In the past, I’ve expressed surprise and dismay that the modern leftwing movement appears to have aligned itself with some fairly distressing bedfellows. You generally find that the people most likely to give the benefit of the doubt to suspected terrorists are from the left. When it comes to the war in Afghanistan or Iraq, it’s never the suicide bombers or the Taliban or al-Qaeda that get condemned, but western troops.
It’s no different in terms of Israel. There seems to be a direct relation between the leftwing movement and support for Palestine. Disturbingly, that support remains strong even in the face of direct evidence that the leftists are in the wrong. The recent Flotilla incident—since revealed to have been a provocation by Turkey and assorted anti-Israeli groups—is a perfect example of this.
89-year-old Helen Thomas, who was a reporter for 57 years before becoming a White House Bureau Chief, recently ended her career after suggesting the Jews should “go home” and “get the hell out of Palestine.” These intemperate remarks prompted praise from such upstanding organizations as Hezbollah.
Israel did not react particularly well to Thomas’ statements that the Jews should return to Europe. Understandable, given that many residents of the country are descendants of people who fled the Nazis or are actual survivors of the Holocaust themselves. Thomas quickly apologized but the damage was done. She offered her resignation and went into retirement.
Now turn to Canada’s version of Helen Thomas, NDP MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) who recently said on video that Israel’s illegal occupation began in 1948, the year the new country was born. The original borders, of course, did not contain the territories of Gaza and the West Bank which were seized in 1967 to preempt an Arab attack.
The Ottawa Citizen rebuked Davies in an editorial today, calling her a “hater” for not recognizing Israel’s right of self-determination and the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
But Davies is backtracking, offering an apology on her website by way of explaining a “serious and completely inadvertent error.” Now Davies says she has always supported a two-state solution to the conflict and has never questioned Israel’s self-determination.
It’s quite a serious error indeed to mix up the dates of original war of independence and the Six Day War. After Israel repelled the first Arab invasion in 1948, Israel negotiated an agreement with Egypt to maintain control of the Gaza Strip, and to allow Jordan to retain control of “Judea and Samaria”, or the “West Bank”. It was only to ward off a second major invasion in 1967 that Israel decided to take strategic control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
One is left to wonder whether Davies raelly made an inadvertent error or if the NDP pushed her to retract her original comments for the good of the party.
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