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Canadians don't share Ottawa's pro-Israel tilt By JEFFREY SIMPSON Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - Page A17 Globe and Mail The immense Canadian media coverage of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz reminded everyone who paid attention why so many Jews wanted their own state. The dream of a Jewish state, or homeland, took formal shape at the World Zionist Organization in 1897 at the urging of Theodor Herzl and other Zionists. But it was only after the Second World War, and the horrors it unleashed on European Jewry, that more Jews than ever demanded a homeland. Ever since its creation, Israel has enjoyed, for obvious reasons, a special place in the hearts of world Jewry, and of people of some other faiths, too. There was a time in Canada, for example, when Israel was the political left's darling, and enjoyed considerable popularity across the entire political spectrum. Those days, however, have disappeared, and their disappearance worries some leading members of Canada's Jewish community. The Canadian political left has become almost reflexively critical of Israel, sometimes with great shrillness. If you doubt the switch, hang around an NDP convention when the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict arises. David Lewis, a former NDP leader and a Jew, would be spinning in his grave. Palestinians are now the left's darling, whereas Israel is seen as the oppressor. Israel is no longer the land of kibbutzim and Labour, but of tanks, militant settlers and a Likud-led government. Canadians, as a whole, are surprisingly ignorant of Israel, indeed of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Canadian media cover the conflict incessantly. A handful of news consumers hangs on every word; for most, it's the same eye-glazing, incomprehensible, intractable and therefore uninteresting story. Of special concern to Canadian Jews, however, is the discovery that the more Canadians say they know about that conflict, the greater their support for Palestinians. This was among the fascinating -- and for Canadian Jews, disturbing -- findings of a study of Canadian attitudes toward Israel conducted by Government Policy Consultants, an Ottawa firm, for the recently created Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy. Indeed, the very creation of this new body to enhance the lobbying and public-education efforts of Canadian Jews testifies to the community's worries. Canadian Jewish leaders might have assumed natural support for Israel, another democracy, in its struggle with Palestinians. Not necessarily. Those Canadians who declared themselves "not familiar" with the dispute tended to support Israel. But of those who said they were familiar with the dispute, 32 per cent said they supported the Palestinians, compared to only 26 per cent who supported the Israelis. Reported the GPC study: "The Palestinians are viewed as the underdogs, and Canadians traditionally identify with the underdogs." A lot of Canadian Jews apparently think the media is biased against Israel. This belief is quite wrong, as any reasonably objective reading of the Canadian media would reveal. For every commentator favourable to the Palestinians, a far greater number support Israel, often without qualification. Whatever Canadian Jews believe about the media, Canadians don't share their perspective. Only 11 per cent of Canadians think the media is biased against Israel, compared to a third who see the media as biased against Palestinians. An overwhelming majority of Canadians (89 per cent) blame Israel and the Palestinians equally for the ongoing violence. By a four-to-three margin, Canadians think the essence of the conflict is Palestinian human rights, rather than making Israel safe from terror. The Martin government has been tilting Canadian foreign policy to a more overtly pro-Israel position, including changing Canadian votes at the United Nations. That's not where Canadians want their government to be. A whopping 83 per cent of Canadians do not wish the country to side with either Israel or the Palestinians. A majority obviously think of the dispute as something far away, difficult to understand, and over which Canada has no influence. More than 50 per cent don't think Canada should play any role in helping to resolve the dispute. So blurry is the perception of Israel that fewer than half of Canadians (42 per cent) realize that it has a democratic system of government. The shared values between Israel and Canada are not understood. A large majority of Canadians do not believe that Israel has freedom of speech. Given the immense contributions of Jews to Canadian life in every field, and the attention (largely sympathetic) given Israel in the Canadian media, the results of the GPC study must be sobering indeed. jsimpson@globeandmail.ca Fair Use Notice
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