Photo courtesy RadioCanada
Ignatieff said and I paraphrase, You can't solve the Palestinian Problem with force of arms, the way forward is through negotiations. Ignatieff stakes out an important difference of opinion with Prime minister Harper and the Bush Whitehouses' policy; where-in certain groups and countries are labeled 'Terrorist', then invoking the Pre-Emption doctrine agreed to by the US congress after 9/11, use force of arms with-out provocation.
I have searched the web for the Text of what Michael Ignatieff actually said, an original source, but the language barrier between the Two Solitudes is intact - even with the wonderful translation devices often found at foreign web sites.
Also there seems to be some web-f**king going on. This is my term and comes from the Watergate affair in the US in 1972 Presidential elections - where Nixon set up a dirty tricks network to de-rail opponents campaigns - known as Rat-f**king; the scope of the tactic should be viewed in my opinion as the first evidence of Black Operations at home. Now 30 years later the technique has come to the internet. If you try to search the topic using Ignatieffs' name articles will come up that are not relevant to the other two search parameters your using, whatever they are.
The best I could do was the original print source for the story, The National Post. The possible next Leader of the opposition gets 50 words. Half an hour later I coundn't find my way back to the original story to quote it for you here, but I'll keep working on it.
The Qana bombing was not the impetus for the UN, the Red Cross or Human Rights Watch to call the Israeli actions in Lebanon 'War Crimes' ; Qana was only a graphic example of it. Now the media here, around this story has re-written the history sloppily, using this Qana imagery as reference point everyone can remember.
It is not accurate, the charge of war crimes comes from the disproportionate Israeli response to a border incident which cost the lives of eight Israeli soldiers along with the capture of two more. We all saw the response; the heavy area bombing of Lebanon that went on for over a month killing 900 civilians and causing the displacement of over a Million. If Israel hadn't stopped the refugee crisis would have hit the front pages and one part of the war, the ideological war would have been lost. As it was Israel apologized for hitting the Qana shelter and stopped the area bombing, not in time though, turning Hezbollah into hero's on the Arab street.
Check back to August in this Blog and read: Lessons from the Nazi Terror bombing of London...
Ignatieffs view seen in context and accurately, is in stark contrast to many in and outside of the Liberal party, specifically Neo-cons who would irresponsibly take us down the road to World War Three; a plan towards a One Super Power Global Empire. See the highlighted web sight for details of the new arms race going on in the so called 'new world order'.
UPDATE, October 13, 2006: found a National post article with less quotes from Ignatieff than the original stor- still no original sources, but some of the next days qualifiers, so, here it is, from an American conservative web site called FreeRepublic.com that reprinted the National Posts story:
Graeme Hamilton
National Post
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
MONTREAL - Michael Ignatieff, the front-runner in the race for the federal Liberal leadership, has accused Israel of committing "a war crime" during its conflict with Hezbollah last summer.
In an interview on a widely watched Quebec talk show, Mr. Ignatieff apologized for comments in August when he told a newspaper he was "not losing sleep" over an Israeli bombing that killed dozens of civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana.
"It was a mistake. I showed a lack of compassion. It was a mistake and when you make a mistake like that, you have to admit it," he told the French-language Radio-Canada program Tout le monde en parle.
"I was a professor of human rights, and I am also a professor of the laws of war, and what happened in Qana was a war crime, and I should have said that. That's clear."
His comments, broadcast on Sunday, sparked an angry reaction among Jewish leaders who learned of them yesterday.
"That's appalling. To call it a war crime is totally, totally unacceptable," said Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada.
"I have to wonder if he is pandering to certain delegates who will be voting in the Liberal election for leadership."
Shimon Fogel, chief executive of the Canada-Israel Committee, said it was frustrating to hear Mr. Ignatieff's accusation.
"For somebody as well-informed and experienced as Mr. Ignatieff, he should know that is not a reasonable charge to level against Israel," he said. "What he ought to be preoccupied with is the kind of intolerance that gave rise to the conflict to begin with and the extent to which there are efforts to have it leach into Canadian society."
He said his group had been concerned by previous comments about the war made by Mr. Ignatieff's chief Quebec organizers, Denis Coderre and Pablo Rodriguez. Mr. Coderre took part in a pro-Lebanon march in Montreal in August at which some participants carried the flag of Hezbollah, which Canada has classified as a terrorist organization.
Since joining the leadership race, Mr. Ignatieff has had to back down from controversial comments several times. Contacted for clarification yesterday, an aide to Mr. Ignatieff said he would not retract the use of the term "war crime," but said he had been misunderstood.
Leslie Church, director of communications for the Ignatieff campaign, said that even though he prefaced his comment by referring to his expertise in the law of war, he did not intend to apportion legal responsibility.
"This isn't a deliberation that Michael would make on his feet. There is no way that he would make a pronouncement on international law in this format, and that's not what he's driving at here," Ms. Church said.
"He meant that this was a tragedy of war, that this was a deplorable act in war, that this was a terrible consequence of war."
The July 30 Israeli air strike on Qana killed 28 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket positions and was unaware of the presence of civilians, but at the time Human Rights Watch labelled the attack a war crime.
Mr. Ignatieff, the MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, is not the first politician to get tripped up by the conflict. Maria Mourani, a Bloc Quebecois MP, told Le Devoir in August that her visit to Lebanon persuaded her war crimes were committed by Israel. The next day she issued a statement saying it was up to international bodies to determine what constitutes a war crime.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a Liberal MP from Ontario, was forced to resign his post as foreign affairs critic after accusing Israel of "state terrorism" and suggesting Canada should open talks with Hezbollah.
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said he was heartened by Mr. Ignatieff's use of the term "war crime" to describe Israel's actions. Last month Mr. Elmasry wrote an essay urging Liberals to choose anyone but Mr. Ignatieff as their leader. "He's taking the time to find out the facts, and, based on that, he's correcting his position. We appreciate that stand coming from him," he said yesterday.
Mr. Dimant predicted that Mr. Ignatieff's comment would "jolt some of the Jewish support that was on his side, that thought that he had taken some correct positions in terms of the Middle East before."
ghamilton@nationalpost.com
© National Post 2006
An aside, There is no original source Canadian content of current events on the web. No one is traking down original sources and publishing them, we Canadians are letting editors and corporate media centres create the Canadian record; edited, filtered and spun to their own agenda. If I can, I will find original sources on an on-going basis and publish them here, please help if you can.
..to be continued...
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