POLITICS, SCHMOLITICS

BS"D
22 Tamuz


Today I put the finishing touches on a Sefer Torah I'm working on. So, thank G@d for that, but I still have "miles to go before I sleep".
Let's see:
Buy health insurance; pick up gifts for my Jerusalem house mates; purchase or borrow a power adaptor; get my last will & testament signed & witnessed by two people who are not beneficiaries...

Things have been just nuts the past while, between the divorce & most of my technology breaking down & preparing - mentally, physically & spiritually - for this trip. Especially hard with what's been going on there recently. G@d willing the violence will end pronto & by a just means. I plan to catch up on all the work I'm behind in while in Israel. I'm teaching in the evenings, so that leaves my days "free" to fulfill my sofrut obligations to clients.

CTV reported on Sunday that 8 Lebanese Canadians were killed in the assault on southern Lebanon. So tragic. My question for the anchorwoman is: Why bother saying they're immigrants to Canada? Much as people can have bi-cultural identities, a Canadian is a Canadian. It's like making a difference between a Jew who was born of a Jewish mother & a Jew who converted through miqveh. Not cool, lady. At least immigrants & converts are vetted before they're allowed in!

There are now many French voices rising in Montreal shouting anti-Semitic rhetoric. Quelle suprise.

I think Mr MacKay could have acted faster to get Canadians (regardless of their country of birth) out of Lebanon. I did not vote for Mr Harper, but I appreciate his position on the current crisis. However, I still think he's a danger to Canada, the likes we haven't seen since the country was Mulroney-ized.

Just read an article about Stephen Harper paying a political price for
coming out more strongly in favour of Israel's right to defend herself. Some Canucks are saying that Harper is Bush's lapdog; others are saying that our government must be politically neautral at all times in order to be taken seriously as peacekeepers & negotiators. I understand this: ever since Canada came up with the idea of UN peacekeeping (which ended the Suez Crisis & earned our then Secretary of State & later Prime Minister Lester Pearson the Nobel Peace Prize), this has been a dear part of Canadian identity.

My question is: when you see a wrong being done in the world, at what point do you decry it? Is it not required by Torah to speak up immediately & correct the crime being perpetrated?

From Aaron:

Politicians are keenly aware of public opinion, so whether or not you vote Conservative it can only help Israel to have more people telling the Canadian government that there are people who appreciate his position on this issue.

Here's how to call his [the PM's] office:

* Call 613-992-4211 [toll free]
* Someone will answer, just say you want to express your opinion about Israel.
* They'll transfer you ... the phone will ring a few times.
* They'll say "we can't take your call right now, leave us a message"
* Leave message.

:)

& tomorrow I shall head for the Holy Land...




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