The government flyers state: that the Liberals participated in a conference in Durban on racism in 2001; allegedly supported terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah ; and that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused Israel of committing war crimes against the Lebanese in 2006. Furthermore, Stephen Harper says all of the above actions are associated with anti-Semitism. The flyers target ridings with large Jewish communities.
The Liberal party has strenuously refuted this information as incorrect, and has denied these allegations of anti-Semitism. The party is stunned and incensed.
It would take more space than is available here to analyze each of the Conservative accusations, but the question is: Why is the government using taxpayer dollars to perpetuate what has become an aggressive and unrelenting attack on the opposition parties? Some of these ads have included personal attacks against Mr. Ignatieff.
Governments are expected to lead by example, be role models for the younger generations and set the highest ethical standards for all of us. Governments are in parliament to serve the will of the people, and to carry out what they have promised to the taxpayers. Governments are supposed to govern, not continually attack the opposition parties.
But when a government lacks leadership and innovation in these tough economic times, it loses focus, and then turns outward and goes on the attack. The Conservative government hopes to gain votes by inflaming the population against the opposition while using taxpayer money to fund these attacks!
In this case the Conservative government is trying to inflame the Canadian Jewish community by implying that any criticism of Israel by the Liberals or others, constitutes anti-Semitism- which is absolutely false. By accusing Israel of committing war crimes against the Lenanese, Ignatieff was being brutally honest and outspoken, but certainly this could not be considered racism.
The Canadian Jewish community, itself, should be outraged at Harper’s transparent attempt to manipulate their feelings to capture their votes.
The federal Conservative government is a rudderless ship that is lost at sea and is becoming increasingly desperate. Stephen Harper must make an about face, and issue a public apology to the Liberal party for his serious error in judgement. For Harper to play the anti-Semitic card as has been done, sets a new low in the ethics and the tone of Canadian politics.
The crux of this issue is illustrated by a quotation from Thomas Fuller(1661): “ He that flings dirt at another dirtieth himself the most.”
Canadians deserve more from their Prime Minister.
Stumble It!
Durban Declaration
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/22465
BBC World Service ran a revealing segment on that original Durban Declaration. The host was Julian Marshall, and one of his guests was Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry. Marshall began by asking what all the fuss was about: "Why exactly is Israel staying away from the U.N. racism conference?" Palmor replied that it was "because it isn't a U.N. racism conference, it is a conference about Israel-bashing, just like its predecessor." He told Marshall that "in the previous conference, Israel was singled out as the most racist state on earth, probably almost the only racist state" and that these claims were not made in a few inflammatory speeches but in the conference's official final declaration.
At this point Marshall stopped Palmor, saying that he had been reading that much-maligned sixty-one-page Durban Declaration and had been unable to find anything in it that fit Palmor's description. He then proceeded to do what almost no journalist had done before. He quoted, at length, the specific clauses in the 2001 Durban Declaration that have to do with anti-Semitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ones that supposedly accused Israel of being "the most racist state on earth" and were so unfair that the U.S. government could not attend any conference that "reaffirms" them. Here are those dastardly passages:
Paragraph 58: We recall that the Holocaust must never be forgotten;
Paragraph 61: We recognize with deep concern the increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in various parts of the world, as well as the emergence of racial and violent movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities;
Paragraph 63: We are concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation. We recognize the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent State and we recognize the right to security for all States in the region, including Israel, and call upon all States to support the peace process and bring it to an early conclusion.
As Marshall read these statements, each less offensive and more banal than the one before, Palmor became increasingly agitated. "I'm not sure we're talking about the same conference," he said, "because even though I don't have the text in front of me, I remember quite precisely some quotes that were completely contrary to those that you've just quoted. So we must be speaking about two different documents."
And that, at least, was absolutely true: Palmor and Marshall were talking about two different documents and two different conferences. There was the Durban conference to which Marshall was referring, the one that actually took place, in space and time, and produced the final declaration from which Marshall read. And then there was the conference to which Palmor was referring—a nightmarish anti-Semitic "hate-fest" cooked up by Iran and Syria with the sole purpose of wiping Israel off the map. That conference did not take place, which is why the quotes Palmor claimed to precisely recall do not actually exist.
More diversionary charading by the actors in the big 3 corporate parties.
You mean the big two corporate parties. Corporations wouldn't spend so much time and money railing against the NDP, if they had them in their pockets, like the Liberals and Tories. By doing so they tell me exactly who to vote for and against. The enemy of my enemy, is my friend.