Monday digest

- Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit is dead, the victim of an apparent triple homicide.

At least now he can join his buddy Eddie Guerrero, pictured above at Wrestlemania XX at Madison Square Garden, in that big squared circle in the sky.

TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: This case is now being treated as an apparent double murder/suicide.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Details are slowly starting to emerge. Benoit was obviously very mentally ill if this is to be believed.

- It being summer and all, it's that time of year when everybody lines up to pile on top of the only democratic, capitalist country in the entire Middle East. Israeli intelligence sources have suggested that an attack can come from any one of five potential opponents this year: Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and/or al-Qaeda. That's why it's instructive to read this Letter to the Editor in today's Ottawa Citizen. The text is as follows:

Re: Our Middle East obsession, June 20.

... I write to indicate why I marvel at Israel's ability to triumph over adversity upon adversity. The story of Israel, from its beginning in 1948 when Holocaust survivors were granted refuge with a state of their own because no country would offer them sanctuary, until today, is a gripping saga of a nation never knowing peace.

For 60 years it has defended itself in wars on three fronts, to the shock of the whole Muslim world. Daily it sustains bombardment by katyusha rockets interspersed with suicide-bomb attacks. All the while the country's struggle is rejected by many western media reports, political leaders, Christian church groups and universities denouncing Israeli's actions of self-defence.

When the Jews were granted this land, 60 per cent was desert, and today its greenhouses and agricultural produce are the envy of the world. The Jews welcomed a million Arabs to remain and become citizens with elected Arab members of government, and today these Arabs have more rights and privileges than those in any other Middle East country. The Jewish people have flourished and have built their future with Nobel laureates, renowned in science and medicine despite their tenuous circumstances.

It is beyond my wildest imagination how a persecuted and oppressed people, exiled from their biblical homeland for 2,000 years, has now become such a thriving democracy amidst 23 oppressive regimes, and with a meagre population of six million. Thus my obsession with the Middle East, or rather, on a positive note, my utmost admiration for the people of Israel.

Carolyn Emond, Ottawa

I can't think of a better way to say it.

- Meanwhile, you've got Penn, Fonda and everyone else still pissed off about Al Gore's loss in 2000 that they're issuing ads like this one in the New York Times. What world does one live in where W is a bigger threat to humankind than the likes of those I mentioned above?