Is Canada part of Israel’s military?

[Yves Engler documents Canada's military connections to the apartheid state of Israel and the part played by Christian Zionists. Some military experts say Israel's Mossad did 9-11. If so, wouldn't military ties with Israel decrease Canada's security? Just asking. mw]

May 10, 2013 · 11:32

Harper’s Conservatives promote military ties to Israel

While the Harper Conservative government has loudly proclaimed its close ties to Israel, most Canadians would be surprised to learn the Tories have decided to make the two countries blood brothers. In the international affairs equivalent of a Mafia initiation ceremony Canada has sworn undying loyalty and to be a faithful soldier in Israel’s cause.

Think that’s an exaggeration? Consider the following:

• Since Stephen Harper took office the two nations defence ministers and top generals have repeatedly visited each other’s country. These visits have resulted in various accords and “the [two] countries have agreed to exchange secret defense information,” according to a June 2012 CBC summary of government briefing notes.

• The week before last the head of Canadian Forces visited Israel to deepen “cooperation between the two militaries.” Reportedly, Thomas Lawson met his Israeli counterpart, the Defense Minister and various other senior military officers. According to a Jerusalem Post summary, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon called for Canada and Israel to “further increase their cooperation in the fight against terror in light of the upheaval in the Middle East and Iran’s role in fueling the region’s conflicts.”

• In 2008 Canada and Israel signed a wide-ranging public security agreement and for the first time in its history in 2011 Israel named a defense attaché to Ottawa. Until at least the end of 2010 the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv served as Israel’s Contact Point Embassy to NATO, the military alliance of Western nations. The embassy served as the liaison between Israel and NATO, assisting with visits of NATO officials to Israel. According to internal government documents examined by The Dominion, Ottawa worked to strengthen Israel’s partnership with the military alliance, helping its “pursuit of a Status of Forces Agreement, getting access to the NATO Maintenance Supply Agency, [redacted].”

• In February 2010 deputy foreign minister Peter Kent implied that Canada already considered Israel a member of NATO, which operates according to the principle that an attack on any member is considered an attack against all members. Reflecting the alliance’s purported principle, Kent said “an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada” and in July 2011 defence minister Peter MacKay reiterated this position privately. According to briefing notes uncovered by CBC he told Israel’s top military commander, Gabi Ashkenazi that “a threat to Israel is a threat to Canada.”

• At the same time as official military relations have intensified there has been an increase in weapons sharing and relations between Israeli and Canadian arms manufacturers. At a November 2011 press conference with his Israeli counterpart defense minister MacKay described the two countries’ “growing relations in the defense sector.” Among the more significant examples, the Canadian military bought the Israeli-made Heron drone for use in Afghanistan and Israel’s Elisra Electronics Systems is working on upgrading a dozen Halifax-class warships.

• Despite the Israeli Defense Force’s many human rights violations, many Canadian companies sell weapons directly to Israel. According to a 2009 Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade report, more than 140 Canadian weapons makers export products to Israel. Last year British Columbia-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates won a $90+ million contract to supply Israel Aerospace Industries with satellite technology. The December 2011 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs detailed some Canadian military exports to Israel. “Ottawa’s Allen Vanguard Corporation provides ‘counterterrorist’ equipment and training. iMPath Networks of Ottawa and Halifax design solutions for real-time video surveillance and intrusion detection technology. Mecachrome Technologies, based in Montréal and Toronto, provides components for military aircraft. And MPB Technologies of Pointe Claire, Edmonton, Airdrie and Calgary manufacturers, among other things, communications equipment and robotics for [Israeli] military use. … British Columbia-based 360 Surveillance sells technology for Israel’s apartheid wall and checkpoints.”

• Taxpayers often underwrite ties between Canadian and Israeli military companies. The multimillion dollar Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation funds research projects (including many in the “security” field) between the two countries’ corporations. (For details see Kole Kilibarda’s Canadian and Israeli Defense -Industrial and Homeland Security Ties: An Analysis).

To the extent that the dominant media questions the Harper government’s pro-Israel policies they focus on public pronouncements, UN votes and other diplomatic moves such as foreign minister John Baird’s recent meeting with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in occupied East Jerusalem (a rare occurrence designed to further legitimize Israel’s illegal control over that part of the city). But, deepening Canadian security ties with Israel may be more significant than the Conservatives anti-Palestinian public statements and UN votes.

For instance, what role do growing ties between the two countries’ military leadership play in the Conservatives extremely hostile position towards Iran? Or, is there a connection between the Canada Israel public security agreement and the RCMP’s highly suspect recent claim that two operatives with “direction and guidance” from “al-Qaeda elements in Iran” planned to blow up a major Canadian bridge? Finally, what role do growing military ties play in spurring the Conservatives’ anti-Palestinian diplomatic moves?

Though little discussed, the military is an important element of the Conservatives ‘Israel no matter what’ policy. In addition to the Jewish establishment, Christian Zionism and the role Israel plays as a Western outpost in the Middle East, the Conservatives militaristic tendencies lead them to support that country. Harper’s government, for instance, is close to the Canadian military companies that sell to Israel and do business with that country’s top-flight weapons industry. Additionally, Canadian military leaders appreciate the tactical information and expertise Israel’s well-practiced military shares.

Like a wanna-be gangster looking up to a Mafia boss, the Harperites are impressed by the large role Israel’s military plays in the country’s affairs.

Ordinary Canadians should be concerned. Very concerned.

Boston’s Prelude To Martial Law

Brother Nathanael sets the record straight.

Boston Martial Law In Action

Jews Escalate Anti-Christian Persecution

Desecrate Holy Site; Israeli Government, Rabbis Complicit

The entry door to the Church of the Dormition on Mount Zion, near the site of the Last Supper and just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, bearing the graffiti “Jesus, son of a bitch, price tag” (Oct. 1, 2012). The latter is a term used by radical settlers lashing out against opponents.

By Peter Strahl

The racist, apartheid state of Israel has always persecuted Christians in the Holy Land. The wanton destruction of churches, lives and property has been nearly continuous and can only be called genocidal, as we have documented previously both in American Free Press and The Barnes Review. But nearly daily reports from occupied Palestine demonstrate that the savagery has increased dramatically in the last few years, especially since Benjamin Netanyahu has been prime minister. Now, however, the oppression has taken a particularly sinister direction.

Graffiti on a Baptist Church in Jerusalem, Feb. 20, 2012. The Hebrew slogans read: “We will crucify you” and “Death to Christianity” (AFP, Menahem Kahana)

An increasing number of Israeli Jews now dare to attack the holiest shrines in Christianity, in sacrilegious and blasphemous moves offending the deepest convictions and sensibilities of Christians not only in Palestine, but throughout the world.

Read how Jews have been brutalizing Christians for hundreds of years.

Recently, a group of Jewish religious zealots went so far as to profane the place where Jesus Christ celebrated the Last Supper before His crucifixion, where He instituted both the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood. Apart from Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is no holier place for Christians. So the outrage can be imagined, which was occasioned when the Zionists smeared with obscenities the door of the Franciscan friary which guards the room of the Last Supper. Or there would have been outrage, had the Zionist-controlled media reported the event. Thus is the Vatican rewarded for its false irenicism toward such people. And thus do such people engender the anti-Semitism they deplore.

Learn how Christian Palestinians have been brutalized by Jews during the past 25 years.

One Jewish Israeli, Meir Margalit, a member of the Jerusalem city council, has been in the forefront of opposition to the destruction of Palestinian homes. By his own words, he was left speechless by the gravity of his countrymen’s latest actions. In a recent article on the German Catholic web-site, “Kreuz.net”, he makes clear that this is not an isolated incident by a fringe group, but that such “extremists” now make up the majority of Israelis.

Margalit tells how his Franciscan friends are regularly derided and abused in public, even having stones and eggs thrown at them and—fulfilling the dictum of the Talmud—being spat upon by “religious” Jews. Margalit lays the blame for the increase of anti-Christian barbarity squarely at the feet of the Israeli government and the rabbis, who, he says, have the power to stop the harm but refuse to do so. He might have added that it is often the Israeli Defense Forces which are responsible for the most destructive and deadly terror against Christians and Palestinians.

As a consequence, Margalit, who is himself being persecuted in Israeli courts for his defense of Palestinians, foresees an increase in retaliatory behavior against Jews in other countries due to Israeli belligerence. He states that, according to Hebrew tradition, the Jewish temple was destroyed, in part, due to Jewish lack of respect for one’s neighbor. He predicts the collapse of the state of Israel, “not on account of external enemies, but because of the [Israeli] lack of human moral and ethical values.”

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Peter Strahl is the pseudonym of a freelance German language translator for AFP and The Barnes Review. He is also the author of a report on Bethlehem and Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, which appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2012 issue of The Barnes Review.

Galicia (Spain) Blocks Resolution against so-called “Holocaust”

By Adrian Gauss

Holocaust, Zionism & Judaica

March 29, 2013

Xosé Manuel Beiras

A resolution commemorating the victims of the Holocaust was vetoed by the spokesmen of party leaders in the northwestern Spanish province of Galicia. Before a resolution can be submitted to that regional parliament, a Council of Speakers must approve of it, and that’s where it was stonewalled by the spokesmen of the left-wing electoral coalition AGE (Alternativa Galega de Esquerda, Galician Left Alternative) and by the BNG (Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Galician Nationalist Block).

The event has reached a broader public by the Jewish propaganda outlet Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) in a press release on March 22 in an attempt to put both party spokespersons under pressure. They lamented that “party officials said they viewed Holocaust commemoration as part of Israeli propaganda.” (See also here for those able to read Spanish.

Xosé-Manuel Beiras, Professor of Economy at the University of Santiago de Compostela, is the leader of AGE (see top photo). Asked why he had rejected the resolution, he stated:

“We do not want to support a statement promoted by the State of Israel which is dyed in the wool of imperialism. We have repeatedly condemned the [Jewish] Holocaust but have never condemned any of the other [genocides].”

Mr. Beiras argues that Israel is NOT a democratic state and continues committing genocide against the Palestinian people. He added that Arab prisoners are tortured in Jewish prisons and “nobody says anything.”

To change their attitude toward the proposed resolution, parliamentarians demand that the genocides against other groups are mentioned in it as well, like the extermination of the Kurds, the Armenians, and the Palestinians themselves. The latter is being perpetrated by many more “state actors” than just the Israeli entity.

Yolanda Díaz, leader of “Esquerda Unida,” which is part of the electoral coalition AGE

The president of the Galician Association for Friendship with Israel, Pedro Gómez-Valadés, criticized the veto and the demands made to pass it, stating that the resolution was meant to be only about a certain event in history and is “unrelated to what happens today.” Gómez-Valadés is obviously either mendacious or utterly detached from reality, since it is self-evident that the abuse of the Jewish “Holocaust” is Zionism’s sword in its imperialistic endeavors and its shield against any criticism.

Just read what is written on one of the zillion websites promoting the eternal and isolationist commemoration of the “Holocaust,” here a German self-flagellation website:

“Some people even deny that the Holocaust happened. As time passes, and as we move further away from the Nazi period, we need to ask ourselves how best to communicate such events that still affect all of us.”

But have we Americans, or the Germans, or the Jews learned anything from this Jewish “Holocaust”? Apparently not, because they are all merrily engaged in the genocide against the Palestinians: the Zionists, Jews and gentiles among them, as the main actors, and the Americans and Germans as the main supporters and cheerleaders. Which proves that commemorating the Jewish “Holocaust” in isolation is actually furthering new genocides.

Although the Galician parliament did pass resolutions commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in the years 2010-2012 on occasions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27), this time the Galician Jews had to do without it. As Beiras said one time:

“Israel is a racist state insisting on the expropriation of territory and even – if possible – on the extermination of the Palestinian people.”

It looks like Galician politicians actually have morals and a spine. Let’s hope that they will not succumb to the pressure exerted by the non-existing powerful Jewish-Zionist lobby in coming months and years.

Mennonites calling for an immediate end to violence in Syria

Electrical stoves purchased with Mennonite Central Committee funds help to keep the children warm as they attend National Evangelical School in Homs, Syria. (Photo courtesy of National Evangelical School)

Calling for an immediate end to violence in Syria

Sarah Adams
February 18, 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The first time I went to Syria through my work with Mennonite Central Committee, almost four years ago, I was unable to access social networking websites. Today, the armed conflict prohibits me from entering the country, but I get a lot of my daily updates through my Facebook feed.

Recently I was chatting with a friend in Aleppo:
Me:  How are you? Are you safe?
Friend:  No one is safe here.

Naive question to someone in a city under siege, I admit. He’s right. Throughout the country, no one knows where violence will break out next. As the conflict has grown, cities that were home to people of all faiths and ethnicities and enjoyed calm for months have suddenly been caught up in the violence.

My friend goes on:
Friend: They are fighting now around the main electric generator. My friend who volunteers in the area told me that both armies won’t leave the station until it is totally destroyed. No electricity now and soon no water.
Me: Who’s benefiting from all of this destruction?
Friend: Everyone but the Syrians are benefiting.

Theories abound about what’s going on in Syria. The growth in the number of non-Syrian fighters, coupled with weapons shipments to both government and opposition fighters from other countries, raises questions about who is really fueling the conflict. MCC partners in Syria often wonder aloud what other countries hope to gain, either from the status quo or from a change in regime.

Meanwhile, millions of people are struggling to feed and shelter themselves. Cooking gas is no longer available in shops and is prohibitively expensive on the black market. People can’t heat their homes in the current freezing temperatures because they can’t afford the diesel needed for the heating stoves. Forests that were hundreds of years old have been cut down for firewood.

Hundreds of thousands of children have been forced to stop their schooling, and state of the art vocational training centers have been turned into shelters for displaced people. Young boys that are able to go to school have been kidnapped on their way to class as opportunists seek a quick profit, requesting high ransoms for their release.

Local churches and community groups have worked tirelessly to meet the needs. To help them in their efforts, MCC has contributed food, blankets, hygiene kits, skills training and other support worth more than $2 million. I speak with Syrians each week who express gratitude that they have not been forgotten.

So my friend asks:
Friend: How do you see the situation in Syria developing? Where is this country headed?
Me: I wish I knew. I don’t know why the international community is waiting to push for an end to the violence.
Friend: We are sick of waiting. But there is nothing we can do on the ground. We have no support.
Me: It seems everyone’s fate is in the hands of a few powerful people and the regular people are forgotten.
Friend: Exactly. But listen. There are still many guys here really working who want to change the situation for the better.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Syria is not composed only of a government army and opposition fighters. Yet, I know from MCC’s work with church and community groups and youth that millions of Syrians don’t believe violence is the way to end the increasingly complex conflict.

In Homs, volunteers risk their lives to bring basic food and medical care into conflict-riddled areas, and families open their homes to displaced people. In Aleppo, where schools have been closed due to the violence, teachers have set up informal centers where children can keep up their lessons and add a familiar routine to their otherwise terrifying days.

In Qalamoun, people of goodwill have turned their homes into staging grounds for donations and distributions. In Ras al-Ayn, where Christians have been displaced and churches have been vandalized, residents of other faiths enter the church towers each day to ring the bells and keep the spirit of unity alive.

My friend says he wonders how long hope can carry people:
Friend: We need more than food. We need to stop the violence, stop the destruction.
Me: Many people I know are putting pressure on the U.S. government to do something to end the violence and destruction.
Friend: If it lasts much longer, we will be starving. But if the war stopped now, everyone would be ready to work and life would go on, and the money that is being spent now on food could be spent on developing the country.

Until then, MCC’s Syrian partners have new people come to them each week with urgent requests for daily survival. For the many people who lived a comfortable life until just a few months ago, there is much shame in asking for help. Finding ways to help people maintain a sense of dignity as they seek assistance is an important part of the MCC work.

The only hope to reduce the resources needed for the humanitarian catastrophe is to end the violence. While aid addresses the very real symptoms of the problem, it will never solve the conflict. As long as the conflict rages on, the suffering will only intensify.

Because of the power outages, my friend has been chatting on Facebook with me through his cell phone. It’s time to say goodbye:
Me: I wish there was a voice among Syrians who want an end to the conflict that is as strong as the voice of the government or the voice of the opposition.
Friend: We are here. We just need others to hear our voice.

The conflict in Syria has reached its two-year mark, and for many Syrians, it is a time of mourning. Those brave enough to stand on the side of peace and to speak out against both government and opposition violence deserve to be heard. Women and men of all faiths, in all areas of the country, are praying each day for an end to the violence, serving their neighbors as they wait for peace to come.

Join the people of Syria in their prayers for an immediate end to the violence. Tell your government officials to urgently seek a nonviolent, political solution to end the conflict. Stand with the Syrian people by donating funds for food, shelter, education and reconciliation efforts inside the country.

To learn more about how to speak to the U.S. government on this issue, how to send humanitarian support to Syria and how MCC is responding, visit mcc.org/middleeastcrisis.

Mennonite Central Committee: Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ

Sarah Adams is the MCC representative for Syria and Lebanon. From Westerville, Ohio, Adams lives in Beirut, Lebanon

Jewish Crime, Corruption, and Scandal

[Our friend Richard Edmondson has some startling revelations in his weekly Rogues Gallery. mw]

Weekly Rogues Gallery

Welcome one and all, Gentile and Jew alike. Wishing everyone a pleasant day. This is our periodic look at Jewish crime, corruption, and scandal, and today we’ve got some fascinating tidbits to share with you. We’ll be telling you about an Israeli soldier who calls himself a “proud racist;” we’ll learn about an Israeli rabbi formerly convicted of rape; and we’ll also be returning to the widening scandal at New York’s Yeshiva University, where—get this—a top dean has gone on record as saying that child sex abuse allegations should not be reported to the police because…(drum roll please)…it could result in a Jew being locked up in a jail cell with a black inmate who conceivably might want to kill him.

Yes, there are Jews who hold racist beliefs. You knew that. But today we’re going to give you an idea of how pervasive such beliefs are amongst the “chosen people,”—I mean, egads! there really are lots of racist Jews out there!—and we’ll also be showing you how Jews, particularly in Israel, are becoming so emboldened they are expressing their racism openly. So without further ado, let’s open up this week’s gallery door and peek inside. Read more.

Members of Parliament Who Voted To Throw You Into Jail Because of Your Religious Beliefs

Here’s how Canadian Members of Parliament voted for Protecting Freedom (Bill C-304): 153 voted Yes (for freedom), while 136 voted No (against freedom).

I was surprised that the one lone Green Party MP, Elizabeth May, and Independent MP Bruce Hyer, who could have been Parliament’s conscience for freedom of expression, followed the herd of Bolshevik-minded MPs who want to throw you into jail or be fined for expressing your religious views, for expressing politically incorrect opinions, for expressing unofficial historical stories, for hurting someone’s feeling, and on and on.

Fortunately, MPs who favoured freedom of expression won the vote in the House of Commons despite hypocritical MPs who talk “human rights” out of one side of their mouths and deny it with their actions.

It was easy for the Conservative MPs (majority in government) to vote in favour of freedom. But I give special credit to Liberal MP Scott Simms of Newfoundland who voted for freedom of expression and didn’t follow his party line.

But the enemies of freedom are ever present and active. And Bill C-304 is not yet Canadian law. The Bill is tied up in the Senate and might die on the order paper.

Canadians can contact their Senators to ask them to resume debate and vote on Bill C-304 (Protecting Freedom). Let’s do it (unless you really do like jail or heavy fines for hurting someone’s feelings).