ZGram - 6/8/2002 - "Globe and Mail: Canada's big unions dump on Israel"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

June 8, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Amazing, the developments we see!  Take note:

	[	START ]

www.globeandmail.com, Saturday, June  8, 2002

Toronto Globe and Mail | Canada's big unions dump on Israel

MARGARET WENTE  <mwente@globeandmail.ca>

This week, 3,000 dedicated unionists are gathering at a Canadian Labour
Congress convention in Vancouver. So what's labour's hottest issue these
days? Is it how to organize the kids at Starbucks? How to breathe new life
into the NDP? Wrong. It's Israel.

Major unions across Canada have recently passed emergency resolutions
condemning Israel, and they want the CLC to do the same. "I think it is
appropriate if you are a union that believes in social justice for all,"
says Deborah Bourque, who's president of the 40,000-strong Canadian Union
of Postal Workers.

The CUPW resolution is typical. When I asked to see it, the union referred
me to a militantly pro-Palestinian Web site where it's posted. Ms. Bourque
believes it's fair and balanced. But it casts Israel as the bad guy. It
says suicide bombings have to stop, but doesn't mention who directs them.
And it includes the usual demand for Israel to immediately withdraw from
the territories that it "invaded" in 1967.

"I'm not an expert on the historical nuances," says Ms. Bourque.

To be fair, few of us are. But saying that Israel invaded the territories
is like saying the U.S. invaded Japan, without mentioning Pearl Harbor. The
Six-Day War (fought 35 years ago this week) began when Egypt, Syria and
Jordan massed an army of 500,000 soldiers and a gigantic arsenal of weapons
on Israel's borders. Arab sentiment was summarized by the then-head of the
PLO, who said, "We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants, and as for
survivors -- if there are any -- the boats are ready to deport them."

Israel won the war and occupied the territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
It promised to relinquish them in exchange for a guarantee of peace that
never came. That's what Oslo and Camp David were about.

"I don't expect the world to become pro-Israel, but at least it could be
represented in a fair manner," says Lil Nobel, who is president of CUPE
Ontario Local 2063. Her union also passed a resolution on Israel. It, too,
was an "emergency" -- which meant that none of the members, including Ms.
Nobel, had a chance to see it before it hit the floor.

Local 2063 is a Jewish social services agency in Toronto. CUPE's Jewish
agencies, which employ around 400 people, are trying to get the resolution
redrafted.

When the Canadian Jewish Congress complained to the union, CUPE president
Sid Ryan accused it of "trying to foment antiunion sentiment." The CJC, he
said, was "splitting hairs and trying to silence debate" -- a curious
accusation, since there was no chance for a debate.

It's hard to see how the Mideast conflict is relevant to the labour issues
of flight attendants, garbage collectors and daycare workers. But Canada's
biggest unions spend lots of time on world peace and justice. To them, the
Palestinians have replaced the black South Africans under apartheid as the
world's leading victims of First World oppression. To them, the fight
against globalization, racism and oppression is all the same fight. It is a
fight, above all, against America. And Israel has become a proxy for
America.

It's no accident that checkered scarves are an important fashion statement
at antiglobalization protests. Those events are increasingly being hijacked
by radical protesters against Israel. There you can find many people who
explicitly equate Israelis with Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan. Naomi Klein may
disagree, but many of these protests feature a wide streak of outright
anti-Semitism.

There is a straight line between the unions' anti-Israel resolutions and
Durban, the notorious UN conference last September that turned into an
anti-Jewish hatefest. The CLC had a delegation there. But it detected only
good things. According to its report, the negative media coverage was
wildly biased. And in a post-Sept. 11 note, it blamed the Americans for
cruelly bombing Afghanistan and triggering a wave of terror against its own
Muslim minorities.

Not surprisingly, the big American unions have taken a sharply different
course. The AFL-CIO and others are strong and vocal supporters of Israel.
They boycotted the last antiglobalization rally in Washington. They, too,
want peace. But they have a completely different view of who the terrorists
are.

No wonder countless Canadian Jews have given up in disgust on the Canadian
left. I suppose the left doesn't care. After all, the CLC has 2.5 million
members. Most of them are hard-working men and women who aren't
particularly political and don't have a clue what their leadership is up
to. (Speaking of world peace, where's the resolution on Kashmir?)

Maybe one day those leaders will ask themselves why so many people who were
raised to revere the union movement now find it morally revolting. "I'm
furious," says Ms. Nobel about the Israel-bashing. They should all be
furious. The rank and file should rise up against their leaders, and raise
hell.

[ END ]

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Oy Vey Thought for the Day:

=97 U.S. Jewish leaders are fuming after the French ambassador to the 
United States
canceled a meeting with them to discuss anti-Semitism. "

(Headline of an article in the strictly copyright-enforcing JTA. 
Take thee to 
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=3D11405&intcategoryid=3D=
3>http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=3D11405&intcategoryid=
=3D3

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D