Politician under fire for alleged anti-Israel comments
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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has joined a growing list of politicians calling for the resignation of a senior member of Parliament who allegedly questioned Israel’s right to exist.
Harper said Libby Davies, a leader of the opposition New Democratic Party, should step aside following her comments at an anti-Israel rally in Vancouver.
Asked in a video interview whether the “occupation of Israel” began in 1948 or 1967, Davies replied, “’48. … It’s the longest occupation in the world.”
In the House of Commons, Harper called Davies’ remark “a fundamental denial of Israel’s right to exist. It repeats the kinds of comments that were made by [veteran White House journalist] Helen Thomas on which she was forced to resign, and the member of the NDP who said that should be forced to resign as well.”
On her website, Davies wrote that her comment “was a serious and completely inadvertent error; I apologize for this and regret any confusion it has caused. I have always supported a two-state solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have never questioned Israel’s right to exist and the Palestinians’ right to a viable state.” — jta
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06/19/2010 at 03:58 PM
Libby Davies illustrates well and clearly the basically duplicitous nature of the “critical of Israel” movement. She makes all the seemingly reasonable arguments about it being about the settlements or the embargo of Gaza, and denies anti-semitism and hints at the power of Canadian Jewry to silence innocent and honorable critics like herself.
She smiles a lot and has a nice cherubic face and motherly manner.
But Shakespeare tells us, “(s)he may smile and smile and still be a villain.”
By dating the occupation from 1948, she made it clear that she denies the right of Israel to exist. She denies the right of the Jews and only of the Jews to their own country.
She is hostile to Israel’s blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas but is silent about Egypt’s blockade to do exactly the same thing. One hardly has to ask why the difference.
It is worth watching the video of her remarks to see how pleasant and seemingly reasonableness candy-coating on the poison pill of polite Jew-hatred can be made to seem.
Search on ‘Libby Davies Israel remarks video’ on Google to see her remarks.
The next time one sees a reasonable and moderate “criticism of Israel” that criticizes no one else, remember Libby Davies, the polite reasonable motherly face of antisemitism.
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