The decline of Canada continues

Last year Al Jazeera English ran an opinion piece explaining Canada's deepening ties with Israel and it would seem Stephen Harper is now switching his pro-Israeli policies into the domestic arena.

The Canadian Parliamentary Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) has come to the conclusion that criticising Israel is a new form of anti-Semitism even going as far as to say that criticism of Israeli policy in greater amounts than criticism of other countries is an anti-Semite. Policy specialisation is racism if the Right doesn't like the policy you focus on.

The members of the committee must be praised for the insightfulness, they managed to work out the motives and ideas of those who campaign against Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and other crimes without even talking to them. I suppose all the pro-Israeli groups they spoke to filled them in. Better that way, not to waste the campaigners' time.

This, in a way, can be seen as a positive sign. As a short headline on Exiledonline.com pointed out regarding the Israeli outlawing of supporting the boycott it must actually be hitting profits if the Knesset is being forced to acknowledge the opposition and publicly oppose it. With so many things regarding Israel's crimes we see the mainstream media try to ignore it completely (as they did with reporting the boycott law).

It is somewhat trite to mention this specific Gandhi quote these days but still

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

does have a ring of truth. One of the most powerful prerogatives of the powerful is the ability to ignore those below, their complaints and their aspiration. When they actually have to start addressing issues those below them are putting forth then those issues are having some effect.

If organised opposition to Israel and elsewhere wasn't having an effect then there would be no need to start aggressively expanding the idea that criticising Israel is anti-Semitism. Rhetorically this been attempted for years already with Jews such as Chomsky and Finkelstein who criticise Israel being labelled as "self hating Jews" (what a farce). Whether the notion of self hating Jews will be legislated for is yet to be seen in Canada. They will likely just be marginalised "for their own good." No true Jew opposes Israel.

In a war the time you advancing without meeting opposition can be the most dangerous because at that time you don't know where the enemy is. That the Israel lobby is resisting popular organising and boycott so hard suggests it is having an effect.