— Feature, Musings —03.16.2024 04:37 PM
My latest: Global Affairs is a disgrace
Is Canada’s foreign policy dominated by Jew-hating bigots?
Good question. Listen to what one of our most senior diplomats had to say:
“Israelis exercise an unhealthy influence over North America. There is no other influence on government which remotely approaches the influence of the Israeli lobby. They have infiltrated government, there’s no question about it.”
He pauses.
“When I offended ZOG, it was obviously no problem whatever to have me dismissed.”
The speaker is Ian Verner Macdonald, Canada’s second-most powerful diplomat in the Middle East for many years. The ZOG he is referring to is the “Zionist Occupied Government.” ZOG is the acronym that is popular among neo-Nazis and Jew-haters to describe the democratically-elected governments of the West.
Among Macdonald’s friends – among those he’d given support to, and a place to meet and sleep – was the Grand Wizard of the Canadian Knights in the Ku Klux Klan. All while Macdonald was a senior Canadian diplomat, one who received promotion after promotion for years. One who was described by his superiors as “exceptional” and “brilliant.”
Macdonald is dead now, occupying a spot in Hell alongside his fellow Hitler freaks and cross-burners. But, when one looks at yesterday’s photo of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly smiling and gripping the hand of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, one has to wonder:
Are people like Ian Verner Macdonald still running the place? Does Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs still have an anti-Semitism problem?
Because it sure looks like it.
This writer has long held the view that Joly is one of the the worst cabinet ministers in the country’s history. But, even for her, clutching Abbas’ hand like a child on a school trip was going way too far. The uncontradicted evidence is that Abbas is a corrupt, venal Holocaust denier who has applauded Hitler and regularly likens Jews to Nazis.
There was Joly, cheerfully clutching Abbas’ claw – Abbas, the aging Jew-hating racketeer, one who even Hamas will not give the time of day. But perhaps it makes sense.
After all, Joly is the minister who, in just the past week or so, has reinstated funding to a United Nations organization whose employees participated in the barbarity of October 7; moved to choke off the legal sale of non-lethal military exports to Israel; and whose government is trying to prevent Jews from keeping kosher religious dietary laws.
Scratch the surface in her department, and one will see there seems to be a problem within Foreign Affairs. Here’s just a few examples:
- Middle East Relations desk officer Jessica Yassine has posted on her social media platforms statements to the effect that Israel is “massacring” people, and has attacked the Ontario government for “crushing Palestinian activism”
- Women, Peace and Security Ambassador senior advisor Panthea Pourmalek, who has promoted statements that the Jewish state is in “moral decay”
- Middle Eastern Relations specialist Lamya Hussain, who has written essays for “Electronic Intifada” suggesting that Hamas-era “fallen soldiers” are “martyrs”
- Senior Gulf States Desk Officer Omar Alihashi, who once wrote that “channels should be opened between Canadian diplomats and…Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Media representatives at Global Affairs were asked if any of the above were considered acceptable by their department – and, if so, why? And, if not acceptable, what steps would be taken to discipline or remove those people from senior roles representing Canada?
Department spokesman John Babcock responded: “Global Affairs Canada (GAC) takes these types of comments very seriously. When using social media or other electronic media to network for professional, personal, or official use, employees must abide by the Code of Values and Ethics…The department is taking appropriate actions to verify and manage the situations accordingly.”
This writer authored a book about all of this in 1992, called Unholy Alliances. Ian Verner Macdonald was interviewed for it. Macdonald, who died two years ago, was always slippery about how someone like him could survive, and even prosper, within Canada’s Foreign Affairs ministry. A man who would write memos about “Negro excesses” and was investigated by the RCMP’s Security Service for passing trade secrets to rogue Arab states.
A man who even wrote that Jews exercised “inordinate and dangerous influence [in Canada’s] national and international affairs,” and who are “an alien master” who “control us through a network of agents, collaborators and sympathizers and some outright mercenaries.”
How could someone like Ian Verner Macdonald be allowed to write, and do, such things for so long at Foreign Affairs? How is that even possible?
We could ask the same question about Melanie Joly and her underlings.
When you focus on the far right, the anti-Semites have a clear field of play.
I think there are far more anti-Semites in the left than there are in the far right.
Warren,
I had read stirrings of what you’ve just written about in the past about Abu Mazen, but it would seem that my interpretation of same was somewhat deficient. In any case, I don’t see here a sufficient example of a peace partner. Quite obviously, on both sides, a new generation of enlightened leaders is needed to properly address these complicated issues and work on a framework agreement for a comprehensive two-state solution at some point in the relatively distant future. Clearly, Mazen and Netanyahu are simply not up to the task.
Warren,
I would put it to you that the Israeli lobby is both extensive and incredibly politically sophisticated. It exists to buttress and defend the only democracy in the Middle East. The Middle East is a region where friendship is often fair-weathered and notoriously unreliable. With the exception of Egypt, other partners in the region have proven to be somewhat underwhelming when push came to shove.
I, for one, believe that standing with Israel is not only a matter of survival as you’ve previously discussed but also a sacred trust between us and God’s chosen people. How can anyone in good conscience recoil from that?
The IDF are not angels in human form, nor are their opponents. But they are fighting for their very survival in a region where so much of the populace in neighbouring countries wish them ill, even before October 7th.
The Palestinian lobby, though splintered, is winning the public relations battle by a country-mile. Thank God that our side is taking effective steps to counter that. What Hamas has done has disqualified them as a future interlocutor in an ongoing peace process. Only Fatah can do that now, but they need another Sadat at the top of their leadership.
Ronald,
I’m firmly of the belief that “today’s” Israel is simply not the same country as it was 15 years ago. The fact is, 2 of the most senior leaders in the government other than Netanyahu would have been denounced as terrorists 2 decades ago (Ben-Gvir WAS) and the people would have moved along. But here we are.
And now we’re sitting here talking about the mass starvation of an entire population as a “necessity,” as if Hamas, evil as it is, actually has the capability to wipe out Israel (it doesn’t, any more than me and my drinking buddies can take on the US Marine Corps). This is the problem.
I know people protesting for Palestinian safety. Not one of them denies October 7. Those people exist, but most just wanted to avoid what we are seeing right now. And we are being told it is both “just” and “necessary” when it simply isn’t.
Bottom line: Israel will be fine (at least, from external threats), but they would have been better off had they not pressed this far. Alienating their Western backers is a danger far more present than Iranian hostility – and it’s something their government and people were warned about repeatedly before putting Kahanist extremists at the heart of the Knesset.
Jason,
Once Biden ended up offside on an invasion into Rafa, pretty much the rest of the West ended up offside. At this point, strategic incursions in and around Rafa are dubious at best. If Netanyahu proceeds, it will lead to a complete break with Biden.
I also think that we’ve already attained the point where further civilian suffering cannot be justified or traded off to reach military objectives. Humanity now dictates and requires a prolonged ceasefire to help those suffering and dying Palestinian civilians.
We were wrong to have waited this long. I, for one, won’t compound my mistake by waiting any further. The ceasefire absolutely has to come into effect now.
I truly believe this Liberal govt along with the NDP and Canada’s bureaucracy are filled with anti semites that reaches all the way to the top of the power structure. I do not believe the actions and words we’ve seen from Trudeau, Joly and many others since Oct 7th are just naivety and incompetence. Contrary to popular belief anti semitism isn’t just some far right disease. It flourishes on the left to an even greater extent. I am sickened by the responses that my country has shown to date to the disgusting pro Hamas rallies we see here regularly right up to the ass kissing this govt wants to do to all the terrorists groups in the Middle East. Why in all that is happening have we not heard one country or supposed aide group demand Hamas lay down their arms and surrender to save Palestinian lives? It’s always Israel must be the ones to basically surrender. Would any of these countries stop if it was us attacked by Hamas? Did the US stop? It’s western anti semitism that is demanding Israel stops.
Warren,
As to Global Affairs, it has been quite some time since they’ve strayed from their habitual professionalism and political detachment.
I have fond memories of the people I met in PCO and their polished professionalism. But these are no longer days such as those. Global Affairs sunk to new lows, with the political class constantly dictating or interfering in diplomatic policy and endeavours. Responsibility for that rests with this Prime Minister. Direction is now top-down from the politicos, and that is beyond shameful. I can only imagine how much Pearson would cringe at the current state of affairs of the diplomatic corps and establishment.
Diplomats are meant to be politically detached and solely in service to the nation, with degrees of separation between the professional class and the politicians.
These days, the politically-minded dictate the diplomatic agenda in a one-sided, evidently biased fashion. Gone is the systemic neutrality and detachment essential to the prosecution of successful diplomacy.
Global Affairs has been entirely co-opted and is now nothing more than a reliable branch plant of PMO. Way beyond pathetic and incredibly damaging to Canada’s previous reputation as a reliable partner and honest broker in search of peacemaking and a better world.
The ducks at GA have dutifully fallen in line without question, serious contemplation or comment. No wonder we’re now viewed in Western capitals as nothing more than a sad, biased and ineffective diplomatic corps. Just another shining example of the notorious accomplishments courtesy of the present government. Way beyond despicable and dishonourable.
Melanie Joly, how on earth did she get the gig?
Lots of speculation.
To ask the question is to answer it.
From your photo, I’m assuming Ya’ara Saks is trying to knock Queers for Palestine off the podium in the least self-aware Olympics?
It’s hard to agree that it’s unreasonable to say Israeli politics wields a disproportionate, even excessive influence over our media and government when there have been multiple atrocities around the globe thar rival or even exceed the scope of October 7 2023 since then, yet they barely warrant a mention on the nightly news. Tell people how many children were murdered in Kenya recently, you’ll get a shrug from most.
Zog is a word I have not heard since American History X and would usually be associated with this type of neo nazi……but appears to be a little more left than we previously thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84gLEew8m4
I’d say this is a symptom of a wider issue that the Liberals have had for decades. A resistance to taking a principled stand on anything, whatsoever, unless it happens to be a trendy flavor-of-the week issue.
Hence, they won’t take a stand on Israel/Gaza, but they are quite happy to show a spine on Ukraine – because it’s globally trendy. I’m not disagreeing with their Ukraine stance – I’m just saying they are doing it mainly because it’s safe.
Similarly, they are quite happy to throw Canada’s energy industry under the bus – despite it hobbling our economy and making almost no difference in global emissions – because it allows the Liberals to globetrot, attend self-important conferences, and get accolades. What happens at home is far less important to them.