Point/Counter Point: The Daily Goes to War

Thursday’s edition of the Daily News featured two front page stories about the ongoing conflict in Lebanon. The first a Big Bold Headline feature stating that Canada was urged to continue its Israel support. The front page story featured an in depth article with the consul general of Israel, Ya’acov Brosh.

As every good reporter knows, there are always two and some times many more sides to every story , but with a seeming lack of Hezbollah representatives in the Northwest, the paper called up the MP for the riding Nathan Cullen to provide the counter point, we guess, to the days war reports.

Below, join us as the Daily pulls on its foreign correspondent trench coat and provides both articles from Thursday’s paper, for your comparative study.

CANADA URGED TO CONTINUE ITS ISRAEL SUPPORT
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Pages One and Three

Canada’s support of Israel in that country’s war against the Lebanon-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah coincides with Canadian values, says Ya’acov Brosh, Israel’s consul general.

“We are very much encouraged by the position of Canada… I honestly believe what they do is protect Canadian values and Canadian ideologies,” Brosh told the Daily News.

“Regrettably, and we aren’t mentioning names of states, some countries that have the same values and carry the same liberal ideologies – they speak about freedom and believe in human rights and fighting terrorists and dictatorships – those countries – sometimes forget their ideologies and criticize Israel.

“We are very grateful for the strong position of Canada for human rights, for democracy and for fighting terrorism and violence.”

Opposition members are currently trying to force the government to recall parliament and demand a ceasefire in the war, claiming that Canada has taken sides in the conflict and undermined the country’s capacity to act as a peace broker.

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen has said the country should not support either side because “both sides usually have blood on their hands.”

“To speak in slogans is easy, I don’t understand what he means about blood on the Israeli hands,” said Brosh in response. ”I can ask him if supporting or saying a terrorist organization that believes in the total destruction of the other side … is really a Canadian value.

“But this is maybe something for the Canadian people and voters to answer to the NDP members. I don’t think that the Canadian people believe this is Canadian values.”

Even in the most tragic example of Qana, where 54 people including many women and children were killed, the blood was not on the hands of Israel, he said.

“The citizens were warned two days before the attack that Israel was going to retaliate because 150 rockets were launched in the last week from Qana against Israeli civilians,” said Brosh.

“After two days of spreading flyers and sending messages, Israel had to retaliate because we had to stop the launching of rockets from these villages against our neighbourhoods.

“But the Hezbollah deliberately attack civilians and hid themselves behind the skirts of women and the diapers of babies … this is a terrible tragedy, but the blood is on the hands and on the conscience of Hezbollah, if they have any conscience.”

Much of the opposition criticism directed toward the government position is centered on the idea that Canada should remain neutral, however the consul general stresses that Canada is neutral. The criticism also flies in the face of history as Canada spoke against Britain, France and Israel for moving against Egypt in the 1956 Suez crisis. Canada not only brokered the peace after that but foreign affairs minister Lester Pearson won the Nobel peace prize for it.

“In all due respect, Canada is neutral, Canada is on this side of the ocean and their soldiers are not involved in fighting,” said Brosh. “Canada is neutral, and they are expressing its opinions... according to Canadian values. I think Israeli values are very similar to Canadian values – respect for democracy, the value of human rights and human lives, rights of women … multiculturalism and respect for civil rights.

This is a direct contrast to the values of Hezbollah who commit the murder of civilians, advocate the creation of an absolutist Islamic state and pose not only a threat to Israel but to the entire Western World, he said.

“I think you just have to open your eyes and ears and listen to what the leaders of Hezbollah say,” he said.

“We don’t have to analyze here, just listen. The leaders of Hezbollah speak clearly and openly about the destruction of Israel to ashes. They speak openly and clearly about the fact that Israel has no right to exist.”

“I think most reasonable people understand what’s going on.”

And while Hezbollah is being financed – to the tune of $150 million a year – and trained by Syria and Iraq, they ultimately are operating in Lebanon. In fact, targets in Lebanon were chosen because it is through places like the Beirut airport and seaside ports that the terrorist group is picking up the weapons they use to kill Israeli civilians, said the consul general.

“The government of Lebanon for six years refused repeated demands from the UN security council, from many countries in the world, to dismantle Hezbollah,” said Brosh. “Some people claimed they were too weak, but there is a solution for a government that is too weak and has a terrorist organization operating in their land.

“They could have approached the international community ... but they didn’t do it, they just refused.”

After repeated attacks by militants and numerous kidnappings of Israeli citizens since the country withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, the offensive is a result of the July 12 Hezbollah attack that the consul general calls “the straw breaking the camel’s back.”

“We don’t want to live anymore, for our citizens to live, under the threat of Hezbollah terrorist missiles and rockets,’ he said. “We didn’t attack them, we don’t attack them, we don’t want to attack we don’t want to have a situation where we must defend ourselves. We want it stopped.

“We wish that this war will be over as soon as possible and that this will be over as soon as possible and that this will be the last one. That is genuinely what every Israeli will tell you.”


CULLEN AND NDP CALL FOR CEASEFIRE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Page One

Prime Minister Stephen Harper must call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East or recall Parliament for an emergency debate on the issue, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said.

“Harper can’t continue to follow the Bush administration and ignore how the majority of Canadians want their government to act,” he said.

A poll earlier this week by the Strategic Counsel showed nearly 50 per cent of all Canadians disagree with Harper’s support of Israel and close to 80 per cent said Canada should be neutral in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Harper came in and changed a long-standing position of Canadian neutrality in the Middle East and has now switched over to a pro-Israeli side to the point of insensitivity,” said Cullen.

“When a Canadian working at a United Nations (UN) observer station was killed, our Prime Minister criticized the UN for even being there at all, and said it was their fault for having been blown up bay an Israeli bomb.”

Cullen said the NDP wants to see a multi-national UN force step in and create a buffer between the two sides. How Canada could participate remains to be seen, he said, given that all the country’s military forces are tied up in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan until 2009.

“It seems like we have put all of our eggs into the basket in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, stretching our resources to such a point where many of our military officials are saying you don’t have the resources to go anywhere else,” he said. “It’s disabled Canada’s chance of responding to situations anywhere else in the world.”

And bringing about an end to the conflict is going to require the backing of the U. S., he said.

“One call from the White House is what causes a ceasefire to happen,” he said.

“Israel could not do what it’s doing without the permission of and support of the Bush administration.”

If Israel isn’t attack, Cullen said Hezbollah loses all of its public support for attacking back.

A United Nations force could then cut off Hezbollah’s supply for years,” he said.

“We know countries like Syria have been supplying Hezbollah for years,” he said.

He added that routing out Hezbollah cannot be done through bombing campaigns.

“Part of the problem is that Lebanon is not a normal country by country definitions. It is not all run by its federal government. Hezbollah runs the social and health and a lot of different things in the south. That has to be taken out toot and branch,” he said. “You can’t just drop a bomb on a house and take out Hezbollah. It has to be a much more complete action.

While the NDP have asked for the Conservatives to recall Parliament in order to debate the situation. Cullen said it’s unlikely to happen, given that the Conservatives ignored calls by the Liberals, Bloc and NDP for a recall over the softwood lumber agreement.

He said the Liberals have yet to take a firm position on the current conflict as they are too wrapped up in their leadership race.