Advocating Genocide as Electoral Tactic
by Kim Petersen / October 6th, 2008
In a 60 Minutes interview from 1996, then US ambassador to Washington, Madeleine Albright infamously quipped of the deaths of half a million Iraqi children to maintain US policy: “… we think the price is worth it.”1 On 24 September, a prominent Canadian politician said that the collective punishment of the Palestinian people “… is the right thing to do.” The name candidate with Canada’s Liberal Party delivered a shocking statement that is, in essence, advocating a genocide against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at Toronto’s Beth Emeth synagogue, hockey hall-of-fame goalie, former federal cabinet minister, and current member of the Canadian parliament for the Ontario riding of York Centre, Ken Dryden sounded like an arch-Zionist:
Dryden’s campaign manager, Ruth Thorkelson, contradicted her candidate. She stated that the Liberal Party position was for a Canadian government boycott of aid but to indirectly support UN assistance.
Since Palestinians in Gaza were already starving,3 a call for cutting off all aid to Gaza is tantamount to a call for a mass starvation. It is advocating collective punishment — a war crime, as stipulated by the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is advocating genocide.
While with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Christa Rottensteiner argued that cutting all aid could be a war crime, crime against humanity, and/or genocide. The requisites for genocide are there.
So far no word has been forthcoming from Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion on Dryden’s racist remarks, which are receiving short thrift in the corporate media. Dion is known to be a sympathizer of Zionism, so this is not surprising.
Dryden is considered to be an “all-star” of the Liberal team, a person who, according to “prominent Liberal strategist” Scott Reid, “can speak to character.”5
Ron Saba, editor of Montreal Planet magazine, has been indefatigable in exposing the complicity of Canadian politicians in the crimes of Zionism. Dion is near the top of his list. Many of the supporters of Zionism turn out to be politicians from within Canada’s corporate-political duopoly of the Conservatives and Liberals. Prime minister Stephan Harper is an unabashed backer of Zionism.6
A particular focus of Saba is the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) which enjoys strong financial support in Canada — illegally. Dion is taciturn on JNF crimes and the illegality of the JNF operating in Canada as a tax-exempt charity. Dion even went so far as to welcome fellow liberal “all-star” Bob Rae, the Liberal candidate in Toronto Centre and a committee member of the JNF, an organization acknowledged as practicing racism towards Arabs by the attorney general of Israel.78
Dryden’s racist remarks are inexcusable from any human being and, certainly, from a MP. The right thing for Dryden to do at this time is to resign, and Dion should be calling for that resignation immediately and publicly.
by Kim Petersen / October 6th, 2008
In a 60 Minutes interview from 1996, then US ambassador to Washington, Madeleine Albright infamously quipped of the deaths of half a million Iraqi children to maintain US policy: “… we think the price is worth it.”1 On 24 September, a prominent Canadian politician said that the collective punishment of the Palestinian people “… is the right thing to do.” The name candidate with Canada’s Liberal Party delivered a shocking statement that is, in essence, advocating a genocide against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at Toronto’s Beth Emeth synagogue, hockey hall-of-fame goalie, former federal cabinet minister, and current member of the Canadian parliament for the Ontario riding of York Centre, Ken Dryden sounded like an arch-Zionist:
Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians… it is the right thing to do at this time.2 [emphasis added]
Journalist Paul Weinberg considered that Dryden was “trying to out-Israel” his competition from the staunchly pro-Zionist Conservative Party, Rochelle Wilner, a hard-liner and former B’nai Brith president.2
Dryden’s campaign manager, Ruth Thorkelson, contradicted her candidate. She stated that the Liberal Party position was for a Canadian government boycott of aid but to indirectly support UN assistance.
Since Palestinians in Gaza were already starving,3 a call for cutting off all aid to Gaza is tantamount to a call for a mass starvation. It is advocating collective punishment — a war crime, as stipulated by the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is advocating genocide.
While with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Christa Rottensteiner argued that cutting all aid could be a war crime, crime against humanity, and/or genocide. The requisites for genocide are there.
The denial of humanitarian assistance could fit into the categories of “killing members of the group”, “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, provided that the prerequisites for genocide are fulfilled. What was said for murder as a war crime is also applicable, mutatis mutandis, to genocide.4
Wrote Rottensteiner, “[T]he impact of the denial of humanitarian assistance can be just as strong as massacres ‘committed with knives’.”
So far no word has been forthcoming from Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion on Dryden’s racist remarks, which are receiving short thrift in the corporate media. Dion is known to be a sympathizer of Zionism, so this is not surprising.
Dryden is considered to be an “all-star” of the Liberal team, a person who, according to “prominent Liberal strategist” Scott Reid, “can speak to character.”5
Ron Saba, editor of Montreal Planet magazine, has been indefatigable in exposing the complicity of Canadian politicians in the crimes of Zionism. Dion is near the top of his list. Many of the supporters of Zionism turn out to be politicians from within Canada’s corporate-political duopoly of the Conservatives and Liberals. Prime minister Stephan Harper is an unabashed backer of Zionism.6
A particular focus of Saba is the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) which enjoys strong financial support in Canada — illegally. Dion is taciturn on JNF crimes and the illegality of the JNF operating in Canada as a tax-exempt charity. Dion even went so far as to welcome fellow liberal “all-star” Bob Rae, the Liberal candidate in Toronto Centre and a committee member of the JNF, an organization acknowledged as practicing racism towards Arabs by the attorney general of Israel.78
Dryden’s racist remarks are inexcusable from any human being and, certainly, from a MP. The right thing for Dryden to do at this time is to resign, and Dion should be calling for that resignation immediately and publicly.