The Global Village
Tlaib, Omar and their apologists
Par Henri Roth le 19 juin 2019
I understand that Jewish progressives have mastered the art of mental contortion in order to reconcile their political choices with the anti-Semitic mutterings of Democratic stars Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, but the usual rationalizations, distortions and cognitive dissonance of the apologists have reached a new low as some have sharply criticized — are you ready for this — not Tlaib’s repugnant comments but rather Republicans for having the gall to criticize this poor woman’s obviously heartfelt efforts to reconcile with the Jewish community.
What the USMCA means for Canada
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 15 octobre 2018
Trade between the U.S. and Canada has long provided millions of good livelihoods across both countries. Many people thus supported the 1988 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and its expansion in 1994 to include Mexico in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
After more than a year of negotiations, the three national governments, sometimes referred to as the “Three Amigos,” recently agreed in principle to change and rebrand NAFTA, which today regulates what has grown to more than (U.S.) $1.2 trillion yearly trade in goods and services. The new agreement is renamed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Security clearances have sunset clauses
Par David T. Jones le 5 septembre 2018
Washington, DC - A U.S. security clearance is a privilege, not a right.
But now we have a selection of once-upon-a-time senior officials squealing like stoats caught under a fence because their security clearances have ended.
This is viewed by the ever-hostile media as petty vengeance against critics of the Administration.
Having held a security clearance since I was a young Army intelligence lieutenant through the present, I have long recognized that clearance is contingent on circumstances.
A security clearance is accorded essentially on two criteria: an investigation of the individual and “need to know.”
NATO: TIME FOR A REBOOT?
Par David T. Jones le 16 juillet 2018
Washington, DC ~ NATO was conceived in 1949 as an international security alliance against the imminent prospect of a Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion to conquer that part of Europe it did not already dominate. The situation was, if not desperate, intensely challenging as massive Soviet forces had smashed Nazi armies on the Eastern Front and captured Berlin in 1945—only four years earlier—and consequently held the eastern half of pre-war Germany as well as half of Austria. And, subsequently, Moscow eradicated any traces of incipient democracy in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, and Romania. More disconcerting, the Soviets orchestrated a coup in struggling democracy Czechoslovakia, transforming it into a Soviet satrap. Communist parties were strong in France, Italy, and Greece (where armed insurgency was in progress).
When Two Great Egos Collide: Lessons from the Truman-MacArthur Meeting
Par David T. Jones le 9 juin 2018
Washington, DC - The “on again/off again” Summit between President Donald Trump and Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-un, has been media played more as farce (and Trump incompetence) than serious examination of the circumstances in play.
Clearly irritated by Trump’s “break the box” maneuvers to address the existential threat of North Korean nuclear weapons, the “professionals” (having been cut out of the planning) found ways to denounce it—and predict failure. Thus, Trump’s decision to cancel the Summit was vindication of the “I told you so” nature by these axiomatic nay-sayers. And, consequently, they are disconcerted by the intensive efforts to “retrack” the Summit and, if anything, have redoubled their demurs over any Summit prospects.
RFK: "A tiny ripple of hope..."
Par Beryl Wajsman le 6 juin 2018
“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” ~ from Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon”, one of RFK’s favorite quotes he repeated often after the murder of his brother.
Today we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He was shot on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he was celebrating the California primary victory that would have led him to the Democratic presidential nomination. He died soon after midnight of June 6th. For many of us who were coming to political maturity in that turbulent time, hope seemed to die with him.
Israel changed the world - in the deepest and most meaningful way
Par Lise Ravary le 29 mai 2018
In 1993, I travelled to Israel for the first time in my life. I was there to cover the restaurant scene with Toronto critic Sarah Waxman who became, with her husband, the late great actor Al Waxman (who used to joke he was my daughter's yiddishe mama) great friends of our family.
During that trip, I had the privilege of meeting Itzhak Rabin and his wife Leah who were dining next to us at The Cow on the Roof in Jerusalem. There was so much hope and optimism in the air. How that seems so far away now.
Israel changed and so did we all.
In 2013, I published a book entitled ‘Pourquoi moi ?’ Why me.
Paul Ryan – Is There a French Parallel?
Par David T. Jones le 29 avril 2018
The three traditional lies—so time worn that they have become caricatures—are
Of course I’ll respect you in the morning;
I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you; and
I need to spend more time with my family.
The final lie—the one to which Paul Ryan resorted when announcing that he would not run for reelection this November—is always hard to disprove definitively. The individual may have “jumped” before being defenestrated. (S)he may be totally burned out from effort (either successful or not) that health may be an imperative for departing.
50 years ago today we lost a King....
Par Beryl Wajsman le 4 avril 2018
Fifty years ago today, The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis. He had gone there to champion the rights of African-American sanitation workers surviving on subsistence wages and striking for fair treatment. They marched carrying signs that declared, "I Am A Man!"
King was slain by a rifle blast from James Earl Ray in the fading light of late afternoon surrounded by his closest brothers in arms including Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson with whom he had been sharing laughter inside their rooms just moments before.
The Russia Question: Stop the whining. Everybody does it
Par David T. Jones le 30 mars 2018
Washington, DC ~ If truth is the first casualty in war, perspective is the first casualty in politics.
Indeed, the ongoing frenzy of what Russians did when, where, how, and with whom during the 2016 U.S. presidential election is an illustration of disingenuous naiveté. One would conclude that the U.S. political structure was the equivalent of a convent of innocent religious refugees savaged by a barbarian horde.
The longstanding historical reality is that “everybody does it.”
And thus the question arises, “Do you remember Philip Agee?
The Parkland Massacre: The NRA’s Waterloo?
Par Beryl Wajsman le 28 février 2018
"...the wolf will lay down with the lamb and a little child shall lead them..." ~ Isaiah 11:6
The wolves haven't laid down with the lambs, but the children have picked up the standard of their fallen friends. As one American writer put it, "The kids of Douglas High in Parkland may be the NRA's worst nightmare." Unlike the other school shootings, the young survivors are speaking truth to power. And the world is listening.
Unlike other school shootings, the kids of Parkland are older and bolder. They have used social media virally to call out the cowardice of politicians who are too afraid to act and even challenged their parents who may not know how to act.
There may not be a solution to gun violence in the United States
Par David T. Jones le 28 février 2018
Washington, DC Although not the most costly in terms of lives lost, the killing of 17 students in Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school on February 13 has unleashed an unprecedented “I’m mad as hell and not going to take this any more” reaction.
Poignant scenes and finger pointing have dominated the national media, coupled with commitments on various political/social levels to “do something.”
Consequently, the cynical, ritualized reaction of “been there; done that” so far as public manifestations of grief/concern are concerned may not suffice to mitigate the outrage.
A fresh examination of realities might be useful. Will they fit the United States socio-political circumstances?
Canada must show resolve against Iran or children will continue to be slaughtered
Par Dr. Sima Goel le 20 février 2018
In Shiraz of 1978 when I was 13 and used to slip out of my house to protest the Shah’s corrupt government, I was never arrested nor hurt. Flash forward to January 2, 2018, an 11 –year- old boy participates in government protests in the small town of Khomeinishahr: he dies as a result. Nearly half a century later, and Iranian children still feel they have to march to get their leaders to listen to the people.
Iranians hoped that when President Obama lifted economic sanctions against Iran, inflation rates would drop, employment would rise and foreign investment and tourists would return to this country so wealthy in natural resources and potential; but under Rouhani’s government, the expected gains have not materialized.
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictments are legally questionable
Par Beryl Wajsman le 17 février 2018
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictments are legally questionable, intellectually dishonest and threaten an open internet and free expression...
Let the piling on begin but read my comments past the headline please. I am anything but a Trump fan. I find him offensive on so many levels not the least of which are his affronts to aesthetic sensibilities, intellectual rigour and the civil discourse demanded of all public officials but particularly of a President. But I am equally offended by the hypocrisy of these indictments which would threaten the very standards and liberties we all feel are jeopardized in the conduct of this administration.
Running for the hills in the GOP? Not quite
Par Robert Presser le 29 janvier 2018
All the US administration’s 2018 optimism seems to have vanished in the face of Wolff’s inside look at the Trump White House, Fire and Fury, coupled with the threat of a new round of indictments from the Mueller enquiry that target more insiders. No worry, Trump is telling us that he can take the heat, and that he is prepared to take the heat for everyone involved. Fear not, skittish Republicans, Trump has your back!
With the mid-term House and Senate elections coming up in November 2018, incumbent Republicans must make two major related decisions.
NORTH AMERICA, JAPAN, INDIA AND THE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 7 janvier 2018
Negotiating a free trade agreement with an increasingly totalitarian and plutocratic party-state in China, which treats its Tibetan, Falun Gong, Uyghur, Christian, farm, urban worker and other communities appallingly,should be unthinkable for any democratic country.
Canadian Clive Ansley, who practised law in Shanghai for 14 years until 2003, notes that its Communist party has long operated outside and above the law:
China is a brutal police state…There is a current saying amongst Chinese lawyers and judges who truly believe in the Rule of Law…: ‘Those who hear the case do not make the judgment; those who make the judgment have not heard the case’…. Nothing which has transpired in the ‘courtroom’ has any impact on the ‘judgment’.
Jerusalem recognition opens door to out-of-the-box solutions
Par David T. Jones le 7 janvier 2018
Washington, DC - After more than a generation of excavation in the Middle East, the US government has finally concluded that the hole it has been digging for the “Two State Solution” has no foreseeable “pot of gold” at the bottom. Nor, to mix metaphors a bit, does the room filled with manure have a pony in it as hypothesized by the little optimist.
So we have stopped digging (and closed the door to the manure pile). It was not that that “the two state solution” has not seemed both tantalizing and seductively attainable. It should have been Political Science 101 simple: a state for Israel. A state for Palestine. Land swaps transferring parts of Israel to Palestine to compensate for the major settlements constructed in the West Bank post-1967. And Jerusalem as the capital for both Israel and Palestine.
Poor Morale at Department of State—Ho Hum
Par David T. Jones le 4 décembre 2017
Washington, DC - In recent media stories, there has been a flurry of excitement among the fluttering class prompted by a State Department spokesman’s comment that morale is poor at State.
The announcement is as dramatic as “The sun rose in the east this morning” or “It was really hot and humid in Washington this summer.”
Drawing on 50 years of experience with State, both on active duty and as a retired officer, I can say that there has never/never been a period when one could say that morale at State was good, let alone excellent.
Angela Merkel and the German election
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 18 septembre 2017
Angela Merkel’s re-election as Germany’s chancellor for the fourth time on September 24 is important for Germans, Europeans and many democratic nations around the world, partly because of regional and other international misfeasance by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Strobe Talbott, President Bill Clinton’s leading adviser on Russia, observes, “Chancellor Merkel is the most steadfast custodian of the concept of the liberal West going back 70 years ... that makes her Putin’s No. 1 target.”
Merkel is the widely-recognized leader of Europe and defender of besieged universal values and democracy internationally. Putin is a contemporary would-be Russian czar, who wants to fracture Europe and democratic governance wherever possible.
À la recherche de la Ménora du Temple de Jérusalem
Par David Bensoussan le 10 septembre 2017
L’un des monuments les plus visités au forum à Rome est l’arc de triomphe de l’empereur Titus consacré par son frère Domitien pour marquer la prise de Jérusalem en l’an 70. On y trouve l’inscription : « Dédié par le Sénat et le peuple de Rome à Titus Vespasien Auguste, fils de Vespasien. »
Le butin pris au Temple de Jérusalem dont la Menora ou candélabre à sept branches y figure sur un bas-relief. Tout comme l’Arche de la loi contenant les tablettes des Dix commandements, la Ménora était conservée dans le Saint des Saints dans le Temple de Salomon.
Statuary rape
Par David T. Jones le 10 septembre 2017
Washington, DC ~ The current search for “feet of clay” throughout the United States is curious almost beyond puzzlement. We are self axle-wrapping over what statue should be permitted to commemorate whom and what.
And not just statues and memorials associated with the Civil War Confederacy “losers” but other historical figures who don’t fit 2017 parameters for veneration. These range from George Washington (slave holder); Thomas Jefferson (slave holder; alleged sexual relations with a slave); Benjamin Franklin (owned slaves); Teddy Roosevelt (violent expansionist); Woodrow Wilson (ignored racism and promoted segregation—and didn’t “keep us out of war” as he promised).
Puzzling over hacking
Par David T. Jones le 2 août 2017
Washington, DC ~ For an extended period now, Washington and President Trump’s administration have been wrapped around the axle over Russian “hacking” of Democrat-associated e-mails and Moscow’s alleged concurrent effort to assist the Trump campaign win the election.
The effort to “get to the bottom of it” does not seem anywhere near to reaching any bottom. Indeed, it has metastasized into investigations by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller that appear to be casting their investigatory nets in ever-widening directions, ensnaring President Trump’s son and son-in-law as well as assorted odds-and-ends deal-makers/fixers/lawyers of one nationality or another.
"BREXIT" after the British election
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 26 juin 2017
Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is correct about Britain’s post-election Brexit realities. At a joint news conference with Prime MinisterTheresa May in Paris last week, he said the UK decision to leave the EU could be reversed: “As the negotiations go on, it will be more and more difficult to go backwards...”
May knows she must respect the positions on Brexit of other parties, given her failure to secure a majority and the loss of 13 MPs. She is also under pressure from Brexiters on her own backbenches who could topple her as prime minister if she fails to deliver on their expectations. The world, however, knows that she and David Cameron - with good reasons -supported "Remain" in last year’s national referendum.
NATO and the Transatlantic Relationship
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 11 juin 2017
When 12 democratic governments seeking to check Soviet expansion formed NATO by treaty in 1949, it seems unlikely that any of their political leaders thought they would today number 28 and become the most successful defensive military alliance in history.
Post-1952 American President Dwight D. Eisenhower noted at the time, “We are engaged in a war of great ideologies. This is not just a casual argument between slightly different philosophies. This is light against dark, freedom against slavery…”.
The initiative represented a major turning point for the United States. Unprecedented in peacetime, Washington was entering a permanent alliance linking it to Western Europe in both a military and political sense.
THE SIX DAY WAR—ICONIC MILESTONE
Par David T. Jones le 7 juin 2017
Washington, DC ~ Four times in the 75 years of my life, Israel has had to fight its Arab neighbors: 1948, for the creation of the country; 1956, to restore freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal; 1967, in pre-emptive strikes against Arabs on the verge of their own attacks; and 1973, beating back a surprise Egyptian attack across the Suez Canal that was initially successful.
Each time there was the basic appreciation that Israel could not afford to lose a single war or “never again” would be implemented to catastrophic effect.
It is the 1967 “Six Day War,” now in its 50-year commemoration starting on 5 June, that has proved the most enduring and consequential.
"Masada shall not fall again! Metzadah shuv lo tipol!" The legacy of the bold and the brave
Par Beryl Wajsman le 4 juin 2017
This week we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Israel's victory in 1967's Six Day War. A war pre-meditatively planned and instigated by frontline Arab states whose leaders promised to "drive the Jews into the sea!" It was a victory for the frontline nation in the family of the free, a precursor of the time of terror we live in today, but more than all that, it affirmed President John F. Kennedy's creed that with, "Resolve and courage, the bold and the brave can assure the survival and success of liberty."
In the weeks leading up to the War - a war that took place just 22 years after the liberation of the death camps of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews - Arab states flaunted international law and the international community responded with submission and impotent silence.
Le négationnisme de Marine le Pen et la responsabilité de la France
Par Amb. Freddy Eytan le 28 avril 2017
Jerusalem - Le président Rivlin a eu raison de condamner le négationnisme de Marine le Pen au moment même où les Français s’apprêtent à voter au deuxième tour de la présidentielle. C’était son devoir d’alerter et de remettre les pendules de l’Histoire à l’heure de la vérité.
Certes, rares sont les déclarations prononcées par un dirigeant officiel israélien contre un candidat à une élection dans un pays étranger, mais comment ne pas sursauter et se révolter contre les tentations de blanchir le gouvernement de Vichy dirigé par Pétain.
Ce maréchal, vainqueur de Verdun, l’homme providentiel de l’époque, et ses collaborateurs,ont agi volontairement et ont offert aux Allemands une aide importante, la plus considérable et la plus précieuse de tous les pays de l’Europe occupée.
Two Minutes to Midnight
Par Robert Presser le 23 avril 2017
Since 1947, The Chicago-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has maintained a Doomsday Clock indicating how close they feel the world is to a global nuclear war. Now the clock is set to two and a half minutes to midnight, to which it has been creeping closer over the past 26 years since a recent low of 17 minutes, recorded following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. I think that the clock does not reflect the current danger represented by the twin threats of the Syrian civil war and persistent belligerence from North Korea. There are more dangerous factors involved than at any other time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the atomic scientists need to get together and tick the clock 30 seconds closer than their most recent setting of January 26th, 2017.
RUSSIA: SET/RESET/RESET AGAIN
Par David T. Jones le 23 avril 2017
Washington, DC - The United States has a “Russia problem.” (And to be sure, Russia has a “United States problem.”)
This is not “Cold War II”—much as media always in search of a conflict to which they can attach a tag line might prefer. The “Soviet Red Army” of the 1980s that we feared for a generation would crash through the Fulda Gap headed to the Rhine—where we would have to fight outnumbered and win for the West’s survival—hasn’t existed since 1989.
To be sure, Russia remains the only country whose nuclear strikes could comprehensively destroy the United States--at the cost of its own annihilation. But despite this disconcerting reality, we “trust the Russians” to continue to act in sane self-control over their forces.
From Russia with Love
Par Robert Presser le 22 mars 2017
Did Russian President Vladimir Putin seek to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election? More seriously, was there collusion between elements of the Trump organization and Russian insiders to shape the campaign, and did those interventions lead to the disclosure of damaging information on Hillary Clinton at critical moments in the closing months? FBI Director James Comey was summoned before Congress to testify and present evidence, or confirm the lack thereof so that these questions can be settled, at least on an official level.
The only bombshell of information he has provided so far was that the FBI has been investigating since July 2016 into contacts between the Russians and certain Trump campaign officials –clearly this cloud over the Trump presidency will endure for some time.
Secretary Tillerson and he State of State
Par David T. Jones le 18 mars 2017
Washington, DC - In recent media stories, there are floods of tears (some of the crocodile nature) regarding the degree to which the U.S. Department of State and Secretary Tillerson have (not) controlled U.S. foreign policy.
To an extent, this observation is accurate. Secretary Tillerson stands alone atop a bureaucratic pyramid of senior State Department officials of the deputy secretary, under secretary, and assistant secretary ilk that are empty. Or at least empty of specific designees selected by Tillerson and/or President Trump. They are filled by “acting” officials, essentially long-term civilian government employees and career Foreign Service Officers. Their political predecessors were defenestrated or made to feel sufficiently unwelcome that with their backs up against the wall, they read the writing thereon.
HUMAN DIGNITY, PUTIN AND THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 3 mars 2017
Ottawa - Across the world, in many nations with differing models of governance, it appears that human dignity is under siege.
In Asia, for example, medical agents of the party-state in China are beyond any reasonable doubt removing for commercial purposes an average of 250 organs daily, mostly from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the Falun Gong, Uyghur Muslim, Tibetan Buddhist and house Christian communities.
Among the 54 nations of Africa, we find some of the world’s best-governed states, such as Botswana and Ghana, but also some, such as Zimbabwe and Angola, which are both mismanaged and corrupt and treat their citizens with thinly-veiled contempt.
Le nouveau tandem Trump-Netanyahou
Par Amb. Freddy Eytan le 23 février 2017
Jerusalem- La rencontre chaleureuse de Netanyahou avec le président Trump à Washington est à la fois symbolique et significative après huit années de tensions et de relations tumultueuses inutiles avec la précédente administration américaine.
C’est ainsi que le président des Etats-Unis devrait toujours accueillir un chef d’Etat ami et un allié fidèle. Sur ce point, Netanyahou peut en effet se réjouir et être soulagé. Enfin, il est entré à la Maison Blanche décontracté, la tête haute, et avec le sourire. Il est reçu sans contrainte, sans animosité, et obtient naturellement tous les égards.
Trump to America: "Did you love my huge, huge, first week?"
Par Robert Presser le 5 février 2017
Dear Americans,
I am doing Fantastic, I know you think so. I feel it, feel it clearly, no matter what the dishonest media is reporting. Spicer did an amazing job, totally amazing, Spicer was, standing up to the White House reporters, telling them that I had the biggest inauguration crowd ever, ever! Period! Way to tell’em! Spicer and I are going to get along great, great guy, Spicer is.
Obamacare is history, I made it so on day one, everyone saw me do it. I love executive orders, it’s just like running a business, sign the papers and make it so, but Reince tells me it is more complicated than that.
The Holocaust: On memory and witness
Par Beryl Wajsman le 27 janvier 2017
Today, January 27th, is the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. Perhaps for this reason, this date was chosen as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Curiously, and sadly, it took the UN sixty years to give recognition to this most seminal and apocalyptic event in human history. The organization at whose entrance are carved the words of the prophet Isaiah that, “Swords shall be beaten into plowshares and nation shall not make war against nation anymore,” got around to commemorating Holocaust remembrance only in 2005. We are not only still waiting for Isaiah’s prophecy to be realized but also for that day when those other prophetic words “Justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream…” have life breathed into them.
