Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic
That has long been the view of many who consider themselves pro-Israeli, but I thought it was important to note that the Bush administration has now made it official US policy.
The Bush administration has taken the ground-breaking step of identifying some virulent criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, as it warns that anti-Jewish attitudes and incidents are on the rise worldwide.
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“Anti-Semitism has proven to be an adaptive phenomenon,” the report said. “New forms of anti-Semitism have evolved. They often incorporate elements of traditional anti-Semitism. However, the distinguishing feature of the new anti-Semitism is criticism of Zionism or Israeli policy that – whether intentionally or unintentionally – has the effect of promoting prejudice against all Jews by demonizing Israel and Israelis and attributing Israel’s perceived faults to its Jewish character.”
The danger here is that if you broaden the definition of anti-Semitism too far, to the point where even legitimate criticism is tarred with that brush, people will simply start ignoring the charge completely as just a meaningless partisan-style attack. That then allows real anti-Semites the cover they need to spread their hatred. And there are clearly some anti-Semites out there, as we can see in this example from Canada.
Egypt's ambassador says he is concerned that the growing number of Jewish Canadians might cause a shift in this country's Middle East policy.
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He said Jewish communities have had an impact on the foreign policies of such countries as France, and he is concerned Canada might follow.
"The question is, how do you treat the results of this fact? Do you expect from these greater numbers that they will absorb themselves into Canadian society as Canadians or that they'll try to push Canadians to adopt their own values and principles? And this is the gist of the problem," he said in an interview.
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"First of all, there's a Jewish member of Parliament, who's elected to one of the Toronto ridings ..., who has been outspoken in his hostility toward Muslim nations," Mr. Baker said.
"I've got nothing against the fact that Jews are members of the Canadian Parliament. But it worries me that the type of political influence that we're seeing in Britain, in France, might ultimately reach the Canadian political system."
My apologies to Egypt. That was actually Israel's ambassador talking about Muslim Canadians. He's apparently worried that Canada may move back towards it's more even-handed approach of the past. It's not many countries whose ambassadors can get away with insulting a good number of Canadian citizens and elected members of Parliament without offering any proof whatsoever of their attitudes, and in direct contradiction of the facts.
The number of Muslim Canadians more than doubled between 1991 and 2001, to about 579,600, according to Statistics Canada; the proportion of people who identified themselves as Jewish remained relatively static, at about 330,000.
However, Canada's foreign-policy stand has become more pro-Israel since 2004, when Paul Martin's Liberal government began shifting the country's voting pattern at the United Nations.
Mr. Harper's Conservatives moved further toward Israel, and Canada now votes consistently with a group of about a half-dozen countries, including the United States, Australia and Israel itself, that tend to buck the overwhelming majority.
"This was a major shift, in my opinion, in Canadian policy," Mr. Baker said.
"My aim is to ensure that any Canadian government will continue to maintain this position of realizing the true commonality of interests, and not going back to a non-committal attitude," he said.
And I think it's safe to say that Mr. Harper won't be changing course on his Israel policy or jumping to defend the Muslim citizens so recently smeared.
Some of the criticism brewing in Canada against the state of Israel, including from some members of Parliament, is similar to the attitude of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned yesterday.
You know, when Tony Blair was doing his poodle impression for the Bush administration, he at least had enough sense to try and reign in some of their excesses. Harper on the other hand, in his eagerness to please, goes beyond what even the Bushites would probably dare. What an embarrassment.
