Will there ever be an Arab Union?

POLITICS - The concept of an Arab Union stretching somewhere between Morocco and Pakistan has been around for years, but it has yet to be largely because many of the countries in the region have cultural and religious disagreements that have nothing to do with politics or economics.

The European Union for example is a largely economic alliance, under one currency (the Euro), which gives them a strong advantage over other markets with weaker / less stable currencies. Creating an Arab Union using a common currency (ie. the Dinar) sounds like a smart idea, but it becomes a monumental task of trying to get these countries to agree on anything long enough to make such an economic alliance.

There are several large problems...

#1. Dictatorships... far too many Arab countries, ie. Iran is still under a dictatorial government. In 2010 and 2011 there have been a number of uprisings in Egypt and Libya, but there is still so many countries in the Middle East which lack a secular democratic government.

#2. Religion... different interpretations of Islam and the differences between liberal, moderate and extreme Islam. Some of these countries believe strongly in having a Muslim state government and adopting Sharia laws (ancient Arab laws that endorse things like chopping off the hands of thieves, stoning women to death, etc).

#3. Possible War. ie. Israel Vs. Iran. Some countries have peace treaties with Israel, but others have open animosity.

#4. War zones. ie. Iraq, Turkey, Libya, etc.

#5. Palestine. The country is more like a prison surrounded by Israeli troops. Any prospect of an Arab Union will probably want to include Palestine.

But also a number of bonus factors which may make it easier...

#1. OPEC. This is already an economic alliance between many of the oil producing Arab countries and thus serves as a platform on which an Arab Union could be formed. Indeed it might be touted as OPEC II or the OPEC Union. See the History of Oil Prices.

#2. Languages. While most Arab countries do have their own languages and dialects, this was nothing in terms of preventing Britain, Greece and Finland from joining the European Union. If anything there should be enough similarities between the North African and Middle Eastern languages to help further the idea of such an union.

#3. A Common Thirst for Prosperity. Who doesn't want peace and economic growth?

Conclusions: We need peace in the Middle East before people can attempt an Arab Union or anything similar to that.

But if 2 or 3 countries kick started the union it would create an economic avalanche that spreads from one country to the next as each sees the economic benefits.

Canadian ship in Gaza flotilla halted

POLITICS - A Canadian ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip has been halted and uis under 24-hour surveillance in an effort to prevent it from delivering aid Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

After months of remaining secret, the location of the Canadian ship participating in Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza was found off the coast of the Greek seaside town of Agio Nikolaos. Greek authorities boarded the ship and tried to seize the ship’s transit log, which is needed to sail into the coastal waters of Israel.

Flotilla organizers say acts of sabotage against other two ships in the flotilla of aid ships happened earlier this week.

The Greek government, under pressure from Israel (and probably hoping for handouts since its under enormous financial strain right now), has blocked the Canadian boat and other ships from setting out to try and sneak past the Israeli sea blockade of Gaza and to deliver humanitarian aid to poor Palestinians who over the past decades have basically become prisoners inside their own country.

“We are being Gaza-fied,” says Lyn Adamson, 59, a lifelong Toronto activist and chair of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. “What we’re doing is perfectly legal and we haven’t given up,” says Adamson, one of 22 Canadians aboard the Canadian boat Tahrir (Arabic for “Liberation”). The ship is named after the square in Cairo where Egyptians gathered and toppled Hosni Mubarak early in 2011.

“It’s clearly coming from on high,” said Adamson. “It’s really a shame that this Greek government would be pressured, as it has been, into stopping these boats. Why is Israel afraid of our aid?”

Israel claims its sea blockade stops weapons from reaching Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, but it also stops food shipments, medical supplies and basically anything else you can think of. The conditions in the Gaza Strip are deplorable, similar to Jewish ghettos in Germany during WWII.

In 2010 nine activists on a Turkish boat died when the Israeli military attacked a similar flotilla.

On Friday night 36 delegates on the Canadian boat (including activists from Belgium, Denmark, Australia and Turkey) were sleeping aboard the Tahrir. 11 journalists from seven countries are also present on the ship. The activists come from all over, all ages and all religious/atheist backgrounds. The average age of people on the ship is 45. 33% of them are grandparents.

Meanwhile...

An American ship named “The Audacity of Hope” (after a book written by President Barack Obama) made a run for open water Friday. The Greek coast guard intercepted it after half an hour.

So for now the ships sit in legal limbo, unable to leave Greek waters and head towards Israel's territorial waters. The food and medical supplies aboard just sit and wait.

About Gaza

Hoder sentenced to 19.5 years

POLITICS - 35-year-old Iranian-Canadian Hossein Derakhshan, the founder of one of the first Farsi-language blogs and credited with the boom in Iranian bloggers, has been sentenced to 19 years in an Iranian prison for being critical of Iran's Ayatollah... and also for trying to promote peace between Iran and Israel.

Hossein Derakhshan, aka Hoder, wrote his blog from Canada but was arrested during a visit to Iran in 2008. In a controversial move Derakhshan also was a supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising Iran's nuclear weapons program as a deterrent against war.

The Iranian prosecutors asked to give Derakhshan the death penalty. See Toronto Blogger facing Death Penalty.

But that plea was apparently ignored and Derakhshan has instead been given the sentence of 19.5 years for writing propaganda against the state of Iran, for "cooperating with Israel" and insulting Islamic religious figures.

Derakhshan ignited blogging in Iran by posting simple instructions online on how to create sites in Farsi in 2001. Since then Farsi has overtaken the blogosphere to become the 2nd most used language behind English.

Its widely speculated in political circles that Israel and Iran will go to war sometime in the next 10 years.

Toronto blogger facing Death Penalty

CANADA/POLITICS - Hossein Derakhshan, aka "Hoder the Blogfather", became a Canadian citizen during the early 2000s and lived in Toronto for a period of 8 years before visiting Israel and then Iran in 2008.

He'd been operating his blog out of Toronto for many years, showing his fellow Persians online how to create Persian-based websites and blogs. But during his 2008 trip to Iran he was nabbed by Iranian authorities and has been held for the last 2 years under propaganda charges.

Yesterday prosecutors for Derakhshan's case requested the death penalty.

A spokesperson from the Free Hoder campaign called the news “horrific.”

Derakhshan’s cyber crusader story isn't completely clear cut. When radical hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got into power in 2006 Derakhshan started off as being very critical of Ahmadinejad's regime, but then later did an U-turn and began defending the regime. The controversial move annoyed a lot of his dedicated blog readers.

Before he came to Canada Derakhshan was a newspaper reporter in Tehran before marrying and moving to Canada in 2000. He later got divorced, started his website hoder.com (which is no longer available), and learned how to modify blog software to use the Persian alphabet.

He single handedly started an avalanch of Persian bloggers, which in turn has sparked a revolution of free speech in Iran because now its really easy for Iranians to start their own blog or website and speak out against the atrocities and corruption going on in the country.

FACT: Persian is now the 2nd most used language in the blogosphere. It is the busiest and noisiest in the world.

According to former readers Derakhshan not only pioneered the Persian blogging community, he was instrumental about starting a debate about the rights of bloggers and the threats they face. Derakhshan loves courting controversy too. His trip to Israel and his shifting allegiances in 2006 when he started defending Iran's pursuit of nuclear arms brought in 10,000 visitors per day.

Ironically he even questioned whether jailed citizen-journalist dissidents were really innocent, according to former readers.

While his motivations for his shifting allegiances remain a mystery, when he was jailed in November 2008 after arriving in Tehran for a visit, public outcry at the time was muted. But now that he may be executed for exercising his freedom of speech bloggers around the world have picked up the call for action.

Check out the Free Hussein Derakhshan facebook page.

The video below was made in 2006, prior to Derakhshan's capture in Iran.






Derakhshan is not the only person who has faced or is currently facing execution in Iran:

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani - 43-year-old mother sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in 2006. Iran’s judiciary says it has suspended the stoning sentence but claims that she is also guilty of participating in the murder of her husband. A final decision is still pending.

Hamid Ghassemi-Shall - Iranian-born Canadian has been in detention since a family visit to Iran two years ago. His wife, Antonella Mega, says his appeals have run out and he faces a death sentence. It is unknown what charges he faces.

Helmut Hoffer - German businessman accused of having an illicit sexual relationship with an Iranian woman and sentenced to death in 1998. The sentence was quashed and Hoffer later released in 2000.

Jalil Mahdi Salih Nu’aymi - Swedish citizen executed in 1990 for co-operation with a foreign intelligence service.

Helmut Szimkus - German sentenced to death in 1992 for espionage, later pardoned after intense German lobbying.

Roger Cooper - Businessman and former journalist is sentenced to death for espionage activities in 1985. He eventually served five years and four months in prison.

Israeli apartheid banned at Gay Pride

By Zehavi Abramsky - May 2010.

CANADA - The group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid has been banned from joining in with the Gay Pride celebrations in Toronto. Members of the group can still attend the Gay Pride Parade, etc., but they won't be allowed to enter a float in the parade.

The group promotes peace between Israel and Palestine, but the use of the word "apartheid" has upset Jewish groups because it implies that Israel doesn't treat Palestinians equally.

Which is quite accurate. Palestinians aren't allowed to vote and are basically treated like second class citizens... or more specifically, they're treated as dangerous foreigners who happen to be sharing the same ancestral land.

APARTHEID: A social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against people who are not White or Caucasian.

Historically the term is most often used to describe the policy of racial separation used in South Africa from 1948 to 1990. Whites had all the rights to vote, could go anywhere they pleased, etc. Mixed race people had less rights and basically the blacker you were the less rights and freedoms you had.

In Israel and Palestine however its more complicated. The government of Israel has built walls separating Israeli and Palestinian communities, essentially fencing in Palestinians in what is arguably the world's largest concentration camp. The walls are also used to cut Palestinians off from sources of employment, farms, land they own, food, etc. All in the name of protecting Israel.

And we're not talking little walls either. As you can see in the photo here these walls are made so tall that they make the Berlin Wall look small.

These walls are then guarded by Israeli troops. Entrance points to Palestinian towns are well guarded, making it very difficult for Palestinians to leave. There's even been incidents of tunnels (like in the film The Great Escape) dug under the wall so people can get out of there, find food and bring it back to their families.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

During WWII the Nazis established ghettos to confine Jews and sometimes Romas into tightly packed areas of the cities of Eastern Europe, turning them into de-facto concentration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of these ghettos, with 400,000 people. The Ghetto Litzmannstadt was the second largest, holding about 160,000. By keeping them penned in the Nazis were able to control them, starve them of food, refuse them medical treatment, allow them to die of disease and famine... and then photographed them and used the photographs of their deplorable conditions as propaganda to prove to the German people that Jews and Gypsies were sub-human. And they did it all in the name of protecting Germany from the threat of Jewish diseases, Jewish criminals, etc.

The Nazis also rounded up Poles, Ukrainians, other ethnic groups, homosexuals and people with mental problems. Anyone considered a traitor to Germany was either rounded up or shot.

So while the time and place may have changed, and the methods and motivations are also different, we can all see the similarities.

Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa, Israel and Palestine. The ugly face of segregation.

The big trick here is that people who support Israel's occupation of Palestinian land get really upset when you compare Israel to Germany or South Africa. I don't mean Jews, because not all Jews support Israel's military or government. I am just referring to "supporters".

Now some people might accuse me of being a self-hating Jew because I don't support Israel. Boohoo. Do you really think I care about that? My grandparents left Poland in 1939. They saw segregation first hand and the way it demoralizes and humiliates people. I'd argue its a war crime.

I think that some people in Israel have reacted to the segregation they felt during WWII and then instead of recognizing it as a bad thing they've gone and used it instead on Palestinians. I am probably not alone in thinking this. There's even a psychological term for this (although I forget the word for it), when someone does something traumatizing to you and you do the same thing to another person.

Its also a form of displacement revenge. They can't get revenge against the Nazis, so instead they take out their revenge on someone else. This displaced aggression isn't very therapeutic however because then the receiving party tends to retaliate and a deadly cycle of violence ensues.

And failing to admit that its all about revenge is another issue. Denialism in this case, denying that there are similarities to Nazi Germany and South African Apartheid, denying that what the Israeli military is doing is wrong, only furthers the problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with protecting Israel. Its all about revenge, paranoia and prejudice.

And trying to censor people and denying that Israel is using apartheid methods to control the Palestinian people isn't going to solve anything. Only discussion and open understanding will solve these problems.

Eventually the walls must come down.

Congress to strip AIG of bonuses

POLITICS - United States Senators are hopping mad over the insurance giant AIG executives who received $165 million in bonuses, using taxpayers' money that was meant as part of the bailout plan.

Senate Democrats vowed today to strip AIG executives of their $165 million in bonuses, as expressions of outrage swelled in Congress and in the mass media over a firm that received billions in taxpayer bailout funds.

"Recipients of these bonuses will not be able to keep all of their money," declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor.

"If you don't return it on your own we will do it for you," said Chuck Schumer of New York.

Senate Democrats are now threatening to tax the bonuses at up to 91% through narrowly written legislation, said Schumer, if AIG does not return the money voluntarily.

Some feel 91% doesn't go far enough. In the United States House of Representatives, Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, introduced a bill that would that would tax at 100% bonuses above $100,000 paid by companies that have received federal bailout money.

"It boggles my mind how these executives can be so unaware of what the American people are going through," said Tim Ryan. He called his proposal "a wakeup call that the days of arrogance and greed on Wall Street are coming to an end. We will use any means necessary."

The Internal Revenue Service currently withholds 25% from bonuses less than $1 million and 35% for bonuses more than $1 million.

On Monday, President Barack Obama lambasted AIG for "recklessness and greed" and pledged to block payment of the bonuses. Obama said he had directed Geithner to determine whether there was any way to retrieve or stop the bonus money.

Iran violating UN sanctions

POLITICS - An United Nations Security Council committee reported today that Iran has violated UN sanctions by trying to send weapons-grade material to Syria, on a cargo ship now docked in Cyprus. The ship, the Monchegorsk, was intercepted by the U.S. Navy and forced the ship to dock in Cyprus on January 29th and is still be held there.

According to France's UN ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, the shipment contains "explosives, high explosive shells, 125 mm armor-piercing shells, and high explosive anti-tank propellant" and arms.

Copies of the ship's manifest indicated that the Monchegorsk was chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line, that the cargo was loaded in Iran and was to be unloaded in Lataki, Syria.

Japan's UN ambassador, Yukio Takasu, chair of the committee monitoring sanctions against Iran, confirmed in his report that this marked the first official confirmation that Iran was trying to circumvent the UN arms embargo. All 15 Security Council nations are members of the sanctions committee, which means Takasu's report had the unanimous backing of the entire council.

In February Cyprus sent a letter to the UN committee "seeking guidance with respect to its inspections of cargo on a vessel carrying its flag that was found to be carrying arms-related material," says Takasu. Cyprus didn't know what to do with the ship once they had found out it was carrying explosives and needed advice.

The UN committee responded with a letter saying the transfer of the material was a violation of a 2007 Security Council resolution that prohibits Iran from transferring any arms or related material and requires all countries to prohibit the procurement of such items from Iran.

The sanctions were imposed after Iran refused to suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used both to make nuclear fuel or weapons grade plutonium for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Takasu told the council that the committee sent letters to "concerned member states" (including Britain, France and the United States) on March 9th asking for any relevant information within 10 days. Similar letters were also sent to Iran and Syria asking for an explanation.

Britain "looks forward to the committee receiving explanations from Iran and Syria as to why the shipment was permitted by Iran as the reported state of origin, and as to the involvement of Syria as the reported state of destination," says Britain's UN ambassador, John Sawers.

UN Security Council diplomats say the ultimate destination of the weapons-related material remains unknown – possibly Hamas fighters in Gaza, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, or even Iraqis with close ties to Syria. It is fairly certain the explosives and weapons were meant to be used for terrorism.

There has been no decision on what to do with the cargo, though Britain has signaled that it is ready to help Cyprus dispose of the explosives.

NOTE: China and Russia have been selling Iran a lot of missile technology in recent years, which is making some people in Israel and the USA rather nervous.

See Also:
Iran is evil, says Stephen Harper
Russia sells Iran missiles
Iran's 1st nuclear plant in operation
Isratine? An One State Solution for Israel and Palestine
Israel attacks Lebanon supplies ship
Pirates hijack oil tanker
Oil pirates drown in rough seas

Unsold Cars Piling Up

CARS - The automotive industry is doing so bad right now they're running out of room to store unsold cars.

In Sweden, Toyota recently rented a cargo ship to store 2500 unsold Toyota cars in the Swedish port of Malmo. 30,000 more unsold cars from various companies are currently clogging up the Malmo dock.

In Israel, car sales in Tel Aviv are doing so badly that they've had to open a new 21-acre lot to store them at Pi Glilot.

In Germany, car lots are so overstocked they've started offering a car scrapping scheme, giving customers a discount of €2,500 Euros to scrap their old cars (any car made before 2000) for materials to help them buy new cars.

In Canada, Chrysler has rented the Downsview Canadian Forces Base in Toronto, and has filled it with unsold Dodge Challengers.

In England, Nissan has taken to parking its excess capacity on its UK test track.

In North America alone, capacity exceeds demand by about 7 million vehicles. Car sales in the United States are down 35.5% compared to last year, and countries in Europe and Asia are similarly hurting.

An estimated 35 million unsold vehicles are currently sitting in lots around the world waiting to be sold.

There is certainly an argument that this economic decline should now be considered a depression, not a recession. The economy first went sour in August 2007, and any recession longer than a year is considered to be a depression.

Iran is evil, says Stephen Harper

CANADA/POLITICS - The ideology of the Iranian government is "evil", said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday.

Harper accused Iran of covertly seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge. Iran recently finished building its 1st nuclear plant, which it called a boost to Iran's environmental record.

"It concerns me that we have a regime with both an ideology that is obviously evil, combined with a desire to procure technology to act on that ideology," Harper said. "My government is a very strong supporter of the state of Israel and considers the Iranian threats to be absolutely unacceptable and beyond the pale."

Canada's relations with Iran have been strained since 2003, when Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi died in custody in Tehran after being arrested.

Harper also complained that Russia has been testing Canadian airspace in the Arctic more frequently, "an aggression that is increasingly troublesome." On February 19th Canadian fighter planes scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers less than 24 hours before United States President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa.

Harper also said the NATO mission in Afghanistan is a serious test of its military alliance. "We have to get our act together ... or NATO will not be able to undertake these kinds of missions in the future. There may be some around the NATO table who don't think it should. But if that's their position, that's not what they are saying."

Canada still has about 2,700 soldiers in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on a mission that is due to end in 2011. There have been 108 Canadian soldiers killed in the conflict so far.

Obama's decision to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan will certainly help.

"I would encourage the (Obama) administration to really assess what its objectives are and to make sure they are realistic and achievable," he said.

Unlike George W. Bush who bit off more than he could chew.

Israel attacks Lebanon supplies ship

POLITICS - A Lebanese ship carrying 60 tonnes of medicine, food, toys and basic humanitarian supplies such as mattresses and blankets for the people of the Gaza Strip was attacked and "kidnapped" by the Israeli navy earlier today.

Israel says they are just impounding the ship for trying to go to the Gaza Strip and is trying to "starve out the [Hamas] militants" in the Gaza Strip. Lebanon's prime minister condemned the "blatant attack" and one of the ship's organizers called it a kidnapping. The ship is currently being towed to a dock in Israel and its crew will be handed over to Israeli immigration.

The Lebanese ship was the latest in a string of vessels that tried to break the Israeli blockade. Israel has permitted very few ships to reach Gaza but blocked all others, including a Libyan freighter that was forced to turn around last December.

Catholic Bishop denies the Holocaust

RELIGION - A Catholic bishop has been forced to apologize by Pope Benedict XVI for the "distress and problems" he caused by denying the Holocaust.

Bishop Richard Williamson, who recently denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, is calling his remarks "imprudent" as he expresses his regrets in a letter posted on his personal blog today. Williamson's denial of the Holocaust in an interview on Swedish TV sparked a storm of protest from Jewish groups and human rights groups.

Bishop Williamson was excommunicated by the Vatican over 20 years ago in 1988 because he had been elevated to bishop's rank by a renegade, ultraconservative prelate. Williamson was un-excommunicated by Pope Benedict on January 21st 2009.

Williamson also believes that Jews are bent on world dominion and that September 11th was planned by Israel. He has not apologized for these.

Evidently Benedict might have to reconsider excommunicating him again. Or not. Pope Benedict is a former Hitler youth and despite his public stance against the Jewish Holocaust, Benedict has been strongly promoting the idea of converting Jews to Christianity.

Since becoming the new pope in April 2005 Benedict has reinstituted the Tridentine Mass which includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews, "from darkness to Catholicism." in 2007 and has been critical of Israel's actions in the Middle East.

See Also: Papal Impropriety

Isratine? An One State Solution for Israel and Palestine

POLITICS - The Isratine proposal is an idea to permanently resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a secular one-state solution, which was first articulated by Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi of Libya.

Its main points are:
Creation of a Jewish-Arab state called the "Federal Republic of the Holy Land" or just Holy Land.

Partition of the state into 5 administrative regions, with Jerusalem as a city-state;
Return of all Palestinian refugees.

Supervision by the United Nations of free and fair elections on the first and second occasions.

Removal of weapons of mass destruction from the state.

Recognition of the state by the Arab League.

Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi's proposal was eventually incorporated in Libyan head-of-state Muammar al-Gaddafi's White Book of May 8, 2003, which serves as his official guide to address the Arab-Israeli conflict and how to solve it. Despite the suggestion of "Federal Republic of the Holy Land" as the name of this hypothetical new state, "Isratine" has jokingly been used as a "working title" for the notion.

Following the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict and the election of Barack Obama in the United States, al-Gaddafi championed the "Isratine proposal" in an article for the New York Times as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel withdraws from Gaza, for now...

POLITICS - Israeli troops, some smiling and dancing, began to withdraw from Gaza Sunday after their government and Hamas militants declared an end to a three-week war. But neither side achieved long-term goals, and the cost of the war is estimated in billions of US dollars to Palestine's housing and infrastructure and 1,259 dead Palestinians. Only 13 Israelis have also been killed since the fighting began.

The truce brought relief to Gaza's citizens, who took stock of the devastation in relative safety for the first time since Israel launched the war on December 27th. And it brought more trauma, as rescue workers in surgical masks ventured into what were once no-go areas and pulled hundreds of bodies from buildings pulverized by bombs. The death toll is expected to rise to 1600 or more.

The big concern is trying to rescue the people who may still be alive under the rubble.

"We've pulled out my nephew, but I don't know how many are still under there," Zayed Hadar said as he sifted through the rubble of his flattened home in the northern town of Jebaliya.

"Its like an earthquake happened here," said one volunteer rescue worker from Greece. "I can't believe people would do this over religion."

Thanks to the strenuous efforts by Egyptian mediators to get an agreement Israel first announced a unilateral cease-fire that took effect early Sunday, with Hamas initially vowing to keep fighting until all troops left Gaza. Later Sunday, Hamas also said it would hold its fire to give Israeli forces time to pull out.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country had no desire to stay in Gaza, a Mediterranean strip of 1.4 million people that Israel forcibly occupied in 2005 even though Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border crossings remained under Israeli control.

Despite minor losses suffered, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh claimed "a heavenly victory" in remarks broadcast on Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel. Critics of the Israeli occupation point out that this war has been a disaster for Israel's reputation and will only serve to increase Hamas' power circle and popularity.

The world welcomed the apparent end to the latest round of fighting in the Middle East. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a quick influx of humanitarian aid to isolated Gaza, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – in the final days of her tenure before Hillary Clinton takes over – said a cease-fire must be durable.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said a key to calm in the region is the re-opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt which has been kept virtually sealed since Hamas staged a violent takeover of Gaza in 2007 from forces of the rival Fatah peace movement. Iran denies the existence of Israel and is pushing for eradication of the Jewish state. Iran supplies rockets to Hamas.

In Egypt Sunday, European and Arab leaders were discussing a long-term deal to solidify the truce. They also discussed delivering humanitarian aid to rebuild Gaza, opening Egypt's borders and choking off the smuggling of weapons into Gaza through tunnels under the 8-mile Gaza-Egypt border and perhaps with an international naval force to patrol the region for weapons smugglers.

Problems persist however. Israel wants monitors checking for weapons smugglers, but Egypt has refused to have them on its side of the border.

The Israeli military warned that the next few days were critical and that any Hamas attacks would be met with harsh retaliation. In the past Israel has killed approx. 10 Palestinians in retaliation to every 1 dead Israeli. During this war the ratio was almost 100 to 1.

For now the people of Gaza must bury their dead relatives and question whether embracing war with a foe with superior weaponry and the will to mercilessly kill civilians is really in their best interest.

Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza

POLITICS - Israel implemented a unilateral cease-fire early Sunday in its 22-day offensive that turned Gaza neighbourhoods into battlegrounds but barely hurt the strength of Islamic militants of Hamas and may only serve to make them grow in popularity. Israeli troops will stay in the Palestinian territory for now and Hamas has threatened to keep fighting until they leave.

In announcing the cease-fire late Saturday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had achieved its goals and more. International condemnation of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians and the rising death toll of children killed in the combat zones had caused Israel to lose much of their international support.

"Hamas was hit hard, in its military arms and in its government institutions. Its leaders are in hiding and many of its men have been killed," Olmert said.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to stop years of rocket fire from Gaza at southern Israeli towns. But the rockets did not stop coming throughout the assault. Militants fired about 30 rockets into Israel on Saturday, eight of them around the time Olmert spoke.

More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, about 400 of them children (approx. half of the people living in Gaza are under the age of 17), according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Only 13 Israelis have also been killed since the fighting began.

Pilot project for electric cars in Toronto

CANADA/CARS - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he's committed to making the province a model for the introduction of electric cars in Canada.

Palo Alto, California high-tech startup 'Better Place' already has convinced Israel, Denmark and Australia to try their battery recharge and swap system, and build a network of stations where customers can swap in their current batteries for recharged ones.

The electric vehicles involved are known in the car industry as "Car 2.0."

Better Place's vision is to set up regional Electric Recharge Grid Operators that would sell energy to electric-car drivers as part of a monthly subscription — like a cellphone service plan that sells electricity instead of minutes.

No investments have been made so far as the Ontario government checks to see if the Canadian public supports the idea.

Better Place said it will set up its Canadian head office in Ontario and, as part of the partnership, will establish an electric vehicle demonstration and education centre in Toronto. Over the new few months it will develop a charging-network plan, which will include an estimated timeline for building a network and the likely cost.

At the same time, the government will do its own comprehensive study, to be released in May, that will look at ways to accelerate the manufacture and deployment of electric vehicles in Ontario as well as a viability study.

Better Place says the Greater Toronto Area is an appealing market because of its population density of roughly five million people. Documents presented by the company last summer showed that it would likely require an investment of more than $150 million to set up a local grid operator and the infrastructure to support 100,000 electric-car subscribers within 80 to 160 kilometres of downtown Toronto.

French automaker Renault S.A., in alliance with Nissan, has already agreed to manufacture electric cars for Better Place for projects in Israel and Denmark.

Agassi said any electric car could "roam" onto Better Place's charging network but more cooperation with manufacturers would be required to make sure car manufacturers made electric cars with "swappable" batteries.

Naysayers of the electric car note that hydrogen cars will replace electrics 10 years from now anyway, but may end up using parts of the same distribution network.

Killing Children in the name of God

An Israeli and a Palestinian went to see God. They asked whether there would ever be a permanent peace between their two peoples. "Of course there will," replied God. "But it won't be in my time."

RELIGION/POLITICS - Call it an atheist joke if you want to, but watching two religious groups fight over who owns the "holy city" of Jerusalem is both saddening and depressing. For the people involved in the current conflict in Israel, in which 257 children have been killed by Israel's bombs and artillery fire it is simply horrific.

In North America we stand back and thank our proverbial lucky stars we're not in that mess. Religions and war have a long history together and atheists are fond of pointing it out... and none is a better example of the interplay between war and religion than Israel and Palestine.

Since Israel's inception in 1948 it has been in a near constant state of religious war. What you have is two religious groups that are xenophobic of other religions, who view other religions as a threat to their own identity and culture.

In North America these people tolerate each other because they realize they're a minority, and they have embraced multiculturalism and freedom of religion. But in Israel-Palestine everyone is paranoid about being attacked by religious fanatics.

And calling them religious fanatics doesn't help either. They get upset if you refer to either group as such. To the semi-religious people in North America however the kind of fanaticism we see coming out of Israel is scary.

And its not just Jews and Muslims. Christians are pretty damn scary too when they start toting their guns around and preaching about attacking Iran in the name of Jesus.

Maybe its the heat. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all came from the Middle East. Does it fry their brains to the point that they start to do crazy things?

We already know heat waves cause crime waves. The heat tends to make poor people/criminals desperate and they go on crime sprees. In the winter people are more likely to stay indoors and avoid making trouble. The difference is most noticeable in countries closer to the arctic or antarctic. Canada for example sees a dramatic drop in crime rates during the winter.

So would it be much of a stretch to stay the heat tends to do weird things to people's brains in general? Look at all the wars currently going on in the world. They're all near the equator and in rather hot countries.

So will there ever be peace in Israel? Maybe, but like the joke says people will have to take god out of the equation first. As long as people keep killing in the name of god nothing will change.

257 Children killed in Gaza

POLITICS - Tiny bodies of children lying side by side wrapped in white burial shrouds. The cherubic face of a dead preschooler sticking up from the rubble of her home. A man cradling a wounded boy in a chaotic emergency room after Israel shelled a United Nations funded school.

Palestinians have large families and children, who make up more than half of crowded Gaza's 1.4 million people, are the most defenseless victims of the war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli army has unleashed unprecedented force in its campaign against Hamas militants, who being civilians themselves are embedded in the civilian population.

A photo of four-year-old Kaukab Al Dayah, just her bloodied head sticking out from the rubble of her home, covered many front pages in the Arab world Wednesday. The preschooler was killed early Tuesday when an Israeli F-16 attacked her family's home in Gaza City. Four adults also died.

As of Thursday night 257 children had been killed and 1,080 wounded, with about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27, according to UN figures released today.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas in response to its repeated rocket attacks on southern Israel, and is doing its utmost to avoid civilian deaths. However, foreign aid officials note that civilians can't escape blockaded Gaza and that Israel's bombing of crowded civilian areas inevitably leads to civilian casualties. The Israeli military has used tank and artillery shells, as well as large aerial bombs.

Children have been killed in strikes on their houses, while riding in cars with their parents, while playing in the streets, walking to a grocery and even at UN shelters. No place is safe and the Israeli forces won't let Palestinians leave the country.

"It is worse than concentration camp," says one Palestinian. "Its like they're trying to exterminate us."

Sayed, Mohammed and Raida Abu Aisheh – ages 12, eight and seven – were at home with their parents when they were all killed in an Israeli air strike before dawn Monday. The family had remained in the ground floor apartment of their building, while the rest of the extended clan sought refuge in the basement from heavy bombardment of nearby Hamas installations.

Those in the basement survived. The children's uncle, Saber Abu Aisheh, 49, searched today through the rubble for survivors. He said Israel gave no warning, unlike two years earlier when he received repeated calls from the Israeli military, including on his cellphone, that a nearby house was going to get hit and that he should evacuate.

"What's going on is not a war, it's a mass killing," said Abu Aisheh, still wearing the blood-splattered olive-coloured sweater he wore the night of the air strike.

The Israeli military did not comment when asked why the Abu Aisheh house was targeted.

In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, medics found four young children next to their dead mothers in a house, according to the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross. "They were too weak to stand up on their own," the statement said.

The Red Cross did not say what happened to the children, but noted that the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach the neighbourhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting.

Medic Mohammed Azayzeh said he retrieved the bodies of a man and his two young sons from central Gaza on Wednesday. One of the boys, a one-year-old, was cradled in his father's arms.

In the Jebaliya refugee camp, five sisters from the Balousha family, ages four, eight, 11, 14 and 17, were buried together in white shrouds on Dec. 29. An Israeli air strike on a mosque, presumably a Hamas target, had destroyed their adjacent house. Only their parents and a baby girl survived.

"We are talking about urban war," said Abdel-Rahman Ghandour, the Jordan-based spokesman for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa. "The density of the population is so high, it's bound to hurt children ... This is a unique conflict, where there is nowhere to go."

Successive generations of Gaza children have grown up with violence, part of the accelerating conflict with Israel. In the late 1980s, many threw stones at Israeli soldiers in a revolt against occupation. In the second uprising, starting in 2000, some children were even recruited by Hamas as suicide bombers.

Having experienced trauma and their parents' helplessness, this new generation of children may be more vulnerable to recruitment by militants.

Russia sells Iran missiles

POLITICS - Russia has begun delivering S-300 air defence systems to Iran which could help repel any Israeli and United States air strikes on its nuclear sites, Iranian news reported today. Russian sources have confirmed they have a S-300 missile contract with Iran.

Right: A Russian S-300 missile launcher.

"After few years of talks with Russia ... now the S-300 system is being delivered to Iran," says Email Kosari, deputy head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security committee.

The United States, its European allies and Israel claim Iran is seeking to build nuclear arms under the cover of a civilian atomic energy program. Iran denies the claims.

Israel's insistence that Iran must not be allowed to develop an atomic bomb has fueled speculation that the Jewish state, widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, could mount its own pre-emptive strikes on Iran and spark a religious war that would engulf all of the Middle East.

Right: A S-300 missile being launched.

Russia is not alone in its dealing with Iran. For the past 30 years China has been selling Iran missile technology, the kind of action that makes folks in Washington and Jerusalem very nervous.

Wall Street duped in $50 billion fraud scam

UNITED STATES - As if the US economy doesn't have enough problems with the $700 billion investment bank bailout and the $34 billion automotive industry bailout... now Wall Street's biggest investors have been conned out of approx. $50 billion in whats known as a Ponzi scheme.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from the profit from any real business. It is named after scam artist Charles Ponzi who between 1918 and 1920 scammed over 17,000 people out of tens of millions.

Today the growing list of investors (including some celebrities and banks) who say they were duped into investing in Bernard Madoff, a veteran Wall Street money manager, include:

Real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman.
The foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.
Movie director Steven Spielberg.
HSBC Holdings PLC.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Man Group PLC.
Spain's Grupo Santander SA.
France's BNP Paribas.
Japan's Nomura Holdings.
Bramdean Alternatives.
Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation.
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg.
Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman.
New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon.
J. Ezra Merkin, the chairman of GMAC Financial Services.
Banco Santander, the largest European bank.

The 70-year-old Bernard Madoff, previously well respected in the investment community after serving as chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, was arrested last Thursday in what prosecutors say was a $50 billion scheme to defraud investors. Some investors claim they've been completely wiped out, while others are still likely to come forward.

The extent of the potential damage prompted fund managers and investors around the world to lash out at U.S. regulators for failing to detect the fraud earlier, especially during a recession and a time of increasing doubt in the USA's financial reliability due to corporate crime.

"I think now it is very difficult for people to invest in things that are meant to be regulated in America, because they haven fallen down in the job," Nicola Horlick, the manager of Britain's Bramdean Alternatives, which had 9% of its funds invested in Madoff's scheme.

Other investors around the world are starting to agree. The lack of financial regulation in the USA makes it an unworthy place to invest.

Banco Santander, the largest European bank has lost 2.33 billion euros ($3.07 billion) in exposure with Madoff's Ponzi scheme. HSBC, Britain's largest bank, says its institutions have lost approx. $1 billion US and the Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain's second-largest bank, which is now 58% owned by the British government, says it could lose around $600 million.

The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, a charity that finances trips for Jewish youth to Israel has fired all of its staff after revealing that all the money for its operations was invested with Madoff. The charity is now apparently bankrupt.

New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, one of the wealthiest members of the US Senate, entrusted the bulk of his family's charitable foundation to Madoff. So far it looks like they've lost almost everything.

Ordinary investors from all over the United States and overseas gave Madoff their money. Some had been friends with him for decades, others were able to invest because they were a friend of a friend. Some have lost their life's savings of $40,000 to giant nest eggs worth over $1 million.

Numerous other financial institutions are refusing to comment right now whether they had investments with Madoff: Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., Comerica Inc. and U.S. Bancorp.

Some estimates suggest the $50 billion in announced losses could balloon to $100 billion or more by the time the full extent of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Questions about where the money went will also have to be answered and how much of it remains.

Canada and other "banana republics"

By Thwap.

Another of the misinformed, ignorant and stupid arguments coming from the shameless morons who are sticking by Stephen Harper during this debacle is that forming a government out of a majority of MPs in the House of Commons, who together represent a majority of the electorate, is actually a "coup" that makes us a "banana republic" in the eyes of the world.

Who knew that Germany, France, Italy, Israel and Japan (among others) are banana republics?

Canada will have to join the ranks of these laughing-stock nations and hang its head in shame. Most painfully, we will not be able to look our closest neighbour and ally, the United States of America (with its flawless electoral system and its sterling record of checks and balances) in the eye.

*Interestingly enough; according to the United Nations link above, the actual "banana republics" tend to imitate the US presidential system. (Of the nations listed above, France actually has a hybrid presidential-parliamentary system. What I'm referring to is the practice of changing governments without elections when the ruling group loses power.)