“Israel’s Only Friend”?

Ed Koch, former mayor of New York, recently died, and it reminded us that we wrote to a website that published his article in September 2011. Here is the letter:

I most certainly have a question, if not a comment, of Mr. Koch. I have appreciated his articles, reasoning, and stance for Israel. But in this article, he says, “The U.S. is Israel’s only friend and ally.”

Is this true? Is he qualifying that statement with the idea that America is the only friend and ally that seems powerful enough to help Israel in any significant way? Because I see Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada standing up for Israel. I have seen Minister Jason Kenney of Harper’s cabinet standing up for Israel. Does the present Canadian government not get any credit with Mr. Koch for its stance, for which it has paid the price in many ways, one of those being the loss of a seat on the U.N. Security Council, which Germany and even Portugal won instead?

I understand that most Jews are Liberals and Democrats. Traditionally, that has certainly been so.

Wasn’t it a Liberal, Mr. Michael Ignatieff, Opposition Leader to Harper, who criticized Harper’s support for Israel, and who may have been a cause of the loss of that seat at the U.N.?

Isn’t Ignatieff the man who, before entering Canadian politics and while reporting in Lebanon, criticized Israel and supported the Muslim Arabs in the war, while all Israel was doing was defending herself?

Isn’t it a Democrat who, as President of the U.S., stands ready to throw Israel under the bus – with fiendish relish, I might add? And this is a man whom the Jews significantly helped bring to power.

Are Jews like Mr. Koch so politically partisan that they don’t recognize a friend when they have one in the present Conservative government of Canada?

Do Jews encourage further support from Canada and other nations by Ed Koch’s insulting, dismissive remark? Can he, as a Jew, afford to publicly “schmooze” with a power Jews assume or hope to be their friend, while publicly disregarding those who pay a price to be their friend?

We have been supporting Mr. Harper and his government in his support of Jews and of Israel. Maybe Mr. Koch knows something about Canada’s government and Prime Minister Harper concerning present-day relations with Jews and Israel that we don’t. If so, enlighten us. I would like to hear what he knows that we don’t, and would gladly take revelations into consideration.

Mr. Jolkovsky, I’d like to hear from both you and Mr. Koch on this one.

Victor Hafichuk

Nobody responded.

– February 8, 2013