Larry Derfner puts it nicely:
THERE'S ONE other misconception about him that ought to be cleared up - that he was a friend of Israel. Maybe in his words he was, but in his deeds? In his deeds he went as far as he could to gut an Israeli newspaper that's been around for 75 years, one that's very important to this country and the Diaspora.
Furthermore, he fired hundreds of Israelis, he destabilized hundreds of Israeli families, for nothing but his own greed. He had more money than even his wife could spend, yet for 14 years he fired as many Jerusalem Post employees as he could manage.
No, Lord Black of Crossharbour isn't a friend of Israel; he's as contemptuous of Israelis as he is of anybody else.
He's due to be sentenced on November 30. He could get up to 35 years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice. I wish the Post would throw a party that day and invite all the hundreds of people Black pushed out of here to come to the newsroom and wait for news of the verdict. I guess it's just a fantasy.
But reality ought to be festive enough. There will be dozens of current Post employees, many of them Hollinger survivors, in the newsroom on the day of Black's sentencing. All will be newspapermen and newspaperwomen, all of them pro-Israel - right-wingers, left-wingers and centrists, religious and secular, all sharing the same hope or prayer.
And on that day, God willing, when a roar of exultation is suddenly heard from the old Jerusalem Post building on Yermiyahu Street, it will mean that there is still some justice in the world.
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