Friday, December 22, 2017

Canada, Steadfast Ally of Israel

"Canada is a steadfast ally and friend of Israel and friend to the Palestinian people. Canada's longstanding position is that the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. This has been the policy of consecutive governments, both Liberal and Conservative."
Global Affairs Canada statement 
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to stand by Israel 'through fire and water' and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times   CBC
Under the previous Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Israel could have no doubt whatever that Canada supported it in every conceivable way, recognizing it formally and informally as a counterpart democracy and a legitimate homeland for the Jewish people restored to their heritage position in the Middle East. PM Harper had little patience for the United Nations' constant sanctions against Israel, ignoring the plight of people living under the deplorable dictatorships of its neighbours in a powerful Islamic bloc that continually slammed Israel for human rights abuses they themselves regularly indulged in, but Israel did not.

Under the Trudeau administration, Canada has continued to block resolutions brought to the Security Council and the UN Human Rights agenda, condemning Israel for one contrived reason or another, charges brought against it by the very same human rights abusers who have long transformed the purpose of the United Nations in upholding universal human rights and equality, into a forum for the world's most vicious human rights abusers to stand in sanctimonious judgement of nations with a stellar position on human rights. But the very fact that Canada opposes corrupt resolutions is merely a reflection of the fact that it should, that it is morally obligated to do so.

That it reflects a specific bias in favour of Israel is not in fact the case. In very point of fact, Canada states its official position being that of equal favour to both Israel and the Palestinians, neutral on the issues that divide them, supportive only of the fiction that a two-state solution is achievable, when the Palestinian Authority has proven time and again, despite hypocritically claiming to the contrary, that it has no intention of cooperating in the forging of a peace treaty, nor officially arriving at an agreement that would result in two separate, sovereign states.

The statement that the PA is so fond of, that it disseminates in Arabic to the Palestinians is a Palestinian State from the river to the sea; from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, reflective of its official map that has erased Israel from existence. Yet the Western fiction of the Palestinians working toward peace and the establishment of two states persists, enabling PA President Mahmoud Abbas to prosecute his plan to achieve greater legitimacy of a Palestinian state in de facto existence, giving it status in the United Nations and within its member bodies.

Trudeau's Canada believes that there is a global obligation, reflective of a motion that was brought before the UN, to "promote the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination, to support the achievement without delay of an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and of the two-state solution on the basis of the pre-1967 border." That "occupation" resulted from an all-out conflict imposed yet again on Israel, which it successfully repulsed, gaining the territories in question, as a result.

The "occupation" is one of self-protection, defense from constant violent attacks inspired by the Palestinian leadership in the Palestine Liberation Organization's Fatah movement and that of Hamas; the former aspiring to achieve the downfall of Israel through furtively organic means including incitement to popular violence, the latter directly and equally infamously, through violent military offences. If the Palestinian leadership were prepared to settle differences reasonably, there would be no "occupation" because there would be no threat to the existence of Israel. But the byword is to refuse "normalization"; recognition and acceptance of Israel's existence.


Last December, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, China and 162 other UN member-nations gave their unequivocal support to UN resolution 17/96, guaranteeing the protections of the Geneva Convention to Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, when there is no real and actual threat to Palestinian civilians other than those they themselves provoke through incitement to violence, threats to destroy Israel, and never-ending incidents of deadly violence.
Trump Jerusalem Recognition
Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite intense Arab, Muslim and European opposition to a move that would upend decades of U.S. policy and risk potentially violent protests. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
The most recent resolution brought by Turkey and Yemen in the United Nations to the general assembly against the American announcement by the Trump administration that it was finally in favour of committing to relocating its embassy now in Tel Aviv to the de facto capital of Israel in Jerusalem, to impose pressure brought by the weight of the world body's censure of the U.S. was beyond absurd. Jerusalem is Israel's capital, despite the Palestinians claiming prior heritage status of the ancient city, when it was the capital of Judean Zion thousands of years before Arabs and Islam entered history.

As a sheer matter of principle, were it not for the governing Liberals' pride in their 'progressive' values, reason and intelligence should have ensured that Canada would vote "no" to denounce the resolution damning America for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. While the UN body daintily quibbles its outrage over Jerusalem, North Korea and Iran in their industrious commitment to ICBMs and nuclear warheads threatening world stability become a non-issue. Turkey's murderous assaults on the Kurds, Syria's on its own Sunni population and Yemen's deadly civil war, mere trifles.

In choosing to abstain, Canada has, in essence, allied itself with countries such as Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Venezuela. The result of the vote represented an exculpatory boost to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas, whose corrupt histrionics have been handsomely rewarded by the Non-Aligned contingent and the European democracies which pride themselves on their equanimity in the face of Islamist conquest, alongside the craven inability of countries like Canada to face the courage of the convictions they have mislaid along the way.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during an extraordinary meeting of the OIC
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkey, December 13, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS/KAYHAN OZER/POOL)

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