Aaron Pollack, chairman of the Canada-Israel Committee, has expressed disappointment at what he termed the failure of the Secretary of State for External Affairs, Minister Alan McEachen, to commit Canada to Israel’s right of survival. Pollack was commenting on McEachen’s address last week in Ottawa to the committee’s fourth annual dinner given in honor of 150 members of Parliament and some 300 Canadian personalities.
The Secretary asserted that Canada continued to adhere to its “long-standing commitment to Israel’s right to survival as an independent state.” but interwove that with the view that “The Palestinians must play a role in an eventual negotiated peace.” The Palestinian issue, McEachen noted, “is not one which can be settled separately but must be placed in the context of efforts to work towards an agreed peace settlement to all parties concerned.”
He added: “A just and durable settlement of Israeli-Arab differences must be arrived at by the parties themselves through negotiations and not be a resort to violence. Terrorist activities of the kind which occurred at the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv (in March) must be strongly condemned.”
Commenting on these remarks, Pollack said “We wanted a strong affirmation of Israel’s right to existence. We want the Canadian government to say that Israel should remain firm until the Arabs officially recognize Israel. Then we want Canada to say that the Palestine Liberation Organization does not represent all Palestinians.” Pollack said that Canada’s abstention during the 1974 United Nations General Assembly vote which granted the PLO observer status could be seen as support for the terrorist organization. Herb Gray, former Cabinet Minister, also said that McEachen’s speech “was a disappointment.”
CLOSE DOORS TO TERRORISTS
At another session of the Canada-Israel Committee’s dinner, the spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, Claude Wagner, hinted that some federal ministers were chasing after petro-dollars. He said: “I hope our government is not fooled by the sheer hypocrisy of proposals for a secular state where Arabs, Christians and Jews would live in harmony because such a situation already exists in Israel where law-abiding Arabs, Christians and Jews live freely side-by-side, a situation not enjoyed by Jews in many Arab countries.”
Wagner added that “while Canada must seek friendship with Arabs and Israelis, we have no cause, nor rationale, for opening doors for terrorists and those who support terrorists. I have pointed out to many serving in Arab legations in Ottawa that the same terrorists who seek to destroy Israel seem only prepared to destroy Lebanon and Jordan and that any harbinger of reconciliation anywhere in this world is a target for terrorists.”
He asked the Canadian government to seek that “Israel should never again be isolated or out off by blackmail from any source. There is nothing any terrorist wants to say that Canadians should want to hear. There is nothing any terrorist should be able to do to win a world audience in a body committed to peaceful solutions of international difficulties.”
Edward Broadbent, leader of the New Democratic Party, said “Any criticism that might have arisen stems from friendship and not in the least from weakening of support of Israel.” He said “it is in the interest of Israel to come to an understanding with the Arabs based on the right of Israel to continue to exist as a free independent state and also by recognition by Israel of the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians.”
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