The Daily Brief – Tuesday May 10, 2011

National Post: AFP: "Protesters killed in Yemen’s second city" (10/5/2011)
"Yemeni security forces fired tear gas and live rounds on Monday to break up a demonstration in Taez, south of the capital, killing three protesters and injuring dozens."

Today’s News and Views About Israel & Mideast

Chronicle Herald: Paul Scheidereit: "On Israel’s "Independence Day, plenty of questions" (10/5/2011)
"Today, if you didn’t know, is when Independence Day will be celebrated in Israel in 2011. Sixty-three years ago, Israel declared its independence. (The actual date is May 14, 1948, but Independence Day shifts on the Western calendar every year.) The next day, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan, which rejected the UN Partition Plan for Palestine setting up two states — one for Jews and one for Palestinians — attacked the new country. This etched the first battle lines in a conflict that has largely both defined and consumed the Middle East."
Send letter to editor

Toronto Star: John Bell: "Mideast stage is set for an autumn crisis" (10/5/2011)
"Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah has caught many off-guard. In that sense, it reflects its genesis in the Arab revolutions of 2011, which have surprised all in their extent and intensity."
Send letter to editor

CBC.ca: Nahlah Ayed: "The Islamist vision of post-revolutionary Egypt" (10/5/2011)
"On a recent stopover in Cairo, an anxious merchant whose acquaintance I’d just made handed me the front page of a newspaper to explain his obvious agitation."
Submit online comment

Toronto Sun: Terry Davidson: "Wilders controversial crusade against ‘Islamic ideology’ continues" (10/5/2011)
"Canada should ban Islamic schools, outlaw the wearing of burkas and put a stop to the building of mosques, a controversial Dutch politician said on Monday during a stop at Sun News Network."

National Post: Jessica Hume: "Islam a threat to Western freedom: Wilders" (10/5/2011)
"The presence of Muslims in Canada threatens the country’s freedoms and democracy, and only if immigration from Islamic countries is suspended can the cultural deterioration of the country be stopped, controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders told a packed house Monday night in Toronto"

Edmonton Journal: Staff: "France increases aid to Palestinians" (10/5/2011)
"France on Monday announced it would donate 10 million euros ($13.8 million) to the Palestinian Authority after Israel froze tax revenue transfers following a Palestinian unity agreement."
Send letter to editor

PostMedia News: Sheldon Alberts: "Never again: Canadian students learn the darker lessons of history at Holocaust Memorial" (9/5/2011)
"There are things that can’t be learned from textbooks alone, things that need to be seen to be understood. After visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Monday, Vancouver high school student Marina Favaro knows this more than ever."

National Post: Bloomberg: "Qatari emir vow to end Bahrain crisis" (10/5/2011)
"The Qatari emir vowed to "intervene personally" to resolve the crisis in Bahrain during talks Monday in Doha with leading Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, according to a statement on Mr. Sadr’s website."

Daily Gleaner: Reuters: "Kosher calls" (10/5/2011)
"Kosher cellular phones, imported and distributed by Israeli Accel Telecom, are displayed at the company’s offices in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of thousands of cellphones, popularly dubbed kosher because they block access to services frowned upon by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, have been operating in the Jewish state for more than five years."

Winnipeg Free Press: Sam Segev: "Egyptians making Israel nervous" (10/5/2011)
"Israel is celebrating its 63rd year of independence today, enjoying political stability and economic prosperity, but still undecided about its peace with the Palestinians."
Send letter to editor
Submit online comment

National Post: Editorial: "Syria is the Middle East’s new pariah" (10/5/2011)
"Syria has been a police state for decades. But it is only now that the truly brutal, and even murderous, nature of Bashar Assad’s regime has been made plain."
Send letter to editor
Submit online comment

CBC.ca: AP: "Syria death toll tops 750: rights group" (10/5/2011)
"More than 750 civilians have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in mid-March, a human rights group said Tuesday as the government pressed its efforts to end the nationwide unrest."

Guelph Mercury/Waterloo Record: Jackson Diehl: "Syrian brutality should not be ignored" (10/5/2011)
"The Barack Obama administration, and most of its European allies, have been consistently sluggish about siding with the Arab revolutionaries. But nowhere has that fecklessness been more obvious, more damaging and less defensible than in Syria."

National Post: Jonathan Kay: "The enduring influence of The Protocols of Ziona" (10/5/2011)
"In August, 1897, Theodor Herzl and two hundred fellow activists convened at a concert hall in Basel, Switzerland, to attend the First Zionist Congress. The capstone of their deliberations was The Basel Program, a landmark manifesto aimed at "establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine." The delegates also officially adopted the Hatikvah, a song that, six decades later, would become the national anthem for the country we call Israel."
Send letter to editor
Submit online comment