There has been so much heat and accusation lately over the protests sparked by the schlock anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims it has been hard to find measured voices that offer more than a partisan opinion. Talking points in and around the recent events seem to polarize into ‘censorship versus
Continue readingTag: Middle East
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Canada: Sending a message to Iran, or giving up on it?
Following up on my previous post regarding Canada’s sudden decision to completely sever ties with Iran, I have these extended thoughts on why this was way too fast and too sudden. Five days after the announcement, there’s still no indication on who Canada has in mind to be a protecting
Continue readingDrive-by Planet: Harper gov calls Iran ‘a threat to global peace’: Chomsky on the real threat
In a move that has greatly pleased Israeli PM Netanyahu the Harper government has shut down its Iran embassy and expelled Iranian diplomats in Canada. On Sept 7 Harper’s foreign minister, John Baird, announced they had five days to leave. Baird characterized Iran as ‘a threat to global peace.’ The
Continue readingThe folly of shunning Iran
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” said the oft-quoted ancient military strategist Sun-tzu. Our government, as militarist as it is, has decided to ignore this advice and cut all ties with its enemy of the day. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced last week that we are suspending
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Harper’s wish for war with Iran: an ill Tory wind that blows no good for Canada
Unlike Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Doge of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was prepared to receive the ambassadors of Persia. Below: Igor Gouzenko, Dr. Samuel Johnson and Winston Churchill. When Igor Gouzenko came in from the cold 67 years ago last Wednesday, Canada had an extremely serious and
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Watergate Journalist Carl Bernstein Spoke at Event Supporting Iranian ‘Terrorist’ Group
Written by Justin Elliott | ProPublica On a Saturday afternoon last February, journalist Carl Bernstein got up on stage at the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan and delivered a speech questioning the listing of an obscure Iranian group called the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) on the U.S. government list of officially designated foreign
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Iran’s Strategic Diplomatic Victory over the Washington-Israeli Axis
Iran chaired, hosted and led the recently rejuvenated Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Teheran, attended by delegates from 120 countries, including 31 heads of state and 29 foreign secretaries of state. Even the United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, notorious mouthpiece of Washington, felt obligated to address, a forum attended
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Faking Syrian War Images To Manipulate The Western Public
The demonization of genocidal dictators like Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad is standard practice in the western media’s coverage of developing-world crises. In the photo-shopped imaged below, The Krone (Die Kronen Zeitung), Austria’s biggest newspaper, shows how to manipulate the Syrian uprising for a gullible western public. In its July 28
Continue readingMorsi’s brave initiative
Egypt and Iran have barely been on speaking terms for some time. An Egyptian leader hasn’t visited Tehran since the Islamic revolution in 1979. But new president Mohamed Morsi intends to change that. This week he is attending the Non-Aligned Movement summit hosted by Iran. Apparently, Morsi’s visit will be
Continue readingwRanter.com: Church settlement boycott becomes interfaith train wreck
Share this: This past August, the General Council of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, adopted a motion urging its members to boycott goods produced in West Bank settlements. The proposal was part of a larger, rather one-sided report prepared by the church’s Working Group on Israel/Palestine
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israeli Settlements and the United Church Boycott: Three Common Distortions
*** Note: An unfinished draft version of this post mistakenly went out to e-mail and feed subscribers yesterday. Please do your best to scrub it from your memory and enjoy the updated post — as its author intended — below. Many thanks and apologies. *** After months of controversy and
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel, the Settlements, and the United Church: Three Common Distortions
– proposed United Church boycott of products from Israeli settlements Distortion #1: Why Israel? The world is full of tyranny and injustice. Of all the places and issues, why boycott the Middle East’s only democracy? Three assumptions are packed into this distortion: that the United Church is boycotting Israel, that
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Iran: Getting away with genocide, thanks to banks (maybe)
If the allegations about the British based bank Standard Chartered Bank PLC are true then a financial institution that has been at the forefront of a “corporate responsibility” campaign is guilty of an instance of money laundering that makes the Bank of Credit and Commerce International look like Romper Room
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Romney should audition for Keystone Kops with his mouth
Remember four years ago and Barack Obama’s goodwill tour of Europe — well before the Democratic convention — and how it brought out people in the tens of thousands; including 200,000 at Victory Column in Berlin. No surprise there as he was spreading the word of reconciliation with the NATO
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: This year, Ramadan has a serious Google twist
Today, over a billion Muslims around the world begin to observe the holy month of Ramadan, fasting from dawn to sunset. This year, Google is in on the action. In a serious way. The search engine behemoth will stream Islamic prayers live from Mecca via a dedicated YouTube channel. That means millions around the world
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The 45th birthday of the Occupation
I dedicate my words this evening to three hunger-strikers. Mahmoud Sarsak, who has been striking for 83 days. An excellent football player from Gaza, he was arrested three years ago under the Law against Illegal Combatants, which permits him to be imprisoned for life, without a trial and without charge.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: A small village about to be demolished
The small village of Susiya in the Israeli Occupied Territories is about to be demolished yet again. But most Canadians have never even heard about the first, second, third and fourth times. But we should know, because Canada is heavily implicated in these human rights abuses as a result of
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: On Egypt’s Presidential Election
It’s official. More than one year after the overthrow of hated dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi has won Egypt’s run-off presidential election with 51.7 percent support. This outcome was widely known ever since last weekend’s vote wrapped up. What was unknown was whether Egypt’s military rulers, the
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Deny, deny, deny — Syria edition (and why sanctions aren’t enough)
This past weekend’s massacre in Houla, Syria was so uncommonly cruel in its scope that even Russia and Mainland China, which have been vetoing several resolutions due to their arms sales to Damascus, finally said enough is enough. At least 108 are dead, and quite a few Western states have
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Two of Mass Palestinian Prisoner’s Hunger Strikers “On Verge of Death” (VIDEO)
Over 1600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are holding a mass hunger strike. Two of them have now gone 70 days without food. This video can be found at YouTube RELATED:Canada Crime Bill C10 hunger striker takes protest to Parliament … Continue reading →
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