Voting with Israel

[scribblet]

Good move on Canada's part, finally some common sense and decency.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/ed...55-06b2196c698b

Voting with Israel

Published: Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Last week witnessed a proud moment for our country at the United Nations. On Friday, Canada voted against a resolution before the UN Economic and Social Council urging recognition of the "right" of millions of Palestinians to return to their pre-1948 homes -- a migration that would destroy Israel's Jewish character. Admittedly, it's a minor step. The vote was not taken in the General Assembly or Security Council, but, in essence, at a committee meeting. And the results were non-binding. Still, it marks a break from the UN votes cast by the Liberals, which typically were either pro-Palestinian or abstentions.

Each year, Muslim states introduce the same 17 or 18 resolutions condemning Israel, blaming it for every problem in the Middle East, demanding it be censured and effectively calling for its elimination. Scores of similar motions are approved at smaller councils and committees, such as last Friday's. Of the 71 such votes held in the General Assembly in the past four years, Canada has voted with Israel six times, opposed it 49 times and abstained 16 times.

Under the Liberals' direction, our UN delegation voted to declare Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Golan Heights as "illegal, and therefore null and void and [having] no validity whatsoever." We have sided with those who blame the second intifada on "the provocation" carried out by Ariel Sharon when, as opposition leader, he visited the site of the Temple Mount in 2000. We have sat idly by, too, while Israel was declared an "occupying power" and while the UN's World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, permitted Arab nations to spread Nazi-style hate speech against Jews and their nation.

Apologists for the Liberals' approach might argue that such votes as Friday's are merely symbolic. That's true. But by paying lip service to the Arab world's hysterical, decades-long diplomatic offensive, Western nations have helped isolate Israel on the world stage. A more principled position would be that Israel -- as the one true democracy in the Middle East -- should be the one nation we take pains to support. And that is exactly the position Stephen Harper's government appears to have taken. Bravo for doing so.