Why is this defensive occupation now the subject of such outcry, when previous occupations were taken as a matter of course? There is a difference. This time the occupation is by Jews who have tried for 35 years to negotiate their way out of it, in exchange for peace. The hostility to Israel is not founded on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and will not end if that occupation ends. The hostility to Israel is based on the Israeli occupation of Israel proper.

The continuing brutal assault on Lebanon is a disgrace to Israel and to all of us who stand by and let it happen. Stephen Harper makes much of how Arab guerrillas started it by capturing two Israeli soldiers, as if that would justify the hundreds of innocents killed in Lebanon. But even that is nonsense. Who started any particular flare-up in the region is strictly a matter of choosing what date to start counting from. Was it Israel's assaults on Gaza that started it? Palestinian attacks on Israeli troops? Israeli occupation of The West Bank? Palestinian bomb attacks on Israeli civilians? The list goes on.

The article states that milkweed is subject to the province's Noxious Weed Act, which states that all such weeds must be destroyed by property owners. This statement is only partly true. Common milkweed and showy milkweed are on the province's noxious weed list. However, dwarf milkweed, swamp milkweed, whorled milkweed, hairy milkweed and green milkweed all grow in Manitoba and are not on the list.