Friday, April 06, 2018

It's Funny How Canada Lost Its Voice



The Israeli army is back at it again, wantonly murdering unarmed Gaza Palestinians who stray within 300 feet of the border.

Did I say "murder"? Well, that's because it is state sanctioned murder and the state in question is our ally, Israel.

Canada wouldn't hesitate to righteously condemn any other country slaughtering droves of civilians, one bullet at a time. We denounce that sort of thing - or at least we once did when Canada stood for something but you would have to go back several years, back before Justin Trudeau and back before Stephen Harper.

Remember those videos we occasionally saw back when we were kids showing Jews, lined up beside a freshly dug ditch and being mowed down by SS troops? It was revolting, hard to imagine any human being callous enough to slaughter another all because of their religion, their difference.

I know, I know. The Gazans are asking for it. They chose to approach the Israeli-Gaza border, now a capitol offence. Some of our kindred pro-Israel allies, the Americans, have said the Gazans had it coming. Even East German border guards didn't open fire until their targets were actually climbing the wall.

Canada and the United States are pretty much Israel's last supporters. Our voting record in the UN General Assembly speaks for itself. It's deplorable and yet liberals still support this Trudeau government. We stand alone while all of our other allies, all of Europe, all of South America, all of Asia and Africa, condemn Israel's butchery. Not us, nosiree. We look the other way and so collude with Israel.

The Canadian Jewish News slammed Canadian journalists calling for their government, the Trudeau government, to denounce the murders.
Journalism itself became the story this week, when the group Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) called on Canada to condemn Israel for its “one-sided” use of military force against civilian demonstrators and media in Gaza, and to press for an end to “these brutal practices.” 
Respected writers and reporters took to social media to slam the CJFE for breaching journalistic standards of neutrality by openly advocating a position on the Middle East conflict. 
First out of the gate was Globe and Mail writer Doug Saunders, who wondered in a tweet whether he was “the only one disturbed that an organization called Canadian Journalists for Free expression is lobbying the Canadian government to take a specific position on Israel? Does (the CJFE) realize how such politicking can damage our reputation, and thus freedom?”
Did you get that? Canadian journalists cannot denounce atrocities - unless, perhaps, it's the wanton murder of civilians by ISIS or al Qaeda or some other officially unacceptable group. After all, they're terrorists. Israeli soldiers firing into Gaza on unarmed Palestinians are apparently different.

Hussein Ibish offered this take at Foreign Policy.
It was entirely predictable that confronted with tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters, particularly at a border area, Israel would immediately resort to deadly force, even against unarmed persons. Israeli strategic and security thinking virtually guaranteed an effort to nip the protest movement in the bud by demonstrating the level of violence protesters, particularly those that challenge the border, can expect to face. Israel’s nightmare, and Hamas’s hope, is that during these protests, the border is somehow breached and large numbers of young men cross over into what used to be their country going toward their ancestral homes and villages. Israeli authorities speak in terms of a “bloodbath” even if such “infiltrators” are nonviolent and unarmed, and history strongly suggests that this is by no means hyperbole. 
But even if the border isn’t breached, and Israel stops at almost nothing to ensure that doesn’t happen, Hamas stands to gain a great deal from this campaign of protests. Already Abbas is scrambling to not be outbid in terms of nationalistic rhetoric, commemorations, and anti-Israeli bluster. Hamas’s nationalist credibility is starting to be rejuvenated. It is attempting to connect with, and coopt, the deep-seated Palestinian public’s craving for a new politics, with popular agency and a new, grass roots-led drive to end the occupation and achieve national liberation. 
Hamas doesn’t stand for any of that, of course. But it can pretend to, and its operatives are now fully engaged in this campaign, in a manner similar to the way in which the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt hopped right on the anti-Hosni Mubarak protests. The Brotherhood had done nothing to conceptualize or initiate those protests, but it usurped the movement and, ultimately, translated it into more than a year in the Egyptian presidency before it faced considerably larger public demonstrations against its own misrule. 
Hamas now has found a way forward. And even if, ultimately, this process degenerates into another full-blown war with Israel, that may provide the group with a way out of the intolerable predicament that emerged in 2017, especially if it is not blamed for having wantonly initiated it. As always, Hamas and reactionary forces in Israel are reinforcing each other’s radicalism and playing a vicious, bloody game from which both benefit at the expense of the public at large. Whatever else happens, if Israel continues to use live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators, even at the border, Hamas will continue to reap the benefits.
Gaza is now all but uninhabitable - an uninhabitable prison.
There are several reasons for Hamas’s new approach. First, it is virtually out of options. The devastation in Gaza caused by the last full-blown war with Israel in 2014 was so extensive, with most of the damage still unrepaired, that it would be difficult to publicly explain to the group’s own constituents any choice to deliberately start another major conflict with Israel. The kind of scenario whereby Hamas has previously instigated or cooperated in the development of major armed battles with Israel would now be potentially politically disastrous in Gaza.
Yet Hamas is desperate. The situation in Gaza has become increasingly intolerable. Unemployment is widespread and chronic. Hunger is rampant. Water is undrinkable. Electricity is available for only two to four hours per day. Sewage treatment plants have failed, so the once-beautiful Mediterranean coast is now a repository of human waste. And there’s still no way in or out of the territory for almost all of Gaza’s close to 2 million people.
None of this matters to the Canadian government, Tory or Liberal, who instinctively look the other way when Israel comes killing. In case you don't know what I'm talking about read these two posts, here and here, about the war crime known as Dahiyeh.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

calm down muzzy sympathizer. Nobody likes the Palestinians except the palestinaians. Civilized ( non religious non crazy) societys around the world support the Jews. Lets not get too excited about the UN stand as it is dominated by Jew HATERS.

the salamander said...

.. the jewish shrieks of 'anti-semitic' frighten Canadian politicians. That costs votes and ridings in Toronto and Montreal. Even Donald Trump understands that.. Meanwhile Canada sends war wagons to the Saudis.. just jeeps said Justin, just transports said Stephen Harper. Its a lunatic world now in politics, Mound.. where more pipelines equals lowering CO2 emissions.. and no politician ever, has allowed the word 'methane' to escape their lips. I've following the Borneo oil spill story.. and pretty sure four days passed where the government allowed the oil refinery to claim that the divers they hired proved it was not their oil that ignited and fried some fishermen. Oopsy.. its now an environmental disaster.

This is the era of deflection, denial and deceit.. governments on the take.. and 'what are you offering for our souls?' Hell, we have Canadian Senators, on our dime - going to Washington to discuss suppression of legal marijuana with Jeff Sessions. Denise Batters leading the charge. No charges re the Mount Polley dam bursting and Rona Ambrose and her rodeo boy lolling about the CEO's mega yacht for 10 days. The idiocy just keep rolling.. and our personal data get sold to some data wanking company that operates 'Nation Builder' election voter data bank for Andrew Scheer et al.. I'm a gonna get a hold of my pitchfork.. and never abide

Anonymous said...

I'm a gonna get a hold of my pitchfork..."

A lot of folks down there (labelled as gun crazies) are not crazy at all. It is just that pitchforks are difficult to find these days.

The Mound of Sound said...


Anon 1:24, your world view is about as sound as your spelling. I'm sure they have remedial classes for that even where you might hail from.

The Mound of Sound said...


Sal, there was a time when my country would not condone war crimes. I would dearly love to have that Canada back again.

Anonymous said...

Did Canada bleat about civilians wiped out in Iraq or during the current illegal Syria invasion? Millions of them, by all accounts. Nah. Our standing behind Israel while it casually offs Palestinian Arabs is the same non-bleating Canadian position we've had since the elder Trudeau left when we started following Ronnie Raygun's demented outlook, but just in slow motion compared to armed invasion.

Successive Canadian governments just kowtow to the line expressed by the US, Israel and our special pal, Saudi Arabia. It pisses me off immensely that we have thrown away our reputation for neutrality, all because people with money feel we should be aggressively and rabidly pro the US corporate/oligarch-swayed establishment. We have become curs, and I don't like it. Not that anyone in power gives two shits about what anyone but their grandselves want, for which they will dole out excellent retirement fillips for the politically complaisant "democratically elected" pols. Directorships, anyone? You know, where their skills can be useful to the Big Guys following lying in the trenches "public" service. I only trust Lloyd Axworthy myself.

BM

The Mound of Sound said...


BM, we don't always see eye to eye but on this one I totally agree. I, too, was of the Lloyd Axworthy, Red Liberal,camp - the progressive arm of the LPC - but, when Ignatieff convinced me that part of the Liberal Party was gone for good, I reluctantly parted company with the party I had supported for about 40 years.

I was once immensely proud of Canada's role as the trusted "honest broker" willing to hear both sides out and seek resolution if sometimes only in part. Much good was done and we were respected, even by our southern neighbour when we had to stand up to it.

Today a lot of conflicts become unduly protracted because parties can't or won't talk to each other and intermediaries both sides can trust are in extremely short supply.

the salamander said...

.. aside from the murderous politics of Israel here
something else is afoot, Mound ..

The snipers have killed many outright,
including those wearing Press flack jackets
shots just below the flak jacket
Hell you might see (PRESS) that in your sniper scope

But many more are being wounded in legs or arms
To me that indicates Israeli military snipers
uncomfortable at killing unarmed protesters

I have never believed, military are all cut from the same cloth
At some point you get snipers who don't shoot protesters
as if they are turkey for Thanksgiving..

Make no mistake - those rounds to leg or arm are disastrous
but I sense there is something else in play here..
ah that thing called 'concience' while looking through the scope

Make no mistake this is a turkey shoot.. 300 feet ?
At that distance I chose where to hit a groundhog
just behind and below the neck
with my 22-250 cal varmit rifle.. and 10 power scope
and yes.. I knew my ballistics charts for every cartridge & load
and Kentucky windage.. We drilled 20 to 30 every evening..
We had a lot of acreage.. lots of hayfield and clover fields

The farm had no varmit patrol when I was 11 .. till I was 15
so a fair bit of groundhog expansion took place.
When I was older, the locals who rented our soil
'custom famers' they were described as..
said the ground hog mounds were trashing their equipment
dangerous to life n limb.. and they were right
by 13 years young I was operating their equipment
and our fields were out of control

But I digress.. (a familiar habit)

In my belief, some Israeli miliary snipers
are quietly 'missing' center mass or head shots
and trying to just disable or 'tag' (flesh wound) protesters
300 feet ? Military snipers with AR15 or 7.62 cal sniper rifles
or even more sophisticated sniper calibre.. in dead calm .. ?

'I'm from Missouri.. the 'Show Me' state..
so show me.. (what a great statement..)
and worse
never try to snow the snowman from Canada eh
cuz that's who I is ..