WhatFinger


Diane Weber Bederman

Diane Weber Bederman is a blogger for 'Times of Israel', a contributor to Convivium, a national magazine about faith in our community, and also writes about family issues and mental illness. She is a multi-faith endorsed hospital trained chaplain.

Most Recent Articles by Diane Weber Bederman:

Plant Trees: Don't Conference

We have just witnessed the gathering of 151 leaders from 151 countries fly 151 planes to the Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Actually, I’m not sure that is correct as I just heard that 190 leaders attended. Whatever the number, they did not come alone. Canada had one of the largest teams with more than 380 politicians, government staff and bureaucrats in attendance; double the U.S. team, and about triple the number from the U.K.
- Saturday, December 12, 2015

Clash of Culture in Canada

I went to public school. In those days excerpts were read from the Bible but were not taught from a particular religious perspective. When I was in grade 10, my English teacher talked about God and perfection. He told us that only God is perfect. We will never be perfect, he said, but we can aspire to perfection by trying to live up to the high expectations of ethical monotheism, the underpinnings of Western civilization: we are all created equal and we are to care for "the other." Sounds simple, but we have a long way to go.
- Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The UN History of the Palestinian People:From Arafat to Abbas

It is time to stand up and accuse the UN of Crimes Against Humanity-Jewish humanity. This organization, through its recommendations and resolutions encouraged and continues to encourage the terror taking place in Israel by Muslims against Jews. Their policies continue to condone these activities.
- Friday, November 27, 2015

There is a light after terror

Israelis are tired-tired of war, operations, skirmishes. They would like to raise their children with the knowledge that there will be no more wars.
- Sunday, November 15, 2015

Emotional Abuse=the silent killer

It’s been far too long since I wrote a piece about emotional abuse-the silent killer-too often by suicide far more often the death of the soul that is felt but not seen. Unlike physical abuse where you can go to the authorities and say –see-look at my injuries, you can’t show the damage of emotional abuse to others. Sadly, too often, people in authority won’t see the abuse no matter how well it is articulated.
- Thursday, November 12, 2015

Will the real Justin Trudeau please stand up

Aryeh Green, an expert on Israel, media issues, human rights in the Middle East, spoke about media bias at a breakfast meeting I attended in New York. At the end we talked about the election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada. Mr. Green had read that Trudeau’s policies would not be that different from Prime Minister Harper. Perhaps he read the opinion of Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University, who said Trudeau “has signalled his commitment to the security of Israel, and he has also signalled, in a way that may prove to be more beneficial to Israel, a kind of openness to dialogue and to Canada playing something of a mediating, honest broker role, and significantly promoting a two-state solution. That might actually prove to be much better in Israel’s interests in terms of getting to a point of security, peace, etc.”
- Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Aiding and Abetting Terror in Israel

Israel suffered another terrorist attack. A philistine ran into a bus station - not to catch a train - but to kill as many Jews as possible. Encouraged by the Imams of the “religion of peace” (something President Obama constantly reassures us) who have been calling for the stabbing deaths of Jews, the man entered the Beersheba Central Bus Station and killed IDF soldier Sergeant Omri Levy. He then grabbed the soldier’s rifle and began shooting, wounding at least 10 Israelis before being shot dead by police.
- Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Islamic Grandiose Infantile Delusions of Entitlement

Hajera Khaja, a Canadian Muslim woman who is now "scared of the new face of Canada," had the opportunity to write about her fears in the National Post, a major media outlet in Canada.
- Friday, October 16, 2015

Stop the Terror-Jewish Lives Matter

There was a rally for Israel at Times Square at the “red steps” on West 47th Street, Sunday evening, October 11. Organized by Ido Siman Tov and Nofar Avigdor, it started at 8 p.m. and lasted until 11 p.m. More than 800 people arrived with only a few days’ notice on Facebook. They came from places like Fort Lee, New Jersey; Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn; Washington Heights, Manhattan; Lower East Side, Manhattan; Flushing, Queens, to speak “For those who walk the streets of Israel’s cities in fear. We are their voice.”
- Wednesday, October 14, 2015



No room for a Niqab in a Just Society

Sheema Khan wrote an article in the Globe and Mail about the niqab and the positions of the political parties. She wrote that Canadian Muslims "are the low hanging fruit in the politics of fear." She sees the Conservative government's attitude as "open hostility." She says Muslims are feeling less safe here. And she blames the Stephen Harper government. "Don't expect Conservative leader Stephen Harper to call for calm: this cynical strategy seems to be working." She added "I never imagined that the federal government would use its hefty weight to vilify Muslims." She fears for her children. She has interpreted the Conservative message, "You are Muslim, you are the "other,' you can't be trusted and you will never belong."
- Thursday, October 8, 2015

Mr Netanyahu: It's time to #ENDARABOCCUPATION of Israel; Release the Levy Report

How do you find a compromise with people whose government pays a lifelong dividend to the families of those they proudly call “martyrs;” those who target civilians: children, women and men, grandparents, in cafés, on beaches, in hotels, on Holy Sites, and who attack cars and buses with impunity?
- Friday, October 2, 2015

When did having children become a right?

Ontario has a $10.9 billion deficit. Ontario’s health budget under the Liberals is $50.1 billion (a 2.8 per cent increase over the last year), which represents 41.9 per cent of all program spending in the province. A growing and ageing population requires care. Seniors take up half of the health care dollars which could lead to 59 per cent of health costs by 2031. And the latest surveys tell us that we have reached a point where there are more Canadians over 65 than under 14.
- Thursday, October 1, 2015

The New Naqba

In 1948, five Arab countries attacked the new country of Israel, sure of their success. They failed. But Jordan conquered part of Jerusalem in the war, annexed it, ethnically cleansed the Jews whose ancestors had inhabited Jerusalem for thousands of years, destroyed the Holy Sites just as today ISIS has destroyed the Holy Sites in lands they take. The Arabs demolished more than 50 synagogues and used the tombstones for sidewalks, having learned well from the Nazis.
- Sunday, September 27, 2015

Carson was factually correct but politically…not

Mr. Carson, Republican Presidential contender, was pilloried over his response to the question "Should a President’s faith matter?" Mr. Carson said that one’s faith only mattered "If it’s inconsistent with the values and principles of America.” When asked "So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the Constitution?" He answered, "No, I don’t, I do not.”
- Monday, September 21, 2015

Obama is not the only traitor

There are many, today, who call President Obama a traitor. He is not the traitor. The traitors are the Democrats who agreed to accept the Iran Deal despite their misgivings, some of them grave.
- Wednesday, September 16, 2015

9/11 The plight of the refugees. Where have you been?

Fourteen years ago, Sept 11, 2001, the last of the Jews in Syria was flown to freedom. More than 3000 Jewish people trapped under the brutal dictator, Assad, were removed from Syria by the actions of one Canadian woman from Toronto, Judy Feld Carr. The entire operation which took decades was kept quiet because the Jews had to be taken out surreptitiously and many had to be "purchased" from the Syrian government. As Mrs. Carr noted: "We were buying Jews, one by one, from a hostile government. It was the best-kept secret in the Jewish world."
- Thursday, September 10, 2015


Obama administration policy on Jews: Divide and conquer

The Iran Deal has revealed many divisions in the body politic. According to Haaretz, a left-wing Israeli media outlet, only one in 10 Israelis supports the deal while 50 percent of American Jews support it. Rarely is there such disparity between the two Jewish communities. Sadly, the Iran Deal has opened wounds within the America Jewish community. There is a divisiveness that is harmful to the American Jewish community and to Israel.
- Thursday, August 27, 2015

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