Stephen Harper Addresses the Knesset

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Stephen Harper Addresses the Knesset

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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed Israel’s Knesset this week. It was an historic first time speech for a leader from Canada. By all accounts it was well received–another passionate speech about the presence and role of not just the State of Israel but the prophetic relationship of the State of Israel with the English speaking nations. Those who really understand this historic relationship are the only ones speaking today with such fervor. Anyone who has to sell a belief or idea should listen or read a speech like this. It is passion on full display.

Here are a few of the statements Harper made.

“through fire and water, Canada will stand with you”

“it is right to support Israel because, after generations of persecution, the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and deserve to live safely and peacefully in that homeland.

“Let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel because it is right to do so,”

“It is... a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.”

“The friendship between [Israel and Canada] is rooted in history, nourished by shared values, and it is intentionally reinforced at the highest levels of commerce and government as an outward expression of strongly held inner convictions,”

Harper said some of those shared values are “freedom, democracy and rule of law,” in which Israel “has long anchored itself,”.

“These are not mere notions, they are the things that, over time and against all odds, have proven to be the only ground in which human rights, political stability and economic prosperity may flourish.”

Not everyone liked the speech. Arab members of the Knesset walked out and some opposition Israeli members balked at Harper’s positions.

Noteworthy were Harpers comments about anti-Semitism, a plague that has not disappeared from the world scene. “We have witnessed in recent years the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.... People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East. As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel,” Harper stated.

“Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: a state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, [a state] that is condemned – and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short of sickening. But this is the face of the new anti-Semitism,” Harper said.

Press reports of the rousing ovations during this speech match the same response Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu received in 2011 when he addressed the United States Congress. There is a reason. Israel and the English speaking nations are joined by common values that stretch far into the ancient past. Those values are rooted in the laws God handed down to Moses.

Harper spoke of freedom, human rights, rule of law, political stability and economic prosperity. All of these are found in what is commonly called the Law of Moses. The economic strength and prosperity of the English speaking nations today are rooted in the laws, statutes and judgments of the Bible. Genesis 49:22-24 describes Joseph as “a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall…and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob…”

Serious Bible students understand these words as the basis of prosperity for the modern English speaking nations of the world. They unlock the essential dimension of understanding needed to make sense of today’s world scene. This ancient prophecy stretches into the headlines of today, helping us understand why the State of Israel matters in the context of the intractable conflict of the Middle East.

Read this passage from our booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy for more insight into this fascinating subject

One more point. Pay attention to speeches like this. They are rare. They get our attention because they are passionate and have a common sense about today’s reality. Speeches like this are a wake up call.
 

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Comments

  • Eric V. Snow
    It's fine for people to express sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians who were thrown out of the area that Israel had in 1948 when it became independent. But, the real issue is, who is really to blame? If Israel hadn't been promptly invaded by five Arab armies almost the moment it had declared independence, "the great catastrophe" would not have happened. It can readily be shown, from what Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli prime minister) wrote and said, Israel's government didn't intend to engage in "ethnic cleansing." At the Jewish Agency Executive meeting in 1938, ten years before independence, Ben-Gurion said: "But the Arab policy of the Jewish State must be aimed not only at full equality for the Arabs but at their cultural, social, and economic equalization, namely, at raising their standard of living to that of the Jews." He also wrote in a letter to his son Amos in 1937, "All our aspiration is built on the assumption--proven throughout all our activity in the Land [of Israel]--that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs." (See Efraim Karsh's "Fabricating Israeli History: The 'New Historians' and his “Commentary” magazine articles, “Were the Palestinians Expelled?” (July 2000) and “The Palestinians and the ‘Right of Return’” (May 2001)) for the specific details. The intention of the ruling Labour Party of Israel was very different from (say) that of Milosovec in Yugoslavia concerning the Bosnian and Kosovan Muslims. In some cases the Jewish government had encouraged the Arabs to stay during the 1948, but they left anyway, such as from Jaffa. The main point I'm making about the bias in the international community is that far worse human rights violations have occurred over the past 70 years than Israel's, yet they hardly get any attention at the United Nations by comparison. For example, Assad Sr. in Syria killed somewhere around 10,000 to 25,000 people in Hama, which still greatly exceeds the total number of Palestinians killed during both Intifadas and the 1948 war. Communist China's government has killed around 60 million people when Mao ruled, yet how many UN resolutions have been passed that condemned that nation's human rights atrocities? Saddam Hussein in Iraq probably killed between a half million and a million of his own people. All this selective outrage and double standards are proof of bias.
  • Carolyn Prater
    Having lived with one side or the other can indeed cause one to favor one side over another. That is human. However, if we keep a watch on world events, we can see that there is now growing anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head once again, with renewed strength. In fact, over my lifetime, I am shocked to see how soon people have forgotten what the Jewish people suffered and how soon the phrase, 'Never forget' has been forgotten. There should be no anti-Semitism. There should be no hatred placed among mankind at all. There will be. It is a part of the plan of Satan to destroy mankind, and it is prophesied that hatred toward Jerusalem will culminate in its neighbors surrounding the city for battle. Thankfully, we can fully trust that our Father will surely send His Son back to this earth to save mankind and to put an end to hatred and war.
  • dziwczyna
    @Sabrina The media is biased against Israel. I have found when reading comments at the end of an internet article about Jews/Israel/Judaism that most are anti-Semitic--and I mean comments that are extremely hate filled. I believe that another 'holocaust' is looming. I highly doubt most "Americans think Israel can do no wrong" based on the comments I read. Maybe conservative types do. Also, from reading the comments of the person you are questioning, I believe you have missed the point--he was talking about one sided criticism as far as I could understand. A good book on the topic is "The Case for Israel" by Alan Dershowitz which goes through a lot of the media biases or arguments against Israel as a country, and outlines another side of the story which the media doesn't talk about.
  • Sabrina Peabody
    Hi Eric, I think those very strong words to call someone anti-semitic if they are sympathetic to the mistreatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis. I lived with Palestinians and have seen (unfortunately) the negative treatment from Israelis. It is real and it cannot always be justified. It seems that it is a prevalent mindset for Americans that the Israelis can do no wrong... we all know that you cannot say that and it be true when saying that on behalf of a whole group of people. That in itself is biased.
  • Ahumble1
    Our Prime Minister! Yet the Canadian Media's coverage of this is sorely lacking, with the vast majority critical...they would have been in the exodus too. PM Harper is one of the rare few politicians who seeks after the Lord; a most unusual knot in the wood-grain of the Canadian Political Landscape.
  • Eric V. Snow
    In his speech, Stephen Harper also called out the selective outrage and double standard under which many constantly criticize Israel while discounting the far worse human rights problems rife in nearby Arab Muslim dictatorships and monarchies: “What else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while systematically ignoring — or excusing — the violence and oppression all around it? What else can we call it when, Israel is routinely targeted at the United Nations and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?" Many have a prejudiced obsession about condemning Israel's treatment of the Palestinians compared to how other nations, nearby and far away, deal with their own populations. Someone who condemns eloquently in detail modern Israel's treatment of Arabs who used to live in that land while hardly commenting on the far worse human rights violations (such as in numbers of people killed and wounded) of nations in Israel's neighborhood betrays bias. It would be like a neighbor telling me how awful another neighbor is who is a part-time burglar while saying almost nothing about another neighbor who is a full-time mass murderer. Israel has its problems, like any other nation-state in man's world, but the monomania many have in focusing on its human rights violations compared to that of other nations betrays their prejudice, not mere ignorance. Such one-sided selective criticism of Israel is indeed prima facie evidence of anti-Semitism.
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