"Traditional family values" ?

Conservatives tout traditional family values in message to party members

OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives are telling core supporters that "traditional family values" are a party stance, a phrase that so far has not entered the prime minister's public speeches or official Tory documents.

Well not quite and not for some time  ...

"A survey was circulated Tuesday to Conservative donors and "grassroots supporters," to "hear what issues matter to you the most."

The party's policy declaration does not use the term traditional family values, but talks about the family unit as "essential to the well-being of individuals and society." 

It goes on to say that the party supports legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. That issue has not been raised by an Conservative MP in Parliament since 2006, and attempts to reopen the abortion debate have been quashed."

Yup, so it does ...

Conservative Party of Canada Policy Declaration, as amended Nov. 2, 2013, Page 28 

"We support legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

Of course there's all kinds of families. Here's Steve's Con family :

h/t Stephen Lautens  for Ditchburn's news item.
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Imagining Toronto bombed like Gaza

Click Full Screen to render the script visible.

Via Electronic Intifada : Gazonto

"In his compelling new video Gazonto, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson reimagines Israel’s massive bombardment of the Israeli-occupied and besieged Gaza Strip as if it were an attack on his home city Toronto.

Greyson imagines specific attacks on Palestinian homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and other institutions that Israel perpetrated since 7 July as if they had occurred on real-life Toronto sites including a well-known café, CBC TV, the University of Toronto and the Scarborough Injury Rehab Centre.

The film uses the device of a simulated video game to show how the horrifying effects of Israeli violence against Palestinians are rendered distant or invisible while the violence itself is celebrated."

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From Ferguson and Gaza to the Toronto G-20

Combined Tactical Systems, Inc. (CSI), according to its website, manufactures and markets tactical munitions and crowd control devices to armed forces, law enforcement, corrections and homeland security agencies around the world.

This photo of its Jamestown, Pennsylvania headquarters raised a few eyebrows this week because :

1) as you can see in the photo, CSI was flying an Israeli flag alongside the US one up until January 2012 and, according to a former CSI plant employee in the first comment here, it is flown whenever the Israeli owner/founder is in town, and 

2) CTS tear gas shell cartridges manufactured there were found a week apart in Gaza and Ferguson, Missouri - where protests and excessive police reaction fuelled by the half a billion dollars in military weapons given to local police forces erupted in response to the August 9 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a local police officer. 

Comparisons of the highly militarized assault on their respective populations, supportive tweets from citizens in Gaza to citizens in Ferguson about dealing with the effects of teargas, and a look at the fact Ferguson and St. Louis County police forces were trained in Israel in recent years followed.

Along with 9,500 other law enforcement officials who have attended Israeli-led LEEP training sessions in the US and Israel. 

The Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP) - created :

"in cooperation with the Israel National Police, the Israel Ministry of Internal Security, and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) to support and strengthen American law enforcement counter terrorism practices"

 - was the brainchild of former FBI Assistant Director and Chief of Counter-Terrorism Steve Pomerantz, in his capacity as Director for Counter-Terrorism Programs for The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). 

JINSA was founded to "advocate on behalf of a strong U.S. military, a robust national security policy, and a strong U.S. security relationship with Israel" to "provide leadership and affect policy on crucial issues of national security and foreign policy." 

Yeah, they pretty much have that part nailed down.

Former JINSA advisory board members include perennial neocon warmongers Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, James Woolsey, and Michael Ledeen.

Meanwhile, according to the U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation : Joint Police & Law Enforcement Training page at the Jewish Virtual Library detailing their joint history :

"In early September 2012, the New Police Department (NYPD) opened an Israeli branch at the Sharon District Police Headquarters" in Israel because "the Israeli police is one of the major police forces with which it must maintain close work relations and daily contact."

Really? The NYPD requires daily contact with Israeli police from a location inside Israel?

Naturally, there have also been Canadian security junkets to Israel. In 2005, on his first day as Ontario emergency management commissioner, Julian Fantino, Toronto Police Staff Supt. Bill Blair, and 30 more Ontario police officials left for Israel to "study security and anti-terrorism measures", courtesy of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, airline El Al and the Israeli government.

But back to Combined Tactical Systems (CSI). In addition to making the teargas cannisters used against populations in Gaza, Ferguson, Tahrir Square in Egypt, Bahrain, Occupy Wall Street, and Toronto's G-20 in 2010, they also run their own training sessions "combining product tools with knowledge and techniques."

In February 2010 - four months before the Toronto G20 - this highly respected and decorated officer was a Training Sergeant with the Toronto Police Public Order Unit working on :

• Development & delivery of crowd management training to Toronto Police Service and police agencies across Canada.
• ORT (Obstacle Removal Team) trained - Responsible for training Toronto Police members in extrication and removal of protestors from fixed objectives using various tools and equipment.

when he took the four-day CSI course on chemical munitions (hand-held and fired), distraction devices (flash bangs), and fired munitions, bean bags, wood batons, rubber batons, sting calls :

CHEMICAL MUNITIONS/ LESS LETHAL WEAPONS - INSTRUCTOR  

Combined Tactical Systems, San Bernadino, CA / February 2010

Then read this account of Why there wasn't accountability for the police in Ferguson and see if it doesn't remind you of the same police set up used to defy accountability at G-20, involving the aforementioned Fantino and Blair.

Final note from Jewish Virtual Library :

In January 2011, Canada and Israel signed an umbrella pact for defense and military cooperation and bolstered that agreement in November 2011 amid the turmoil that had been set upon the Middle East and around the Arab World during the Arab Spring. Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak settled a number of memoranda of understanding to facilitate information and intelligence sharing as well as cooperative arrangements for the development and sale of military technologies.

From Ferguson and the occupation of Gaza to the Toronto G-20, war is a racket that always comes home .

Edited for clarity and typos.
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10,000 Israelis demonstrate for peace in Tel Aviv

Haaretz :  A Facebook organized peace rally - "Changing direction: toward peace, away from war."

"Following a painful month of war and death, in view of waves of incitement and hatred that are tearing apart Israeli society, we call for a demonstration for peace and democracy. The next round can be avoided. We don’t have to sink into an abyss of ever-crueler wars, of extreme hatred and a destruction of our neighbors and ourselves. 

Only an agreement will ensure long-term security and quiet for residents of the south and of the entire country. There is another way – immediate dialogue with Palestinians to ensure a fair peace, the opening of Gaza, and a determined stand of Arabs and Jews against racism and for life. Only a two-state political solution will guarantee independence, justice, security and hope for all people living in this land.”

Author David Grossman, speaking at the pro-peace rally in Tel Aviv, August 16, 2014 :

"There is no military solution for the conflict between Israel and Hamas. There is no military solution that will end the suffering of Israelis in the south and the inhumane suffering of people in Gaza. People in Israel won’t be able to breathe freely either, until the stranglehold on Gaza is lifted." 

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Ethical arms sales from Canada

Back here in comments, e.a.f. noted I was singling out Israel for its promotion of occupied Gaza as a lab/marketing display tool for selling its population control armaments abroad - when USA arms manufacturers also benefit. 

Too true. Also Canada.

As Marc Whittingham, CEO of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the crown corporation that acts as Canada's global military sales agency and "a foreign policy instrument for the government of Canada", once put it :

 "There is no better trade show for defence equipment than a military mission."  

"Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada", as per international.gc.ca :

Israel - 

• Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials. 
• Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Vessels of war, special naval equipment and accessories, and components specially designed for military use. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles. 
• Specialized equipment for military training or for simulating military scenarios, simulators specially designed for training in the use of any firearm or weapon.

Saudi Arabia -

• Guns. Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Ground vehicles. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use.

Qatar - 

• Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials

[Aug 25, 2014 Update : Yesterday in the NYTimes, Israel's ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor called Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”]

Egypt - 

• "Guns. Ammo. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use. 
• Specialized equipment for military training or for simulating military scenarios, simulators specially designed for training in the use of any firearm or weapon. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use." 

Iraq - Software.

Bahrain - 

• "Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use."

Colombia - 

• "Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use, and specially designed components and accessories."

[Note : Since this gc.ca report was issued, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird recommended amending the Automatic Firearms Country Control List (AFCCL) to create "new market opportunities" for Canadian companies to sell armoured personnel carriers to the Colombian military in January 2013.]

Algeria - "Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use." 

Ukraine - "Guns. Ammo."

Russia - "Guns. Ammo. Electronic equipment. Software."

I could go on. You will note we have armed both sides of many recent bloody conflicts, as for instance when Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to crush their "Arab Spring".

In the time period covered here, 2010 - 2011, 28 countries received "Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials" from Canada.

The figures from this Feb 4 2014 report cover nothing more recent, as our government has not seen fit to provide the Canadian public with more up-to-date figures.   

However Project Ploughshares does provide this rather startling graphic on Canadian Commercial Corporation's recent marketing success in securing "two contracts totalling $14.8-billion awarded by the CCC to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada of London, Ontario during the 2013-14 fiscal year to supply Saudi Arabia with military armoured vehicles. "

According to Project Ploughshares : 

"For the first time in more than half-a-century of CCC operations, Saudi Arabia has displaced the United States as the largest year-on-year recipient of CCC-brokered military export contracts."

Canada, of course, has declined to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty.
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Making a killing on Gaza

As blogged here a month ago, Israeli writer/researcher Shir Hever told the Real News Network that Israeli security companies are using the Gaza conflict to market the tools of occupation to other countries :

"... when they go to arms trade shows and show their equipment, they say this has already been tested by the Israeli army on actual people. You can only have that because of the occupation. So every new weapon is first sold to the Israeli army, shot at Palestinians. Then you can sell it." 

Fast forward to two articles from today's Haaretz : 

For Israeli arms makers, Gaza is a cash cow
Protective Edge’s marketing edge

“Battle-tested” is the best marketing slogan for defense industries the world over, so for Israeli military manufactures Operation Protective Edge has yielded a major competitive edge. 

"What has proven itself in battle is much easier to sell.  Immediately after the operation, and perhaps even during, all kinds of delegations arrive here from countries that appreciate Israel’s technological capabilities and are interested in testing the new products.”

Arms sales set to rocket after showcase during Gaza conflict

"Since 2000, when the second intifada broke out, Israel has had some form of military operation lasting a few weeks every few years: Defensive Shield (in the West Bank) in 2002; the Second Lebanon War in 2006; Cast Lead in 2008-09; and Pillar of Defense in 2012. In almost every case, new military technology or weapons were used – which had a positive effect on overseas sales.

The numbers show that, after the initial period of criticism against Israel after the various operations quiet down, sales pick up. And there has been continuous growth in defense exports in recent years. In 2002, such exports were worth $2 billion, grew to $3.4 billion in 2006, and were $6 billion in 2012."

"After the initial period of criticism against Israel after the various operations quiet down, sales pick up."

The article explains the close ties between the IDF, the Defence Ministry, and Israel's three main arms makers - Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems - and how "many of the senior executives in the defense industries still hold senior positions in the reserves" :

One of the systems that was used in Protective Edge was developed by one of the defense companies as a result of a need raised by a reserve officer who participated in Operation Cast Lead. The officer convinced people in his company to invest in developing the system, and the product went operational during Protective Edge."

It also notes that by exporting 80% of Israel’s defense production, the remainder can be sold more cheaply to the IDF.  So which countries are buying that "battle-tested" 80% ?

"$3.83 billion-worth of deals were signed in 2012 with Asian countries; $1.73 billion with European nations; $1.1 billion with Canada and the United States; $604 million with Latin America; and $107 million in Africa. Haaretz has found there were deals with at least 33 more countries, including many in the Third World."

On the "stars" of arms used against Gaza :

"The Tamuz missile – from Rafael’s “Spike” family of missiles – is equipped with a video camera and can hone in on a target, moving or static, at distances of up to 20 to 25 kilometers. Reports say the IDF has used Tamuz some 200 times during Protective Edge."

A reporter embedded with an IDF unit reported it was a Tamuz missile that killed 15 displaced Palestinians and wounded 150-200 others sheltering in an UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun on July 24 after UNRWA asked for time to evacuate civilians which was not given.

Results like that must really cut down on printing costs for trade show brochures.

The Haaretz article Arms sales set to rocket after showcase during Gaza conflict is behind a paywall but the same article is publicly available under the alternative header How Israel's arms manufacturers won the Gaza war 

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"Cutting the grass" in Gaza

Updated : Total number of declared civilian casualties via United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of Aug 10, 2014 

With one quarter of the total population of Gaza now *displaced*, Harper, Mulcair, and Trudeau continue to "Stand with Israel", insisting on the right of Israel to defend itself against the people they are illegally occupying.

Great letter via Kev :

Dear NDP : Stop apologizing for war crimes and breaches of human rights
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"The Jewish State Solution" comes to Canada

West Bank settler Moshe Feiglin is a deputy speaker in Israel's Knesset and head of the largest faction within Netanyahu's Likud party. Today, actually, he is acting speaker. 

Three months ago on May 6, Feiglin was in Toronto for a speaking event put on by the Jewish Defence League (JDL) and the Toronto Zionist Council : 
An Evening with MK Moshe Feiglin : "The Jewish State Solution".  

Feiglin doesn't use the word Palestine as he contends Palestine does not exist. 

Shorter Feiglin : revoke the Oslo Accords, conquer Gaza, expel as many Arabs as possible, repopulate the area with Jews from other nations.

On July 15, 2014, the day Netanyahu made him a member of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Feiglin published the following :

"My Outline for a Solution in Gaza - Moshe Feiglin

Ultimatum – One warning from the Prime Minister of Israel to the enemy population, in which he announces that Israel is about to attack military targets in their area and urges those who are not involved and do not wish to be harmed to leave immediately. Sinai is not far from Gaza and they can leave. This will be the limit of Israel’s humanitarian efforts. Hamas may unconditionally surrender and prevent the attack. 

Attack – Attack the entire ‘target bank’ throughout Gaza with the IDF’s maximum force (and not a tiny fraction of it) with all the conventional means at its disposal. All the military and infrastructural targets will be attacked with no consideration for ‘human shields’ or ‘environmental damage’. It is enough that we are hitting exact targets and that we gave them advance warning. 

Siege – Parallel to the above, a total siege on Gaza. Nothing will enter the area. Israel, however, will allow exit from Gaza. (Civilians may go to Sinai, fighters may surrender to IDF forces). 

Defense – Any place from which Israel or Israel’s forces were attacked will be immediately attacked with full force and no consideration for ‘human shields’ or ‘environmental damage’. 

Conquer – After the IDF completes the "softening" of the targets with its fire-power, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations. 

Elimination- The GSS and IDF will thoroughly eliminate all armed enemies from Gaza. The enemy population that is innocent of wrong-doing and separated itself from the armed terrorists will be treated in accordance with international law and will be allowed to leave. Israel will generously aid those who wish to leave. 

Sovereignty – Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever. Liberation of parts of our land forever is the only thing that justifies endangering our soldiers in battle to capture land. Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel. The coastal train line will be extended, as soon as possible, to reach the entire length of Gaza.
According to polls, most of the Arabs in Gaza wish to leave. Those who were not involved in anti-Israel activity will be offered a generous international emigration package. Those who choose to remain will receive permanent resident status. After a number of years of living in Israel and becoming accustomed to it, contingent on appropriate legislation in the Knesset and the authorization of the Minister of Interior, those who personally accept upon themselves Israel’s rule, substance and way of life of the Jewish State in its Land, will be offered Israeli citizenship."

No longer differentiating between Hamas and Gazans, on July 23, 2014, Feiglin wrote :

"The residents of Gaza were not occupied by the Hamas; they voted for the terror organization in democratic elections, by a huge majority, by virtue of its uncompromising struggle against Israel.

For this reason, the separation between the armed Hamas terrorists and those ‘not involved’ or ‘innocents’ is false. The Gazans are now paying for the choices they have made."

Feiglin was banned from entering the UK in 2008, but has made regular JDL-sponsored speaking trips to Canada. In November 2012, JDL Canada and JDL UK visited Feiglin in Israel. 

This week, CBC and CTV reported the JDL will be opening branches in Calgary and Montreal and then Ottawa and Vancouver, but mentioned nothing of its past history. 
The Natty Post did rather better :

"The JDL is not without controversy itself.

In its 2000-01 report on terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation described the group’s U.S. wing as a “violent extremist Jewish organization.” Members have been linked to numerous violent acts in the U.S. and Israel since the JDL was founded in 1968. In 2001, its leader was arrested and charged for a plot to bomb a mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman.

JDL Canada is not considered a terrorist organization."

JDL event organizer Julius Suraski accompanied Harper on his visit to Israel in January.

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Update : Mondoweiss, August 6, 2014: 
Moshe Feiglin’s vision of liberating Gaza by driving Palestinians into the Sinai

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Canada-Israel Solidarity Rally

Yesterday while this carnage was going on, Chris Gunness from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was breaking down in tears on live TV after 19 were killed and 125 wounded in the latest attack on a UN school in Gaza, which the UN accused Israel of carrying out after being warned 17 times that civilians were seeking shelter there ...

Gunness : "UNRWA is overwhelmed in #Gaza  - we have reached breaking point, our staff are being killed, our shelters overflowing. Where will it end?"


Note : Canada once provided 10% of UNRWA's budget. Now, according to UNRWA's list of of 60 donor countries for 2013, we give nothing.  
In 2010, then Treasury Board director Vic Toews explained the funds would be redirected "in accordance with Canadian values". 

Meanwhile, fifty miles away at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, Liberal MPs Carolyn Bennett and John McCallum, Con MPs David Sweet and Ted Opitz, Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, and former Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein were leading the Canada-Israel Solidarity Rally in singing O Canada and Hatikva on, as JPost put it, "Day 23 of Operation Protective Edge."

Con MP Randy Hoback not shown in photo.

The Jerusalem Post reported in advance that the event would also include a broadcasted appearance by John Baird. 

For all I know they may have also broadcast this :



The Solidarity Rally Lib/Con MPs and senators did not, needless to say, visit the West Bank, or Gaza where they might have been in danger of being shelled by their hosts..

But prior to the group giving their "fact-finding mission" report to the Government of Canada, here are some of their advance observations from the trip. 

Con MP Randy Hoback : ‘An opportunity to ask tough questions’

“How often do you get the chance to get firsthand information about what’s going on in Israel in regards to both the rocket bombs coming out of Gaza and reaction from Israel.”

"It’s very interesting, there’s a lot of things that people don’t understand. Hamas is the issue here, it’s not the Palestinian people. Hamas is a terrorist organization, their whole goal is [getting] Israel off this earth. This group isn’t a group that you can sit down and talk with and negotiate a peace settlement. It isn’t a group that wants to be your friend, they basically want to annihilate Israel which is very sad. 

They are willing to put children in front of bombs and willing to put rocket launchers inside of schools and inside of mosques, basically do whatever they have to do to win their so called war. So it makes it tough when they do these things.”

Senator Grafstein : 

“I’m absolutely amazed about how strong and how supportive Israel has been in this war effort, but more important than that at how united they’ve been and how calm, cool and collected they’ve been.”

David Sweet :

"Tory MP David Sweet said Wednesday that from his location in Israel he could see and hear the destruction in Gaza. 

"It was quite an experience to see the havoc, the death threats," he said. 

The way Sweet sees it, the people of Israel have been under siege for eight years. 

"Sleep deprived for eight years," he said. "Who knows the long-term effects of that?"

Mark Regev would be so proud. 

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Credibility

That was from five years ago - even the number of casualties is close to the same as now.   

This was also from five years ago   - we've gotten acclimatized to the language spin now but it was greeted with incredulity at the time.

Plus ça change ...
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Wednesday update : Tonight, CBC's As It Happens interviewed Chris Gunness from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, about the shelling attacks on the UN Jabaliya Elementary Girls School in which 19 people died and another 125 were wounded. The UN has accused Israel of carrying out the attack after being warned 17 times that civilians were seeking shelter there. Gunness said five of his workers have also been killed. 

In the middle of the interview, CBC played a clip from Israel spokesey Mark Regev (featured in above vid) saying it was actually Hamas that was attacking the UN. 
Thanks, CBC - because it's really really important to be fair and balanced about the now nearly 1400 Gazan casualties shelled in their outdoor prison by Israel.

Regev, as brilliantly deconstructed by Alex Nunns :


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