Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to support Israel "through fire and water" on Monday, during a speech at the Ottawa Convention Center.
"Friends, in this fight, we also stand with the democratic State of Israel," Harper said, "as we have again this year, as Israelis have once more come under attack from the terrorist group Hamas."
"I know there continue to be those who question the wisdom of our policy," he noted.
"[Those] who, just as they once wished we would be more embracing of Putin, now would wish us to be more ambivalent about Israel, to go along with those who regularly single out Israel for criticism." "Friends, that position is wrong," he continued.
Harper, like many, made the comparison between terror group Hamas and the global jihadist Islamic State (IS or ISIS). "What is the difference between Hamas and Israel, and ISIS and us?" he asked. "One thing: Hamas is a lot closer to Israel than ISIS is to us."
"Israel is the frontline," he continued. "Anyone among the free and democratic nation that turns their back on Israel, or turns a blind eye to the nature of Israel’s enemies does so, in the long run, at their own peril."
"And so: Canada will continue to stand by Israel through fire and water!" he concluded.
Harper has been a staunch supporter of Israel and continued to stand up for the Jewish state during the last conflict in Gaza.
Harper has been a staunch supporter of Israel and continued to stand up for the Jewish state during the last conflict in Gaza.
The Canadian leader called on Canada’s allies and partners to recognize that Hamas’s terrorist acts “are unacceptable and that solidarity with Israel is the best way of stopping the conflict.” He also blamed Hamas for the heavy loss of civilian life in Gaza during the fighting.
In January, Harper visited Israel for the first time since becoming Prime Minister. During the visit, he gave a speech in the Knesset, and also showcased his musical talent during a special dinner with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Source - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185280#.VB8HIpstCM8
Source - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185280#.VB8HIpstCM8
RELATED
July 31, 2014 - PM Harper: Hamas is responsible for loss of life in Gaza.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183546#.VB8I5ZstCM8
July 13, 2014 - Canada calls on Allies to support Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182855#.VB8IqZstCM8
January 2014 - PM Harper's speech at the Israeli Knesset
“We understand that supporting Israel is the right thing to do,” said Harper. After generations of persecution the Jews were finally able to live in their own state, and Canada supported Israel because of the rightness of its cause – which, he said was “a very Canadian thing to do,” without expecting anything in return, and it was something Canada was proud to do for Israel. "History proves that those who started out hating Jews in the end hated everyone who was not like them," he added.
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/01/canada-pm-harper-canada-supports-israel.html
Excerpts of PM Harper speech at the Knesset:
“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism today runs rampant. And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of a much more sinister notion can be easily planted. And so we have witnessed in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.
We all know about the old anti-Semitism. It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps. Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us. But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.
“It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable to a new generation.
"People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East. As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.
“Now of course friends, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic. But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?
“What else can we call it when Israel is routinely singled out, targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?
Full text of PM Harper's speech at the Knesset (Israeli parliament)http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/01/canada-pm-harper-canada-supports-israel.html
Excerpts of PM Harper speech at the Knesset:
“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism today runs rampant. And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of a much more sinister notion can be easily planted. And so we have witnessed in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.
We all know about the old anti-Semitism. It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps. Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us. But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.
“It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable to a new generation.
"People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East. As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.
“Now of course friends, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic. But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?
“What else can we call it when Israel is routinely singled out, targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?
http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/01/20/statement-prime-minister-canada-Jerusalem
Video of PM Harper's speech at the Knesset
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/video-text-of-prime-minister-harpers.html#.Ut4YxCQWKM8
PM Harper's Twitter Account
https://twitter.com/pmharper
His official website
http://www.stephenharper.ca/
Office of the Canadian PM
http://pm.gc.ca/eng
***************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are always appreciated, but please do not include links.