According to Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper”criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.” Israel apparently is the only country in the world that can torture prisoners, murder innocent civilians, kill children with impunity, assassinate political opponents, ethnically cleanse Palestinians, demolish thousands of Palestinians homes, steal land that individuals have legal title to without compensation, and have policies that are routinely condemned as racist by leading Israeli commentators including the Israeli Supreme Court, and whose human rights abuses are criticized by  Israeli human rights organizations. Many commentators
point to Israel’s many crimes and yet to criticize Israel is anti-semitic. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other human rights organizations including Israeli human rights organizations all must be anti-Semitic. The question that must be asked is what description should be given to these attitudes towards Palestinians and what are words should be used to describe the mind set that refuses to allow for criticism of Israel no matter what it does. What country is entitled to a blank check that makes it immune to any criticism? In my opinion Harper’s statement does indicate a psychological problem that blinds him to the suffering of the Palestinians and allows the Israel compete immunity no matter what it does. It also gives some insight into why some individuals, and even political leaders in the West, have a complete disregard for Palestinian human rights, display a pathological hatred for Palestinians and an irrational subservience to Zionism.

From Ed Corrigan based on the following article:

Criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, Harper says
By MIKE DE SOUZA
Canwest News Service

Friday, May 09, 2008

Some of the criticism brewing in Canada against the state of Israel,
including from some members of Parliament, is similar to the attitude of
Nazi Germany in the Second World War, Prime Minister Stephen Harper
warned yesterday.

“I guess my fear is what I see happening in some circles is (an)
anti-Israeli sentiment, really just as a thinly disguised veil for good
old-fashioned anti-Semitism, which I think is completely unacceptable,”
Harper said in an interview with CJAD radio.

“We learned in the Second World War that those who would hate and
destroy the Jewish people would ultimately hate and destroy the rest of
us as well, and the same holds today.”

Harper, who was to deliver a speech in Toronto marking the 60th
anniversary of Israel in the evening, blamed some of his rivals in
opposition for encouraging anti-Semitism in the midst of the conflict
between the Jewish state and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 in Lebanon.
At the time, Harper was criticized in some circles for being pro-Israel
when he defended controversial military strikes in Beirut.

“Canada, under this government, is never going to cater to that kind of
opinion,” Harper said.

“I am disturbed that there are some elements in our political system,
there are even some members of Parliament … that were willing to cater
to that kind of opinion.”

Matthew Brett is an anti-war activist and freelance journalist based in Montreal. Read other posts by Matthew Brett.