Former University of Toronto Prof Who Heads Up Middle East Section of Madrid-Based "Peace" Outfit Finds Stephen Harper's Support for Israel "Baffling"

It must have something to do with that Christian end-of-days stuff, says the baffled peace proponent on the Al Jazeera site. Which, when you think about it, tells you a lot more about him--his worldview, mindset and prejudices--than it does about Harper and/or Israel.

Update: Here's someone else who's baffled by the speech:

Hanna Kawas, chair of the Canada Palestine Association, called Harper’s speech one-sided, and said the prime minister wrongly overlooked “the crimes” of Israel, which he called a “settler colonial state.”   

“He’s supporting Israel — and blindly,” said Kawas. “It could have been written by (Israeli premier Benjamin) Netanyahu himself . . . . We shouldn’t encourage Israel to continue with their path.”

Yes we should. Because the wretched alternative is on display today in Gaza, Egypt, Syria, et al and etc. (BTW, "Hana Kawas wants to educate people on Canadian complicity in Israeli apartheid"--so you know what kind of knucklehead he is.)

Update: My letter to the Toronto Star (where Kawas's comments appeared):

Hanna Kawas says Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have condemned Israel because it's "a settler colonial state." Leaving aside the fact that the relationship between Jewry and Israel long predates anti-Western theories about colonialism, pretty much every English-speaking democracy, Canada included, started out as a "settler colonial state." So to decry Israel on that basis is to decry Canada, too.

 

Which was rather the point of the prime minister's Knesset speech--that Canada and Israel have much in common, and, faced with many of the same enemies, ones who loathe our common commitment to democracy and freedom, much to defend.