazi

David Harris is one of the most knowledgeable security experts in North America - what he says in this interview about the Bengazi fiasco is truly frightening:

Hezbollah murders Sunni General in Lebanon - drives country into chaos

The Shite terrorist group Hezbollah used a car bomb to murder Lebanese General Wissam al-Hassan yesterday. A Sunni, al-Hassam was a leader of the investigation that attributed the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri to Hezbollah. In Ottawa in 2010, Hezbollah supporter George Galloway had warned of violent retaliation from his terrorist friends in the wake of that investigation laying blame on them.

Iran-supported Hezbollah is linked to Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad, Syria`s ruler, while the Sunni opposition in Lebanon has sided with rebels trying to unseat the Syrian dictatorship. The murder of al-Hasam, along with the serious injuring of dozens of others in a car bomb attack, has led to the resignation of the Lebanese Cabinet as the conflict in the neighbouring country threatens to create chaos in a fractious Lebanon.

More unhinged racism from Iran's mouthpiece in Canada

The Eminence Gris behind the Khomeinist al Quds demonstrations in Toronto is a notorious hate monger named  "Daffy" Zafar Bangash. Under the direction of Iran's Embassy in Canada,  Bangash, the Imam of the York region Islamic Centre, penned a glowing tribute to the sadistic, murderous dictator of Iran's Islamic Republic from 1979 to 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini. Indeed, Bangash rarely misses an opportunity to lavish praise on that regime that systematically punishes female dissidents with rape and torture.

"Daffy" Zaffy outside Toronto's
Pakistani consulate

While a propagandist, Daffy Zaffy's style is less suited to the western world, where even disinformation requires some subtlety and reason, than to the Islamic world where hyperbole and big talk substitute for their minuscule achievements. Part of Bangash's schtick is to accuse, without any substantiation, anyone who doesn't kowtow to his Islamist fanaticism of being a racist.

An editorial from someone too stupid to
recognize its own hypocrisy

The irony being that Bangash tends to work himself up in to such a hateful lather when he speaks and even writes, that he frequently betrays his own actual racism. The epitome of his bigoted antipathy these days being in the person of US President Barack Obama.

While fuming against Israel at last year's al Quds hatefest, where he invariably refers to Israel as "the racist, Zionist regime" Bangash couldn't restrain his hate and cursed Obama as "that black man in the White House."

Now, in one of his rambling paeans to the barbaric dictatorship in Iran, he refers to Obama with a racial slur as "a perfect Uncle Tom."

The lie that Daffy Zaffy comically tries to spread is that Israel, where the religious and democratic rights of all its citizens are respected, would be better off under Islamic Sharia Law, the ideal in his mind being the repressive, totalitarian Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bangash's rag - C'mon everyone! We must eliminate
the evil Zionist entity and replace it with an
Iranian satellite where we mercifully stone to death
those who defy us!

While his promotion of Iran and invective against Israel are falling flat, there is one cause that Bangash is doing a great job of promoting - that of immigration reform. Whenever I hear that guy, it's a reminder we're letting lots of the wrong people into this country, and we should be putting a stop to it immediately.








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On another amusing note from Bangash's Islamist magazine Crescent International, he gives some space to the neurotic anti-Israel propagandist Eva Bartlett.  I had the pleasure of meeting Bartlett in person  a couple of months ago and she didn't much like the resulting article I wrote.

"Batty" Eva Bartlett
delivering a lecture denouncing
the "Zionist regime"

Bangash describes the fanatical Bartlett as a "peace activist." The late British essayist Christopher Hitchens summed up people like her and her cohorts more honestly when he wrote that "in reality, they are straight out pro-war, but on the other side." In the case of Bartlett, her side are the terrorists and murderers of Hamas and Hezbollah, of whom she writes glowingly.

Batty Eva's offerings invoke one question in particular: is she an idiot or is it that she thinks those listening to her are idiots and incapable of recognizing how ridiculous she is?  (Not that either is mutually exclusive.)

In one of her typically weird, rambling, not-quite coherent tomes, the International Solidarity Movement minion preposterously claims,

"..kids in Gaza are not filled with hate or being taught propaganda. Growing up under occupation and the barrel of Zionist guns, most boys choose to buy and play with cheap plastic guns, a product not of inherent Palestinian lust for fighting but of their lives since birth being subject to Zionist shooting and bombing, and seeing loved ones kidnapped and killed by the Zionist regime."

The examples of kids in Gaza being taught hate and propaganda are so abundant and so blatant as to make Batty Eva herself less effective as a propagandist than as a comedy act.  In their schools, mosques and even on television shows aimed at preschool kids,  Hamas subjects Gaza's children to hateful propaganda extolling the virtues of suicide bombers, terrorism, and encourages youth to commit murder and sacrifice their lives for the Islamist cause.

The level of depravity that one sees in Gaza is appalling, but seeing the murderous totalitarians offering half-witted missionaries of hate in Canada invokes a strange but different reaction - the unusual combination of revulsion and amusement.

An inspirational message from George 'it's okay to hump 'em while they're sleeping' Galloway

Don't you love it when these terrorist-supporting cretins show themselves for who they really are?
                 
                   
                   
                   

This is what happens when you leave decisions to someone who looks like he stepped out of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta

One of the more challenging responsibilities of the Ontario Legislature's Sergeant-at-Arms is having to decide which groups are allowed to hold rallies on the Legislature's grounds at Queen's Park. The current holder of the Sergeant-at-Arms position is Dennis Clark and his role is within the Civil Service and is supposed to be free of political interference.

Sergeant-At-Arms Clark

There are frequently demonstrations denouncing the ruling party of the day and if reflects well on us as a democratic society that such events are sanctioned at the seat of government. But decisions about such maters would be substantially more credible if they weren't being made by someone whose official costume made him look like a cross between a baritone about to start singing, "I am the monarch of the sea" and Mr. Bumble from Oliver Twist.

There are limits to what would be considered acceptable discourse that deserves the imprimatur of the Legislature's acquiescence. A racist group calling for the extermination of a nation would not normally be afforded that privilege, nor would one that openly displays support for terrorist organizations that are illegal in Canada.

An Al Quds Day rally to be held at Queens Park next Saturday at 2 pm seems destined to fall into those latter categories. 

Mr Clark is in the unenviable position of having to predict, like in the movie Minority Report, crimes that might be committed in the future before denying an application for a rally. "Very seldom do we deny something unless they came in and they told us that what they were going to do was unlawful"  Clark told The Toronto Sun.

Iran's sadistic dictator from 1979-89

But a magical psychic gift isn't really necessary to know what will happen at the Al Quds Day rally nest week.Mr. Clark may have neglected to perform the rudimentary research into the nature of Al Quds Day that shows its hateful, violent nature and origins.

The event was created by Iran's despotic Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A bloodthirsty degenerate, Khomeini led a regime known for systematically raping women for the supposed crime of 'immodesty' as well as the routine torture and murder of political opponents.

Khomeini designated the last day of the Muslim month-long festival of Ramadan at Al Quds Day, to promote the Islamic world to rise up and destroy the state of Israel. Regrettably, Khomeini has acolytes in Canada, such as the hate-monger Zafar Bangash of the York region Islamic Society and the Canadian Shia Muslim Organization, which were the forces behind last year's Queen's Park Al Quds Day rally.

At the 2011 gathering, Zafar Bangash called for a Jihad against Israel and in an apoplectic fit, made a racist reference to US President Barack Obama as "that black man in the White House." Flags of  Iranian-backed Hezbollah, designated an terrorist group by the Canadian government, flew prominently at last year's al Quds hate fest at Queen's Park. What made matters substantially worse was that a representative of Mr. Clark's Legislative Security force abused her authority by trying to deny the legal right of a blogger to photograph women holding the Hezbollah flags because it would offend "Muslim sensibilities."

The Jewish Defense League will be at Queen's Park on Saturday to hold a counter-protest against the Khomeinist fanatics.  If the powers that be are too afraid of offending a hate group's sensibilities to stand up to them, it is refreshing that there are free citizens who believe in Canadian values and don't share those fears.

UPDATE: More on the Toronto al Quds Day organizers

Update: related

Michael Coren on the Khomeinist rally at Queens Park on August 18

video by SDAMatt2a