Subject: ...
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 10:19:05 +0500


Subject: humble Canadian view on Palestine, cf. Wolfowitz
From: julian samuel <jjsamuel-AT-vif.com>
To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
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>




> "Israel also should insist that since there are 1.2 million Arabs 
> living in Israel, at least that number of Jews ought to be permitted 
> to live in whatever Palestinian state emerges. There is no right or 
> rationale in dismantling Jewish settlements, even if they are 
> ultimately located in the Palestinian state."
>
> I.H. Asper
>
>
> Wednesday » July 30 » 2003
> Israel should opt out of road map
> Palestinians failed to comply. Jewish state should refuse to free 
> terrorists and continue to build fence
>  
> I.H. Asper
> Freelance
>
>
> Wednesday, July 30, 2003
>
> (The following is excerpted from a text prepared for delivery to the 
> Jabotinsky Memorial Evening in Toronto last night. Earlier in the 
> speech was a detailed examination of how Palestinians have failed to 
> comply with the road map for Middle East peace.)
>
> Israel is now entitled to call a halt to its obligations under the 
> road map for Middle East peace because of Palestinian noncompliance - 
> and it should do exactly that.
>
> Israel already has paid with 1,000 dead citizens and 5,000 maimed and 
> wounded for the failure of the 1993 Oslo peace accords. It cannot 
> afford to repeat that mistake. Thus, Israel should not agree to 
> release Palestinian prisoners who are connected to terrorism. 
> Objective data indicate that one out of every two prisoners who were 
> released during the Oslo process came back as a terrorist, including 
> Mohammed Atta, who was released at President Bill Clinton's 
> insistence, only to travel to the United States and crash his airplane 


> into the World Trade Centre on 9/11.
>
> Israel must continue to build its security fence to keep out 
> terrorists of the future. Good fences do make good neighbours. The 
> example of the physical separation of the Greeks and Turks on Cyprus, 
> where peace has reigned for 50 years because of that separation, 
> proves the value of the separation fence. But Israel should not 
accept 
> the fence as its final border with whatever Palestinian entity 
> emerges. Therefore, Israeli troops should be stationed on both sides 
> of the fence until a final resolution has been mutually agreed upon.
>
> Israel also should insist that since there are 1.2 million Arabs 
> living in Israel, at least that number of Jews ought to be permitted 
> to live in whatever Palestinian state emerges. There is no right or 
> rationale in dismantling Jewish settlements, even if they are 
> ultimately located in the Palestinian state.
>
> And Israel should renounce the exhortations by external parties that 
> it prop up Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in hopes that he 
> will deliver. This is the same trap it fell into under the Oslo 
accord 
> by propping up Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
>
> What role can Canadians play in this international and interminable 
> conflict? For starters, we can demand an end to the dishonest 
> reporting by our media. The refusal of the CBC to call a terrorist a 
> terrorist, the taken-as-given that there is a "cycle of violence," 
> when there is no such thing, and the call for only "proportionate 
> response" to terrorist activities is nothing short of odious.
>
> The media reporting on the release of prisoners is dishonest unless 
it 
> clearly states that this demand was not a condition of the road map 
> and is, therefore, a non-issue, as is the the security fence.
>
> Supporters of Israel can ensure that the Canadian public and 
> politicians know the facts and history and can recognize the myriad 
of 
> myths spun by Palestinian propagandists and their compliant media 
> mouthpieces.
>
> You might ask who cares what Canada does - we are a small country,
not 
> a military power and a bit player on the international stage. But 
> that's not true. Canada is seen as a rational, human-rights-oriented 
> country, neutral in the international competition for oil, trade or 
> cultural imperialism. Our credibility with the United States, the 
> European Union and the United Nations is greater than our numbers 
> would suggest.
>
> Canadians are about to get a new prime minister and we should call 
for 
> a complete review of our foreign policy. Nowhere can we be more 
> effective in dealing with the position of Canada vis-à-vis Israel as 
> at the UN, where our voting record is unacceptable.
>
> We must demand that the federal Canada Radio-television and 
> Telecommunications Commission refuse a broadcast licence to the Arab 
> government-owned, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Al-Jazeera. If licensed 
in 
> the name of free speech, then the law should be strengthened to 
ensure 
> that the companies that carry its broadcasts are liable for any hate 
> incitement.
>
> As the chair of the Madrid Conference on Middle East refugees, Canada 
> should insist on compensation for Jewish refugees from Arab lands and 
> insist that the word "refugees" applies to Jewish refugees as well as 
> Palestinian ones.
>
> And finally, we must ask that Canada demand that the United Nations 
> treat Israel as a full-fledged member, like every other nation, not a 
> pariah nation but one admitted to the mainstream of all aspects of 
> international affairs at the United Nations.
>
> This is very little to ask but would be much to receive.
>
> I.H. Asper is chairperson of CanWest Global Communications Corp., 
> which owns The Gazette.
>
> © Copyright  2003 Montreal Gazette
> Copyright © 2003 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global 
> Communications Corp. All rights reserved.
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