NDP Leader Rejects Anti-Israel Complaints

15 posts / 0 new

Sat, 2012-06-02 20:58

NDPP

Mulcair Rejects Anti-Israel Complaints

http://metronews.ca/news/canada/247164/ndp-leader-rejects-anti-israel-co...

"B'nai Brith, a Jewish human rights organization, expressed concern in a news release Thursday about what it called anti-Israel propaganda in the party. It chided deputy leader Megan Leslie for 'selectively promoting several anti-Israel events on her NDP website,' including Halifax Israel Apartheid Week,

The organization said the event promotes hatred and intolerance on university campuses and criticized her for referring to the 'illegal occupation' of the Palestinians. The Jewish organization also took another deputy leader, Libby Davies, to task for presenting a petition to the House of Commons calling on the Harper government to change its position on Israel.

Frank Dimant, CEO of B'nai Brith Canada, called on Mulcair to quash anti-Israel sentiment in his caucus.."

Sat, 2012-06-02 21:12

NDPP

Good on the very few within the NDP that still speak up on the criminal occupation and other abuses of Palestinians by Zionist Israel. I hope this whining from B'nai Brith doesn't make the party even more sucky on Israel than they already are. Would South Africa have attempted such an audacious attack upon Canadian anti-apartheid activism? I doubt it.

Sun, 2012-06-03 00:08

love is free love is free's picture

considering mulcair's wife is jewish, i think this line has absolutely zero traction. these b'nai brith extremists are just barking up the wrong tree if they think swing-voting jewish folks are going to be duped by such idiotic and pointless diatribes. all dude has to do when some fool reporter tries to score a quick controversy is to respond in that way he does that "my wife is jewish, my children are jewish, i'm not going to answer any question about being anti-jewish." and then we have three million canadians watching that on the national and every single active jewish person in the country disbelieving any subsequent attack along those lines. sorry maniac right-wing zionists, you're going to have to sit this one out.

Sun, 2012-06-03 05:20

Ken Burch

love is free wrote:

considering mulcair's wife is jewish, i think this line has absolutely zero traction.

Look...I wouldn't normally say this but...PLEASE edit that first line of your post out right now. Trust me on this.

Sun, 2012-06-03 15:28

love is free love is free's picture

don't understand.

Sun, 2012-06-03 15:51

Unionist

I understand. But don't worry about it. I'm not in a mood to have that fight today.

Sun, 2012-06-03 16:23

quizzical

love is free how does being Jewish = Israelis?

Mulcair's wife is French from France.

being Jewish doesn't automatically mean pro-Israel.

Sun, 2012-06-03 16:45

Unionist

That's not even close to what love is free said. He said that if Mulcair is accused by the fanatics of being "anti-Semitic", he can reply, "well, my whole family is Jewish", and thus defuse that "wedge". May actually be a good tactic. Of course, the sad fact that Mulcair is a defender of Israel is an entirely separate issue.

Sun, 2012-06-03 16:52

love is free love is free's picture

yes and yes.

Sun, 2012-06-03 17:18

#10

quizzical

na...the OP is 'bout anti-Israelis sentiment. Not a word was said about anti-Semetic. if you 2 are NOW positioning anti-Semetic with anti-Israelis sentiment then you are making a different argument than the Frank guy who was quoted in the OP...

carry on...

Sun, 2012-06-03 17:27

#11

Unionist

You're right, quizzical. And normally I would have freaked out at this segue (which is probably why Ken Burch made his plea upthread, knowing my habits). But I didn't (don't) want to have that fight today, and anyway, love is free is an ally, so... Why not find grounds for agreement? But, I repeat, you're right. You can't respond to charges of anti-Israel sentiment by saying, "but my wife's Jewish". No connection, except for feeding the big lie that Jews are all pro-Israel.

Sun, 2012-06-03 21:43

#12

Ken Burch

Actually, no, he CAN'T shut it down with that line.

The problem is that you're equating "Jewish" with "Zionist", or at least implicitly doing that even if that isn't your intent. You can't assume that all Jewish people in Canada(or anywhere else)are Zionists, or even that those who are are uncritical Zionists.

If he were using that line, the "pro-Israel" types would dismiss it as cynical(and probably insinuate that Mulcair's wife was "self-loathing") and insist that Mulcair jump through a succession of hoops(involving public declarations of mindless, unquestioning support for whatever the Israeli government chooses to do to Palestinians) and Jewish(and other)anti-Zionists would see it as both inflammatory and pandering.

In short, it would backfire bigtime for Mulcair to use that line.

Sun, 2012-06-03 21:44

#13

love is free love is free's picture

wokka wokka. point is that mulcair can shut it all down with a pretty simple line. for a politician who almost 100% of us on here support to have a super easy stock phrase that inoculates him from criticism and lets his caucus-members carry on with their anti-colonial business, it's just a straight-up tactic. obviously a question apart from the main issue, i'm looking at from the perspective of seeing a notorious right-wing organization trying to knee-cap the leader of the progressive opposition and dude being able to swat that back with a single sentence. israel/palestine doesn't even matter here, it's ndp/cpc.

Sun, 2012-06-03 21:48

#14

love is free love is free's picture

don't agree at all. seems to me that making it clear that he's personally implicated in the results of whatever happens over there will be enough for almost everyone who b'nai brith might have hoped to convince. after that, it's really just about people who'd never vote left in the first place, or people who will always vote left in the last place. tactical, like i said, that was what dimant was shooting for and that's what i was mocking for its ineffectiveness.

Sun, 2012-06-03 21:54

#15

NDPP

of course they aren't all pro-Israel - less and less so surveys say - so perhaps some of those ones should consider returning the right to return:

Transferring the 'Right to Return':

http://rabble.ca/comment/1349639