Condemning "Twisted Logic, Outright Malice"

"Those who often begin by hating the Jews, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not like them. Those forces, which have threatened the state of Israel every single day of its existence and which, today, as 9/11 graphically showed us, threaten us all. And so either we stand up for our values and our interests here in Israel and stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively Jewish state or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will begin.
"Our view on Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable.
"We live in a world where that kind of moral relativism runs rampant [incessant criticisms of Israel; free passes of condemnation to human-rights-abusing nations]. And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of much more sinister notions can be easily planted.
"And so we have witnessed, in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.
"Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us. But, in much of the Western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society. People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.
"On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask the underlying realities such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.
"A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law that was founded so Jews can flourish as Jews and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism.
"It is nothing short of sickening. It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable for a new generation.
"Our commitment as Canadians to what is right, fair and just is a universal one. It applies no less to the Palestinian people than it does to the people of Israel. Just as we unequivocally support Israel's right of self-defence, so too Canada has long supported a just and secure future for the Palestinian people.
"We share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders will choose a viable, democratic, Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish state of Israel.
"We understand that Israelis live with this impossible calculus: if you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread condemnation, over and over again. But should you fail to act, you alone will suffer the consequence of your inaction and that consequence will be final -- your destruction."
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- address to the Knesset, Israel

Jerusalem – Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel, during his first official visit to Israel.

Canada is not about to win any popularity contests, neither within the Middle East, nor in the world at large. For the general consensus of opinion is that Israel balks against achieving a peace agreement, that the Palestinians are eager to produce that agreement but they have been unable to because Israel deliberately withholds the opportunity for them to agree to certain conditions which they consider their inalienable right.

For the Israelis, the 'right' that they seek to formally achieve is the right of existence as a Jewish state, a homeland for the diaspora, a place where Jews, hounded elsewhere in the world as the globe's traditional whipping boy, will find peace and haven. Reality is Jews arriving in Israel to resettle in a land of their own will find haven, but it may be a temporary one and peace is elusive, an ephemeral, hoped-for consequence of having been granted universal approval from the United Nations to consider the yearned-for return to Zion a reality.

For the Palestinians, the creation of the state of Israel is an abhorrent misery the world dropped on the heads of undeserving people who considered the land called Palestine their very own, despite that it was, and remains, the heritage homeland of the people who had first occupied it until conquering armies dislodged them in antiquity from their perch. Jews were forced to leave, and most did, but many remained in the Middle East, settling back into Palestine, and further afield, to Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran where they were Arabized Jews.

They were forced to flee their ancestral homes in the Middle East (Africa and East Asia), from Yemen to Afghanistan, when the United Nations Security Council advocated Partition for Palestine and the Palestinians fled when Israel declared itself a sovereign nation, and its Arab neighbours expelled their Jews. The raging hatred of a Jewish nation settled on land consecrated at a later date to Islam has its expression in the Jordanian-controlled Waqf in East Jerusalem newly declaring Solomon to have been an Islamic prophet who built a mosque, not a Temple to Jehovah.

Long before Islam occurred to a desert Bedouin as a possible way to create a religion that would appeal to Arab sensibilities and traditions, by several millennia, a Jewish king is now held by Islamic clerics to have been actually an Arab Muslim. This is done to deny Jews their claim that the Temple Mount, the most sacred symbolic presence in Judaism, is falsely named and is in reality part of a Muslim mosque, where Jews have no right to pray. A denial of the Jewish presence at any time, in Jerusalem.

Canada, under the lead of the current Conservative-led government has already distinguished itself on the world stage as a reliable friend to Israel and to Jews. Those countries of Europe that once were shamed by their unwilling part in the Holocaust, now fear upsetting the tender sensitivities of their ever-increasing numbers of Muslim immigrants who have settled into Western democracies and use every opportunity available to impress upon the indigenous residents the need to slander and crucify Israel as an Apartheid state denying Palestinians their land.

Just as Israel is denied the right to exist as a Jewish state, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, England and other European countries are finding their cultures, their laws, their heritage twisted in the demand by blocs of Muslims to special dispensation for Sharia law, and religious accommodation that drowns their own customs in a sea of exotic and sometimes dangerous customs that create inequality and violent threats injurious to the public weal.

The influx of Muslims to Western democracies has diluted the democratic values of those countries eager to be socially and politically correct in their reaction to demands from a people who feel entitled to special considerations, and whose religion exhorts them to remain separate, apart and loyal to Islamic doctrine and dictates. Intrusions of a nature never before experienced, upsetting indigenous tradition and values, with the steadfast refusal of integration by those who were accepted for refugee and citizenship status in a migratory move that has transformed those countries to an unrecognizable shadow of their original state.

Canada is still able to exert the influence of the majority over the yet-minority. But it is a growing minority which has never accepted the justice and obligation of accepting the values and customs of the population they have joined. Canada is still struggling with its growing pains in accepting and integrating those who arrive looking for opportunities and aspiring to improve their positions in life. In sending a message to the world, Canada stands outside and apart from the general consensus on Israel.

One can hope that the tide of change is not irreversible, that some measure of surety can be found in the hope that it can never be too late for people of different backgrounds, religions and cultures to find a common purpose and explore it together. The symbols of Islamic infiltration are everywhere, no less than in Canada as well. Governments arise and they fall, making way for others to express their own priorities and values.

There is hope for Canada in the expressions of this Prime Minister, that Canada will remain true to its principles and honour the need to give support to those deserving it. If it serves as a message to those in the wings who harbour less than kind feelings about those expressions of loyalty and support, it may be useful and it may on the other hand inspire them to increase their disturbing messages of hate and resistance to unity and comfortable pluralism.