Me, Myself, and Mine

What do you think about the U.N.? How about our participation in it? Might you think we should have pushed harder for a so-called 'coveted seat' on the UN Security Council ...despite the various costs to Canada, it's reputation and the values of many of it's citizens?

Well, Lynda Hurst lamented we should have in her news feature in the Toronto Star on May 20th. She extensively quoted Paul Heinbecker, Canada's U.N. Ambassador from 2001-2004. He held the job under the former Liberal Government and their Middle East foreign policy.

Jonathan Kay of the National Post wrote on the same subject from a different perspective in his piece on the same day. He was kinder than Ms. Hurst and Mr. Heinbecker to the current Conservative Government, led by Stephen Harper, and their differing foreign policy approach to Israel and the Palestinian Authority than that of the Liberals. He felt that Ms. Hurst's and Mr. Heinbecker's call for Canada to take a more "fair-minded" stance is really and anti-Israel position.

Mr. Kay took flack regarding his position. So he wrote a follow-up piece on May 21st. In it he commented further on his last line from his piece the day before.

"If the UN is an institution where principle must be left at the door, where the only way to gain advancement is to toe a party line dictated by Muslim dictatorships, where our Western allies are fodder for committees and agencies dominated by rogue states", Mr. Kay concluded, "… then maybe the question isn’t why we aren’t more popular at the UN. It’s why we’re a member there at all."

He also said some other things that some would say are extreme.

Now It's Your Turn!: Please share how you feel and what you think about what you've just read above and the newspaper articles involved. For example: "Are Ms. Hurst's and Mr. Heinbecker's positions really anti-Israel?" or "Is Mr. Kay right and we should get out of the U.N. altogether." (My 'Comment Section', in which you can share anonymously, will open to you when you click on "comments" immediately below this post. The “Word Verification Procedure” there before you can post is included to prevent spammers from spoiling your enjoyment of my site.)

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Labels: Current Hot Potatoes, Politics