(BLOG) Stephen Harper Is Exactly Right On Israel

"If Prime Minister Stephen Harper had the oratorical style of a Barack Obama, the nuanced elegance of a Pierre Trudeau, or the fire of a John Diefenbaker, his speech last week on anti-Semitism and Israel would be put on a pedestal.

It was blunt, it was courageous, and it stood tall and unflinching in its condemnation of the 'new anti-Semistism' now sweeping the world, as well as the growing hatred of Israel as it rightfully fights for its continued survival.



All Harper’s speech lacked — and remember, it was vitally important because it was addressed to 150 parliamentarians from 50 countries seeking answers to quell such hatred against both Jews and Israel — was the delivery of a master of the podium.

His words, however, were masterful words, and Canadians should be proud of their PM.

But not so proud of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

As conservative columnist David Frum wrote elsewhere, Ignatieff’s speech to the same group on anti-Semitism was strangely 'ambivalent' about Israel — stating only that global anti-Semitism would be lessened by a settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute.

This would make some sense, presumably, except for the fact that preaching the hatred of Jews has been a staple in the Islamic world long before Israel took its first breath.

Harper served strong coffee, wrote Frum.

Ignatieff served weak tea.



As we stated here following Canada’s rejection by the UN for a seat on the security council — losing out to debt-plagued Portugal, no less — if it was Canada’s unwavering support of Israel that led to its first loss of a such a seat since the UN formed in 1945, then it should wear that loss with immense pride.

Canada stuck to its principles and lost.

We call that loss a win.

It would be all too easy to take a leave of absence in the face of anti-Semitism, and to feign some sort of blinkered neutrality.

But Harper was precise about our moral obligations, stating that whenever anti-Semitism raises its head Canada will take a stand against it, and then stand tall in defending Israel’s right to exist.

His speech should be mandatory reading in every university.

And for every Canadian with blinkers." (source)





Related Article:

• Canadian PM - I Will Defend Israel

(NEWS) Montreal-Area Synagogue Hit By Vandals

"Police are looking for vandals who poured over 2,000 litres of oil onto the grounds of a synagogue north of Montreal last month.

Damage to the Young Israel of Chomedey synagogue is estimated at more than $100,000.

The vandalism happened on Oct. 6 in Montreal suburb. A police investigation suggests individuals could have used a hose to dump the oil from nearby containers onto to the synagogue property.



The extensive damage puts the synagogue in a precarious financial precision.

'Our insurance just covers the first $25,000 for decontamination,' said congregation president Frank Cwilich on Thursday.

'But if the oil penetrated under the building, it could easily go up to $100,000.'

Cwilich admitted the 1,050-strong congregation can’t afford that sum and may have to shut down. He’s also not sure what sparked the attack. It’s the first time the Young Israel of Chomedey synagogue has been vandalized in its 50-year history.

'No one threatened us and no one claimed responsibility,' he said.

Police as well are stumped. Investigators met with shopkeepers and neighbours, but haven’t found anyone who witnessed the vandalism. They’re now appealing to the public.

'Some people are suggesting it’s a teen prank,' said Laval police spokesman Franco Di Genova. 'But we have nothing to confirm at the moment.'" (source)

(BLOG) Salim Mansur: Don’t Blame Israel For Arab Failures

Salim Mansur is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He is a columnist for the London Free Press, for the conservative blog Proud To Be Canadian and the Toronto Sun, and has contributed to various publications including National Review, the Middle East Forum and Frontpagemag. He often presents analysis on the Muslim world, Islam, South Asia, Middle East.

Mansur has been accused by Canadian Islamic Congress of using "provocative, self-serving rhetoric", and for "promoting an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim agenda".

He is an Ismaili Muslim.

Here is the article he wrote recently, in defense of Israel...



"Size matters, and in geopolitics it can be critically important.

A grasp of this elementary fact could provide a better understanding for, and empathy with, a small country besieged by hostile powers on its borders.

Yet this fact often escapes people living in countries of continental dimensions with large spaces empty of inhabitants — as in Canada, the U.S., Russia, Australia and the E.U. — and they may, ironically at times, display a chauvinism reflecting the size of their country.

The fact of how small Israel is territorially, and how this fact deepens its sense of vulnerability, weighs down upon anyone who visits the country.

As I write sitting at a cafe on Tel Aviv’s waterfront, I remember how this city and Haifa to the north were targets of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War.

Israel is merely a dot relative to the Arab world, and yet made responsible, in the logic of the anti-Zionist bigots, for the problems of the Middle East and the inability of the Arab-Muslim culture to deal with the challenges of the modern world.

Consider the following: The Arab world, excluding Iran and Turkey, is comprised of 22 countries stretching from the Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean with a total area around 13 million sq. km and a population of nearly 350 million.

In terms of territorial size, only Russia is larger than the Arab world at 17 million sq. km.

Israel is barely 22,000 sq. km, or about three times the size of New York City, with a population of 7.5 million of which 20% are Israeli Arabs.

An objective consideration of the huge disparity in size and population between the Arab world and Israel should dispel the drivel the world has been fed that Arabs are the “underdog” in a colonial struggle against Jews as a colonizing people.

The reverse disparity between Israelis and Arabs is the tremendous human achievement of the former as free people, and the contrast when measured against the sullen reality of the Arab world just about at the bottom of the UN human development index despite the resources available.

But here, too, Arabs, Muslims and their apologists in the West will fault Israelis for the collective failure of the Arab world.

It is as if the plight of Palestinian 'occupation' by Israelis explains the Sudanese civil wars and genocide in Darfur, or the savage killings inside Algeria, or the long list of atrocities, gender oppression, humiliation of religious minorities, wars, military dictatorships, and with no end in sight of violence and murder in the name of Islam across the Arab world.

It is sheer absurdity to hold Israelis responsible for the utterly dysfunctional nature of the Arab world.

Palestinians are an integral part of this dysfunctional world, and their politics reflect, in a heightened sense, the problems the rest of the world seeks to avoid discussing for fear of being denounced as politically incorrect.

Israel is a very small country packed with immensely talented people.

Their story is a gift to the Arab-Muslim world as it is to be found in the Qur’an if only Arabs and Muslims understood either." (source)

(NEWS) Canada: Muslim Opponent Of NYC Mosque Reports Threat

"She spoke out against the Ground Zero mosque, now a Canadian Muslim

woman says she is being threatened. Raheel Raza, a founding member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, calls the idea of a mosque within 300 metres of Ground Zero 'a deliberate provocation.'

Last week Raza joined Maureen Basnicki a Canadian widow of 9-11 in attending a meeting about the mosque in New York City.

'They were very arrogant. They didn’t answer questions,' Raza told QMI Agency."