Canadian Reaction

I’ve read some posts on CBC’s Viewpoint forum and some of the reactions by Canadians is surprising. There are numerous people who are praising Steven Harper for sticking to his principles and not listening to the polls like the Liberals did in the previous government. To me this comes off as a vain attempt to glorify Harper by comparing him to another party that fell out of favour with the people. We are not looking now at what is right, but who is less wrong and then rewarding Harper for not being like the Liberals. This is not the sole way to judge a government, by the actions of the previous one. You have to judge them also by their current actions. One that I can’t get by is the publication ban that still lays shroud around the 17 terror suspects that have been held. We still don’t know why they’re being detained or any other details about the arrests. This contrasted with Harper saying that he wanted a more transparent government.

I’ve selected two of the post that I feel should be looked at.

The first follows here:
Harper’s comments and his corresponding actions in the Middle East are totally distorted. He shows he has no interest in peace and his actions only emphasize his pro-Israeli/pro-American stance. Israel continues its revengeful attitude by taking a hundred eyes for each one lost. This insanity only creates more generations of hatred and those that inflict their punitive measures cannot fathom its folly. Targeting innocent civilians in Lebanon is not collateral damage; it is murder and those who support this insanity are war criminals. Once the battle stops, healing these belligerent ways will take at least another 50 years of intense effort by peacemakers. Rather than build on Yitzak Rabin’s peace initiatives of 20 years ago, the hawks in both Israel and the U.S. now dominate. Israelis, more than any other ethnic group in history, should know what it is like to be ostracized. They should examine their own history and show some compassion for their fellow human beings.

This one comes off as a little angry, but fiery views are what grows abundant in these times. And this person’s views are shared by many people that I’ve spoken with in the last week, some of them very educated about the issue, some of them unaware of who Rabin actually was.

And the pro-Israeli viewpoint:
Thank you Mr. Harper for standing with those Israelis under threat for simply being Jewish. I know that Mr. Harper will lose a lot of votes among the immigrant populations in the cities of Montreal and Toronto where support for Hezbollah is very high. But Hezbollah supports the genocide of the Jewish people. It's disgusting that Canadians in these polls are supporting genocide against the Jewish people. I wonder if it's anti-Americanism at work in these polls or anti-Semitism at work. I guess it doesn't matter because its shameful either way.

This second post caught my eye for suggesting the idea that Canadians were supporting genocide against the Jewish people. Has this gentleman gone completely bonkers? Let’s see, rockets (numerous rockets) fired into the north of Israel compared to the complete ground invasion, air raids and inclusion of more than 80, 000 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. No Hizballah are in Israel. If we look at only the civilian casualties, Lebanese far outnumber the Israeli so pro-Israeli-war-machine supporters should stay away from quoting numbers. Yes there is genocide but this person got who it was directed to completely wrong. I’m ashamed that this came from a Canadian, since we have unlimited access to sources both national and international and should be able to make far more educated statements.