Supporting Toronto Star of Zionist’s
Terrorist former Prime Minister of war criminal Israeli regime
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
What is Toronto Star?
Torstar Corporation owns Metroland
Printing, Publishing & Distributing, publishers of 69 community newspapers
in Southern Ontario, as well as the daily newspapers the Toronto Star,
the Hamilton Spectator, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, the Guelph Mercury,
and Harlequin Enterprises, a publisher of women's fiction.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the
former Israeli prime minister, told a crowd of more than 1,800 people tonight.
"But the hell that was visited on New York and Washington was nothing compared
to the hell that could be visited on all of us if these mad zealots who
know no limits on the use of force . . . aren't vanquished entirely."
The sold-out reception that he received in Toronto - along with a standing
ovation and cheers from his audience - contrasted sharply with the scene
outside the performance hall. Police estimated that up to 1,000 people
- half pro-Palestinian and half pro-Israeli - hurled insults and shouted
at each other from behind police barricades separating the groups.
"We are fortunate that the numbers didn't show up that we anticipated but
we were quite ready" said Toronto police Insp. John Wallace. At least
one person was treated for a minor injury after being hit with a rock,
said Wallace. Frank Dimant, of the B'nai Brith, said he was pleased
to see the demonstration was peaceful. "It's democracy in action,"
Dimant said as he entered the hall to hear Netanyahu speak. "We're seeing
a display of Canada is all about - difference of opinion." The peaceful
protest, like one earlier in the day in Ottawa, was a sharp contrast to
a violent demonstration in Montreal on Monday. Netanyahu's speech
in Montreal's Concordia University was cancelled after 200 pro-Palestinian
protesters overran campus security officers and occupied the downtown building
where he was to address students. Police beat back the activists with pepper
spray and batons, arresting five people after several windows were smashed.
In his Ottawa speech, Netanyahu compared the Montreal protesters with Middle
East terrorists, saying they had "the same glint" in their eyes.
He said he saw "militant zealotry and mad militancy" in Canada exported
from the Middle East. The level of violence was not the same, but the mentality
was, he said. Netanyahu was kept well away from the protesters in
Montreal and Toronto. "They can blow up a bus full of babies, they
blow an airplane out of the sky, they can blow up a restaurant," he told
about 600 guests at a downtown Ottawa hotel. "That glint of hate,
that mad zealotry, is the same that I saw in the eyes of these rioters
in Montreal yesterday. It is something that once it begins to infect democratic
societies, it spreads, it grows." Only about a dozen demonstrators
showed up to protest Tuesday's speech in Ottawa. "Dissent is what
brings about change," said protester Maha Zimmo. "Netanyahu's message is
full of hate. He is a warmonger." Palestinian protesters in Toronto
waved flags and carried signs reading Netanyahu is a War Criminal and End
the Occupation. Their Israeli counterparts waved their country's
white and blue flag and carried signs that read Israel, We Support You
and We Believe in Free Speech, Do You?" In his Ottawa speech, later
repeated in Toronto, Netanyahu said the war against terror attacks on innocent
people requires moral clarity, strategic clarity, and courage. "Nothing,
absolutely nothing, justifies terrorism," he said. "It is always evil.
Like the evil of Naziism, it has to be fought uniformly. . . . This is
a crime against humanity." Terrorism is a network consisting of a
half-dozen regimes that must be taken out and replaced with something better,
he said. That requires pre-emptive strikes and the courage of leaders to
sometimes sail against "the prevailing winds of fashion." Before
speaking to a luncheon crowd on Tuesday, Netanyahu made what government
officials described as a "courtesy call" on Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
at 24 Sussex Drive. Netanyahu is touring four Canadian cities to
promote an anti-terror campaign and raise funds for Israel, sponsored by
the Asper Foundation, State of Israel Bonds and Canadian Friends of Hebrew
University. He was scheduled to travel to New York on Sept. 11.
In Ottawa and Toronto, media mogul Izzy Asper likened the Montreal rioters
to Hitler's goons, saying they "put a stain on Canada" by their actions.
"The minority of a rabble, the rioting group of essentially thugs, lawbreakers,
employed a technique known only - introduced, really - 70 years ago by
Adolf Hitler and his brownshirts," said Asper, executive chairman of CanWest
Global Corp. "The shouting down, the closing down, the trampling
on the right of free assembly and the physical restraint through violence
of freedom of speech. It was a most unfortunate scene for Canada."
Given a standing ovation in Toronto, Asper urged audience members to take
action to stop the "dramatic rise in anti-Semitism" worldwide. "The
Jewish community of Canada . . . has got to lead a new thrust to respond
assertively and effectively to this new threat before it becomes a crisis."
Star Columnists
|
