About Canada - The Liberal government

Tuesday, 7  March 2017

Trudeau’s sympathies lie with the Palestinians: It’s 2015-2017 and seq.!

Based on my notes of the utterances of former Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and  of the Prime Minister , their doings  and their utter indifference to the growing problem of anti-Semitism in Canada , I am by now satisfied that the sympathies  of both lie exclusively with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority. They do not appear to particularly care for arguments sympathetic to Israel.

Sure, the Prime Minister did visit Israel; smiled a lot; had his picture taken with various and sundry; said the politically correct things for the Jewish voters back home. But then again, given the importance of the Canadian trade relations with Israel and the  multiple benefits the country derives from this relationship, he had no choice. He had to do it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong for people to sympathise with Palestinians and support their cause to become an independent country on the West Bank. Nevertheless, I could not help but wonder how the Prime Minister came to espouse this position, which is a radical departure not only from  the stance  of his immediate predecessor in response to the true state affairs on the ground, but it also happens to be at variance with that of just about all his liberal and conservative predecessors for the last half-century.

I think I found the answer to my question  when  I stumbled,  among my papers, on an article  in the Globe and Mail,written by respected Quebec columnist Lysiane Gagnon. The article titled A Troubling Show of Solidarity was published on February 9, 2009 and updated the following April 9.

The show of solidarity Gagnon is writing about is “the dalliance between Quebec sovereigntists and the Palestinians” and describing the antics of the then Leader of the Bloc Quebecois and another M.P of the same party between 2006 and 2009, along with the Leader of the Party Quebecois, the heads of the major labour unions in Quebec, not to mention, Denis Coderre, then Liberal M.P, now the Mayor of Montreal and an opportunist  for all times.

Gagnon points out that “Predictably, the show of solidarity with terrorists groups angered many Quebeckers. But…” But what?

She explains “ the but” this way, ”… there is no doubt that in Quebec, probably more than in other provinces, there is widespread sympathy for the Palestinian cause-and very little sympathy for Israelis who have been the target of terrorist attacks for years”. She then proceeds to provide four sets of explanations for this state of affairs:

1.”…solidarity with Palestinians, seen as the victims of a powerful and rich ally of the United States, is a staple of current leftist thought....”

2. “…homegrown factors behind Quebec’s bias towards the Palestinian side…The Montreal area has the largest Arab community in Canada. Since most Quebec Arabs come from North Africa and Lebanon, they are fancophones, thus closer to old-stock francophones than the old Jewish Ashkenazi community whose first language is English. The Sephardim Jews, who settled more recently in Montreal, are French –speaking, but don’t seem to have mingled as easily with the French-Canadians. Politics play a role here. ”

3. “Most Jews, for obvious reasons, are suspicious of nationalist movements-and Quebec has absorbed deeply the sovereigntist ideology. For the sovereigntists, the Jewish community is an active ‘ally’ of the federalist camp, while the Arab community is either sympathetic or indifferent to Quebec nationalism.” ,although  since then, this sympathy appears to have converted into antipathy in response to Parti Quebecois’ fuss about its “ill-fated”  Charter of Secularism ,or whatever it is called, directed against  the Muslim community.

4.”Last but not least, there is the old factor of anti-Semitism, which still exists in Quebec as in so many other societies throughout the world. Nobody will dare voice plain, direct anti-Semitic remarks, but attacking Israel is an “acceptable” way for anti-Semites to express their Judeophobia”

So, at the end of the day, our Prime Minister turns out to be a true native son of Quebec, and a leftie of sorts, confident that his pro-Palestinian and mute anti-Israeli stance will be favourably viewed and accepted in the province on whose votes he depends in order to secure a majority government.