Singling out Israel for Middle East issues the new anti-Semitism: Harper
Posted on 20 January 2014
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Monday of a new age of anti-Semitism, staking new ground in his allegiance to Israel by telling the country’s parliamentarians that those who oppose the Jewish state are little more than hateful anti-Semites.
The loathing for Jews that resulted in the “horrors of the death camps” of Nazi Germany was crude and ignorant, Harper said in a historic speech to the Knesset, the first such address before the Israeli parliament by a Canadian prime minister.
“But in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society,” he said.
FULL TEXT: Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech to the Knesset
“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.”
Harper’s speech was greeted by several prolonged standing ovations – and one dramatic outburst that served to illustrate the tense relations that characterize the Jewish-Arab relationship in the troubled region.
Read in full: Singling out Israel for Middle East issues the new anti-Semitism: Harper