Israel The Loser In Six Days of War

“Why would he do this?  We need both our friends working together and he has just split them. That can’t be good.”  These were the words quoted me by one of my community’s Jewish leaders concerning Stephen Harper and his party’s frontal assault on the Liberal Party in labeling them “anti-Semitic.”  His consternation has turned prophetic.This is the sixth day the Conservatives have spent sending out their slanderous ten per-center flyers to populous Jewish ridings across the country – all on your tax dollar by the way.  They picture the PM, up-close and personally offensive, condoning a message that should have every Jewish person in this country pouring over the pages of their Torahs for quotes on injustice.I’ve been in Parliament three years and never seen something quite so insipid.  Here was Liberal Irwin Cotler, a Jew and a lion of human rights around the world, heckled and jeered by ministers of the crown for reminding the House that both the Liberals and Conservatives have been friends of Israel over the years and that the targeting of Liberals as anti-Semites was in fact eroding Israeli support in Canada.  Conservative MPs heckling is sick enough, but when ministers themselves take to these kinds of tactics, it’s hard to imagine how federal politics can get any lower.The Jewish leader quoted at the beginning of this page possesses a keen sense of politics and how it’s played in this country.  His belief that Stephen Harper, in his typical partisan fashion, has caused a split where one shouldn’t have been, will inevitably bear out as Jewish communities across Canada could well be forced to take sides or will at least be needlessly stressed over the foolishness of the PM’s move.Historically, both parties have adopted balanced positions on the geopolitical difficulties in the Middle East.  As such, whether the PM was a Liberal or a Conservative, the country they were representing acted as a peaceful powerbroker in remarkably complex situations.  There was a kind of undeclared and acknowledged understanding that while the rest of the world might support just one side or the other in that part of the world, thereby creating greater instabilities, Canada would walk a middle road and be an honest influence for peace to both sides.Well, the Conservatives have just blown that right out of the water.  Jewish leaders who praised the Conservative response in this past week have just guaranteed themselves a split in political life in Canada that wasn’t there before.  It’s true that the Conservatives have been unabashed in their support for Israel.  Fair enough.  But Liberals, though more balanced, have fought for Israel’s right to exist on the international stage, have defended it at the UN, and have raised their own champions like Irwin Cotler to fight for that nation’s security.  Jewish communities in Canada effectively had the best of both worlds; now they just have a mess.Stephen Harper himself once said: “Canada remains alienated from its allies, shut out of the reconstruction process to some degree, unable to influence events.  There is no upside to the position Canada took.”  He said that about Iraq.  He wanted to wage war but Jean Chretien reminded everyone that Canada’s place was one of a peace-brokering middle power.  Harper got it wrong then and he’s just repeated that same mistake.The ultimate loser in this foolishness is Israel itself.  This is no tempest in a teapot; it’s a serious political blunder.  National Jewish leaders should be immediately putting out a press release saying that while they appreciate the PM’s support, things were most productive when both parties shared in their aspirations for Israel’s security and right to exist.  They should call on both parties, for Israel’s sake, to cooperate together for that goal and to put aside the partisanship of the last six days.  Liberals would say "amen" to that.The Jewish Talmud has something to say to Stephen Harper: “Who is a hero?  He who conquers his urges.”  It also has a timely message for the Jewish leaders who support Harper's partisan stand: “Who can protest an injustice but does not is an accomplice to the act.”  Let’s get back to first principles and put this foolishness aside.  Israel has enough challenges as it is.