Tuesday, August 09, 2016
Is the Queen of the Greens Pouting?
Elizabeth May was none too happy when the Green Party membership voted in favour of a motion supporting the Boycott Divest Sanction movement opposing Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian homeland. The resolution is here.
May opposed the motion, supposedly because she found it "polarizing." It would seem she either has no idea of what Israel has become under Netanyahu's rule or she simply could care less. It also seems she has taken a liking to the "go along to get along" approach to fundamental human rights.
Now, according to CBC, Ms. May says she's pondering her future as Queen of the Greens. Is she pouting, having a snit? Is this Mayspeak for it's my way or the highway? Is it that the hardest working MP on the Hill is just plain worn out?
I've had a feeling of late that the air has leaked out of the Green Party.
Polarizing? What, is the resolution going to fracture Canadian unity? Will it mean that Parliament won't be unanimous in kissing Netanyahu's ass?
Will the Green Party survive without Elizabeth May? If not, perhaps better that it be gone.
The problem may be that the fickle Canadian press loves our celebrity Prime Minister and the voting public swoons over every selfie. May has almost no chance of being heard.
ReplyDeleteMay might have had a point that dialogue is better than the alternatives but she is underestimating Netanyahu.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Toby. People have been born and died in the prison camp that is Gaza while dialogue has produced nothing. Israel, meanwhile, continues to shred the West Bank until as a territory it is meaningless. If May had a better suggestion I'd gladly hear her out. She doesn't. Just because Team Trudeau joined Team Harper in censuring BDS is no reason for May to "go along to get along."
I think she's burning out.
It is sad but seems inevitable that almost of the politicians we hold out hope for disappoint us, Mound. This really is nothing new, is it?
ReplyDeleteThe above should have read, 'almost all of the politicians ...."
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed, Lorne. May says she objects to BDS because supporting it is divisive. I find it hard to take that as other than concern that it might cost the Greens votes from a certain lobby. She says it's ineffective whereas columnists from Haaretz have written that it's the only weapon that has any possible chance of working. Given the furious response it has received from Netanyahu and his radical right government as well as their supporters here, BDS is about the only initiative that does have their attention. If May has deeper objections of the sort that might cause her to leave the party then her remarks to date have been disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteI can't abide May's willful ignorance at the plight of the Palestinian people merely to avoid "devisiveness". How and where exactly does one take a stand against it then, Ms. May? Prayer? And who exactly does she think is committing this slow genocide against the Palestinians? Last time I checked it wasn't the Mongolians. It's the express policy of the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel. To not oppose it through supporting the action that seems to be having the most affect on Netanyanhu and those of his neo-Nazi ilk - namely the BDS movement - is nothing short of moral cowardice...
ReplyDeleteN.
Have you ever tried to discuss this issue with any old Jewish friends?
ReplyDeleteI have an old friend, born in a post-war refugee camp in Poland (if I recall right) after his parents were liberated from Dachau (again if I remember right). His parents were the first Jews I met with the camp tattoos. Frail, still timourous and cautious about meeting new people in 1960 when I met them.
I don't think there is anything that my friend would not do or condone to ensure the thriving survival of Israel. Anything.
It's really, really hard to broach the subject of BDS or of the Palestinian people and so on.
So I don't. And I silently decline to respond when he does.
What's in his genetic memory is not in mine and I have no right at all to judge.
so the Greens found it useful to want a boycott of Israel because Bennie is behaving badly.
ReplyDeleteWell how about China, they still execute and harvest organs and no freedom of speech?
How about Russia, Putin likes to have his opposition killed and freedom of the press, not too much.
How about North Korea and its labour camps? Are they o.k. with these Greens.
Why not boycott Saudi Arabia? Women are simply chattal, can't drive, if the clerics don't like what you say you can be beaten to death, stoned, head or limbs chopped off.
Iraq and Iran and Turkey haven't acted too kindly towards the Kurds at any time in history or did the Greens for get when Iraq gassed them. Oh and lets not forget the religious clerics who hold women in jail or just out right kill them.
If we want to talk boycott lets look at Turkey. 10K arrested and jail, that is a tad over the top and they're part of NATO, so they ought to be up for a resolution.
We could go on for any number of countries, including our own regarding the treatment of First Nations.
What the Greens have done is taken a bunch of Anti Semitic shit and rolled it up in the flag of convience, called Human Rights and decided to have Israel boycotted. Nice start. We have Trump with his anti Muslim and Mexican rhetoric and we have Canadian Greens with their Anti Israeli (anti Semitic/Jewish) rhetoric.
If May wants to be considered as a real alternative, she might want to resign from the Greens. I won't be supporting her in the next election or any other Green anywhere. They're hypocrits. Picking on the Jews is so yesterday or perhaps its so yesterday, its back again.
Trump picked up a few votes with his discriminatory remarks and got a lot of publicity. Perhaps that is what the Greens are hoping for.
My Grandfather was the only surviving member of his family after the Holocaust. Our Mother taught us, it can always happen again and then it did and the world sat by or have people forgotten the gassing of the Kurds, the murder of 3 million in Cambodia, the murder of hundreds of thousands in Rwanda? How many has China murdered in Tibet or in their own country? China still harvests organs of the executed. Turkey wants to re institute the death penalty. With 10K arrested you can bet there will be thousands executed.
A lot of things Israel has done is wrong. But that nation was built on the belief of "Never Again". There are a lot of countries in the area who would like nothing better than to see the end of Israel. So what is so different about Israel from say, China, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, China, North Korea, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia. Are these countries suddenly as pure as the driven snow? Only a deep scientific study of the environment of the Greens can reveal the real reason the motion was passed.
Don't remember anyone objecting too much and that includes people who now belong to the greens
"Never again" means the Israelis shouldn't do it either.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYes, e.a.f., Israel is not alone. It has good company in China, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, China, North Korea, Philippines, Russia and Saudi Arabia just as you suggest. Israel, however, is supposed to be our friend, like-minded, a liberal democracy. I hold my friends to a higher standard than I would presume to hold others. I expect more of them. The radical right has taken hold in Israel and it's monstrous. Israel's 2nd highest officer said that plainly just a few months ago. So too did Ehud Barak along with many others. It has placed itself among the ranks of these thug states you list. We rejected Apartheid in South Africa so why ought we to look the other way in Israel and the Palestinian Territories? Save your moral indignation.