Al-Reuters is claiming that Canada's Prime minister will lose votes, if not the coming general election due to measured support of Israeli self defence against Hizballah. The peace-keeper Death Hippies are suddenly upset that Israel is kicking butt after the fascists in Iran, Syria, and their local proxies stirred up more than they can deal with. Now it's time, cry the Death Hippies, for peace-keeping. As the sign says, you can't shoot them. I have to ask why not?
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By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The decision by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take a pro-Israeli stance is unwise and could cost him votes in the next election, particularly after seven Canadians were killed by an Israeli attack, political observers and commentators said on Monday.
Harper's Conservatives, who took power in February after 13 years of Liberal rule, have a fragile minority and rely on support from other parties to govern.
Harper is widely expected to call an election in the first half of next year but to win a majority he will need to start winning seats in major cities like Toronto and Montreal, both of which have large ethnic Arab populations.
"A lot of Lebanese voted Conservative (in the last election) because they
were tired of the Liberals," said Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations.
"Those who would have been swayed to vote Conservative will not do so (next) time," he told Reuters.
Harper has shifted Canada's policy on the Middle East from one of relative neutrality to a pro-Israel position.
Last week he said Israel's attacks on Lebanon were measured and when asked on Monday whether he had protested to Tel Aviv over the deaths, he said he did not want to single Israel out.
The seven victims -- four of them young children and members of a family on holiday -- were of Lebanese descent and all came from Montreal, the largest city in French-speaking Quebec. The Conservatives made major gains in Quebec in the last election but do not hold a single Parliamentary seat in Montreal.
"I think there will a political price to pay for this," said Francine Lalonde of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party, which holds most of the province's Parliamentary seats.
"He could have called Tel Aviv to ask what was happening ... he didn't even pass on his condolences to the family until 24 hours later," she told Reuters.
Media reaction in Quebec, which has been slowly warming up to the Conservatives, was widely negative."If he had to meet the relatives of the (dead) family, would Mr Harper continue to assert that this offensive is justified and measured?" wrote columnist Agnes Gruda in La Presse, one of the province's most influential newspapers.
Alone among Canadian newspapers, La Presse splashed a picture of a dead Lebanese infant on the front page of its Sunday edition. About 50,000 people of Lebanese descent live in the Montreal area.
An Ottawa Citizen analysis said Harper's stance "could have implications for his (party's) ... chances of making the inroads it needs in Canada's three largest urban areas -- Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver -- where such sentiments will not play well in their multicultural communities."
Commentaries in the right-of-center Globe and Mail -- which is generally supportive of Israel -- and the left-leaning Toronto Star both said Harper might have endangered Canada's reputation as an international honest broker.
[....]Canadian PM's pro-Israel stance seen costing votes
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Would you vote for a scum-bag politician who can't tell the difference between a nation that minds it's own business to the best of its abilities in a modern world and a gang of primitive fascist murderers? Well, there hasn't been a chance here in Canada for months, but it's coming again soon enough.
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Comments by US BOY IN GERMANY:
I just saw an opinion poll conducted by the German TV network NTV.
"Who is more to blame for the fighting near Lebanon?"
Result:
Hisbollah - 27.6%
Israel - 72.4% !!!
Now we see just how much Germany really loves the Israelis and Jews.
This is sad.
17. July 2006, 20:43 CET
Die Welt comments.
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Canadian Arabs hold Prime Minister Stephen Harper responsible for the death of Canadians in Lebanon
16-07-2006
Canadian Arab Federation Press release:
"The Canadian Arab Federation holds Prime Minister Stephen Harper responsible for the death of 8 Canadians in Lebanon.
While Israel was bombarding Lebanon, terrorizing and killing civilians and destroying the infrastructure of the country, Harper appallingly was quoted a saying that these Israeli war crimes are a "measured response" to the capture of 2 Israeli soldiers.
It is outrageous that a Canadian Prime Minister would justify Israel's brutal assault against Lebanon when such action has resulted in the death of hundreds of Lebanese civilians including the murder of 8 Canadians.
The Canadian Arab Federation will be holding a press conference within 48 hours to condemn Harper's support for Israel which emboldened it to continue committing war crimes against the Lebanese people."
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk
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2 comments:
You can imagine my surprise when they told me at the sporting goods store that "You can't shoot 'em." I laughed, 'cause I thought they were joking. But no, you really can't. I think they're somehow like a protected species or something.
Greenpeace, eh.
What can you do when you live in a zoo?
Thanks for getting me all riled up before bed, Dag. Anyway, I'll just note, as we have many a time, the underlying assumption of the scumbags you quote: it doesn't matter who is right or wrong, cause there is really no such thing; all that matters is optics - the myth of an "honest broker" - and not making a real choice about what is good for one's nation and for humankind. This victimary liberal nihilism cannot last forever. Sooner or later the fascists or the freedom lovers will initiate a new post-liberal era.
Thankfully we have a leader who can see this because the longer we postpone our moral choices, the deeper will be our fix and, potentially. the more killing in the future war to replace the liberalism whose apocalypse is already in sight, for those who can see.
When I was growing up, a Canadian was not someone enamored of victimary thinking. I see no reason why we should start equating the victimary crowd, and the cowardly (often antisemitic) Quebec media with our Canadian identity. (After all, it's largely the Quebec media elites who have rejected the good name, Canadien.)
Anyone who cannot make the choice between Israel and a Lebanon that does not only tolerate (for whatever politic reasons) the presence of Hezbollah/Iran terrorists but has them in the government is a great moral fool and any compromise with such is deadly in the long run. Anyone who thinks this is a dispute where there are two legitimate "sides", where there is some kind of moral equivalence, is simply lost to reason or understanding of history. And any Prime Minister who refuses to play to lost fools and dangerous resenters, of which there are always many, is a hero.
Bravo Harper! Let the crazies call you names, I think it will actually win you votes in most places, not that that is the point...
We need to make "discrimination" a good word again!
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