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| May 20, 2008 Torstar - A loss of balance on Israel Canada has a long history of supporting Israel. But the nature of that support, particularly under the Harper government, is almost unrecognizable from its earlier form. ... Whatever the flaws of that model, one thing is clear. No Canadian official ever advocated what has become the reality today: that a Jewish state would be created, while the much larger Arab population in Palestine would be left stateless six decades later, and in fact living under Israeli military occupation. .... To celebrate the founding of Israel without at least acknowledging the flip side of this occasion – the beginning of the Palestinian diaspora – is to deny that there are two sides to this story. With this denial, Harper – in line with the Bush administration – has become an obstacle to reaching a Middle East peace.
February 4, 2008 Originally published on Yahoo News. Canada condemns suicide attack in Israel "Such acts must not be allowed to undermine the peace process," Bernier said in a statement, adding the priority of the parties "must remain to continue their negotiations toward peace." One Israeli woman was killed and at least 11 people wounded in the bombing, which triggered scenes of panic in the desert town of Dimona. Medics said one suicide bomber was killed in the blast and a second was killed by police shortly after the explosion. The attack came after a near two-week breach of the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip which saw hundreds of thousands of people pouring into Egypt from the impoverished Hamas-run territory in a bid to break a crippling Israeli siege. Israeli authorities have voiced concern that militants could have entered the country through its porous 250-kilometre (150-mile) border with the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. February 5, 2007 INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! Jerusalem Post - Canadian government forming pro-Israel lobby
January 20, 2007 G&M - Khan backed Arab plan to revert to '67 border Wajid Khan, the Prime Minister's special adviser on the Middle East, has expressed support for an Arab initiative that would see Israel return to its pre-1967 borders..... The report from Mr. Khan's trip has been kept under wraps by the Prime Minister's Office, feeding speculation it may contain recommendations that differ from present Canadian policy in the region, and fuelling calls for its release after Mr. Khan's defection to the Conservative Party earlier this month. November 28, 2006 Former Tory MP says caucus members have no say in forming policy November 13 The Nation - Letter from Canada: The new Christian Right The new Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, inspired by the neocons to the south, appears determined to visit the worst excesses of George Bush's presidency on his own country. He plans to pull Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol and expand military spending. He defended Israel's massive bombing of southern Lebanon, even as Israeli warplanes bombed a clearly marked UN observation post, killing a Canadian peacekeeper. He was the first world leader to cut off funding after Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority.
October 30, 2006 The following article provides some excellent background on the Straussian ideology of Ian Brodie, Harper's Chief of Staff. Cuts targeted to keep the neo-cons on top Father of the neo-conservative movement, Strauss had a deep antipathy towards liberal democracy and its supposed moral relativism. He had a number of jarring beliefs: that society had to be governed by a small intellectual -- and male -- elite who would use "noble lies" to keep the rabble in check, that religion and fear must be used to control the masses and that perpetual war is humanity's natural condition. Walrus Magazine - Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons ....McVety and others on the religious right are equally convinced that Harper is one of their own. “We've got a born-again prime minister,” trumpets David Mainse, the founder of Canada'spremier Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street. They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep?—?so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation. If they're right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn government into a kinder, gentler guarantor of social justice for all or transform the country into a stern, narrow-minded theocracy. And what would his evangelical worldview mean for international relations?
September 29, 2006 (Harper's position on the Francophonie statement might be quite admirable if it were not so clearly biased. This is the same man who called Israel's bombing of Lebanon "a measured response" to the capture of 2 soldiers by Hezbollah. This is the same man who had nothing to say about the death of 7 members of a Lebanese Canadian family or a Canadian soldier serving with the UN in Southern Lebanon by Israeli shelling.) CBC - Summit passes resolution recognizing Lebanese, Israeli suffering Most of the members at the summit of French-speaking countries held in Bucharest, Romania, had supported the Egyptian-proposed resolution. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper was among those who opposed the resolution, saying recognition should be given to everyone who suffered during the 34-day conflict. Canada was preparing to block the resolution unless changes were made. (Harper's position on the Francophonie statement might be quite admirable if it were not so clearly biased. This is the same man who called Israel's bombing of Lebanon "measured response" to the capture of 2 soldiers by Hezbollah. This is the same man who had nothing to say about the death of 7 members of a Lebanese Canadian family or a Canadian soldier serving with the UN in Southern Lebanon by Israeli shelling.)
August 2006 Chronicle Herald (Halifax) - Stephen Harper and the world: hanging out with wrong crowd IF YOU'VE been given to grim thoughts lately, you might entertain this one: What new havoc will be loosed on the world before George W. Bush leaves office in over two years time? More specifically for our purposes, how deeply will our own Stephen Harper drag us into these adventures? July 2006 The Tyee - Why Canada is wrong to fan the flames I am a friend of Israel. Two years ago, I even taught as a visiting professor at the University of Tel Aviv. But unlike Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I condemn Israel's disproportionate response to the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah militants last week. |