Premier Dalton McGuinty boasts he does not bow and scrape to lobbies, but he is finding some are too powerful to ignore. The Liberal premier, in the latest example, has allowed a senior minister and 30 police chiefs, including Sudbury Police Chief Ian Davison, to make a six-day visit to Israel organized and partly paid for by lobbyists for that country.
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ERIC DOWD |
The lobbyists made sure the travellers saw exactly what they wanted them to see, arranging their itinerary and accompanying them every step of the way.
The trip was to inspect Israeli security techniques for coping with terrorists and suggested by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), which helps many worthy causes in its community, but also is a strong advocate for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians.
It invited Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter and members of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and. The CJC?s Ontario region chair co-chaired the mission with the minister and police chiefs? vice-president Armand LaBarge.
Kwinter is a leading member of the Jewish community and staunch spokesman for Israel in the legislature and elsewhere.
He said it would be an opportunity to see from the inside how Israeli security works and meet senior Israeli security officials. He added, almost as an afterthought, organizers also were arranging a meeting with officials of the Palestinian Authority.
LaBarge declared the group would be able to see how ?one of the world?s most sophisticated democratic states deals with terrorism.?
The group watched demonstrations by Israeli security forces including border police, heard of trauma they suffer and visited a centre rehabilitating injured officers.
It went to a detention centre holding Palestinian youth and was told it was trying to cure problems including ?illiteracy, lack of education and other issues? at the root of terrorism.
It also squeezed in a meeting with three representatives of the Palestinian Authority among several on its last day.
Kwinter, two government representatives who went with him, and the police chiefs each paid about $1,500 toward the cost of the trip, about half, and can expect to be reimbursed by their various employers.
The rest will be paid by the CJC, some of its leading members called ?private sponsors? and donations of cheaper flights by the state airline, El Al Israel, and hotels reducing their rates.
The trip raises concerns. Jews have suffered many tribulations, but some find it offensive when police imply terrorism comes from only one side, the Palestinians.
Since Arabs began their uprising against those occupying their land by force, Israeli tanks, gunships and troops have killed three times as many of them, including many women and children, as Arabs have killed Jews, which is terror even if it comes from the state.
Police describing one side as a ?democratic state? does not necessarily absolve it. Does anyone need an example of a country that has spread death and destruction despite having a duly elected government?
Among the many one-sided examples, those on the trip were shown Israeli police suffering trauma, but can they imagine how much worse it is for the many civilians, including women and children, subjected more directly and constantly to fire?
The visitors saw juveniles they were told resorted to terrorism because of illiteracy, inadequate education and other issues. But no one appeared to mention they resented treatment by occupying forces.
The lobbyists may want to see Ontario better informed on security, but also have tried to create a more favourable impression of Israel, and it is difficult to blame them, because it is a cause they feel deeply about.
But public officials who went could have gone elsewhere to obtain information instead of accepting lobbyists? direction and money, which hampers their findings from appearing to be independent.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen?s Park press gallery.
