Canada's Liberal Abandonment of Moral Judgement

UN Security Council Chamber, New York, Wikipedia

"[The resolution] affirms Palestinian self=determination, while failing to affirm Jewish self-determination in the indigenous and ancestral homeland of the Jewish people."

"We are dismayed by Canada's decision to undermine its long-standing policy of rejecting one-sided and prejudicial anti-Israel resolutions at the UN."

"By supporting this resolution, Canada is providing ammunition to those who seek to delegitimize and demonize the State of Israel, which ultimately sets back the prospects for peace in the region."

Michael Levitt, former Liberal MP, president, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"The Government of Canada has now doubled-down on its incomprehensible support for a resolution that simply expands the anti-Israel narrative within the United Nations system."

"[This vote represents] an aberration in the voting pattern established and reaffirmed by successive Canadian governments for almost two decades until the Liberal government changed its vote last year." 

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"Canada's vote today is a reflection of our long-standing commitment to the right of self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis."

"From the time of the earliest resolutions of the Security Council on these issues, we have endorsed the principle of 'two states for two peoples'."

"While we do not agree with some elements of the preamble, Canada will support this resolution because of its focus on these important, core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

"[Canada] does not and will not support any resolution that unfairly singles out Israel for criticism."

"We will continue to oppose these resolutions and initiatives which do not speak to the complexities of the issues or seek to address the actions and responsibilities of all parties, including the destructive role in the conflict of such terrorist organizations as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, that have refused to accept the legitimacy of the State of Israel and routinely use violence targeting civilians."

Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae

As a reasonable, reassuring response to the criticism from major Canadian groups representing Jewish and Israeli interests, Mr. Rae's response is ingenuous at best, fatuous, elusive and shamefully negligent on the face of Canada's voting in favour of a resolution, one of many frequently brought before the UN General Assembly for routine condemnation of Israel as an 'occupying' power, purportedly victimizing the Palestinian Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza.

One group that Ambassador Rae left out of the line-up of violently malicious actors in the ongoing vendetta perpetrated against Israelis and Jews is Fatah, and its offshoots. Fatah was co-founded by Yasser Arafat who incited Palestinians not to live in peace and harmony with Israel, but to launch as many violent, destructive and deadly attacks by land, sea and air as could be conceived of, after Palestinian leaders refused to accept the UN offer of 'two states' through Partition.

Fatah is the party of the Palestinian Authority whose president-in-perpetuity in a sham 'democracy' took on his predecessor's mantle of graceful victim to his Western audience which so generously supports the PA financially, while, like Arafat, President Mahmoud Abbas encourages and incites Palestinians from grade school forward to become 'martyrs' in the mission of killing Jews and slandering and delegitimizing Israel. The never-ending violent assaults are what have occasioned the 'occupation', the self-defence posting of the Israeli military to separate Israelis from murderous assaults from the West Bank and Gaza.

Accusations of Israel as an 'apartheid state' for having erected a barrier to physically separate Jews from radicalized, terrorist Palestinians, represent a perversion of both logic and language. Jews who accidentally wander into Palestinian territory are assaulted and murdered. Palestinian Arabs, on the other hand, live in their millions within Israel as citizens able to vote their own representatives into public office to sit in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. Arabs, Druze, Kurds, Bedouins, Baha'i and Christians are citizens of Israel.

"Today, the Liberal government voted against the state of Israel at the UN General Assembly for a second year in a row, contrary to our long-standing Canadian policy of opposing all resolutions that single out Israel, a policy that former prime minister Paul Martin had put in place."

"Even Ambassador Rae said he disagreed with the preamble of the resolution. Why did the government break with long-standing Canadian policy and vote against the State of Israel at the UN General Assembly today?"

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, House of Commons

The resolution, one that is regularly placed on the agenda of a multitude of resolutions slamming Israel disproportionately to any other single nation on Earth, countless examples of whom have human rights records that reek of disdain for humanity -- passed by a vote of 163-5 with ten abstentions. Israel, the United States, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Nauru voted against, with Australia, Cameroon, Guatemala, Honduras, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Togo and Tonga abstaining.

 

Mere days prior to the UN's vote on the resolution, B’nai Brith Canada, the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, asking them to return Canada's vote to the previous policy whereby Canada deigned not to vote in favour of that perennial assault on Israel.

Michael Levitt, president and CEO of FSWC, wrote: "For nearly 20 years, successive Canadian governments have rejected such toxic and one-sided resolutions, declaring that they projected a distorted narrative of the conflict in the Middle East and were unhelpful in advancing peace", while Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, added: "This annual exercise attacking Israel employs offensive language that does not promote peace and prejudges the outcome of negotiations."

Trudeau & Netanyahu, Paris, 2015. Amos Ben Gershom/GPO

"Through unbalanced and prejudicial support for Palestinian self-determination, this resolution in particular denies the very same inherent right to the Jewish people. It impairs the legitimate goals and the effectiveness of the United Nations." As for CIJA CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel, in his turn he pointed out: "The unity expressed in jointly writing to the Prime Minister underscores how deeply this issue resonates within Canada’s Jewish community. We understand that Canada is looking for ways to reaffirm its support for a peaceful resolution that results in two states for two peoples. However, there are far more constructive opportunities for Canada to do so, especially given that support for this resolution perpetuates the distortion and abuse of the United Nations and its agencies."

Obviously, to no avail. In 2005, under Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal government, there was a review of Canada's voting policy on such UN Israel motions. There were legitimate concerns over disproportionate singling-out of Israel for motions of condemnation. That review finally resulted in Canada voting against or abstaining on all such resolutions beginning in 2006 under the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Last year, for the first time in decades, the government led by Justin Trudeau saw fit to vote in favour of a similarly-worded resolution in support of Palestinian self=determination which condemned Israel as "an occupying power". (Needless to say the resolution makes no mention that the PA consistently turns down all Israeli negotiated offers for peace that would lead to 'Palestinian self-determination' in the form of a recognized sovereign state.) That occasion spurred pro-Israel organizations to cry foul and criticize Justin Trudeau, suggesting he was attempting to curry favour at the UN for his bid for a coveted UN Security Council seat, which failed in any event. 

But that occasion signified the change being evinced by the Trudeau government toward Israel. There is, quite simply put, a much larger Canadian constituency toward whom this stance of the Trudeau government plays, than what the Jewish-Canadian presence represents, aside from the fact that Jews tend to vote Liberal in any event. Ambassador Rae's rather lame explanation of the turn of events failed to convince Michael Mostyn of B'nai Brith Canada, who commented: it "detailed the many shortcomings of this resolution, and the unfair targeting of Israel -- yet Canada then proceeded to vote in favour of the text".

"That decision is not only contradictory, it flies in the face of Canada's principled opposition to other resolutions in the unbalanced Question of Palestine basket of resolutions that are tabled annually at the UN General Assembly." To which Canada's Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland responded: "Let me just be very clear; Israel is a close and important friend of Canada, and Canada will always stand with Israel. Let me also be very clear to Jewish Canadians in my riding and across the country: We stand with them, particularly today when we are seeing an appalling rise in anti-Semisim here and around the world."

Not too terribly compelling an argument of good faith and unfailing support for the Jewish community both at home and in Israel, when official Canada chose to vote with a resolution that added to the general stench of anti-Semitism in the air, and doing nothing to reassure Jews other than to establish the accomplished proficiency of Liberals in sanctimonious faux empathy. Canada's firm support for a fellow democracy violently assailed by a neighbour, and routinely demonized at the world body came to an abrupt halt when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper left the PMO.

Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper at Munk Debate on Canada’s Foreign Policy