Features - Winnipeg Jewish Review

I will be attending the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s opening tonight of Vern Thiessens award winning play Lenin’s Embalmers. His girlfriend Susie Moloney a recognized author of major proportions is a friend of mine. She received one million dollars 11 years ago from Tom Cruises Production Company to make a film from her book Dry Spell. Well the film was never made and Susie still kept the money. Now the right to the movie has been sold to another production company and apparently is being made into a movie. Suzie is compared to “The Stephen King of Woman writers.

Editor's Response: Please see Alissa Schachter's well -written review of Lenin's Embalmers in our Arts/Op-Eds section.

B’nai Brith Canada regrets that Canada was forced to withdraw its bid for a seat at the UN Security Council. However, of particular concern are the efforts of the Canadian Arab Federation to exclude Canada from taking its rightful place on the world stage.

In advance of the vote, an email was widely circulated by Khaled Mouammar, head of the Canadian Arab Federation, titled ‘Don’t Give Canada a Security Council Seat’. CAF’s Mr. Mouammar also made a comment in advance of the vote which appears on the Al Jazeerah website stating, "…it is feared that if Canada gains a seat in the UN Security Council, it may be used against Arabs and Muslims around the world."

"Despite purporting to be advocates of Canadian values, the Canadian Arab Federation actively lobbied against their country thereby trying to shame and divide Canada", says Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada.

"It is utterly disappointing to know that an organization containing within its name ‘Canada’ campaigned to undermine Canadian efforts to obtain a seat on the UN Security Council. Canada should instead be commended for its continued participation in global foreign affairs and its support of countries in need."

At a time when strength and unity are required to face ongoing national and international challenges, the Canadian Arab Federation has engendered a divisive relationship between Arab Canadians and their fellow citizens.

October 12,2010

To the Editor,

Please share this with your readership:

The Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) congratulates Canada for its efforts in seeking to obtain a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Canada's desire to serve on the UNSC reflects a clear desire to contribute towards improving the efficacy of the institution, and to assert Canada's voice and values in the international arena.

Although some have suggested that Canada's support for Israel is one of the reasons it was unsuccessful in its bid for a seat on the Security Council, Canadians should be proud of our principled support for Israel at the UN. It is widely recognized that Israel is singled out and subjected to a wide range of discriminatory behaviour due to the automatic majority of Muslim and Arab countries that exists in many UN bodies. This is particularly true at the UN Human Rights Council where, for example, the review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel is a permanent feature of every council session; no other country is subjected to similar treatment. Canada's actions in support of Israel are an expression of our country's sense of fairness and honest desire to play a constructive role in the peace process.

"It would have been easy for Prime Minister Harper to have adopted the politically expedient but regrettably popular behaviour at the UN of scapegoating and marginalizing Israel. Instead, the Conservative government stood by Israel when it was singled out for unfair treatment. Canada's actions in support of Israel at the UN were always based on what was the right thing to do, not what was politically fashionable, and for this, the government deserves the deepest praise,” stated Moshe Ronen, National Chair, CIC.

Finally, it is shameful that certain Canadian organizations actively lobbied against Canada's bid for a seat on the UNSC. The Canadian Arab Federation, in particular, issued a press release on September 24th calling on Arab and Muslim states to vote against Canada.

Canada Israel Committee

A letter should be written to the Prime Minister thanking him and the Conservative Party for taking positive steps in the Middle East and commend him for these decisions.

We have the Liberal and NDP criticising the government for their stand and the cause for not getting this seat.

Hi Rhonda. I just read your article about the RWB in Israel and wanted to relay an interesting story. I was teaching a group of kids golf [in Ceasaria] and the grandmother of the kids and I started chatting. She told me two of her grandchildren were Canadian and I told her I was too. When I said I was from Winnipeg she replied her husband was as well. Her name is Sara Arenson [her husband is Avi Arenson] and she explained that she and her husband weres one of the sponsors for bringing the RWB to Israel. She then invited Michal and myself to a dinner/reception she is hosting at her house in Caesarea on Monday October 11th. So I'll hopefully get to meet Premier Greg Selinger and all the other dignitaries who will be attending.

Ron Solomon,[ former Winnipegger living in Kiryat Yonah, Israel who is a golf instructor in Ceasaria]..

Just a note to tell you how happy I am to receive your paper. It keeps me informed of local issues, whether I am in the city or away.

I want to know if you are planning counter columns to the hate literature of
Ezra Levant. Thanks

Warren Linds

Editor's Response: Since Ezra levant opposes hate speech laws, I'm sure in principle he won't mind your referring to his column as hate literature. I'd be pleased to run an opinion that differs from Ezra Levant's on the burka issue. Feel free to recommend or send me one you like, and I will endevour to get reprinting permission..

Bravo! The letter to Yale University is commendable, especially now when we hear frequent reports in the media decrying the tragic increase of violence towards Muslim in the US; and yet, obviously it is not politically correct to mention that Antisemitic attacks are far greater in number.

There is no doubt that the entire Oslo Accords was a sham. If Israel continues the construction freeze then Israel is in fact denying its own right to the land: if there isn't building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, then next the Arabs will demand no building building in West Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Haifa.

Over 1300 people recommended my article A Jewish Response to Obama: American Jews Should Not Vote for Any Democrat in the Upcoming US Elections [ which was first posted on YNET NEWS September 28] and I got over 92 messages. Great Reponse.

My husband and I visited Winnipeg and we enjoyed it very much. A beautiful place. How many Jews are in your community?

September 26, 2010

To the Editor

Hi Rhonda. I really enjoy your website. We are now back in israel and I am a principal of a school with a special educational vision (religious and secular children) in a beautiful place in the galil (www.meguvan.org.il).

Wishing you and everyone shana tova and moadim le-simcha,

In both his analysis and conclusion Elliot Leven got it right. Bob Kopstein, Winnipeg,

We corresponded before. I wrote about your reporting on Israeli rivers. In the current edition, you wrote what I find to be a superlative revelation about Israeli government rationalizing and concealing about the PLO. The article on the mosque near Ground Zero by Elliot Leven, however, has serious problems with it.

I reported about the first big anti-mosque rally in half a dozen articles, of which I still have this link: http://www.examiner.com/israel-conflict-in-new-york/wtc-anti-mosque-rally-1-issues-excitement-decorum . I know some of the speakers and activists at the rally. I continued following the issue. The issue has been miscast, as Jonathan Tobin explains in the current edition of Commentary. It is presented as a matter of bias and religous freedom, with Muslims as the victims. I found almost no bias. As I asked protestors at the rally, their objection was to the site of the mosque, not to the existence of other mosques, to which they do not protest. So it is not a matter of religious freedom or of bias, as Mr. Leven maintains.

Some of the protestors are concerned about the broader issue of Radical Islam making a war on civilization. That broader issue is missed by Elliot Leven. He is joining the liberal fellow travelers of Radical Islam and the Radicals in trying to make criticism of some Muslim actions appear bigoted, so as to stifle criticism. That is a war tactic he inadvertantly fosters. It is true that, as the issue gains notoriety, publicity seekers try to expolit it for their own agendas. That is no excuse for smearing the innocent majority. Mr. Levin raises a number of other objections. I find them quibbling or inapplicable. One example is the technical one that the mosque would not be on Ground Zero. It is near enough. He might have asked why a mosque is going up there, when the same imam has one within half a mile. The construction is to make a point, one of religious triumph. Those who know the history of Islam understand this. So the fact that sordid businesses are nearby is not relevant. The building would be more than a mosque -- so what? Not a few American Muslims applauded 9/11. Most, and most abroad, felt that the U.S. deserved it. But a minority striving to gain entree to American power politics would not dance in the street over it.

The argument against opposing the mosque placed where Radical Islam bombed the U.S. -- that some Muslims were killed there -- not only is irrelevant. It reveals ignorance of the subject. Muslims kill more Muslims than do U.S. troops. The Radicals war against everyone not agreeing with them. When the Radicals aim at foreigners but kill some of their own people, they rationalize that the slain Muslims are martyrs sent to paradise. What most American Muslims do or believe is not the issue. The problem is that the Radicals staff most of the mosques here and run most of the Muslim organizations that the government and media consult. The real question is how we integrate American Muslims so they don't fall into the hands of Radicals, as the Internet has done increasingly with soldiers and Muslim youths. One problem is that few Muslim organizations speak against the Radical ideology.

The argument that "some" imam might some day preach something radical at that mosque is specious. Imam Rauf has made Radical statements, refused to condemn Hamas, and been involved in Radical funding before. Apparently Mr. Levin is not aware of taqiyya, the Islamic principle of deception of non-believers in the interest of the faith. He is too dismissive. America saved the world from two totalitarian movements, Nazism and Communism. The current totalitarian movement, Radical Islam, shares their fascist, antisemitic, and imperialist "principles." In the face of a global jihad that does not appear in Mr. Leven's perspective, what should America stand for?

RE: MICHAEL IGNATIEFF TELLS THE WINNIPEG JEWISH REVIEW HE SUPPORTS THE BUILDING OF THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO

Mr Ignatieff doesn't have the first idea about how Islam/ism operates among kufar [non-muslim] like him . So, he thinks that if the mosque spreads hatred (and Imam Rauf is already making veiled threats of violence if it doesn't go ahead) then he'll call for it to be removed, and they would say OK then?

Does he not know that the building of a mosque makes its site holy ground to Muslims which then can never be surrendered to kufar? Evidently not, otherwise he would not have shown his dangerous ignorance. This means that however much hatred is spouted from the mosque near Ground Zero, the American kufar will just have to suck it up.

I am against the building of a mosque near Ground Zero and the triumphalist mega-mosque in Dudley in the UK. The following sums up my attitude to Imam Rauf's supremacist ideas This lunacy has to stop now.

RE: WILL THESE ISRAELI COMMANDOS WHO LANDED ON THE FLOTILLA BE SUMMONED TO TESTIFY AT UN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

Israel needs to keep the names of those commando's confidential. Israel does not need to be letting the enemies of Israel in on all their inter workings of their miliitary. Its a matter of national security. Israel should never have agreed to the UN probe.

To the Editor,

September 16, 2010

It's now high time that UNRWA should be un-masked, they are plainly lying, they know full well what their schools are teaching the great-grandchildren of the original refugees, the return to Palestine (ie. the whole of Israel) by Jihad which they all believe to be true. Well it won't happen and they should face up to it just like what happened in our 'NAKBA'-- the Jewish Nakba. We, the Jews of Arab lands, had to flee for our lives. We left behind far much more than the Arab refugees. Our real-estate was almost five times the size of Israel today. We never received handouts. We got on with our lives.We made new lives for ourselves either in Israel or the USA, Canada, Europe and South America, Australia etc. We stood on our own two feet and didn't hang around for the past 62 years.

Samir S Halabi

REMEMBER JOSEPH IN EGYPT AND HOW HE REVEALED HIMSELF TO HIS BROTHERS: HERE REST YOUR MAIN PURPOSE FOR RETURN TO YOUR LAND. As for this young boy, please allow him freedom. Encourage him. SUCH ARE THE NEXT LEADERS .If any one is upset with this, please forgive.