Concerning free speech: the U.S. are a less free country than Costa Rica, concerning free speech of the press/media! Anybody against war on Iraq is held as a traitor.

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,219574,00.html

A more interesting thing concerning freedom of speech in Israel! Anybody who reports violations of human rights committed by Israel soldiers (and there certainly are some, as in any war) can be sent to jail for 10 years! Astonishing, I guess this is the right way to peace: if noone knows of your cruel deeds, they don't exist!

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,220504,00.html

I condemn these Canadian riots, as everybody should have the right of free speech. Netanyahu's opinions may be controversial, still he should be listened to (even though he didn't make progress in his time, he rather worsened Rabbin's advances)!

>Anybody who reports violations of human rights
>committed by Israel soldiers (and there
>certainly are some, as in any war) can be sent
>to jail for 10 years!

What a bunch of nonsense.

Hans, thanks for the pointer to the shockingly inaccurate Der Spiegel article. Here is the original article in Haaretz:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=194105&contrassID=2

Gush Shalom is regarded as a nutty fringe group here in Israel. My guess is that Der Spiegel took one of their press releases and published it as news.

- Tal G. in Jerusalem

The anonymous "Hans" has a habit of coming here and trolling by making hysterical false statements. Perhaps he has nothing better to do with his time. His IP address is from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technical College in Aaachen. I can only assume that his professors aren't assigning enough homework.

Dear Tal,

thanks for the Haaretz Link, obviously der Spiegel wrongly cited it? I just found this matter strange and replied to the "freedom of speech" thread. @Stefan Sharkansky: I indeed am a student in Aachen. But I spend much less time on this than you on this site, hm? If I don't have enough to do, are you jobless? :) Still interesting that the land of the free scores so bad on an international press freedom survey...

Hans, behave yourself!

No, "Hans", I am not jobless. If you want to continue to post hallucinatory distortions simply in order to make a pest of yourself, I'm sure you can find someplace that will welcome your presence. My only suggestion is that you use your real name and e-mail address, so you don't inadvertently embarass any decent people who have the name of Hans.

And the only thing that is "interesting" about that silly "international press freedom survey" is that there are people like yourself who are gullible enough to take it seriously.

Stefan,

A couple days ago, on a different site, I summarized these same events and said that the Canadians were becoming practically European. You should have seen the responses I got. :)

Hiya, ol' Hans again posting last-time. Cannot refrain from one last comment:

Every person has a blind spot in their line of reasoning, and it is a sting if awareness grows over this fact - but a curative sting.

I just tried to make clear that ideological or tendentially fundamental reasoning (including ethnic mockery, one-sidedness, and the decision as to what is to be taken seriously and what not - all of which tend to occur on this website) never - and never - resolves, but rather creates or sharpens conflicts. He who claimeth truth loudest hath lost it.

OK, now I'm off this site never to return as wished. Bye,

Hans

P.S. Your censorship is in line with the land of the free's press on press: what I don't see isn't there.

"Hans",

Censorship is when a government prevents somebody from expressing themselves. I am not the government, and I am not preventing you from expressing yourself. At the same time, this is my private website and I have absolutely no obligation to provide a soapbox to every nudnik on the planet so they can make idiotic statements under the cover of anonymity.

Now go play somewhere else.

Apropos of bland Canadians. Some years ago there was a challenge for Canadians to come up with their own version of "As American as apple pie." As in, "As Canadian as maple syrup" or something like that.

The best entry? "As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances."

:-)

Insulting terms for Canadians, eh? As a Canadian, my personal favorite is "Mexicans with sweaters."

A couple corrections:

From reading the article on the Concordia riots, I don't see why you're blaming the police. They broke up the riot and arrested a number of people.

It's Jean Chretien, not Jean-Marie Chretien. And the Ipsos poll didn't ask Canadians if they thought the US was to blame for the September 11 attacks; it asked if they thought the US was partially responsible. (I would have answered no; the attacks were planned a long time ago, when it looked like the Oslo peace process was getting somewhere.)

The military wings of Hamas and Hezbollah are banned in Canada. What's controversial is that Hamas and Hezbollah can still raise funds in Canada for social purposes such as education.

Canada will support war with Iraq if it's authorized by the UN Security Council. Canadians are willing to go to war, as long as it's absolutely necessary.

I have to say that going out of your way to insult your allies (yes, there were Canadian troops in Afghanistan), and generally taking exaggerated offense at any signs of an "embarrassing odor" drifting down from the north (including bringing up Canadian anti-Semitism from 50 years ago), seems unwise. Notwithstanding your disclaimer about anti-idiotarian Canadians being exempt. Just MHO.

Here's a longer article on Canadian foreign policy.

Canada today issued a travel advisory for Canadian nationals of Arab descent travelling to the US. Apparently, we detained & deported a Canadian passport-holder to Syria for "suspected terrorist activity."

Those who do not know freedom can either envy it or mock it. Perhaps Hans does both.

Russil, to address your points one by one --

Yes, the Montreal police arrested some rioters. I still criticize them because at the end of the day they weren't able to guarantee Netanyahu's right to give his lecture in safety, and thereby effectively caved in to the rioters demands.

To believe that the US is "partially responsible" for the 9/11 attacks is contemptible. And if that's what 84% of Canadians believe, as the Globe and Mail reported, then I guess that 84% of Canadians are on their way to idiotarianism.

And your statement that you don't think the US was not even partially responsible because the attacks were planned a long time ago, when it looked like the Oslo peace process was getting somewhere. You are therefore implying that you could hold the US at least partially responsible for terror attacks that have been planned now that Oslo peace process has failed. That's no less fatuous and reprehensible a belief than the notion that the US was in any way responsible for last years attacks.

I'm relieved to hear that Canadians will support war with Iraq if it's "absolutely necessary". But I'm puzzled by your implication that there is any kind of logical connection between necessity and UN Security Council endorsement.

Yes, there are indeed many wonderful anti-idiotarians in Canada, perhaps even up to 16% of the population. But you haven't yet convinced me that you're one of them.

Thanks for the response, Stefan.

There's an old nettiquette rule which I try to adhere to: Don't be offensive, and don't be easily offended.

To me, you seem to go out of your way to take offense, to the point of hypersensitivity: You are therefore implying that you could hold the US at least partially responsible for terror attacks that have been planned now that Oslo peace process has failed. You seem bent on taking offense: if not to what I said, then to the supposed implications of what I said.

For the record: no, I wouldn't blame the US--not even partially--for terror attacks being planned now. (I generally regard blaming as a substitute for thinking.) The US seeks to uphold the status quo, hence its support for Israel's existence and its attempts to contain Saddam Hussein; those who oppose the status quo and seek to overthrow it, such as Osama bin Laden, will regard the US as an enemy regardless of what the US does.

Am I an anti-idiotarian? No. I've spent a lot of time since September 11 arguing with the "blame America first" crowd, particularly Noam Chomsky fans, but that doesn't make me an anti-idiotarian. I don't regard them as enemies, but as misguided idealists who need to be educated in the realities of power politics. Osama bin Laden's the enemy, not the idiotarians.

If you want to know why UN Security Council authorization is important to Canadians, see the article on Canadian foreign policy.

Oops, broken link. Let me try again: Canadian foreign policy.

Canadians... How about "Beavers for Mohamed"?

David
http://www.factsofisrael.com

Your(der Speigel)comment that American press/people are "held as traitors" for speaking
out against Iraq is crazy, can you be that stupid?? People here including the press speak
out for or against Iraq all the time and have
a legal right to do so and they are not "held as
traitors." America has far greater freedom of
speech than Germany does, Germany is a nation
where one can be fined or blocked from expressing
certain opinions so you need to take care of your
own country. Anyway, the only reason the German
as well as other European governments didn't want
war with Iraq was because THEY had oil deals going
with Hussein so they wanted to keep him in power
despite the fact that he was brutal dictator just
so they could get their oil so spare me your
phony self-righteousness. Europeans/germans are much more racist than Americans and I've had many
non-whites tell me so. Take care of the problems
in your own nation, you Europeans are so arrogant and naive, you know nothing about the US so shut up please!!!