Ask them about Israel

Editorial

This federal election campaign will probably hold more surprises than any national contest since 1988. A particularly volatile electorate and three new national party leaders (even a whole new national party, if you consider the united right "new") mean old expectations are not very reliable indicators of the results we're likely to see June 28.

Jewish Canadians will watch the campaign with interest, especially when the discussion enters the realm of foreign affairs. The incumbent Liberal government has a mixed record toward Israel. For every word of encouragement the foreign affairs minister has given Canadian Zionists, he has given us seemingly contradictory condemnations of Israeli defence policy. The Liberals have pleased Zionists, on the other hand, by recognizing the terrorist nature of groups like Hamas.

Like the Liberals, the Conservative party has numerous MPs who have been outspoken on Israel's right to exist free from violence. Still, any new government – particularly a minority government – carries with it the potential for unpredictability.

The New Democrats, who have provided some of the most condemnatory views in Parliament against Israel, launched its campaign Sunday on Parliament Hill, and anyone watching it on TV was treated to Palestinian flags waving in the background. Coincidence perhaps, but the NDP has shown a tendency to lean strongly toward the Arab interpretation of Mideast affairs.

When local candidates contact you asking for your vote, ask them where they stand on some of the issues facing Israel. We should seek assurances on Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, on the illegitimacy of terrorism as a political tool, on the obligation of the Palestinian leadership to address Israel through negotiation, not murder, and on the issue of a "one-state solution" or a Palestinian "right of return," both of which are antithetical to the concept of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

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