Tuesday January 06, 2009
Measured action on the ground
The ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel, is consistent with the Israeli government's prudent, limited war aims.Though the invasion is unlikely to change Gaza in the medium or long term, the rocket attacks are intolerable and must be stopped at their source before more Israeli civilians are killed. If the Israel Defence Forces have to return again and again, to suppress new supplies of such rockets, so be it.
The back burner
It is difficult to imagine that the federal government is not interested in examining the factors surrounding the outbreak of listeriosis that killed 20 Canadians last year. It is in the Conservatives' interests, after all, to ensure that no similar tragedies occur under their watch. But the government's apparent failure to launch an investigation it promised early last fall raises the unsettling thought that its pledge was made largely to prevent the issue from jeopardizing its prospects in the election campaign.
World junior hockey
When a parent finds his or her children locked in a violent squabble over a game or toy, the first move is to pull the combatants apart. The second, by far the more frustrating, is to ask how the fight began - an inquiry that invariably shackles the parent with an endless chain of purported provocation and reasonable response. It is usually best to send the gladiators to their respective rooms to cool off and to reflect on the essential weakness of losing self-control.
