Can the Liberals [Canadian Party] count on the Jewish vote? by: JOHN IBBITSON, Comment by Mohamed Kamel;
JOHN IBBITSON said:
Can the Liberals [Canadian Party] count
on the Jewish vote? (His article at the
end)
We say:
Dose he speak for Canadian Jewish or for
Israel?
Commented by Mohamed Kamel;
Apr 25, 2003
Mr. Ibbitson
message to the Canadian Liberal Party is very clear message of black mailing the
Liberal party of Canada and our government to an extend of using the
anti-Zionist as a crime of its own.
The writer use the
example of the republican in USA and linked them with the Canadian Alliance and
the Christian
Zionist that seeing “a reborn Israel as essential to fulfillment of prophecy”!
As if we have to massacre the Arab and Muslim to “fulfillment of prophecy”! We
have to create a country that did not exist and expand it on bloodbath to
unknown limit on daily genocide to “fulfillment of prophecy”! This project that
invite all world’s Jewish to settle the land on the account of expelled people
that have no right to return to their land in spite of the international law
and many UN resolutions that clearly stated their right of return.
Those
Christian and Jewish “Zionist” the
writer is speaking about are not the same millions of good people we knew and
meet everyday.
Mr. Ibbitson
suggest to all Jewish to punish the Liberal party of Canada for not supporting
the Anglo/American aggression against Iraq and to punish the NDP for the same
reason and for his support to the right of the Palestinian people of their home
land. Dose the writer suggest that this war was a war for the Zionist? Dose he
suggest that the American Government acted on behalf of the “Jewish” he knew?
so they are in fully disagree with all the world’s people.
Democracy means
that people have the right to choose who to vote for, but dose not means that
blocks of vote have the right to black mail candidate and parties for the benefit
of an external project specially when it is a project that is acting against
all the world will.
Canadian used to
vote for their rights and for the human rights everywhere. Canadian usually
votes for their economical well been and the well been for the entire human
been not for a narrow-minded project that suggest the supremacy of one over
another. Canadian never voted divided on
ethnic or religion line, they usually vote on political stand that for the well
been of us Canadian not for genocide against another people.
The writer was
very clear to a point that he makes us wonder dose he speak for Canadian Jewish
or for Israel and Zionism? Or dose Jewish he knows are not Canadian? Or they
are representing non Canadian Project, and they are here to black mail us?
Can
the Liberals count on the Jewish vote?
By JOHN
IBBITSON
Globe
and Mail
Monday, April 21, 2003
Monday, April 21, 2003
American Jews haven't voted en masse for the Republican Party since 1920. Franklin Roosevelt swung the Jewish vote solidly behind his New Deal vision in the 1930s, and Jews in the United States have largely identified themselves as liberal Democrats ever since. They did their duty in 2000 as well, voting heavily in favour of Al Gore and vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman.
But many political observers in the United States believe the small but extremely influential Jewish vote is shifting, and that George W. Bush will be the first Republican since Warren Harding to enjoy their support.
It started with the attacks on New York and Washington, pitting the American government against Islamic terrorists, who are also mortal enemies of Israel. Evangelical Christians, who are avid supporters of Mr. Bush and who usually make Jews nervous, have been trumpeting their Zionist credentials, seeing a reborn Israel as essential to fulfilment of prophecy. Mr. Bush's determination to take on Saddam Hussein, and the efforts of European governments to stop him, have pushed Jews even more into the Republican fold, since many of them see the Europeans, especially the French, as suspiciously pro-Palestinian.
And if any more incentive were needed, a small but vocal minority of Democrats in Congress have gone to extremes in accusing Mr. Bush of abandoning the Palestinians. One influential Democrat, Representative Jim Moran of Virginia, even blamed the Jews for the Iraq war: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going."
After Jewish groups protested, Mr. Moran apologized and was punished by the party. But the remarks only deepened the growing perception that the Democrats are no longer the natural home of the Jewish vote.
Canadian Jews should be as disenchanted with the Liberals as American Jews are with the Democrats. After all, this government stayed neutral during the war, even siding with the opprobrious French. And Jewish leaders say there is, indeed, a growing rift between their community and the Liberal Party.
"I think there is a movement [away from the Liberals]. I think there is a shift," Jack Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada, said in an interview.
The great difference, however, is that there is nowhere for most Canadian Jews to go. Although the Canadian Alliance full-throatedly supports Israel, with the same evangelical Christian fervour of its American counterparts, the party remains stuck in the West, and alien to the urban centrist sensibilities of Jews in Toronto and Montreal.
If the Alliance could ever make itself more palatable to Ontario or Quebec voters, or if the Conservatives could stage a rebirth of popularity, "then that would change the voting patterns of the Jewish community," Mr. Dimant believes. But, in the meantime, the Liberals get to keep the Jewish vote by default.
The Liberals are also benefiting from the rightward shift of leftist Jews who formerly supported the NDP. Many Jews now believe that the NDP's obsession with Palestinian statehood, and its implacable opposition to the Iraq war, has taken on an anti-Zionist cast. The NDP would disagree, but the undoubted effect has been the migration of some Jews out of the party, with the Liberal Party the only place for them to go.
But if the Liberals can still count on the Jewish vote, the party's leadership candidates, nonetheless, can expect some unpleasant questions from Jewish organizations and Jewish voters during the coming race. Such as:
John Manley, MP Colleen Beaumier is apparently one of your supporters in caucus. What do you think of her visit to Iraq earlier this year? She said she found her Iraqi hosts "extremely charming."
Paul Martin, where were you when student protesters at Concordia University prevented former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking? Your condemnation appears to have gone unrecorded.
Sheila Copps, how do you justify your support for a Canadian Museum of Civilization show on Canadian-Arab art that contained elements offensive to many Jews?
Care to explain yourselves? Or, as Liberals, do you simply take the Jewish vote for granted?
jibbitson@globeandmail.ca
posted by Mohamed S Kamel @ 9:25 PM
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