A recent editorial in the Winnipeg Jewish Review could leave the impression that the Brandon and District Labour Council is rethinking its endorsement of the Nov. 26 speaking engagement, in Winnipeg, of George Galloway. This would be the wrong impression. The event, organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg, drew an audience of more than 400 and was endorsed by 15 organizations, including the BDLC.
On Nov. 17, the BDLC passed a motion saying it would pay for tickets for any members who wished to attend, that it would contribute $100.00 to Peace Alliance Winnipeg, and that it would send a letter with the donation stating the BDLC position on the Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Had something changed?
Because I am a member of PAW and helped organise the event, I was concerned by the implications of the WJR editorial. I asked Peace Alliance Winnipeg chairperson Glenn Michalchuk to clarify the situation. Michalchuk said he spoke with the BDLC about the WJR editorial and was assured that nothing had changed. Said Michalchuk:
“The BDLC reaffirmed, to me, its support for holding the Galloway event. In line with the resolution they passed, they will be sending a cheque for $100 and a letter that outlines their views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Why is this issue worth wrting about? On one level, it’s fairly straightforward: an editorial in an online journal implies something that is not factual and leaves the reader imagining that Peace Alliance Winnipeg misrepresented the views of one of the organizations listed as an endorser of its event — we need to set the record straight.
On another level, it’s because I want to encourage readers to go to the Winnipeg Jewish Review and learn something of its perspective on the world, especially to what appears to be its unconditional support for the actions of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people and its apparent unwillingness to consider alternative viewpoints.
There can be no real progress towards peace anywhere unless we are open to the views of those with whom we disagree, even it it seems that they are closed to information that challenges their world view.
See also:
Paul S. Graham 
@PSG. YOU are the author of this piece? A member of PAW?
Sponsor of Galloway?
And you KNOW that he supports Hamas financially, in full knowledge of their cold-blooded murders of hundreds, and maiming of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens.
NOT collateral damage, but intent.
Saying he is against terrorism, while handing a terrorist entity (government named) wads of cash, has one interpretation:
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.
And the “Peace Alliance’ is tarred with the same brush.
It’s funny how any groups with certain names in their titles:
social/justice/peace/independant/activist are anti west, anti government and to a large degree antisemitic.
Someone should do a scientific study of that.
@PSG
And The Brandon and District LABOUR Council payed for tickets, plus $100 to PAW. Typical union leftwing antisemitism.
Did they have a unanimous vote for that?
Are they CUPE, CAW or HEU, the usual suspects?
Hi aesop. You’ve been busy. I hope, someday, you will learn that name-calling and ad hominum attacks will not win you any arguments or change any minds. Your pathetic accusations of antisemitism are not credible.
@PSG
It’s ad hominem.
And that’s just what you did to me!
It’s called projection. The left loves it.
Obviously I don’t love the left.
Your opinion is pathetic.
Read that carefully, it’s ambiguous.
The ‘accusation’ is pathetic in your mind.
It’s an opinion, not an absolute fact. Agreed?
I don’t seek to change your mind, but I would like to think that some of your readers might consider another viewpoint, or part thereof. And I therefore think your readers are not clones of you.
Further, rather than attacking my weak argument that the BDLC appears to have given unreserved support to Galloway (before he spoke TO THEM), and that he in turn supports Hamas with cash and ‘moral’ support (taking the money to them in person), and that they are PROUD that they have killed and maimed so many, and have named streets and squares and schools after the killers, you should address my prior posting, which lists that same chain of events, in slightly different words.
In my opinion, you/PAW have no shame over those premeditated murders of civilians, or you would not stomach Galloway.
I look forward to a constructive rebuttal of this statement of opinion from you or others, even LeDaro if he gets over his Goebbels thingy. Or, take the easy way out and ignore it.
I haven’t watched ‘your’ tape, but I have listened to other rants by George, and consider his attacks on Israel to be jew-bashing. Therefore, if you support him you bash Israel, ergo you bash jews. If you say little to nothing about Darfur (200-300,000 dead), Burma, Tibet or the DPRK then your jew-bashing by proxy is antisemitism. And that’s MY opinion.
If you read this far, all is not lost. The facts that you do not block/erase comments which are unsavoury (to you), and that you state that you will study a contrary (to you) opinion by Narvey shows that your mind is not totally closed.
And that’s damning by faint praise.
If you can UNEQUIVALENTLY separate PSG/PAW from Hamas’s bloodlust, I would be delighted to acknowledge that here and elsewhere.
@PSG/PAW
In my opinion, you/PAW have no shame over those premeditated murders of civilians [by Hamas], or you would not stomach Galloway.
I look forward to a constructive rebuttal of this statement of opinion from you or others, even LeDaro if he gets over his Goebbels thingy. Or, take the easy way out and ignore it.
Or, take the easy way out and ignore it.
@aesop
You are a hasbara troll. You need some sense knocked into you. If you are to be believed, you care about cicvilian casualties so why turn a blind eye to those killed by your favourite nation?
Compare and contrast the number of civilians killed by Hamas versus Israel. Or you are the type that believes Israeli life is worth 10 thousand goyims?
@aesop
You have a false sense of yourself. First of all you’re nobody. Infact you will not be missed if you ‘sod off’ from here. So stop pretending that you critique is of any value.
Secondly , if you stop supporting Israel’s bloodlust you can rejoin the human race.
Thirdly stop conflating ‘Israel’ with “Judaism’. It is not mych the same way Germany is not ‘Nazi’ or ‘Hutu killers’ do not represent all africans.
Look up Gilad Atzmon. Or Uri Avenery or Amira Hass.
Now sod off!!!
@teezee11
What’s a hasbara troll?
@PSG
What’s your critique of Narvey’s article?
Who is Narvey? To which article to you refer?
@PSG,
I can’t find it now. But in your long reply to someone’s long comment about an article by Johnathan Narvey, you said that it sounded interesting and that you would read it.
@PSG & PAW — a MUST READ for Gallowayniks!
My mistake, it was right at the top of the ‘Witch Hunt’ strawman article; and I kept missing it. Narvey = Glavin.
“Brian from Toronto” called Galloway a fascist and posted a link to an article by TERRY GLAVIN which makes that claim:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/11/23/terry-glavine-canada-in-palestine-fascists-on-campus/
I hope you, Ledaro and Tweezee, and other readers study it, with pencils sharpened, to note just what is right and what is wrong with the FACTS of the article.
@ tanzan11
“There can be no real progress towards peace anywhere unless we are open to the views of those with whom we disagree, even it it seems that they are closed to information that challenges their world view.”
PSG