Solidarity

Terrorism 99 Comments

CUPE Press Release;
Delegates to the CUPE Ontario convention here have voted overwhelmingly to support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.
The global campaign started last July and has been supported by many North American churches, 20 Quebec organizations, and others. The Israeli “apartheid wall” has been condemned and determined illegal under international law.
Under the resolution approved by delegates, CUPE Ontario will develop an education campaign about the issue, including Canada’s political and economic support for Israeli policies, similar to the campaign developed by CUPE British Columbia.
Canada has a free trade agreement with Israel, the only such agreement this country has outside of the western hemisphere. In Ontario, the liquor control board carried more than 30 Israeli wines, many produced in the occupied Golan Heights.
“Boycott, divestment and sanction worked to end apartheid in South Africa,” said Katherine Nastovski, chair of the CUPE Ontario international solidarity committee. “We believe the same strategy will work to enforce the rights of Palestinian people, including the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties.”

99 Replies to “Solidarity”

  1. I can see the use for unions in certain workplaces, but not as political entities with forced membership. This is ridiculous.

  2. Ah, our wonderful democratic unions in action again. Like I said below an earlier story indicated that this action was supported by 896 delegates representing 200,000 members but was never put to a vote of the membership itself. I am sure a similar motion will be put forward to boycott Iran and other nations who do not support Israel’s right to exist.
    Maybe we should all go out and buy a bottle of Israeli wine to show our solidarity with Israel.

  3. Put an end to the closed shop. Let CUPE compete in an open market. Allow workers to opt out of unions.
    If the unions have any real residual value, they will have no problem attracting and keeping members.
    Let’s find out.

  4. I personally have problems with Israel’s treatment of Palestine and Palestinians, but this CUPE decision is, in my view, outrageous. Why?
    Because it is a union, made up of a variety of workers, who are all mandatory members if they want to work in particular companies, i.e., in this case, the government (public employees).
    This union’s mandate has to be confined to issues dealing with their members’ workplace. Period. The union has no right to take any political stance. That denies individuals the right of freedom of speech, expression, thought.
    What if you are a public employee and yet, disagree with this union political statement? Your union is using your existence, your membership in its ‘body’, to empower its decision. It has no right to make use of you in this manner.
    I would even suggest that this be taken to court, as a violation of the rights of free speech and association of the individual members of CUPE.

  5. I think the union hack, Katherine Nastovski, should be forced to serve alongside Israeli police officers on cleanup duty after one of their terrorist heroes self-detonates in downtown Tel-Aviv, ascerting their so-called “right to self-determination”.
    I’m sure she’d enjoy gathering up Omar’s or Ahmed’s entrails so he can get a proper burial and one-way ticket to Allah’s Virgins O’Plenty Paradise Playground.
    Just one thing, Ms. Nastovski, make sure all of those juicy guts, fingers and toes are facing Mecca or Allah won’t hear the knock at the door.
    If this isn’t a call for sweeping right-to-work legislation or complete union abolishment, I don’t know what is.
    What an ignorant bitch, excuse my French.

  6. The union should be de-certified, the leadership deported to the Sudan and never allowed back into the country.
    Alternately we could just have them summarily shot for simply deserving it.

  8. “The union should be de-certified, the leadership deported to the Sudan and never allowed back into the country.”
    Works for me!!!

  9. That CUPE can turn a blind eye to the daily barbarities of the Palestinians is in keeping with the union movement’s long history of supporting pure evil, whether it be Stalin in Russia or Castro in Cuba.

  10. Just one more instance where the vocal minority(dippers and left leaners) have taken control and forced the rest of us into a position that they have established. If you are a union member and don’t agree with this stance then get involved. If you are in agreement with this CUPE local then I would advise you to visit DMB and see what is happening in France. Now that Hamas knows they have an ally in Canada they will begin to exert themselves here in the same method that is being used in France. (IMO)

  11. Att: CUPE members. Your union dues supports Islamist terrorism.
    CUPE’s hierarchy is anti-Israel, anti-Jewish as evidenced by their advocacy of the “boycott”.
    CUPE’s hierarchy supports/aids and abets criminals and murderous threats to Jews.
    These words from the CUPE press release, “the right of refugees to return to their homes”, are code words for : Annihilation of Jews; Death to Jews. ….
    Hamas Seeks To Attack Israeli Skyscrapers With Planes
    GAMLA ^ | 5/30/06 | Klein
    Posted on 05/30/2006 8:26:40 AM PDT by pabianice
    JERUSALEM – Hamas is seeking the ability to attack Israel using small airplanes laden with explosives to be flown September 11-style into important targets, possibly Tel Aviv skyscrapers, a leader of Hamas’s so-called military wing, Abu Abdullah, told World Net Daily yesterday.
    Mr. Abdullah is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’s Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas’s declared “resistance” department. He said his group would not immediately carry out airplane attacks, but that Hamas is preparing for the possibility the long-term truce it claims to abide by might end.
    Mr. Abdullah’s statements come after Palestinian Arab security officials told World Net Daily yesterday they believe Hamas recently smuggled into the Gaza Strip three small airplanes that can carry explosives and be used to attack Israel. They said information indicates the aircraft were purchased from eastern European dealers and that Hamas members received flight training from professionals in Sudan, Iran, and Syria.
    Mr. Abdullah refused to confirm the reports, but said his group has the right to acquire aircraft.
    “I cannot confirm whether this information is right or not, but for sure it is one of our goals to have these airplanes,” Mr. Abdullah said. “It is part of our legitimate arming in case the enemy [Israel] thinks to launch a big attack against our people.”
    Mr. Abdullah said Hamas would fly the planes into Jewish targets, possibly Tel Aviv skyscrapers….
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1640620/posts

  12. No, the issue is not whether or not you support the Palestinian or Israeli or whatever. The issue is that a union has no right to, as a union, take a political stance. None.
    Such a judgment is up to each and every individual. The union has no right to make use of the employee’s ‘body’ so to speak, and add it to the ‘roster’ of numbers in a political judgment. It has no right to take away that decision from each and every member.
    A union has only one mandate, and that refers to the work activities of its members. It has no right to make any statements about any other issue: political, social, legal. Those rights belong to individuals.
    What if I, a member of CUPE, support Israel? How dare my union use my membership, adding my membership as an authoritative number, to its voice.
    What if I, a member of CUPE, have NO judgment either way? Again, CUPE has no right to make that judgment for me. Only I have that right.
    Again, this is not about the ‘rightness of the judgment (support for or against Israel). It is about CUPE’s denying its members their freedom of decision-making. It is making the decision for them. It has no right to do this.
    I think it’s a matter for the Supreme Court. CUPE is denying the right of freedom of speech, of association, by making its opinion a membership opinion.

  14. CUPE members: Your union aids and abets Islamist terrorism in Canada. CUPE’s complicity in the “boycott” is a tacit approval of Islamist murderous terrorism in Canada.
    The Islamist enemy is within Canada’s gates. CUPE is an ally of the Islamist terrorists.
    Down with CUPE; Down with Islamist terrorism. …
    Terrorists Lurking in Canadian Cities: CSIS
    Canada has its own crop of homegrown terrorists capable of acts like the deadly attacks on London’s transit system last summer, says Canada’s spy agency… via nealenews
    (Canadian Sentinel: Post your opinions. Some few have tried to shut you down; to muzzle you. Speak; post the evidence.)

  15. I hear what you’re saying ET but for me it is all about taking sides. As much as I agree with your take on a union’s right or lack thereof to speak on behalf of its members, in the grand scheme of things it is completely unimportant when Israel and its citizens are being targeted for extermination by barbarians.
    CUPE has chosen to be onside with Islamofacism.

  16. What are these people smoking?
    “Boycott, divestment and sanction worked to end apartheid in South Africa,” said Katherine Nastovski, chair of the CUPE Ontario international solidarity committee. “We believe the same strategy will work to enforce the rights of Palestinian people.”
    First of all could they not come up with better comparisons of radical behaviour, causing loss of life due to terrorist-like activities, than South Africa?
    The IRA comes to mind. Let’s compare barbarians to barbaric type behaviour. And Palestians’ legitimized this behavior with their ballots? And now too the CUPE ‘brotherhood’ is prepared to legitimize it with their un-wavering solidarity? Oh brother!
    At least the IRA learned something.

  17. I personally have problems with Israel’s treatment of Palestine and Palestinians
    Well ET, stop getting your news from the MSM and Democratic Underground and your “problems” will all disappear.
    Here, read this: An exchange between Two Bethlehemites, for an injection of reality.
    http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=1312

  18. No, mississauge matt – I’ll continue to disagree. I think a debate about ‘which side is the good side, Israel or Palestine’ is diverting from the real issue, which is that a union has no right to take away an individual’s right to make that decision for themselves.
    A union has no right to debate or make judgments about social, political or legal issues. It has only one mandate; to deal with workplace activities of its members. Period.
    I, myself, as I’ve said, am against many of Israel’s decisions and actions against the Palestinians. That’s my conclusion. But, no union has the right to take away my conclusion from me.
    I also, by the way, do not merge the Palestinian and Israeli conflict with the war on Islamic terrorism and Islamofascism. That’s an entirely different issue.
    BUT – whether I am pro Israel, or against Israel, is my decision. Not the union’s. I did not vote for a union executive to take away my right to make such a decision.
    I consider the focus on whether or not one agrees or disagrees with Israel a huge smokescreen in this issue. The real and very serious problem is the Union. It is infringing on my rights.
    Surely you can’t be saying that IF the union came out in favor of Israel, you wouldn’t criticize the union? Are you just focusing on the nature of its decision, and not the fact that the union is violating my freedom of thought and speech?

  19. My concern over Israel and Israelis being targeted for extermination is in relative terms a ten thousand pound gorilla in comparison to the peanut-sized concerns I may have about the democratic deficit in unions and whether the thing should be taken to the SCOC.
    And I would always reserve the right to criticize a union, even if they did the right thing and sided with Israel.

  20. It is truly instructive to watch what happens when anyone uses the right of free speech to say anything that persons who cluster on the political far right do not agree with. They immediately collapse into furies of denunciation and call for illegal and often violent remedies for such “:outrageous” conduct. Deport “them”! Put them in jail. Send them to clean up the mess caused by Arab suicide bombers! (this one caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up as I connected to the pictures of Jews beaten and forced to clean up streets littered wilth the broken glass of their shops in Berlin one night long ago. The union has no right to do anything political! Decertify the union! (now there is a beauty: dont let these workers combine to deal with wages, hours, and working conditions because they have dared to step outside the borders some individual who does not want unions to exist anyhow, has himself assigned to them). Left leaners have “taken control” and that cannot be “allowed”. Stop them, stop them, stop them by any means.
    One has the impression that the CKD who gather at this particular drinking hole cannot abide any sign of democracy (people having views different from their own) and are reduced to foaming at the mouth by the sight of a union voting a resolution in a political area. Would it be different if CUPE had voted to support the present Canadian foreign policy as it relates to abandoning peace keeping in order to strut about in Afganistan? Oh, that would be OK would it?
    Who can explain this conduct? The CUPE vote does not worry me, though I think it may be a bit strong for many of their members, but the reaction is pretty scary. It is a little like the famous British general who reviewed the troops he was to lead and told a subordinate that he did not know if they would scare the enemy” But by God Sir they frighten me!”.

  21. If anyone is confounded as to why Sid Ryan has failed on four separate occasions at running for parliament (one provincial, three federal), let there be no further confusion.

  22. No, Matt, ‘siding with Israel’ would not be ‘the right thing’. A union has no business making political decisions. That right belongs solely to the people, to individuals. Not a union.
    A union has only one mandate, locked into and closed, within the focus of the working activities of the employees of a particular company. Period.
    It has no right to make decisions, good or bad conclusions as they may be, about anything political or social.
    Imagine a union supporting SSM. Or, asserting that people ought to pray three times a day. Or, asserting that people may..whatever. You get my point.
    However, we’ll just have to ‘agree to disagree’.

  24. No, garhane, the issue is not about ‘right’ or ‘left’ decisions. The issue is about democracy. And a union has no right to take away the individual democratic right to come up with their own decision about social and political affairs.
    A vote of 800 odd CUPE members is not representative of the thousands of CUPE members. But, even that is not the point. What you are ignoring is that, just because a vote was held, does not make that vote ethical or moral or democratic.
    A union has no right to make political or social decisions. Period. That right belongs to each and every individual. No union has the ethical authority to abrogate that decision.
    As for ‘peacekeeping’ – what century are you living in? Peacekeeping was originally set up to deal with negotiable issues between separate nations. It had nothing to do with violence or combatative situations between nations. Therefore, Canada could slither out of ‘heavy duty’ and see itself as benign, smugly superior and paternalistic. That’s peacekeeping. Those situations don’t exist anymore.
    And most certainly, peacekeeping had nothing to do with violence within nations. That’s war. Canada has a responsibility within the world; we can’t sit idly by on our glaciers and consider ourselves supreme and superior. The world has melted and we are all connected. We have to take responsibility. Therefore, is some areas need military help to fend off terrorism and power struggles, you, of course, would prefer not to help. Others consider it their duty as citizens of this planet.

  25. “Deport “them”! Put them in jail. Send them to clean up the mess caused by Arab suicide bombers! … Decertify the union!”
    I’ll admit to being a bit lazy in following links, but just where exactly did you read this? Is it somewhere here in invisible ink? I’m really having a hard time determining where you got this from.
    With regard to free speech, a lefty is free to express his ill-chosen views all he wants, but I reserve the right to criticize the hell out of them. Sorry, but free speech doesn’t mean freedom from criticism.

  27. Whatever happened to “workers of the world unite”?
    CUPE should be backing Israel, the only democracy in the ME with a clear constitution that has been enforcing workers rights. Why didn’t CUPE go after Saddam? Why don’t they go after the Mad Mullahs of Iran who say they want to Nuke Israel, the one place with workers rights enforced for decades?
    And the answer is ….
    Because unions aren’t about workers rights. They are about a socialist movement that is trying to pick up the bricks and pieces, so to speak, where the Berlin Wall fell. CUPE is a socialist political movement.
    I wonder what conversations took place between Syd Ryan, Buzz Hargrove and Paul Martin in that infamous Royal York meeting before the Federal election? I wonder how much money is still being feed into these groups by Federal departments to stir up support for Day Care. Support that would try and reverse the decline in union memberships. But we all know that Day Care CUPE members would be out on strike just like the TTC was, holding mega-cities to ransom.
    Isn’t it pretty clear what this is all about?

  28. When has CUPE had anything to say about human rights in China, Cuba, Iran, Saudia Arabia?
    Israel is so full of unions they should be CUPE’s dream state.
    Oh, but I know, they are not anti-Jews, they are just anti-Israel and its “treatment” of Palestinians.
    This coupled with the British university professors calling for a boycott of Israel and of Israeli academics who don’t condemn their country just further exemplifies that the “Palestinian narrative” is just this generation’s stick with which to bash Jews.
    CUPE is basically supporting terrorism and to try try to separate the Arab/Israeli conflict from the global jihad is to live in denial
    I can’t tell you how sick this makes me

  29. No, nomdenet, CUPE shouldn’t be supporting Israel. It shouldn’t be supporting Palestine.
    It shouldn’t say a word about political or social issues. It’s a union. Its mandate is confined to work-related issues within that and only that, particular union. It has no right to abrogate the rights of its individual members to come to their own conclusions about any social and political situation.
    If individual members come to their own conclusions about Israel, Palestine or anything else, that is none of the union’s business. That includes daycare, it includes..etc.
    ex-liberal; I certainly separate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from Islamofascism. The two have nothing to do with each other. The first is about land and settlement rights; the second is about a fascist mode of governance. That’s two very different issues.
    And no, I’m not in denial. I simply don’t agree with your conclusions. It doesn’t make me sick; I don’t see why another person’s disagreement with me should revolt me.
    Yes, nomdenet, I agree that unions are no longer about workers’ rights. As I’ve said, I consider unions to be parasites. In our modern era, they provide no services. Their income is bled from worker’s wages. Their actions increase the cost of living in every country in which they exist – that’s hardly beneficial.
    They no longer have any legitimate role; they have therefore moved into social and political areas to which they have no mandate. That is, no union member has ever seen a union set of rules that states that the union may also act as that member’s political representative. But, this is what they do. I consider this a violation of the union’s mandate and a violation of the individual’s freedom of thought and speech.
    Socialists? That’s because they are parasitic. A parastic organism is dependent on the submission of the host organism on which it feeds. Socialism is all about submission and denial of individual rights.
    I wish some brave CUPE member would openly say: Hey, you don’t speak for me. But, unions are viciously retributive.

  30. ET as us bilingual folks from Quebec say :
    TooChez
    I take it back. I was shooting from the hip. Agreed CUPE should not be supporting Israel either. It was too easy for me to counter with the opposite, when the opposite isn’t true either.
    That’s what makes conservatism so much fun; we’re always making mistakes and learning from them. If fixing mistakes makes people smart, I must be a genius by now … :>)

  31. ET,
    I meant that CUPE makes me sick, not you
    I wish you could ask some Hamas/Islamic jihad/Hezbollah types if the Arab-Israeli conflict is about land – I think if you examine what they say and take them at face value, their Jew-hatred is driven by religion/ideology – they could have had there state at least 2 or 3 times already – it is more about reducing Jews back to dhimmi status in dhar-Islam
    We can agree to disagree on that if you want.
    Does CUPE comment on any other foreign affairs matters?

  32. The euphemism, politically correct word, militant, is used to cover/mask murders by Islamist terrorists in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran,and more … is Canada in line for Islamist terrorism? CSIS says so.
    CUPE has aligned itself with terrorist/beheadings by Islamist terrorists/murderers.
    The Jawa Report: Daniel Pearl Beheading: Suspect Killed …
    Amjad Hussain Farooqi, a man under indictment for beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, has been killed by Pakistani “paramilitary police.”
    Daniel Pearl (graphic images, warning)was the first Western beheading victim by terrorists, and was killed long before the US invasion of Iraq. …
    Iraq Says It Has Captured Key Militant
    wtopnews. ^ | May 30 2006
    Posted on 05/30/2006 11:10:47 AM PDT by Dog
    BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – The Iraqi government said Tuesday it has captured a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds of beheadings. Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi was arrested by a terrorist combat unit on Monday in Baghdad, according to the prime minister’s office.
    The unit also seized documents, cell phones and computers that contained the names and addresses of other wanted terrorists and information on Islamic extremist groups, the government said in a statement.
    “Al-Batawi is considered at the top of the terrorist list,” the statement said, adding he had “committed the ugliest crimes against innocent civilians especially in Hurriyah neighborhood that witnessed many massacres.”
    The government said al-Batawi confessed under questioning that he beheaded hundreds of Iraqis in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces. …
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1640704/posts

  33. The CUPE stance does not surprise me – it makes me feel sick but no surprise – the teacher’s union is/was heavily invested in Talisman; an oil company that used child slave labor and is accused of colaberating with the Sudan government in the latter’s horrifing genocide on it’s own people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2868047.stm ; maybe unions have no place in Politics ET but they have been in Politics for many years. I was once fired from Dept of Hyws in B.C. for saying that I planned to vote Social Credit and putting a SC poster in the lunch room beside the many NDP posters. I didn’t make this up… Matt is correct they should all be fired…off to Palastine to fight with their friends. It should be a one way ticket.

  34. while i agree that this union has no business making an issue out of the foreign policy of a foreign nation, take a look at the utter bankruptcy of the boycott itself.
    “sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.”
    while you can argue (i would not)that some of israel’s policies are harsh on the palestinians, how can you sanction a state for its failure to recognize the right to self determination (which is false even if there are qualitative issues of concern) of a people with a democratically elected entity that does not recognize the existence of that state or its right to exist?

  35. “sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.”
    Has CUPE never heard of/read the Oslo Accords?
    This is lying about the Jewish State. If you lie about Jews, you are an anti-Jew. If you lie and spread lies (Israel is an apartheid state and doesn’t recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination) about the Jewish state, you are an anti-Jew.
    I repeat, CUPE makes me sick

  36. I think ET has a good point.
    I do support calling a spade a spade though. Suicide bombings are murder, and building a fence is apartheid. Palestinians and Israelis just have to learn to live together, and that means sharing a government, or at least communicating between friendly governments.

  37. saskboy and et
    how is building a physical barrier along a border between a state and a prospective state, the population of which routinely sends living bombs to kill your children apartheid?
    borders of most nations are routinely enforced for economic reasons. i guess jew killing is a few notches lower on your radar screen. asswipes.

  38. It’s apartheid because it keeps the civilized and the barbarians apart.
    As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s a good thing.”
    This apartheid phrase is used in a lame attempt to demonize Israel. If I’m an Israeli, I really couldn’t care less what some Che t-shirt wearing International Solidarity Movement tool wants to call it [not talking about you here Saskboy]; it keeps the barbarians out and keeps the Israeli’s safe.

  39. “This is why pro‐Israel forces, when pressed to go beyond assertion, claim that there is a ‘new anti‐Semitism’, which they equate with criticism of Israel.112 In other words criticize Israeli policy and you are by definition an anti‐Semite. When the synod of the Church of England recently voted to divest from Caterpillar Inc on the grounds that Caterpillar manufacures the bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes, the Chief Rabbi complained that it would ʹhave the most adverse repercussions on … Jewish‐Christian relations in Britainʹ, while Rabbi Tony Bayfield, the head of the Reform movement, said: “ʹThere is a clear problem of anti‐Zionist ‐ verging on anti‐Semitic ‐ attitudes emerging in the grass roots, and even in the middle ranks of the Church.”113 However, the Church was neither guilty of anti‐Zionism nor anti‐Semitism; it was merely protesting Israeli policy.114
    Critics are also accused of holding Israel to an unfair standard or questioning its right to exist. But these are bogus charges too. Western critics of Israel hardly ever question its right to exist. Instead, they question its behavior towards the Palestinians, which is a legitimate criticism: Israelis question it themselves. Nor is Israel being judged unfairly. Rather, Israeli treatment of the Palestinians elicits criticism because it is contrary to widely‐accepted human rights norms and international law, as well as the principle of national self‐determination. And it is hardly the only state that has faced sharp criticism on these grounds.
    …
    A final reason to question Israel’s strategic value is that it does not act like a loyal ally. Israeli officials frequently ignore U.S. requests and renege on promises made to top U.S. leaders (including past pledges to halt settlement construction and to refrain from “targeted assassinations” of Palestinian leaders).20 Moreover, Israel has provided sensitive U.S. military technology to potential U.S. rivals like China, in what the U.S. State Department Inspector‐General called “a systematic and growing pattern of unauthorized transfers.”21 According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, Israel also “conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any ally.”22 In addition to the case of Jonathan Pollard, who gave Israel large quantities of classified material in the early 1980s (which Israel reportedly passed onto the Soviet Union to gain more exit visas for Soviet Jews), a new controversy erupted in 2004 when it was revealed that a key Pentagon official (Larry Franklin) had passed classified information to an Israeli diplomat, allegedly aided by two AIPAC officials.23 Israel is hardly the only country that spies on the United States, but its willingness to spy on its principal patron casts further doubt on its strategic value.”

  40. What our Federal and Provincial Public sector unions are saying is this: We do not support our current actions in Afganistan or Iraq. They (Public sector unions) will effect all efforts for action to the contrary. It is no wonder they (armed forces) cannot seem to get proper uniforms, gear, transportation, general logistics, protection correct; our own public sector Government subverts the very cause which our troops are now there in the theator of war.
    We should all take a good around (in the east) to see the fascist winds blowing.

  41. What our Federal and Provincial Public sector unions are saying is this: We do not support our current actions in Afganistan or Iraq. They (Public sector unions) will effect all efforts for action to the contrary. It is no wonder they (armed forces) cannot seem to get proper uniforms, gear, transportation, general logistics, protection correct; our own public sector Government subverts the very cause which our troops are now there in the theator of war.
    We should all take a good around (in the east) to see the fascist winds blowing.

  42. “apartheid wall”
    What frelling garbage!
    It’s a legitimate method of a country to control its borders with the added benefit of decreasing the ability of the “neighbours” to cross the border and blow people up.
    That’s a good thing.

  43. “Moreover, Israel’s claim to a morally superior status is undermined by some of its other policies. Israel once cultivated close ties with apartheid‐era South Africa and aided the white minority government’s nuclear weapons program. Peter Liberman, “Israel and the South African Bomb,” The Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer 2004), pp. 46‐80. In 1954, Israeli intelligence forces bombed a U.S. diplomatic facility in Cairo in a bungled attempt to sow discord between Egypt and the United States. Shlaim, Iron Wall, pp. 110‐113.”

  44. Question? If when a man kills his wife then himself we paraded in the streets praising him and saying how good and just his actions were I can only imagine the outrage and shock that would spread around the country but whenit happens in the middle east its just hohum another day of self expression

  45. Bob, so you support CUPE’s position?
    Do you think that Israel is an apartheid state?
    Does CUPE make pronouncements about human rights violations in China or Cuba or Iran or Saudi Arabia? Does CUPE call for a boycott of China because of its occupation of Tibet?
    You can criticize Israel all you want, but if you single out the Jewish state, and spread lies about the Jewish state, then your motive is clear.

  46. I would support a strike by CUPE members to get rid of the executive who made this insane recommendation. I think we should all write our MPs and strongly suggest that this union be decertified, and the executive charged with terrorism. Too bad members can’t withhold dues, and I wonder how many of the general membership even know what has happened. With so many members working at our borders, look for the US to clamp down on cdns entering their country. Would you trust a cupe member to keep out a terrorist from palestine. Can we sue cupe for damages etc after we are attacked (and we will be) Harper cannot allow this to continue. An apology from the union will not do, as the seed for terror has been planted. CUPE is becoming a terrorist organization and should be banned, just like the Hammas and Tamils. As for comparing Isreal to S.Africa, in SA it was to change the government, not annililate a population and country.

  47. How did we forget that Israel’s story is the story of the West?
    By Charles Moore
    (Filed: 26/11/2005)
    Sometimes Private Eye runs a spoof “Apology – printed in all newspapers”, which says something like: “We used to say that X was a disgusting, brutal pig, unworthy to hold public office. We now recognise that X is a living saint.” Such a volte-face has just taken place about Ariel Sharon.
    If you had followed the British media, particularly the BBC, with average attention over the past 25 years, you would have concluded that Sharon was an intransigent, murderous, semi-fascist. So you would have been perplexed by his sudden announcement this week that he is to leave the “Right-wing” (favoured Western terminology) Likud party and form a “centrist” party of his own. Suddenly, Sharon becomes visionary, peace-seeking. Little would have prepared you for it.
    And that is the trouble. Little prepares the post-Christian European audience to understand Israel. By “understand”, I partly mean sympathise with, and partly, just comprehend. … more …
    http://www.paulding.net/bin/url.cgi/13298.10

  48. “Anyone who criticizes Israeli actions or says that pro‐Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle East policy—an influence that AIPAC celebrates—stands a good chance of getting labeled an anti‐Semite. In fact, anyone who says that there is an Israel Lobby runs the risk of being charged with anti‐Semitism, even though the Israeli media themselves refer to America’s “Jewish Lobby.” In effect, the Lobby boasts of its own power and then attacks anyone who calls attention to it. This tactic is very effective, because anti‐Semitism is loathsome and no responsible person wants to be accused of it.
    Europeans have been more willing than Americans to criticize Israeli policy in recent years, which some attribute to a resurgence of anti‐Semitism in Europe. We are “getting to a point,” the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union said in early 2004, “where it is as bad as it was in the 1930s.”103 Measuring anti‐Semitism is a complicated matter, but the weight of evidence points in the opposite direction. For example, in the spring of 2004, when accusations of European anti‐Semitism filled the air in America, separate surveys of European public opinion conducted by the Anti‐Defamation League and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that it was actually declining….It is also worth noting that in 2002 more Jews immigrated to Germany than Israel, making it “the fastest growing Jewish community in the world,” according to an article in the Jewish newspaper Forward.109 If Europe were really heading back to the 1930s, it is hard to imagine that Jews would be moving there in large numbers.
    …
    In September 2002, for example, Martin Kramer and Daniel Pipes, two passionately pro‐Israel neoconservatives, established a website (Campus Watch) that posted dossiers on suspect academics and encouraged students to report comments or behavior that might be considered hostile to Israel.94 This transparent attempt to blacklist and intimidate scholars prompted a harsh reaction and Pipes and Kramer later removed he dossiers, but the website still invites students to report alleged anti‐Israel behavior at U.S. colleges.
    …
    Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this campaign to eliminate criticism of Israel from college campuses is the effort by Jewsh groups to push Congress to establish mechanisms that monitor what professors say about Israel.99 Schools judged to have an anti‐Israel bias would be denied Federal funding. This effort to get the U.S. government to police campuses have not yet succeeded, but the attempt illustrates the importance pro‐Israel groups place on controlling debate on these issues.”

  49. Bob,
    we know you like to cut and paste but you didn’t answer my questions.
    Or are you too perterbed because those mean Jews are trying to protect themselves? Oooo, how dare the Jews put up a wall to try to protect themselves from getting blown up.

  50. The “shared democracy” rationale is also weakened by aspects of Israeli democracy that are at odds with core American values. The United States is a liberal democracy where people of any race, religion, or ethnicity are supposed to enjoy equal rights. By contrast, Israel was explicitly founded as a Jewish state and citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship.26 Given this conception of citizenship, it is not surprising that Israel’s 1.3 million Arabs are treated as second‐class citizens, or that a recent Israeli government commission found that Israel behaves in a “neglectful and discriminatory” manner towards them.27
    …
    During the First Intifida (1987‐1991), for example, the IDF distributed truncheons to its troops and encouraged them to break the bones of Palestinian protestors. The Swedish “Save the Children” organization estimated that “23,600 to 29,900 children required medical treatment for their beating injuries in the first two years of the intifida,” with nearly one‐third sustaining broken bones. Nearly one‐third of the beaten children were aged ten and under.”49
    Israel’s response to the Second Intifida (2000‐2005) has been even more violent, leading Ha’aretz to declare that “the IDF … is turning into a killing machine whose efficiency is awe‐inspiring, yet shocking.”50 The IDF fired one million bullets in the first days of the uprising, which is far from a measured response.51 Since then, Israel has killed 3.4 Palestinians for every Israeli lost, the majority of whom have been innocent bystanders; the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli children killed is even higher (5.7 to 1).52 Israeli forces have also killed several foreign peace activists, including a 23 year‐old American woman crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in March 2003.53

    These facts about Israel’s conduct have been amply documented by numerous human rights organizations—including prominent Israeli groups—and are not disputed by fair‐minded observers.     And that is why four former officials of Shin Bet (the Israeli domestic security organization) condemned Israel’s conduct during the Second Intifada in November 2003. One of them declared “we are behaving disgracefully,” and another termed Israel’s conduct “patently immoral.”

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