Letter to the US Ambassador

Here is a letter I am sending to the US Ambassador to Canada.  Venting my spleen, probably. This so-called Ambassador recently called Canadians "Nasty" (Trumps favourite word) because so many have decided not to travel to the US since Trump took power for the second time.  I truly believe that the US is now a fascist state.  Immigrants (especially Hispanics and Blacks) are the new Jews. 

Ambassador Pete Hoekstra,

Embassy of the United States to Canada,

PO Box 866, Station B,

Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5T1

 

July 29, 2025 

Mr. Hoekstra:

I am one of millions of Canadians who object to your depiction of us as “nasty” because we are boycotting travel to the US and US goods, as a reaction to bullying by your President.

You, sir, are a diplomat. Diplomats are supposed to use language that is courteous and tactful. Instead, your language is childish, churlish and crude.

Further, as you well know, the “nastiest” and most evil man in the Western world today is President Trump.  He—and you as his sycophant--is bullying the rest of the world about tariffs. He is causing immense suffering and pain within the US by his cuts to welfare programs and medical care. He is a fascist. He undermines the rule of law, undermines freedom of the press, and has declared entire classes of people persona non grata. When armed, masked men without any identification or accountability can arrest people without cause on the streets of American cities, we know we have already entered the fascist era.

Shame on you.

 

Letter to Israeli Ambassador opposing starvation in Gaza

 Here is the text of a letter I have just sent to the Israeli Ambassador to Canada (I am a Canadian).  I encourage anyone who feels as I do to write to the Israeli Ambassadors to their own countries.

Ambassador Iddo Moed'

Embassy of Israel,

50 O’Connor Street.

Ottawa, ON K1P 5E1

 

Your Excellency, 

I am writing to you in my dual capacity as a Jewish Canadian and a retired scholar of international human rights and comparative genocide studies. I wish to express my extreme concern about the ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide being committed by the state of Israel in Gaza. I am particularly concerned about the starvation that Israel’s continual blockade is causing.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has denied that there is starvation in Gaza. This is an outright lie. Israel is engaging in what the late (Jewish) scholar Helen Fein called genocide by attrition. An example of genocide by attrition is the Holocaust. Jews who were not outright murdered were starved to death, both in the camps and in the ghettoes.

Many pro-Israel organizations consider comparison of the current situation in Gaza to the Holocaust to be anti-Semitic. Sadly, however, this comparison is apt. I happened to be reading a book about the murders of Jews in Lithuania at the same time I was reading news stories about Gaza. In the concentration camps, Nazis fed Jews thin soup with potato peels. In Gaza, mothers are forced to feed their children thin soup with a few lentils.

Please stop this starvation at once.  Air drops are insufficient and dangerous.  The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Fund is a farce. Truckloads of food donated inter alia by the Canadian government and various well-established, efficient and knowledgeable non-government organizations are waiting at Gaza’s border. Let them in.