Specifics better than death threats

Editor: Given that your fine publication has already published a front-page attack on me in recent years ("Slant at SFU worries Jews," Dec. 14, 2001 – www.jewishindependent.ca/archives/dec01/dec01.html), I thought you might appreciate it if I outed myself as the shrieking, hoarse-voiced "ringleader" of the picket against Bush administration advisor Daniel Pipes, so that future ad hominem attacks might be carried out more accurately.

At first glance, I was confused by your editorial; when I saw the slogan "No more chocolate cake," I was afraid that one of your dedicated reporters had bugged my doctor's office in an effort at further muck-racking. What I realized, upon closer reading, was that you were accusing us – using the hilarious "chocolate cake" and "line dancing" quips – of having strung together non sequiturs in our sloganeering. I can understand how someone unfamiliar with Israel's atrocities (a hiring pre-requisite at your paper, no?) might have been confused.

Here's a quick explanation: Our long, specific list of grievances has a two-fold utility. Not only does our concentration on particular Israeli government initiatives (i.e. bypass roads, political imprisonment, etc.) clearly distinguish us from those who hate Israel as an extension of their despicable anti-Semitism, but it also clearly set us apart from those supporters of Israel who showed at the event, able to muster nothing more articulate than middle fingers, death threats, accusations of nazism and admonitions against suicide bombers.

Hopefully, this will help avoid any further confusion. Somehow, though, I doubt it.

Charles Demers
Vancouver