A Salute to Stephen Harper
Prof. Efraim Inbar and David M. Weinberg
The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Perspectives Papers No. 122, November 21, 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Canadian Prime Minister has emerged as a modern Abraham, a prophetic voice of principle in a world that is in danger of losing its conscience about Jews and Israel.
Our Biblical patriarch Abraham pleaded with God to rescind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, arguing that the virtues of just a
few righteous people could suffice to save that world.
In our modern world, that righteous person – whose voice of
conscience, critique and courage may be the saving grace – is surely
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In his speech before a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition
for Combating Anti-Semitism in Ottawa last week, Harper sounded the
clearest and most courageous call of this century against modern anti-
Semitism and hatred of the Jewish state. In fact, Harper’s entire
political career has been punctuated by steadfast support for Israel
and the Jewish People, with clarity of vision and intensity without
parallel in recent times.
We, like many other Israelis bewildered by the growing intensity of
hatred against Jews, were comforted by Harper’s remarks. His bold
words give us hope that there are indeed many decent people, some of them in positions of power, who will not bow to demonization,
Orwellian twisting of history and language, and pure evil. It is
reassuring to hear loudly from such righteous gentiles. Harper
deserves our gratitude for still believing in true humanism and the
redemption of mankind.
Israelis feel very much isolated in today’s world community, which we
perceive as increasingly hypocritical, cynical and inimical to
Israel’s very existence. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad,
vows to erase Israel and tells the world that the Holocaust never
happened. He receives applause when he speaks from the UN rostrum, and Columbia University unashamedly invites him to speak and spread the venom. But Harper says “Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition, but an undertaking.” He goes on to
emphasize that “the same threats exist today” and that memory requires “a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.”
Israelis feel that the scourge of traditional anti-Semitism has taken
a new form in the international arena. The morally bankrupt UN, and a
plethora of additional international forums, single out democratic
Israel for imagined and exaggerated human rights abuses, while the
same dictatorships that condemn Israel get away with real torture and
repression. Major human rights organizations have joined the anti-
Israeli chorus, shocking us even more. But Harper is adamant in
pointing out this perverse behavior – making explicit reference to
Sharansky’s 3-D rubric against double standards, demonization and
delegitimization – helping us here in Israel to maintain our sanity
and belief in the goodness of man.
Unfortunately, many Western countries do not stand up against the
automatic majority of the Muslim and Third World bloc, preferring
appeasement. Some actively “engage” enemies of the West and its
values, displaying moral relativism. Yet, Canada under Harper has
chosen to take a principled stand. Admitting that there is a
diplomatic price to be paid for such moral probity, Harper is
undeterred: “The easy thing to do,” he says, “is simply to just get
along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is
just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of
‘honest broker’. (But) Canada will take a stand (in support of
Israel), whatever the cost. Not just because it is the right thing to
do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli
mob tells us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of
the Jewish people are, in the longer term, a threat to all of us.”
Judge Goldstone and much of the international community want to neuter Israel to the point that it can’t defend itself. His committee and its many pernicious international legal collaborators seek to restrain, inhibit, fetter and otherwise prevent Israel’s defense forces from defending against Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, under almost any circumstances. Not the Right Honorable Stephen Harper. He has consistently backed Israel’s defensive actions against Palestinian and other terrorists, and stood up to the French, the Russians and others in international fora at the most critical moments. Over the past three years, Harper’s Canada stood alone in defense of Israel – eight times casting the only “no” vote against unfair condemnations of Israel — during votes at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Harper speaks of the “persistence of the Jewish homeland as a sign of
hope…” as a symbol of “our faith in humanity’s future, in the power of
good over evil.”
The political sociologist Hanna Arendt wrote in her landmark Origins
of Totalitarianism that the attitude toward Jews in any realm is the
real litmus test of a liberal, moral society. We’re not sure whether
Mr. Harper has ever read Arendt, but he certainly has emerged as the
finest global spokesman for a more virtuous world. Thank you, Prime
Minister Harper, for not despairing of the world nor abandoning us.
Efraim Inbar is professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University
and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. David M.
Weinberg, a proud Canadian expatriate, is director of public affairs
at the Begin-Sadat Center.
AE. Give it a rest.
Poor AmericanEagle. He keeps repeating the same words over and over.
Eagle or parrot?
G’night all.
For AE, G’nite y’all’
Mickey
I thought your famous stinking tax dollars all went to support and protect us here in Israel? For those tax dollars to have any meaning and impact you must pay as much as Bill Gates. You must be one of Max’s Super Elite. I’ll bet you don’t pay taxes but are the beneficiary of those who do earn and pay.
America got her ass kicked in Korea
America got her ass kicked in Lebanon by Hizbullah
America got her ass kicked in Nam
America is losing it in Iraq based on her war aims and not even an oil tuck full of oil to show for it but a lot of body bags and will leave with nothing but debt, dead a dysfunctional country aligned or under the control of Iran and no WMD’s
The Russians are laughing themselves silly over American arrogance thinking they would succeed where the Russians and in fact none else has succeeded. Where is Ben Laden “Dead or Alive” That asshole Bush made such a comment didn’t he?
Your tax dollars also at work?
A.E. Give it a rest. You have made your point. Some of us have bigger fish to fry so stop your whining. You wont get any empathy from most Canadians for not agreeing to bomb the crap out of one country in the search for one piece of scum the U.Sa didnt even find. So Canada agreed to try and help the U.S. with the mess you have made. Even Israel thought it was too big an undertaking to go into Iraq looking for WMD as Iraq is a rather large country and weapons can be moved around. Did you REALLY EXPECT Turkey to side with you? You are allowing the enemy to make a fool out you so get off your high horse and stick to your own side of the border. There is TONS of work to do there but farbeit for ME to start giving you orders.
Leon,
With all due respects, I think I have gotten it whereas you folks have not. Everything that you, Mickey and the other Canadians gushing and getting thrills up their legs is based on what Stephen Harper has SAID. Your comment above says he “speaks out” against anti-Semitism. Where have I denied that?
My point continues to be that when an opportunity came along to do more than “speak” in general terms, old Stephen ran and hid under his desk. If he is that worried about some provincial sensibilities [???!!!] what exactly did he mean when he said “no matter what the cost”??? Are you suggesting that some “possible” provincial sensibilities are enough to shut him up in a matter of manifest anti-Semitism?
You folks don’t realize that you are defending the indefensible.
Get off your high horses and write to him and remind him of what he said – to a Jewish audience.
I am not the problem – Stephen Harper is. I would have made mince-meat out of York University and shamed them in front of the entire nation if it were up to me.
Mickey,
Thanks for accepting the proposition that I can interfere in the affairs of Canada since my tax dollars go to protect it and keep it safe and divert its resources to trying to reduce the waiting lists for surgery and family medicine:-))
In trying to defend the indefensible Stephen Harper fiasco, you will have to do lot better because the facts are just not on your side.
a) can you cite me a single example where a Jewish person, or anyone else, was not allowed to speak in California by officials of the university, and,
b) can you also show me where Barack Obama said he would stand up against anti-Semitism “no matter what the cost”, and,
c) then, can you explain how something in California has anything to do with Stephen Harper’s retreat under his desk when there was anti-Semitism at York University, which happens frequently in case you don’t know, after he had ostentatiously told a Jewish audience he would speak out against it “no matter what the cost”???
For those who don’t know, Max writes movie scripts for the Mad Max movies and then the Superclass take these away from him and he gets screwed. Hence his bitterness at the Superclass. However, the Superclass don’t include a single Israeli – thus no Ted or Yamit or Bibi – nor does it include Vladimir Putin, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Barack Obama, Daniel Ortega, Evo Morales or Robert Mugabe.
With just a few minor changes to AE’s little spit ball we get;
“Mickey, now that you have calmed down and wiped the froth off your face, will you please tell me what BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA has DONE to address anti-Semitism in USA besides giving FREAKING SPEECHES???
“I am a conservative. I like BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA, especially when compared to his predecessors. I like what Canada did to help in Afghanistan, though they did bubkis in Iraq. But, I am never impressed with what someone SAYS when it conflicts with what he DOES.
Instead of aiming your spittle at me, why don’t you and your fellow Jews start a letter writing campaign demanding that OBAMA put his mouth now where his mouth was when he made the speech AFTER SPEECH and expose what CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES have been getting away with for years now.”
To our US friend:
You made your point and we get it. Mr. Harper could have said something to condemn the Galloway event at York. Believe me, we all wish that he would have. However, there might have been some consequences of his interfering with a provincial matter, etc. The larger point that you’re missing is this: He is considered as the only world leader who supports Israel unequivocally and often speaks out against anti-Semitism. I would say that he is the best friend Jews have had since Winston Churchill.
So please, let’s stop this nonsensical discussion. We are not going to debate which country supports Israel more. Are you not aware that most Jews in Canada (and others) have never been more proud to be a Canadian? Instead of thanking him for his outspoken, principled stance against Israel and Jewish bashers, you want to condemn the best leader we’ve ever had! I thank you for trying to push your leader into the unemployment line but please, leave our great leader alone!
Don’t be foolish – the Canadian power elite runs Canada – Canadians have nothing to do with control of their country.
The aims and interests of the power elite and the Canadian masses are diametrically opposed. They are two separate things. The big lie presented by the MSM by encouraging false nationalism is to pretend that they are the same thing.
Mickey, now that you have calmed down and wiped the froth off your face, will you please tell me what Stephen Harper has DONE to address anti-Semitism in Canada besides giving a FREAKING SPEECH???
I am a conservative. I like Stephen Harper, especially when compared to his predecessors. I like what Canada did to help in Afghanistan, though they did bubkis in Iraq. But, I am never impressed with what someone SAYS when it conflicts with what he DOES.
Instead of aiming your spittle at me, why don’t you and your fellow Jews start a letter writing campaign demanding that Harper put his mouth now where his mouth was when he made the speech and expose what York University has been getting away with for years now.
AmericanEagle must be playing the devil’s advocate.
There is nothing like a good argument is there AE?
You are so very humorous.
Keep up the good work, Chief Bald Eagle.
Mickey
Mickey, calm down. You are frothing at the mouth. In case you haven’t noticed we “Ugly Americans” guaranty your security so you can sleep peacefully at night, spend your money on effete social services and safety nets too lazy to build your own, allow anti-Semitic universities like York to continue unabated, and be impressed by what your Prime Minister SAYS while turning a blind eye to what he DOES.
All HOT AIR. Meaningless and meant to impress the gullible. When he had an opportunity to REALLY stand up against anti-Semitism at York University he ran and hid under his desk.
He could have dealt with York simply with another blast of HOT AIR, which he seems to have plenty of, but no. He had achieved his objective of impressing the gullible in the Jewish community, so now it was time to impress the anti-Semites who run York by winking at what they had done yet again.
Harper is the only leader standing up for Jews and Israel. That’s good enough for me. We are not asking for more.
What Arrogance!
What Hutzpah!
“The Ugly American” is a well earned and justified sobriquet.
How dare you presume to tell Canadians or Israelis for that matter how to run our country.
Go back to your Tea Party. Jump in Boston Harbour if it makes you feel good.
Just leave Canada to Canadians.
Mickey
Isaac, you are misunderestimating me, in one of George Bush’s famous malapropisms.
As a conservative, I am a supporter of Stephen Harper and his policies which are a breath of fresh air after all those ultra-liberals that Canada used to elect over the years.
I have been chiding him because I expected him to follow up his speech about standing up to anti-Semitism by blasting York University which has been pulling this same crap for years now against Jews, Israel and conservatives. I am pissed that he has not done so. Why aren’t you Canadians pissed at him as well???? That’s what I want to know.
Mickey, I suggest you first read the links you post, to avoid embarrassing yourself.
To begin with Obama is clearly pro-Muslim as his envoy to Hamas, Cairo speech and other anti-Israeli actions prove, and we are working diligently to send him home to Chicago in disgrace ASAP. We have already clipped his wings earlier this month. However, he has never pretended to be pro-Israeli – that piece of delusional crap was concocted by Alan Dershowitz to cover his own behind for wanting to vote for Obama.
Secondly, no Jweish student is prevented from speaking at an American university. If any Jewish student is physically harrassed they need to use our legal system and their own ADL, which is busy defending George Soros, to gain redress, and your own link shows that the problem is being addressed by some legislators. They may have more luck asking David Horowitz for assistance than the ADL.
Stephen Harper beat his chest in front of a Jewish audience for political gain and then ran and hid under his desk when an opportunity to confront anti-Semitism presented itself.
Thank you for spending the money we GIVE Israel in the US. That’s very nice of Israel and I am grateful, unlike some Israelis who resent the assistance we give them. It still takes BILLIONS in cash and kind every year of our taxpayer’s hard-earned money without which Israel would have been sausage by now.
It is not an American practice to check with our accountants before we set out to liberate an oppressed country. If we did that we may not be able to GIVE Israel all that “minuscule” assistance.
Might as well “revel” in a blast of hot air whenever you can. Doesn’t help anyone else though.
We do. And we will again after we recover from the Obama disaster. However, it would be nice if Canada did a little less talking and joined us a little more in fighting when we go after the bad guys, like the Aussies and Brits always seem to do.
You may think of inviting Ann Coulter up to Toronto to speak at some conference – she’ll take care of the radicals at York University who are getting a pass from Stephen Harper. Ann is not only a kick-ass speaker, her wit is like a rapier, and she is drop-dead gorgeous to boot.
Thank you, Isaac.
Perhaps Jason Kenney might get something going.
Mickey
Mickey, Yonatan, Mer, the point is that American Eagle is with the Tea party and they have done a remarkable job in about a year to awaken and tap-in on the anger in the US. He IS aware that Obama is a scoundrel. There is talk about impeachment. It does take time. I simply don’t understand why he has this animosity towards PM Harper. Remember that we had 16 years years of Liberal Govt, who opened-wide the refugee and immigrant gates to all and sundry. People from Pakistan and other Muslim countries were flushing-down their passports in-flight and then claiming refugee status once they landed in Toronto. 125,000 new people come to Toronto everyb year and many of them do not speak English or French and this is 2010!!! This scandal, along with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms almost brought the country down to it’s knees.
AmericanEagle,
Enough of your rant about York University. There are a few other Canadian universities that have bad
anti-Israel and anti-Jewish records. But the numbers are minuscule compared to American campuses. Have a look.
http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/oped_view.asp?opedID=1941
Please tell me what Obama has said or done about this.
As for the “BILLIONS in cash and kind” provided to Israel. Most of that money flows back to US industry for armaments and other products and services. It keeps tens of thousands of Americans in work. It also provides the Western world, which has yet to awaken and acknowledge its peril, with its first line of defense against Islamic world domination.
It is a minuscule amount when compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on security and defense to protect your country against Obama’s “peaceful” Islamic buddies and the billions upon billions of dollars being lost by businesses world wide due to Islamic terrorism’s threats and actions.
Need I also mention the US’s yet to be won wars in Afghanistan as hardly being cost effective?
I think this back and forth thread has gone on long enough.
We Canadians can proudly revel in the moral stand of our Prime Minister which is much more than any of today’s leaders have had the courage to do.
You Americans can proudly revel in the fact that never in history has there been a country that has done so much good in the world as the US has done in the past century.
Shalom,
Mickey
Since you worship the same deity as the Muslims do, I wonder if you are talking about the same God who, as Allah, has forced the Arabs to try and wipe you off the map for the last 63 years at least.
Without America, whom God has asked to help you out and make sure you survive, you would be burnt toast. Even Obama cannot stop the billions in aid we give you every year, and he will be gone in a couple of years. All Israel has to do is to refuse to participate in any negotiations unless he can convince his Muslim brothers to accept Israel as a Jewish state and renounce violence.
Au contraire, mon ami. Stephen Harper pulled the rug out from under himself by spouting off and thumping his chest to impress a Jewish audience about standing up to anti-Semitism “no matter how high the cost” or some such poppycock. Then the next time there is manifest anti-Semitism at a public university in Toronto, which is well known for anti-Semitism and depriving conservatives of their freedom of speech, he is nowhere to be found.
I had nothing to do with any of this.
I would have expected him to publicly blast York University as anti-Semitic and anti-Canadian, otherwise what the hell was he bragging about standing up to such stuff “no matter how high the cost”?????
AE said:
G-d guarantees our survival. Right now America is endangering our survival. I don’t care if you want to blame Obama for everything, he is your president, he is doing it.
And there goes A.E. again who just LOVES to try to pull the carpet from under us. Anyone and ESPECIALLY a political figure who publically defends Israel or Jews is going to have some backlash. Harper KNOWS that as there WAS a plot to assasinate him that he just shrugged off at the time.
Here we see another Canadian impressed by empty words. Is anti-Semitism a provincial matter? Did Stephen Harper make exceptions for the provinces or did he beat his chest that he would confront anti-Semitism, “no matter how high the cost.” I knew it was poppycock the moment I read it.
He “said”. He “walked out”. He “rejected Durban”. He “kept quiet about York University”.
Obama is pro-Muslim and everyone knows it, which is why we are trying to boot him ASAP. However, America still provides Israel with BILLIONS in cash and kind each and every year and has done so for decades. We guaranty Israel’s survival. All we see from Canada is pictorial symbols like saying, walking and rejecting.
Now, when there is an actual opportunity to blast a Canadian university with a long history of anti-Semitism for yet another act of anti-Semitism and set an example of what he said in his recent speech, the verbal, walking, rejecting warrior Harper is nowhere to be found.
Mickey, re: “American habit of interfering in the affairs of other nations” is incorrect. The US is one of the greatest countries in the world. They entered the Second World War after they were attacked at Pearl Harbor. Yes, VietNam was a fiasco. The cemeteries in Europe are full of American dead and Canadian dead. The US has not invaded Canada and it has been the quietest border in history. When famines and earthquakes take place, the US & Canada are in the forefront to help-out. Just cool your language, with all due respect. BTW, Canadians usually hide under the table when it comes to problems in their own backyard. When fascist language laws were passed by provincial govts in Quebec, even english-speaking people in Montreal were behaving like wimps whilst some of us were confronting the separatists, at our own risk.
Poppycock, Mickey. York University has been pulling such anti-Semitic and anti-conservative stunts for years.
Of course it’s Harper’s job to speak out against anti-Semitism, Isaac, when it openly occurs at a public Canadian institution. If not, what the hell did he mean when he said he would speak out against anti-Semitism “no matter how high the cost”???
Mickey, wise up. As a Tea Party member I am at the forefront of trying to send Obama back to Chicago in disgrace. He is not the standard when it comes to anti-Semitism. Harper put his foot in his mouth when he told a Jewish audience that he would speak out against anti-Semitism “no matter what the cost.”
I said at the time that talk is cheap because Canada has never done anything tangible or physical to help Israel or Jews. Now, I see I was right that Harper was simply talking through his hat trying to impress a Jewish audience.
AmericanEagle,
Stephen Harper knows that we, the citizens of Canada, can do and do do a great deal to help ourselves without whining and waiting for the federal government to intervene.
He has taken a courageous and honourable stance much unlike Mr. Obama, your revered leader, who grovelled before the king of Saudi Arabia and is constantly kissing up to the nation of Islam.
I would suggest AmericanEagle that you pay more attention to what transpires in your own country and try to refrain from that American habit of interfering in the affairs of other nations.
American Eagle, it’s not PM Harper’s job to interfere with York Univ. What have you done? Have you written letters to the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star or the Vancouver Sun? You know well that they will not publish your letters, but write nevertheless. At least they will get the message. Get your neighborhood together to stop the hatred coming out of York Univ. Inform all your email contacts. The only paper that will publish your letter is the National Post. Individuals need to act now. Please don’t assume that someone will take care of it. If you are a Canadian, start preparing for an election in early spring. If we wish to stand by the principle of confronting hatred and genocide from the leftists, Muslims and the fascists, it is our duty to carry the torch. Freedom is our birthright!
In response to the American Eagle’s reply. First of all, education is a provincial matter. York University has been hijacked by the radical left. It’s president is also Moslem and he hides behind the idea of free speech. That is free speech for anyone who is not Jewish. When York had the so-called Israel is Apartheid Week at the University. The Conservative Party of Ontario condemned it and the Liberal Party of Ontario defended it under the same idea of Free Speech. As for Prime Minister Harper’s speech. I congratulate him. Here is a leader who walked out of the UN when Ahmadinejad started his hateful speech. I might add that your country’s ambassador did not leave the room until the Canadian ambassador left. My Prime Minister was also the first leader to reject Durban II. Those are his actions on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people. By the way, what has Obama done to help Israel or the Jewish people? He certainly talks a good game.
It is amazing how people get so excited by TALK, which is all that Stephen Harper has done. Neither he nor Canada has done BUBKIS in any tangible or physical terms on behalf of Jews or Israel.
Right now we have in the news the anti-Semitism that is going on at York University in Toronto, without ONE WORD in response by either Setphen Harper or anyone in his administration.
https://www.israpundit.org/archives/30559
Correction: should read ‘Hezbollah leader Nasrallah’; my mistake
It may interest many around the world that after Prime Minister Harper’s speech, there has been a significant rise in Canadians, non-Jewish Canadians, who have not only pledged their support for standing by Israel but voiced such feelings as “for the first time in my life I have never been prouder to be a Canadian”. To all Canadians who are Jewish, ‘if you continue voting for the Liberal Party of Canada, you will be signing your own death-warrant as only Prime Minister Harper will stand by Israel.’ Remember when former PM Jean Chretien sat on the same dais as Hezbollah leader Hezbollah in Lebanon and shook his hand and when asked why, he said “I didn’t know who he was, I just shook his hand.” Such WAS the state of Canada before PM Harper came on the scene.
I’m so pleased with my Prime Minister for doing this. I myself am a staunch supporter of Israel and the Jewish people.