With a twisted ideology, they don’t want peace
The pro-Palestinian folks camped on university campuses must understand that Israel will not disappear today or in the future as a result of their actions.
This tiny nation has withstood three major wars, 1948, 1967 and 1973, against the overwhelming Arab state armies that surrounded the country and sought to remove it from the face of the Earth.
The Arabs failed in all three and paid dearly for their folly. Following the last war, the international community along with Israel and the Palestinian leadership have attempted to negotiate a final settlement for peace, but each time the Palestinian leadership turned down a solution, even though the Camp David Accords in the early 1980s granted the Palestinians 92 per cent of what they wanted.
Instead, the displaced Palestinians have remained housed in ghettos in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and in most cases were not allowed citizenship or even the ability to work.
Over the years since, a number of Arab states have made peace with Israel and a number more were on the brink of doing so. This was untenable for the Palestinian leadership, thus the unprovoked, brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7 with the launching of tens of thousands of rockets at cities and villages, and death for any Jew they came across.
The day following the attack, Hamas leadership stated they would continue such attacks in the future “no matter how many Palestinians die.” In other words, these leaders don’t care about their people.
They only are interested in perpetuating their twisted ideology and to ensure a real peace will never take place in the region. Their propaganda organs have been working incessantly through their mouthpieces in Canada, Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement, which has organized most of the protests across the country.
University students who are challenged to critically think and conduct a real debate (not shouting matches) based on facts have been sucked in by the propaganda in their social media feeds.
Let’s be clear, Palestinian leadership does not want peace, as it would mean that the Palestinian people have lived a lie for 76 years.
Robin Allen
Victoria
The protest disparity explained in one word
A letter-writer pointed out that while protests against Israel are all over, there are none against Russia for its unprovoked attack and continuing devastation of the people of Ukraine.
This disparity is easily explained. The people Hamas and many of its supporters hope to eradicate are Jews.
Joel Newman
Victoria
True protesters do not hide their faces
Why are the protesters at UVic wearing masks?
What are they afraid of?
Why do they live in fear or in the fear of embarrassment of having their faces being shown?
True believers do not hide.
They stand proud and true for their beliefs.
I guess the UVic student body is filled with posers and pretenders.
If the protesters are students at all.
Dewane Ollech
Victoria
The best place to protest is at the Israeli border
I am sick and tired of the “Free Palestine” movement that is popping up in Canada, ignoring the fact that Hamas is the cause of the current conflict with Israel.
Hamas invaded Israeli land and massacred and raped 1,200 civilians and took hostages, of which some are still held alive.
“Free Palestine” could be achieved almost overnight if Hamas returned the hostages and surrendered.
Free Palestine of Hamas, cowards who hide in hospitals and within the civilian population.
Protesters should go to the Palestine/Israeli borders and protest there.
Dennis Sorensen
Brentwood Bay
Encampments not part of civil protesting
Free speech? Yes, even though I disagree with the current Pro-Palestinian UVic protesters.
But what do encampments have to do with civil protesting? It’s a micro housing community of think-alikes creating their own “village” on a university campus.
Take them down.
Bev Gulbrandsen
Victoria
Those soccer games are not a priority
Re: “Cost doubles for B.C. to host World Cup games in 2026,” April 30.
Inadequate healthcare, lack of affordable housing, the opioid crisis, and diminishing police resources — so let’s spend $581 million on soccer games.
This is ludicrous and contradictory to acceptable government oversight and accountability for our scarce tax-dollar resources.
This is not an assault on the sport, but other sources of revenue should be tapped for this.
The counter-argument will be that this expenditure will bring in revenue to the provincial coffers; perhaps. But nowhere near the $581 million to offset the expense.
The reality is that this number will grow, as it always does with proposals like this. The Olympic Games also come immediately to mind as they are always over projected cost.
It is time that we, citizens, take a cold, hard look as to whether these types of events are doable anymore. Is this orange really worth the financial squeeze?
John Stevenson
Victoria
‘Spending it here’ is a FIFA fallacy
Re: “World Cup overrun? Just don’t go there,” commentary, May 2.
The notion that government spending on wages and buildings to host something like FIFA will be income is a fallacy.
Money would be spent on something else, of more value to basic people.
Yes, tourists from afar will spend money, that’s some income to be offset by policing costs and by the cost to individual lives of congestion.
Expo ‘86 was a success because Jim Pattison put together an event that attracted local people repeatedly — restaurants etc. Some 20- to 30-year-olds I worked with were down there two or three times a week.
The population within reasonable driving time of Vancouver is small compared to “Expo/Fair” events near the east coast of the U.S.
Hotels won’t quickly expand to house more visitors for a short-term bulge in demand.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich
FIFA’s Vancouver matches a boondoggle
The way my math works out, this little soccer extravaganza, which both the City of Vancouver and the province deem to be “a good deal for British Columbians,” is going to cost $83 million per game.
B.C. Place holds 54,000 people. Thus, to break even, each seat will need to cost $1,500. That’s a full house. The Vancouver Whitecaps only draw 16,000, about a small third of that.
And, we only get two Canada games. How many are interested in seeing Togo play Zimbabwe?
No way this is a good deal for British Columbians. B.C. Lions tickets go for at most $150 on the 55-yard line.
If FIFA wants to hold seven games here, let them take the gate. We will provide the stadium, the ushers, the hot dogs and whatnot, but they front the half billion dollars they say it will take to play the games.
Why do we take all the risk?
This is a boondoggle of historic proportions.
David Hansen
Victoria
World Cup soccer games too rich for our blood
I am deeply disappointed that B.C. is hosting seven World Cup FIFA games in 2026.
To spend nearly half a billion dollars on a sports event when we have thousands experiencing food insecurity, an affordable housing crisis, inadequate disability rates, and a huge shortage of available beds for drug rehab is incomprehensible.
Thousands of kids cannot afford to play a sport because their parents lack the funds for registration and equipment. Meanwhile, FIFA executives live like princes while allegations of corruption continue.
Why aren’t we helping the vulnerable in B.C. and encouraging fitness by funding kids through organizations such as KidSport B.C. rather than hosting an elite sporting event?
It feels like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Where are our priorities?
Virginia Brucker
Nanaimo
Consider cascade effect on other species
This morning, as I was in bed, listening to the planes spraying the bacterium to eradicate the spongy moth, I did some research. From what I can see, there haven’t been any longitudinal studies done to see the effect of this highly concentrated bacterium on our ecosystem.
We already know the effect of the multitude of substances that have been studied and banned. Most of these studies of course have been done after we see the negative impact throughout our environment.
It is good common sense to reason that if a naturally occurring substance at concentrated levels can kill the spongy moth, the cascade effect will kill other species in the short and the long term.
I do not support the poisoning our environment on such a catastrophic scale, and I urge voters to contact their MLAs to push forward to urge our government to ban the use of bacillus thuringiensis.
Lisa Isaac
Victoria
Find quieter ways to hit balls over nets
I am a North Saanich resident who lives nowhere near the pickleball courts that have caused furor on both sides — thank goodness! I find the noise pollution of simply walking by these courts to be jarring enough.
I have some questions for all the keen pickleball players who are so upset.
Could you harness some of that negative energy and use it creatively? Could you design a new style of pickleball or racquet that isn’t so noisy?
If unable to do this yourselves, could you combine resources to hire an engineer to design quieter balls and/or racquets? Could you then set up a small manufacturing operation to sell your quieter balls and/or racquets? You could make a fortune!
People living all over the world near pickleball courts are being driven crazy with the new noises in their neighbourhoods. Surely someone is clever enough to find quieter ways to pursue this passion for hitting little balls over nets.
Bernice Betts
North Saanich
Different ways to say that politicians disagree
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “wacko” and got thrown out of the House for his pains.
Queen Victoria’s Conservative prime minister Benjamin Disraeli derided Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, who was renowned for his longwinded speeches, as “a sophicated rhetorician, inebriated by the exuberance of his own verbosity.”
For this he got a round of applause from the house. Clearly the art of political vituperation has hit a new low.
Wacko indeed!
John Winstanley
Victoria
Invest in a better public transportation system
I would love to use public transportation more, not only to get around Victoria, but anywhere in the Capital Regional District.
If you live in or around the Victoria downtown core, public transportation is pretty good, except after 6 p.m. when you can wait anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes for a bus if you miss the one you wanted to catch. If you live outside the core, just forget it.
To get anywhere outside the core you have to take a bus downtown to transfer to another bus. Convenience and timeliness doesn’t seem to be very well understood by the Victoria Transit Commission.
We need a 21st-century public transportation system that is affordable and efficient. It may take a while for the public to “get on board” with an improved system, but it will happen.
The 13 municipal councils, along with investing in bike lanes, need to lobby for a better public transportation system.
I also suggest the provincial government take some of the money it uses to subsidize the oil and gas industry along with some of the gas taxes it has been collecting and invest in a 21st-century public transportation system in other municipalities in the province outside of the Lower Mainland.
Lorna Hillman
Victoria
A clear prescription to deal with drug issues
Re: “We need new thinking to tackle the overdose crisis,” commentary, April 30.
Retired psychiatrist Donald Milliken makes a powerful and researched-based argument for the need to rethink B.C.’s approach to the overdose crisis.
His is a refreshing voice to contrast the current partisan political positioning on this deadly question.
Of his numerous excellent points, the one that struck me most profoundly was the studies showing that the spread of drug use is contagious, underscoring the importance of tracing the origins of drug use in individuals, especially those recently addicted.
Milliken’s prescription for what should be done differently provides a thoughtful roadmap forward.
It will require stepping out of policy echo chambers in favour of solid data and research.
Valerie Sovran
Victoria
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