XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   How fitting.  Imagine this excuse for a prime minister 'warning Israel   
   about rising anti-semitism'.  He's in the nastiest piece of work on the   
   planet: Israel.   
   And jews never need to be warned about semitism.  Where it doesn't   
   exist, they will say it does.  Covers their tracks of oppression,   
   aggression, killings and theft.   
   And listen to Harper's own version of paranoia in his words . . . .   
   ___________________________________________   
   Postmedia News January 20, 2014   
      
      
   Stephen Harper warns of anti-Semitism in speech to Israeli Knesset, is   
   briefly heckled   
      
      
   JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday warned that a dangerous   
   new form of anti-Semitism has emerged and said the globe has a moral and   
   strategic objective to rally around Israel as a haven for Jews.   
      
   Even as Harper delivered the message in a historic speech to the   
   Knesset, Israel’s legislature of elected politicians, two Knesset   
   members heckled him, then walked out.   One was Arab-Israeli politician   
   Ahmad Tibi, who has in the past called on Canadians to boycott companies   
   and products linked to Israeli towns built in the West Bank and other   
   occupied lands.   
      
   In response to the brief protest, the rest of the Knessett repeatedly   
   and enthusiastically applauded Harper.   
      
   It is the first time a Canadian prime minister has spoken to the assembly.   
      
   In his wide-ranging, bluntly worded address, Harper made it clear why   
   his government has formulated a pro-Israel policy.   
      
   “Those who often begin by hating the Jews, history shows us, end up   
   hating anyone who is not them,” said Harper.   
      
   “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.”   
      
   Harper said Canada finds it “deplorable” that some in the international   
   community still question the legitimacy of Israel’s existence.   
      
   “Our view on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and   
   non-negotiable.”   
      
   Harper said that he refuses to single out Israel for criticism on the   
   international stage, arguing that such action is not a “balanced”   
   approach to foreign policy, and is, in fact “weak and wrong.”   
      
   “We live in a world where that kind of moral relativism runs rampant.   
   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.”   
      
   Harper said the old-anti-Semitism was “crude and ignorant, and it led to   
   the horrors of the death camps” in Nazi Germany in the 1940s.   
      
   “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.”   
      
   The prime minister added that whereas there was once a time when Jewish   
   businesses were boycotted, some “civil-society leaders” now call for a   
   boycott on Israel.   
      
   “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.”   
      
   Harper said it is a disgrace that some people openly call Israel an   
   apartheid state. He condemned the “twisted logic and outright malice”   
   behind that attack.   
      
   “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.”   
      
   Harper is in the Middle East for a week-long trip that will bring him to   
   Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. He is meeting leaders in all those   
   areas and is accompanied by a large delegation of cabinet ministers,   
   Conservative backbench MPs, business leaders, and members of the   
   Canadian Jewish community.   
      
   In his speech to the Knesset, he made it clear that although his   
   government is pro-Israeli, it also favors a resolution to the   
   long-standing conflict over land between the Israelis and Palestinians.   
      
   “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.”   
      
   Meanwhile, Harper was critical of how Israel is routinely “targeted” at   
   the United Nations, speaking of how in its 65-year history, the Israel   
   has endured “attacks and slanders” and has never known a true day of peace.   
      
   “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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)