Calmer heads prevail

Editorial

It may be too soon to say, but there seems to be a growing sense of sympathy in Canada for the Israeli cause.

When the Ontario wing of the national public sector union CUPE passed an outrageous anti-Israel screed recently, the response was a sign that the perverted anti-Zionist interpretation of Mideast events is no longer being met with complete credulity. A few years ago, when the same union passed a resolution as vicious, if not more so, public reaction was almost nonexistent.

Similarly, news from the United States last week was a sign that cooler heads are prevailing there as well.

Two years ago, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) acted to divest from companies that, as the New York Times puts it, "profit from Israel's involvement in the Palestinian territories."

This year, the church, meeting in Alabama, responded to criticism over the two-year-old condemnation and supported a motion to apologize for "the pain that this has caused" among "many members of the Jewish community and within our Presbyterian communion."

The church has committed itself to taking "positive" steps to foster peace in the region, rather than siding uncritically with the Palestinian cause.

The debate took place within a committee of the 2.3 million member church. The sense of rational second thought seems to be pervading a range of erstwhile zealous Israel-bashers.

While it's starting to feel a bit less lonely as a Zionist in North America these days, let us not forget that the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist extremists are at their most virulent when Israel and the Palestinians are in actual conflict (rather than in the state of suspended insurrection that has typified the last few months). This week's rising tensions in the Middle East could set back the relative calm here in North America.

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