Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government seems to be the only one possibly in the entire world that unabashedly adores Israel’s current Likud government. It’s a slobbery political love affair embarrassing to behold. Not only does Harper support Israeli policy, he represses any hint of official Canadian interest in Palestinians.
In fact, there are many moments I’m sure when Bibi Netanyahu wishes he could replace one of his neighboring hostile states with Canada so that at least he’d have a single soul-mate in the region. I’m thinking particularly about the tongue-lashing administered by Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, who marvelled at the hypocrisy of the Mideast’s leading state sponsor of terrorism heading up an anti-terror march in Paris.
Israel repeatedly exploits Canadian intelligence (perhaps with its own approval) in the pursuit of its murderous plots around the region and world. One of the first instances was when Israeli assassins used fake Canadian passports to enter Jordan, where they came within a whisker of succeeding in assassinating Hamas’ Khaled Meshal (he survived through the alertness of a Jordanian doctor who gave the victim an anti-opiod antidote).
After the Mossad assassinated Mohammed al-Mabouh in Dubai, one of its agents used a fake identity provided to him by Canadian intelligence in order to enter Canada, where he presumably still lives.
Israel and Canada have signed secret agreements regarding their defense and intelligence relationship. Canadian ministers have even said publicly that their country considers an attack on Israel to be an attack on Canada. This unofficially raises Israel to the level of a member of NATO since such a defense pledge is only incumbent on member states.
Israel’s first defense attache in Ottawa, Eden Attias, was a member of the infamous IDF Mavi Marmara 200, those suspected of war crimes in the killing of passengers on the relief vessel. He enjoyed tremendous success and made the rounds of the Christian evangelical community drumming up support for his nation’s military policies. Attias ended his tour last May with this rousing encomium touting the increased weapons trade and “security cooperation” (read, covert intelligence dealings) during his term.
You’ll remember that Harper last year took a huge Canadian delegation to visit Israel where the Canadian and Israeli prime ministers celebrated the consummation of their bromance with a raging mutual admiration society. It even included a special concert as Harper’s tribute to Bibi. Among Harper’s entourage were right-wing extremist members of the Canadian Jewish community including one who is a member of the Jewish Defense League.
To top all this off, IDF chief Benny Gantz traveled to Ottawa in early January and met with his Canadian counterpart, Gen. Tom Lawson. Canada’s Jewish press fondly dubbed it Gantz’s ‘farewell tour’ as he leaves office in a few months. There have been many similar meetings of defense ministers and chiefs of staff on both sides. Apparently, the Canadian armed forces hold Israel in great admiration for its successes fighting Islamist terror. Doubtless, the IDF is teaching Canada how to staunch the ‘epidemic’ of Islamism raging across Canada. Yes, before someone fires up their PC to remind us there was a terror attack in Canada in the past few months, what’s important is that this has been a total anomaly and not a pattern. Unlike European countries with large Muslim populations, Canada’s is quite small and Muslims, as they are in the U.S., are quite integrated into Canadian society.
But Israeli military and intelligence agencies are expert at ginning up Islamist conspiracies whether real or imagined, and rumor has it that cooperation between the Mossad and Canadian intelligence is more robust than ever. Considering Israel’s cavalier abuse of Canadian sovereignty in past escapades, it’s a wonder that Canada’s approach seems to be so forgiving. One must ask what benefit Canada finds in the relationship in order to overlook so many insults.
The two generals also, no doubt, toasted Canada’s use of IAI Heron drones in Afghanistan and talked about upgrading them. Israel is also upgrading Canada’s fleet of Halifax-class warships. That will involve a sizable contract for the Israeli defense industry, which is music to Israel’s ears.
Australia is trying hard to outdo Canada. Australia voted with the US on UNSC opposing the Palestinians recently. And Australia has sent big trade delegations to Israel since the new Lib government was elected.
Sorry we still have you beat Canada was rejected for the first time ever because of support for Israel.
I don’t know who more to detest Stephen Harper or Tony Abbott. My consolation is that both are doing badly in the polls. There is a good chance that Harper will be booted out at the next election. And Abbott might not get beyond his first term. The conservatives have been lagging behind labor in the polls throughout the year that has just ended.
Harper has declared that he will support Israel no matter what the political cost to Canada. There is little doubt that this has to do with his religious beliefs. He belonged to the Uniting Church in his youth, shifted to the Presbyterians at the occasion of moving house and finally ended up with the evangelicals. I found his religious beliefs described as the result of “deep reflection” and the perusal of such lightweights as Malcolm Muggeridge and William Buckley with Reinhold Niebuhr being thrown in for good measure.
At the extreme end of evangelical beliefs is the view that we are now in the end times in which Israel has a critical role. The Canadian journalist Marcia MacDonald has in her book The Armageddon Factor gone into these beliefs and I would hazard a bet that Harper largely shares them. One of those end time groups is Watchmen for the Nations.
“She pointed out that Watchmen for the Nations has helped reconcile some members of the French-speaking, English-speaking, Jewish, and aboriginal communities. However, she said that its leader, David Demian, believes the end times are coming soon, and that Canada must become a “truly Christian nation to fulfill its biblical prophesy”.
“That is a very strong belief,” McDonald said. “It’s why I called the book The Armageddon Factor.”
She noted that Birch had ties to numerous right-wing Christian groups, including Miracle Channel cofounder Joan Dewert, National House of Prayer founders Rob and Fran Parker, and religious broadcaster David Mainse.
Watchmen for the Nations is one of a few groups that McDonald describes as “dispensationalist”, “Christian Zionist”, and “Christian reconstructionist”.
In her book, she writes that the father of dispensationalism was a 19th-century Irishman named John Nelson Darby. He interpreted the Bible to mean there would be seven epochs, culminating in the Battle of Armageddon against followers of the Antichrist.
According to him, true Christian believers would be spared by being summoned to heaven before the battle.
The Battle of Armageddon would take place when Israel had returned to the strength it had in biblical times. Therefore, in the eyes of dispensationalists, it is necessary to support the present-day state of Israel against its enemies.”
Read more:
http://www.straight.com/news/author-marci-mcdonald-explores-rise-christian-nationalism-canada-armageddon-factor/page/0/1
Bibi insults France. Bad,
Richard Silverstein insults Canada. Good.
Perhaps you could provide some content in your remarks, instead of insults. JDL Toronto is known for its Kahanist platform, allowed in Harper’s Canada. If you would voice support for such a group in France, you would be arrested and be looking for a stiff sentencing. [Of course mirrored for Muslims opposing Hollande’s foreign policy in North Africa and the Middle East]
I agree with what you say when it comes to the disgusting JDL– of any branch, although I have had the misfortune of actually seeing a couple goons of the Toronto branch acting like repulsive idiots– but it’s worth keeping in mind when it comes to Paris and France in general that the people who carried out the attacks are Al Qaeda affiliates who have no real valid claims to justify such attacks.
Hollande’s foreign policy in North Africa sans Mali seems to be fairly “hands off” and as long as it’s focused on targeting the takfiris/Salafi Jihadis and more importantly operating in coordination with Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian forces and those of good repute in Mali (ie the Tuareg nationalists, who’re very competent fighters), then there are no inherent problems with the policy in itself.
When it comes to the ME and direct French action in it then it’s much the same thing. French policy seems to be mainly anti-IS and to that extent there’s no problem with it.
I didn’t mean to write you a book or anything. I just think it’s worth noting that France is no USA in Iraq 2003 edition and isn’t doing anything in terms of direct action that’s obviously condemnable.
@ krausen: I had no idea that insulting a right-wing extremist Canadian politician was the same as insulting ‘Canada.’ On the contrary, I love Canada, the country and people.
On the other hand, when Bibi comes to France and, in front of the French leader, tells French Jews there is no future for them in their native land, that IS an insult.
France’s failure to protect her Jewish citizens from Muslim extremists is the insult.
It took the deaths of ‘real’ frenchmen working for Charley Hebdo, to finally wake up the French establishment, which is belatedly sending troops to protect French Jews.
What utter nonsense.
There were no military guards because the fact is that French Jews have far more chances of dying in mundane, everyday ways then they have of being killed by AQ-affiliate hostage takers– just like everyone else in the country.
France has failed certain elements of her population, to a certain extent, or at least that’s something that you could argue or bring up as a hypothetical. That doesn’t include the French Jews, despite what the fear-mongering “run away to Israel, your REAL home!” hacks will love to try and spew at every chance they get.
No, the only insult if we are to talk about France and the Jews living there is the disgusting spectacle that Netanyahu and his cretins put on in their address to the Jewish community in France– essentially spitting in the face of the French state, and actively working to make the problem worse when it comes to Palestine.
” It took the deaths of ‘real’ frenchmen working for Charley Hebdo, to finally wake up the French establishment, which is belatedly sending troops to protect French Jews.”
Here is more nonsense. French Jews still aren’t entitled to round-the-clock military protection because they’re not being systematically targeted and aren’t under some kind of existential threat.
Packing your things and crying “I’m going to run away to Israel because you’re all anti semitic” doesn’t magically change those facts.
I notice the asymmetry in this remark. There is no possibility of a parallel case in which Israeli police are called upon to protect the French citizens of Israel. The lopsidedness of Israel is striking but almost never highlighted.
@KYLE you are not jewish you have no right to tell a jew how they might feel. I live in Canada and keep my kippah in my wallet and not on my head. Thats what people mean when they say jewish home. Its the only place on this earth that we can express our religion without fear of discrimination.
@ ben: Harper’s done a ‘superb job?’ If you’re a Mossad agent I guess that would be true. This tells us how extreme your right wing views are.
What a sack of horse manure. Canada is one of the most diverse, tolerant, accepting societies in the world. Even more than the U.S. If I wanted to do so I could wear a kippah in this country & have no fear whatsoever. So could you. If you choose not to, it’s not because of any real danger to you from wearing it.
I am a Jew and Israel is not my home. It is an important place to me as a Jew, but not my home.
If you can “express your religion without fear” in Israel it is only because you can oppress non-Jewish Israelis and make them feel the same fear you feel in the Diaspora. Not a “bargain” worth accepting.
Richard canada loves you too even though we may have differing opinions now and then, especially on Israel . Also bibi telling the jews to leave France was akin to de gaulle saying Quebec struggle for independence was the same as Frances struggle against the nazi occupation.
He didn’t “insult” Canada. He just went over again the fact of how pathetic Harper and his pack of clowns are when it comes to sucking up to Netanyahu and Israel at every chance they get.
It is always good to see an exposure of Stephen Harper’s Canada. Unfortunately, there is little domestic criticism of Zionist power here. The JDL regularly mounts provocative actions against Palestinian community centers, a proposed Muslim retirement project, and Six Nations Indigenous land rights, without any consequences. About 150 Canadians are estimated to be fighting with the IDF. Lots of money is collected and donated here for Israel. Most Canadians are unaware or indifferent to this growing influence of Israel in their affairs. Good on you for reminding them!
I think more then anything it’s people being completely unaware or otherwise indifferent for whatever reason, most often in the “neutral” sense and tied into simply not knowing what’s going on in the world in general, let alone in the Levant.
I see a lot of evidence for that, as well as this idea that too many people seem to have coded into them that the Jews are still the traumatized victims of the Holocaust and so believe it’s best to take the kid gloves approach or not talk about any issues like the Palestine one because they just end up feeling uncomfortable due to the correlation to the Holocaust that they make.
Kyle if you are curious about the dichotomy of the French jew go read up about the Dreyfus Affair
@ ben: Sure, read about a case of anti-Semitism that happened 110 yrs ago & has no bearing on current French relations with its Jewish population…
Please also read about how French society was far from uninterested in his fate, and how in the end, Dreyfus won.
@ Elisabeth: Emile Zola’s J’Accuse! Ben might want to give it a read!
Apparently Harper remains tight lipped at home about his religious commitment which is, more specifically, to the fundamentalist Christian and Missionary Alliance. This reserve fits in with his generally stern and forbidding appearance on the home front. But during his trip to Israel, not long ago, he behaved differently. Warren Bell of the Vancouver Observer wrote :
“Stephen Harper’s entirely uncharacteristic outpouring of warmth and emotion around the trip was and is at odds with his generally cold, resistive and truculent behaviour when in his own country.
This warmth has had an impact on Israeli politicians, if not on the rest of the world.
During Harper’s first-ever visit to Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu repeatedly described him as “my good friend”, with body language that indicated emotional openness and an almost maternal concern for Harper’s comfort and well-being. Harper’s demeanour, in numerous YouTube videos, is very much that of a blissful pilgrim.
Why is Harper’s heart so open in a faraway country, but so closed off to most of his own citizens?”
Yes it figures. In Israel he could give free rein to his religious fantasies.
Not entirely though. Because a strong Israel in the “End Time” is only part of this fundamentalist scenario. The Rapture, however, is only for the followers of Christ. The Jews are bidden to make their own arrangements or are supposed to perish in the “time of tribulation” following the Rapture.
As Hank Hanegraaff from the Christian Research Institute wrote:
“Christians who refuse to support Zionism are sometimes accused of the terrible sin of anti-Semitism. But suggesting that the Jews are entitled to build settlements in Gaza but excluded from the blessed salvation of the gospel — or herding them into Palestine where two-thirds will die in an apocalyptic Jewish Tribulation — is the height of anti-Semitism.”
Happily even within the bosom of the evangelical movement some people’s eyes are not completely closed to the facts. Look at this documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFUm7rTOOio
Just to remind Judaism, it’s their conversion the christians are praying for …
George Bush’s speaking engagement at Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, an engagement for conversion of Jews. Quite an insult, but never mind, George did Ariel’s bidding by the Iraq invasion.
I have to say i am a big supporter of Harper. He has done a superb job of running Canada. He was great during the world recession and even better at projecting Canadian values with our FM John Baird. Though i am not that keen anymore when it comes to bibi mainly because I feel he is disingenuous when it comes to an independant Palestine because that is also something Canadians really want to see happen. I personally want to see it happen so i can visit some of my friends countries.
It’s an election year, we can only hope that Harper won’t win another majority government!
Palestinians pelt Canadian FM John Baird with eggs, shoes.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4616276,00.html
PM Harpo has signaled his government will soon reveal sweeping new ‘anti-terror’ measures, which, like many other Western governments, are busy capitalizing on the Paris event. Given the umbilical cords of piano wire that now connect the Harper regime to the Israeli security state apparatus, watch for these to further involve themselves here. See below, now much enhanced and elaborated.
The Canada-Israel ‘Public Security’ Agreement
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-canada-israel-public-security-agreement/8530
Ottawa and Tel Aviv to collaborate in counter-terrorism and Homeland security
As a Canadian, I agree completely with what Richard Silverstein writes, and don’t consider it an “insult to Canada.” I consider our current government a shande–somewhere between Dick Cheney and Karl Rove (politically and ethically).