The Canada-Israel Nexus
How and why was Canada instrumental in Israel’s history? Has that distorted Canada's own development as an independent nation? Excused Israel’s? The Canada Israel Nexus is a comparative political history of these two settler nations, their colonial past, their relations with the indigenous peoples on whose territories they imposed their rule, and what that tells us about where they are headed.

The Zionist project dominates the news with good reason. Jews are an energetic force in western society and Jewish influence is now embodied in a Jewish state, which is both feared and respected, while headed toward becoming an international pariah. Its 'best friend' is Canada, not just in former Conservative prime minister Harper's words, but from 1948 on, when a youthful Lester Pearson, then UN ambassador and future Canadian prime minister, pushed through the plan for a separate Jewish state, leading to Israel’s creation and a Nobel Peace prize for Pearson due to the ensuing Suez crisis.

The battle for justice in the Middle East involves treachery, terrorism, exile, apostasy, and, yes, conspiracy. It is the stuff of legend, of which Canada, Israel, and their relationship is a crucial part. The conflict of interests and rights between the colonizer and the colonized is central, as is the relationship between Jews and the state in history, and how that relationship was transformed by the creation of a Jewish state.

The history of Israel-Palestine is like an accelerated version of Canadian-US history: the 'intifadas' of the settler-dominated indigenous peoples, the duplicity of the British, the development of the same colonial perfidy by the states it spawned, the parallel techniques of dispossession, and how they became the supporters of terrorism, both state and non-state, in the 21st century.

Palestinians learn from Canadians (native and colonial) and seek support there, just as native peoples in Canada find inspiration in the struggle of Palestinians, and how to deal with the colonial master. There are vilified heroes in this story, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

As the anti-semitism mantra has put any honest discussion of the good and bad of Jewishness off-bounds, there is little acknowledgment of the great extent to which western popular culture is a product of east European Jewish culture–a subtle but powerful factor in the success of the Zionist agenda though Yiddishkeit itself is the antithesis of Zionism.

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The Canada-Israel Nexus
How and why was Canada instrumental in Israel’s history? Has that distorted Canada's own development as an independent nation? Excused Israel’s? The Canada Israel Nexus is a comparative political history of these two settler nations, their colonial past, their relations with the indigenous peoples on whose territories they imposed their rule, and what that tells us about where they are headed.

The Zionist project dominates the news with good reason. Jews are an energetic force in western society and Jewish influence is now embodied in a Jewish state, which is both feared and respected, while headed toward becoming an international pariah. Its 'best friend' is Canada, not just in former Conservative prime minister Harper's words, but from 1948 on, when a youthful Lester Pearson, then UN ambassador and future Canadian prime minister, pushed through the plan for a separate Jewish state, leading to Israel’s creation and a Nobel Peace prize for Pearson due to the ensuing Suez crisis.

The battle for justice in the Middle East involves treachery, terrorism, exile, apostasy, and, yes, conspiracy. It is the stuff of legend, of which Canada, Israel, and their relationship is a crucial part. The conflict of interests and rights between the colonizer and the colonized is central, as is the relationship between Jews and the state in history, and how that relationship was transformed by the creation of a Jewish state.

The history of Israel-Palestine is like an accelerated version of Canadian-US history: the 'intifadas' of the settler-dominated indigenous peoples, the duplicity of the British, the development of the same colonial perfidy by the states it spawned, the parallel techniques of dispossession, and how they became the supporters of terrorism, both state and non-state, in the 21st century.

Palestinians learn from Canadians (native and colonial) and seek support there, just as native peoples in Canada find inspiration in the struggle of Palestinians, and how to deal with the colonial master. There are vilified heroes in this story, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

As the anti-semitism mantra has put any honest discussion of the good and bad of Jewishness off-bounds, there is little acknowledgment of the great extent to which western popular culture is a product of east European Jewish culture–a subtle but powerful factor in the success of the Zionist agenda though Yiddishkeit itself is the antithesis of Zionism.

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The Canada-Israel Nexus

The Canada-Israel Nexus

by Eric Walberg
The Canada-Israel Nexus

The Canada-Israel Nexus

by Eric Walberg

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Overview

How and why was Canada instrumental in Israel’s history? Has that distorted Canada's own development as an independent nation? Excused Israel’s? The Canada Israel Nexus is a comparative political history of these two settler nations, their colonial past, their relations with the indigenous peoples on whose territories they imposed their rule, and what that tells us about where they are headed.

The Zionist project dominates the news with good reason. Jews are an energetic force in western society and Jewish influence is now embodied in a Jewish state, which is both feared and respected, while headed toward becoming an international pariah. Its 'best friend' is Canada, not just in former Conservative prime minister Harper's words, but from 1948 on, when a youthful Lester Pearson, then UN ambassador and future Canadian prime minister, pushed through the plan for a separate Jewish state, leading to Israel’s creation and a Nobel Peace prize for Pearson due to the ensuing Suez crisis.

The battle for justice in the Middle East involves treachery, terrorism, exile, apostasy, and, yes, conspiracy. It is the stuff of legend, of which Canada, Israel, and their relationship is a crucial part. The conflict of interests and rights between the colonizer and the colonized is central, as is the relationship between Jews and the state in history, and how that relationship was transformed by the creation of a Jewish state.

The history of Israel-Palestine is like an accelerated version of Canadian-US history: the 'intifadas' of the settler-dominated indigenous peoples, the duplicity of the British, the development of the same colonial perfidy by the states it spawned, the parallel techniques of dispossession, and how they became the supporters of terrorism, both state and non-state, in the 21st century.

Palestinians learn from Canadians (native and colonial) and seek support there, just as native peoples in Canada find inspiration in the struggle of Palestinians, and how to deal with the colonial master. There are vilified heroes in this story, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

As the anti-semitism mantra has put any honest discussion of the good and bad of Jewishness off-bounds, there is little acknowledgment of the great extent to which western popular culture is a product of east European Jewish culture–a subtle but powerful factor in the success of the Zionist agenda though Yiddishkeit itself is the antithesis of Zionism.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780997896565
Publisher: Clarity Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 07/01/2017
Pages: 372
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Canadian Eric Walberg is known worldwide as a journalist specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. A graduate of University of Toronto and Cambridge in economics, he is author of 3 books and is also a regular contributor to Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Global Research, Al-Jazeera and Turkish Weekly, and is a commentator on Voice of the Cape radio. His articles appear in Russian, German, Spanish and Arabic. Foreign rights to his book Postmodern Imperialism were acquired for Chinese, Turkish and Russian editions.

Read an Excerpt

Canada and Israel were cut from the same cloth: settler colonies that dispossessed and killed natives to steal their lands. While there were stark differences– in the size of the colonies, their geopolitics, their historical period, and in the degree of ruthlessness exercised by the mother country and its settlers– they both are offspring of British imperialism.

Canada and Israel have many historical similarities, and Jews have come to Canada in the hundreds of thousands and prospered. The Canadian government under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2006-2016) reached a level of worship of things Israeli and Jewish unprecedented in Israel’s short history, officially referring to itself as "Israel’s best friend". More than any country except the US and Palau, Canada supports Israeli violations of international law at the UN. Canadian Jews support the obliteration of Palestinian villages famously in Canada Park, a (surprisingly) Israeli national park stretching over 700 acress, extending into the West Bank, and with donations amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars to the 'charity,' the Jewish National Fund. Harper's swan song was the creation (and funding while in office) of a bird sanctuary in Israel, which the Israelis were thoughtful enough to call the Stephen Harper Bird Sanctuary.

In The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After, Edward Said worried that there is "the strong possibility that Palestinians will be Red Indianized forever, that Israel’s Jews cannot tolerate our present status either as angry religious terrorists or as compliant Red Indians.

As a weak postmodern nation (i.e., with no independent foreign policy), famous as a peace-keeper, Canada offered a perfect foil as Israel carried out some of its worst atrocities in Gaza. While the shameful Harper period seems to be at an end, the inhuman siege of Gaza continues, and Canada applauds, as if it were virtually an outpost of Israel. At the same time, Canada has become a haven for disaffected Israelis, looking for a more promising land than Eretz Israel. So this work is a case study in the way Zionism, Jews and Israel impinge on an otherwise law-abiding nation. It is also a study in contrasting relations with colonial natives.

The problem that a state of Israel might create was foreseen from the start, and addressed publicly by statesmen after WWII, when the form in which a homeland/ refuge for Jews was being debated. In Canada, only the United Church spoke out ...

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Introduction Definitions 12

Part 1 Birth of Two Nations

Chapter 1 Creating Canada

Geopolitics: Great Game I (up to 1945) 37

European Settler Colonies in North America 38

The American Dispossession of Native Nations 40

Indigenous Dispossession, Canada-Style 41

Assimilations, Treaties 48

Chapter 2 Creating Israel

Great Game II (1945-1991) 57

A European Settler Colony in Palestine 58

The Dispossession of the Palestinians 61

Jews and Empires 65

Other 'Others' 67

Conundrum of Jewish nationalism and democracy 69

Chapter 3 The Seeds of a New Empire

Hard Power 76

Soft Power 79

Yiddishkeit as US-Canadian-Israeli Culture 85

Chapter 4 The Enemy of My Friend Is My Enemy

US-Canada-Israel vs Soviet Union 105

Iran, Egypt 108

Palestinian Resistance 112

Perpetual War 116

Violations of International Norms 119

Part 2 Canada: Israel's "Best Friend"

Chapter 5 Jews in Canadian History

Introduction 125

17th-19th Centuries: Golden Age for Jews in Canada 127

Early 20th Century: Mass Immigration and Assimilation 130

Israel as an Escape Clause for Unwanted Refugees 145

Post-WWII: Resurgent Identity 148

Israel as the 'Promised Land' 150

Quebec's 'Jewish Problem' 154

The Formation of Jewish/ Zionist Organizations 156

Tagging the Early "Antisemites" 162

Goldwin Smith

United Church

Reben Slonim

Chapter 6 Entrenching a Canadian Pro-Israel Foreign Policy

From Pearson to Chretien 186

Harper 194

UN Embroglio 196

Kicking Out Iran 198

Terrorism from Harperism 202

Justin Trudeau: Harper-lite 205

Cultural battles 208

Israel in Canada: Promised lands 208

The Power of the Jewish Lobby in Canada 215

Wealth, Mining, Media 215

Dual Loyalty 216

When Dual Loyalty Got the Wink and the Nod 218

Part 3 Anti Semltism Wack-a-Mole

Chapter 7 The Lone Rangers

Keegstra, Zundel, Topham 240

More Foot Shooting 256

The Lone Rangers' Tontos 260

Investigating the Conspiracies 267

The Unknown Holocaust 281

Chapter 8 Native Nations/Canada and Palestine/Israel

Land and Resource Rights 299

Israeli/ Zionist Soft/ Hard Power with First Nations 312

Native Political Resurgence 321

Chapter 9 The New Anti Semites: Tarring Anti-Zionism

Secular Activists 332

Jewish, Muslim activism 343

From Canadian Jew to Jewish Canadian 344

Deconstructing Jewishness 346

South Africa and Israel 351

Afterword 352

Bibliography 358

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