Canada will boycott UN conference

Canada is the first country to announce it will not attend  a UN conference on racism, known as "Durban III", scheduled to occur in 2011.

“The original Durban conference and its declaration, as well as the non-governmental activities associated with it, proved to be a dangerous platform for racism, including anti-Semitism,”said Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. “The General Assembly has now chosen to repeat and even augment the mistakes of the past.”

Ottawa conference on combatting anti-Semitism

"Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, [anti-Semitism] targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so."

Excerpt from a speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper ... more.

Canada in the Middle East

Canadian member of parliament and cabinet minister Peter Kent visited Israel and the West Bank. Canadian and Israeli columnists comment.

Canada and the Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1954 several thousand fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were purchased by McGill University. They never arrived. Now the story of this purchase is told in Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls ... more.

Canadian-Iranian blogger may be executed

Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian who moved to Canada and became a blogger. His on-line publication, sometimes critical, sometimes supportive of Tehran, taught Iranians, domestic and ex-patriate, how to blog in Persian. In 2006 as a Canadian citizen he visited Israel. In 2008 he returned to Iran and was arrested. Now he faces a possible death penalty ... more.

Update:  For “conspiring with hostile governments, spreading propaganda against the Islamic system, spreading propaganda in favor of counterrevolutionary groups, blasphemy, and creating and managing obscene Web sites,” an Iranian court has sentenced Mr. Derakhshan to 19.5 years in jail ... more.

View from Havana

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should stop slandering Jews and denying the Holocaust and Tehran should acknowledge the "unique" history of antisemitism and understand why Israelis fear for their existence. So says Cuba's retired President Fidel Castro.

Rebuilding trust

Peace between Israelis and Palestinians is "within our grasp" writes Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.  The biggest obstacle is psychological.

Surprise move

Samuel Segev, columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press reports on a new French diplomatic initiative aimed at mediating Israel's conflict with both Syria and Lebanon.

Gay, pro-Israel and fed up

Kelvin Browne comments on the nature of prejudice in Canadian society.

Critical care

Accompanied by his mother, a four-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from a rare immune deficiency goes from Gaza to Israel’s Tel Hashomer hospital for lifesaving bone-marrow treatment. Thomas Friedman describes what happens next.

Tipping point

Point de Bascule, or Tipping Point, is a Montreal-based French language webmagazine dedicated to exploring and exposing Islamist activities in Quebec ... more.

Palestinians and the Arab League

The Arab League advises Arab states to deny citizenship to Palestinians. Robert Fulford explains.

Politics of resentment

Salim Mansur visits Ramallah and files this report on the political mood of Palestinians.

Historical perspective

"Everything that makes a nation state legitimate – bloodshed, soil tilled, two millennia of continuous residence, international agreements – argues for Israel’s right to exist, yet that is still denied by the Arab League." So states historian Andrew Roberts in this speech to the Friends of Israel Initiative in the British House of Commons.

A Canadian Muslim visits Jerusalem

"The ease with which I moved," Salim Mansur writes "— alone and without restrictions — from the inner sanctum of the Muslim sanctuary to Judaism’s holiest site, embracing both, is a testimony to the openness of Israel as a Jewish state and democracy."