High-impact anti-Israeli apartheid online activism by peace makers around the world forced Stevie Wonder to cancel his planned performance for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The American singer, songwriter, and activist had been scheduled to perfo…
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Chrystia Freeland discusses the developing view that inequality can serve to stifle growth and development, while more equitable tax systems and social supports can encourage them:Set aside any moral or polit…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: "State" of Palestine? Where *and for what why)?
Yesterday, the UN General Assembly voted to grant Palestine the same status as the Vatican — “non member observer state.” I have the feeling that if we in Canada had a Liberal or ND government, this country would have voted to abstain as more than 40 countries did. That’s the position
Continue readingCanada’s shameful vote against Palestinian statehood
Yesterday marked a shameful moment in the history of this country’s foreign policy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestine as an observer state … and Canada voted no. Our vote puts the lie to our claim that we believe in a two-state solution, or
Continue readingArt Threat: Stevie Wonder to perform at Israeli military fundraiser
Muscial icon Stevie Wonder will perform for a fundraiser to support the Israeli military, who recently ended their week-long bombing campaign of Gaza that killed 160 Palestinians and injured one thousand more, mostly civilians. According to Israeli news website Ynetnews, Wonder will appear at an annual gala hosted by the Friends of the Israel Defense […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Designer’s tumbleweed clears land mines
The Mine Kafon, by Afghan designer Massoud Hassani, is designed to be blown across dangerous terrain by the wind, triggering mines as it passes over them.
Continue readingRedBedHead: Gaza & The Not So Slow Decline Of Israel
Not alone any more: Egyptian protestors in Tahrir last year In some ways what just went down in Gaza was business as usual. Israel provoked a mini-war with Gaza killing a leading Hamas politician (who was, in fact, the chief negotiator for a long term ceasefire with Israel) after engaging
Continue readingArt Threat: Life in Gaza is no day at the beach – Beach by video artist Guli Silberstein
In this 2006 work by Israeli-born, London-based video artist Guli Silberstein, painful footage from the infamous Israeli shelling of a beach in Gaza is juxtaposed with scenes of a happy family relaxing on the sand in Tel Aviv. According to the artist, “the video work refers to the thin line between tranquillity and chaos, and […]
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Montreal Gazette Letter
Joel Lion, Israel’s Consul-General in Montreal, wrote an op-ed in the Montreal Gazette detailing the virtuous lengths Israel goes to in order to avoid civilian casualties in its unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip. At the urging of Canadians for … Continue reading →
Song of the Watermelon: Live From Gaza
Nothing cuts through the bullshit quite like live footage.
The following comes inadvertently from a CNN interview conducted with a Palestinian in Gaza and an Israeli in Ashkelon. I will let the video speak for itself:
Canadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Green Party of Canada: Operation Pillar of Defense Is Not The Answer
by Green Party of Canada Again, Hamas bombing and Israeli retaliation have escalated. It should be clear that continuing to make war will not bring peace. Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense comes a mere three years after Israel’s Operation Cast L…
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Israeli and Palestinian Hawks
Dear Israeli hawks: What are you thinking? I realize that you consider every destructive, civilian killing, infrastructure shattering air raid you launch on the impoverished people of the Gaza Strip to be an act of self-defence against the terrorism of … Continue reading →
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Gaza, the ethnic media, and PMS
There are two stories that have emerged the last few days. They are totally unrelated but it does raise questions about a certain world leader, PMS. The events of the last twenty four hours or so in Gaza and southwestern Israel have raised the stakes much further and higher
Continue readingIran and Israel negotiating nukes—will common sense break out?
Officials from both Iran and Israel attended a nuclear non-proliferation meeting in Brussels this week. The intent of the meeting was to set the stage for a full international conference on banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. The Iranian and Israeli officials are ostensibly attending as private citizens, yet
Continue readingU.S. and Russia vie for Iraq arms business
Much has changed in Iraq since the Americans invaded in 2003. Saddam Hussein is gone, replaced by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki who appears to want to replace Saddam’s one-party Sunni-dominated state with a one-party Shia-dominated state. And Russia has been replaced by the United States as the chief arms
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: "Binders of women", Mitt?
There have been many foot in mouth moments in debates over the years. Think Gerry Ford’s comments in 1976 about how he would not allow the USSR to dominate Poland (of course, Poland had been a client state of Moscow since WW2). Carter saying that his daughter and youngest child
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: The Pros and Cons of Iran Getting the Bomb
There seem to be a lot of people running around with their hair on fire, lamenting that Iran will get nuclear weapons and Israel will become a smoking hole. The history of nuclear weapons suggests otherwise. Nuking Israel would be suicide for Iran, as Israel (and the US) would retaliate
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Khadr: Back in the Great White North
Omar Khadr returned to Canada this past weekend to serve out the remainder of his sentence at Guantanamo Bay. Unlike the “military commission” which gave Khadr no credit for time served on the eight year sentence he received for manslaughter, the “two for one” rule in effect in Canada at
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Alice Walker: Racism, Violence Against Women Are Global Issues (VIDEO)
On the 30th anniversary of the publication of her groundbreaking novel “The Color Purple,” American author, poet and activist Alice Walker sat down with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, and discussed the novel’s enduring legacy, racism, violence against women, Obama’s presidency and global issues. When Goodman probed her role as
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The Summer of Muslim Discontent
The so-called “Arab Spring:” is a distant and bitter memory to those who fought and struggled for a better world, not to speak of the thousands who lost, life and limb. In its place, throughout the Muslim world, a new wave of reactionaries, corrupt and servile politicians have taken the
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