Written March 21, 2009

As everyone knows, Jason Kenney, the current Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism of Canada, has become notorious for two recent shameful acts:

• Cutting the funding for the 'Canadian Arab Federation' because its President criticized the Conservative government -- in particular, Kenney -- and reaffirmed the international consensus that the democratically elected government of Hamas be brought in for negotiations. Basically, recognized to be legitimate.

• And, of course, the banning of George Galloway for the very same reasons from coming into Canada to give lectures at events organized by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War and various community organizations/unions.

Looking at the FACTS, none of their statements are controversial at all as Kenney and the Jewish Defense League makes it out to be. If they are at all to be taken seriously, Tony Blair should receive the same condemnations. Of course, when it comes to the tradition of double standards, something the Conservative government of Canada is well adapted to, that is never going to happen as Blair I guess was loyal enough of a lapdog during his term to merit completely ignoring him despite recognizing Hezbollah now.

They love to claim that it is a moral principle that such things are being done, but it ceases to be one and becomes a hypocritical principle when it is not applied across the board. Instead, it is selectively done so and, even worst, paying very little heed to the history of Israel. It is as if he lives in his own little world where "historical facts" are treated on the same level as the existence of unicorns.

Putting aside the fact that Hamas has repeatedly called for a two-state settlement recognizing U.N. Resolution 242 (a resolution accepted with near unanimity across the world and completely rejected by Israel, United States and now Canada), a fact that is usually left out in favor of highlighting their Charter, there is little controversy now with Israel's history of aggression even to homegrown scholars. 

Apologists for Israeli atrocities usually utilize the tactic of repeating common myths regarding the wars that Israel has waged throughout its history that had long been discounted by scholars on the issue. In particular, that Israel has been the innocent victim, with some mistakes here and there resulting in the suffering of others, within a hostile Middle East surrounded by unreasonable Arabs.

Looking at the FACTS, one can truly understand who the biggest purveyor of terrorism is and how Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper are its biggest supporters. If they are at all serious with the moral principle they claim to, they would ship themselves off somewhere to the Pacific and ban themselves from ever entering Canada.

Ethnic Cleansing & 'The War of Independence' (1947)

Israeli historian Benny Morris does not contend that what happened to Palestinians was an ethnic cleansing. Former Israeli Foreign Minister Schlomo Ben Ami also argues that it was an ethnic cleansing. Both differ in that Morris believes that it was an unintentional consequence of war, while Ben Ami contends that Morris' own evidence suggests that it was part of systematic Zionist plan of transfer. NO ONE disputes that it was an ethnic cleansing. When the partition of Palestine was declared, it obviously incited tensions with neighboring Arab states (in particular, Lebanon and Syria). But it was not a matter of necessity that the war had to be fought. It was a matter of choice. On the table for consideration was an American proposal to delay the declaration of independence of a state that was unjustly taken away from Palestinians through ethnic cleansing. The proposal sought to find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem.

The security organs of the Yishuv put out a bleak assessment of the coming war but after signing a weapons deal with Czechoslovakia and other weapons deal through private sources, the Israeli army prevailed. Despite being a part-time propagandist for Israel, Benny Morris devotes considerable space in his works to IDF massacres before and during 1948. In particular, the large-scale IDF massacres in Lydda in which somewhere between 250 to 400 Palestinians were killed in the actual massacre and perhaps 350 more in the forced marched that followed. This is just one small clip of 1948. The so-called Arab radio broadcasts that urged the Palestinians to leave have long been discounted by Morris who concluded that there is no evidence whatsoever.

Suez Crisis, Six Day War and the Yom Kipur War (1956 to 1973)

As far as 1956 to 1973 are concerned (Suez Crisis, Six Day War and the Yom Kipur War), again, these were all wars of choice. E.L.M. Burns, chief of staff of United Nations forces in the Middle East during the mid-1950s, testified that before Israeli raids on Gaza in February 1955, the facts did not indicate a critical situation as violence was infrequent on the Egyptian-Israeli frontier before Gaza.

On mid-November 1966, Israel was even condemned by the United States. U.S. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg pronounced that:

"I wish to make it absolutely clear that this large-scale military action cannot be justified, explained away or excused by the incidents which preceded it and in which the Government of Jordan has not been implicated."

Chief of Staff of U.N. forces in the Middle East, Odd Bull, recalled that the Jordanian authorities did all they possibly could to stop infiltration by even arresting most of the Palestine Liberation Organization staff in Amman.

Former Chief of Staff of the IDF even admitted that:

"The nature and scale of our reprisal actions against Syria and Jordan had left Nasser with no choice but to defend his image and prestige in his own country and throughout the Arab world, hereby setting off a train of escalation in the entire Arab region."

The Egyptian leader sent his vice president to Washington to explore a diplomatic settlement but it never happened because Israel struck upon getting wind of it.

The then U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was furious:

"We were shocked and angry as hell when the Israelis launched the surprise offensive. They attacked on a Monday, knowing that on Wednesday the Egyptian vice-president would arrive in Washington to talk about re-opening the Strait of Tiran. We might not have succeeded in getting Egypt to reopen the strait, but it was a real possibility."

Regarding the Yom Kippur War, the distinguished Israeli politician and diplomat Abba Eban makes it clear:

"If Dayan had wanted to put through a program based on exchanging Sinai for peace, he could have done so from his position of strength in the Labor Party, which had already espoused that principle through the Eshkol government in June 1967. This would have prevented the Yom Kippur War."

The one singular obstacle was Israel's refusal to evacuate the Sinai.

First Lebanon "War" (1982)

Regarding the First Lebanon War (1982), some twenty thousand Lebanese and Palestinian people perished between June and September. Israel sought to destroy the political nexus of the Palestinian national movement. The Camp David proposals have long been on the table in particular, as it relates to the Sinai (relevant to the previous quotes from prominent Israeli officials) so I would suggest that people do not remove it from its full context as it is pretty clear who rejected it, stretching out of course to this conflict and others.

Second Lebanon "War" (2006)

As far as the Second Lebanon War (2006), the timeline that Israeli apologists usually suggest removes key details that would tell the whole story of who really started the conflict.

• (May 26, 2006) A car bombing in Sidon, Lebanon which killed a senior official of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group that was aligned with Hezbollah. This is denied by the Israeli government but Yedio Aharonot, a writer for the country's top selling daily, is extremely skeptical about it.
   

• (June 9, 2006) The killing of a Palestinian family picnicking at a Gaza beach which prompted Hamas to end the informal ceasefire.
   

• (June 24, 2006) Israel captured two Palestinians who they claimed to be Hamas members but was vehemently denied by Hamas. The difference between the abduction of General Shalit to this: Shalit was in Palestinian territory while Israel crossed the border to abduct the two Palestinians.

Once again, as Professor Zeev Maoz (a prominent scholar in the United States, Israel and elsewhere) argue decisively in his exhaustive summary of the scholarly consensus regarding Israel's history in 'Defending the Holy Land', with the possible exception of the 1948 war, all of Israel's wars have been out of choice, not necessity. Clearly, looking at the facts, they are not victims.

As far as any other recent conflict, including on-going atrocities, one only needs to look at various human rights organizations including very conservative ones like Red Cross who all say the same thing regarding Israel's brutality.

In light of all this, can any honest human being not question the credibility of Jason Kenney's claims? You got called a 'political whore', deal with it. Clearly, you are.

In the spirit of resistance,
Critical Mood