Had I known you harbored such hostility toward the State of Israel I would have never lent you my support.

On July 14th, 2006, Alexa McDonough, the New Democratic Party (NDP) Critic for Foreign Affairs & International Development, wrote an open letter to Peter MacKay, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, concerning “Canada’s unbalanced Middle East position.”  In October 1995, this author served as the Convention Youth Organizer for Alexa McDonough’s successful bid to become leader of the Federal NDP, a position she held until 2002.  The following is an open letter to Alexa McDonough.

July 29, 2006

Alexa McDonough, M.P.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
CANADA

Dear Alexa,

Many years have passed since we were last in touch. 

You might be aware that I am no longer a member of the NDP.  You might also be aware that I am now a Republican and a supporter of President George W. Bush.

I left the NDP, quite frankly, after your reaction to the events of September 11, 2001, when you still led the Party.  At a time when bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, instead of showing compassion to those who lost loved ones you chose to chide the United States when you said, “No country should appoint itself judge, jury or executioner.”  If a country cannot defend itself when attacked in an unprovoked manner, when can it defend itself?  Your words demonstrated that for the NDP anti-Americanism overrides all other considerations.  You subsequently opposed the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban and Canada’s participation in the mission and continue to do so.  

Shortly after 9/11, I wrote you an e-mail expressing my anger and outrage at the Party’s position and that I could no longer be a member or supporter of the NDP.  Not surprisingly, I did not receive a reply to that e-mail.

Well, nearly five years have passed and I cannot say you or the NDP have done much to persuade me otherwise.  If anti-Americanism is the raison-d’être of the NDP then hostility towards the State of Israel is sure to follow.  This sentiment was put on ample display in your July 14th letter to the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Where shall I begin? 

Well, how about the first line of your letter.  You write, “I wish to express outrage at your government’s response to the destruction levelled (sic) by Israel on the innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Talk about a loaded statement.  You leave one with the impression that Israel just out of the clear blue sky decided to wreak havoc on the lives of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon for the sheer fun of it.

Sure you acknowledge that, “The world has rightly condemned the killings and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers,” but you qualify your statement by adding, “however Israel’s response has been illegal, brutal and disproportionate.” 

You never condemn either Hamas or Hezbollah for kidnapping and killing Israelis soldiers.  Nor do you condemn Iran or Syria for their military and financial support of Hezbollah and Hamas.  All your condemnations were reserved for the State of Israel.

Like many others, you have described Israel’s actions as “disproportionate.”  So what should Israel have done?  What would you have deemed a proportionate response?  Predictably, you have no solution to offer other than decrying the Conservative government’s “desire to appease George Bush.”  Very well.  Let me then yield the floor for a moment to a member of the Bush Administration, namely John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on July 23rd Bolton said, “What Hezbollah has done is kidnap Israeli soldiers and rain rockets and mortar shells on innocent Israeli civilians.  What Israel has done in response is act in self-defense.  And I don’t quite know what the argument about proportionate force means here.  Is Israel entitled only to kidnap two Hezbollah operatives and fire a couple of rockets aimlessly into Lebanon?”

As you ponder Bolton’s pointed question let me draw your attention to the two most disturbing sentences in your letter:

Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah must all assume responsibility for their actions.  However, it is impossible to ignore Israel’s disproportionate response.

Again with Israel’s disproportionate response.

Now stay with me for a minute.  Israel is a democratic Jewish nation state that amongst other things promotes equality for women, has a vibrant trade union movement and is the only place in the Middle East where one will find a gay pride parade.  Hamas and Hezbollah’s sole mission is to eradicate Israel and replace it with an Islamic fundamentalist state where there would be no equality for women, no vibrant trade union movement nor any gay pride parades.

Yet not only do you lump Israel together with Hamas and Hezbollah, you go beyond and state that it is “impossible to ignore Israel’s disproportionate response.”  Not difficult to ignore but impossible to ignore.  Do you have the audacity to tell me that Israel is not only no different than Hamas and Hezbollah, but that it is even worse?

It would seem so because you then proceed to describe the nature of what you believe to be Israel’s disproportionate response.

First, you object to Israel bombing the Palestinian Interior Ministry and other government offices as well as the arrest of “duly elected Palestinian parliamentarians.”  

The last time I checked the Palestinian Authority is governed by Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the State of Israel.  By launching rockets into Israel and then entering Israeli territory to kill two Israeli soldiers and kidnap another, the Palestinian Authority committed an act of war.  Israel is fully within its rights to target Palestinian Authority governmental entities.  Elected Palestinian parliamentarians are also complicit in seeking Israel’s destruction.  What about the 120 duly elected members of the Israeli Knesset who have both a duty and obligation to protect their populace from both external and internal attacks?  Or does the security of Jewish civilians no longer count in the NDP’s policy book?

Second, you decry Israel for “bombing of Palestinian infrastructure including a power station that was the sole generator of electricity and running water for hundreds of thousands of Gazans.”

What can I say here.  This is war.  What Israel is doing to the infrastructure in Gaza is no different than what the Allies did to the infrastructure in Germany and other Axis powers during the Second World War.   That having been said, Israel has been praised by both the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) and the International Red Cross (organizations that are generally not sympathetic to Israel) for providing food, medical and fuel supplies to those Gazans residing in the affected areas.  Israel is going above and beyond the call of duty in minimizing and mitigating collateral damage.

Third, you condemn Israel for the “destruction of the Lebanese airport.”  Presumably you are referring to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.  An airport known to be a transfer point for weapons and supplies to Hezbollah and therefore a legitimate military target.  Yes, civilians also utilize this airport.   Which is why Israel dropped leaflets all over southern Lebanon warning Lebanese civilians to stay away from the southern part of Beirut where the airport is situated.  It might have been useful to mention these facts but then again if you did the NDP might lose the Hezbollah vote.

Fourth, you condemn the Israeli air and naval blockade of Lebanon because it prevented “Lebanese as well as Canadian citizens, including many of my constituents, from returning to or leaving Lebanon.”  

I do not believe it is a good idea to be advising your constituents to return to Lebanon.  On its website, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada “advises against all travel to this country.”  Such advice is irresponsible and undermines the efforts of the Canadian Embassy in Beirut to ensure the safety of Canadians still in Lebanon.

Maybe Hezbollah should have thought about potential blockades before entering Israel to kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers and launching rockets against civilians.  This is the price of war.  Besides, Israel had to take steps to ensure that it was not attacked by air and sea.  In the early stages of Israel’s counteroffensive it would have been simply too dangerous to allow civilian passage on water or in air.   What if a civilian ship or plane had fallen victim to collateral damage as a result of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah?  You would have been the first to condemn Israel for allowing such a thing to have transpired.  Since your letter, Israel has relaxed the sea blockade to allow food and medical assistance to come into Lebanon and assist those leaving Lebanon, including Canadians. 

Finally, you condemn Israel for “killing scores of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, including children.”   Such a statement assumes that Israel deliberately and maliciously killed Palestinian and Lebanese civilians for the sake of doing so.  Israel has made every effort to minimize civilian casualties often at the peril of their own soldiers.  But no matter what measures Israel takes civilians will be killed in this war.  It cannot be avoided in this war or in any war.  If you were truly concerned about Palestinian and Lebanese civilians you would condemn Hezbollah and Hamas for having their base of operations in and amongst civilian populations.  Not only do you not condemn Hezbollah and Hamas for these practices you cannot bring yourself to even acknowledge them.  I am, for one, very saddened that you cannot discern between Hezbollah or Hamas — which deliberately kills as many civilians as possible in order to advance their cause of a world without Israel – and Israel, which makes every effort not to kill civilians and has bent over backwards to try to live peaceably amongst hostile neighbors.  

More than a decade has passed since the former leader of the Prince Edward Island NDP, Dr. Herb Dickieson, convinced me to support your bid for the Federal NDP leadership following a leadership candidates debate at an NDP Federal Council meeting in Ottawa.  Had I known then you harbored such hostility toward the State of Israel I would have never lent you my support.  Of course, I cannot change the past.  However, I have come to regret my support for you and the party I once held so dear. 

I find it both amusing and ironic that you should take Minister MacKay and his government to task for “Canada’s unbalanced Middle East position” and “call on Israel to halt its assault on Lebanon.”  If Israel is the aggressor in a conflict that saw Hamas and Hezbollah launch rockets against Israeli civilians and enter Israeli territory to kidnap and kill its soldiers, then we will all need nausea pills to keep our stomachs from turning because your position is dizzying.  The only thing that is disproportionate here is your eagerness and that of the NDP to blame Israel for this unwanted conflict.

Yours cordially,
Aaron Goldstein
Boston, Massachusetts