Video - UN’s Schabas digs deeper hole, won’t say if he’ll investigate Hamas or if it’s a terror group.

Video - UN’s Schabas digs deeper hole, won’t say if he’ll investigate Hamas or if it’s a terror group. HT: UNWatch. IsraelMatzav.

This may go down as one of the all-time worst TV interviews by a UN figure.

Asked by Israeli TV’s Channel 2 why he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his “favorite” to indict in the International Criminal Court — instead of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Hamas leader Khaled Mashal — Schabas explained that he merely “echoed” the Goldstone Report. Except that Netanyahu wasn’t in power then — and, in fact, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Goldstone Report. Schabas fumbled for a defense, and miserably failed.

There are other doozies:

- Schabas refused to say if his commission of inquiry would examine crimes by Hamas. He said he needs to check with the other commissioners. (Actually, there’s only one other commissioner, Doudou Diene; the third one, Clooney fiancee Amal Alamuddin, pulled out on the same day the UN announced her appointment.)

- Schabas refused to call Hamas a terrorist group, even though it is legally defined as such by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, Australia, Japan and Israel.

- Schabas said Israel “gets off light at the Security Council,” a myth he often repeats but which has no basis whatsoever. In fact, most countries, including many of the world’s worst abusers, never get criticized at all in the UNSC, whereas Israel has been criticized in numerous UNSC resolutions, debates and presidential statements. That the US has vetoed most of the virulent and one-sided attacks against Israel launched by the Arab states is a good and right thing. The problem is that Schabas supports these biased campaigns.

Once again, UN Watch demands that William Schabas recuse himself from the UN inquiry on Gaza due to his manifest bias, or appearance thereof. Click here for more.

In a 2009 blog post, Schabas wrote that the world should not just ignore” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statements, but to stop "exaggerating" them. "Those who deserve the blame are “Israel and its friends, who have manipulated the truth about the nature of the work of the United Nations by gross exaggeration of the role and intervention of certain fanatics," Schabas said .

In 2011, Schabas went to Iran, to co-sponsor conferences with the Tehran-based Center for Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, where he was keynote speaker. The center has close ties with former Iranian president President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[14]

Canadian 'Green' party president Paul Estrin defends Israel in pro-Israel blog post.

Canadian 'Green' party president Paul Estrin defends Israel in pro-Israel blog post.  (TOI).

A pro-Israel blog post written last week by Paul Estrin, president of the Green Party of Canada, has caught the attention of Canadians and others as it has been widely shared on social media.

The essay, published on the Green Party of Canada’s website, is titled, “Why Gaza Makes Me Sad.” In a departure from the party’s widely perceived leftist and pro-Palestinian stance, Estrin’s words are supportive of Israel and critical of Palestinians and their leadership.

In his blog post, Estrin places the blame for the current escalation between Israel and Gaza squarely on Hamas. He also emphasizes that the Gazans themselves allowed Hamas to take control.

“Since August 2005, Gazans have been in control of their own destiny. Some might say otherwise, yet Gazans have their own government and they are their own people: If their neighbors, Egypt and Israel, close their borders to Gaza, one must look to a Gaza run by a terrorist organization cum government that teaches and propagates hate, death and destruction to understand why,” he writes.

“The Gazan government has had ample opportunity over these past years, nearly a decade, to alter its ways, change its mantra of death to the Jews, and become respectable caretakers of the people in their charge. They have not,” he continues.

Estrin, who chairs the party’s board of directors and administration, usually leaves the public pronouncements on positions and policies to Elizabeth May, a Member of Parliament, and the Green Party of Canada’s political leader.

Estrin’s blog post has angered some of his Green Party of Canada members, and on Monday, May distanced herself from Estrin’s expressed views, emphasizing that he does not speak for the party.

“His views are contrary to Green Party of Canada position. We support peace. We condemn violence,” she wrote on Twitter.

The party’s official platform states that it supports a two-state solution and believes that Canada should not take sides in the longstanding, complicated Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Canada’s role in the Middle East should be to reduce tensions, find working solutions and uphold international humanitarian law, not to take sides in this chronic conflict. We must work towards a mutually acceptable compromise that will achieve a lasting peace between, and among, the Israelis and Palestinians,” the platform states.

A press release issued by the party at its national convention earlier this month called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “put an immediate end to the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel.”

The idea of not taking sides against Hamas did not sit well with Estrin as Israel entered its fourth week of fighting the terrorist organization in Operation Protective Edge.

“At this point, I thought it would behoove me to speak up to members of our party and to the Canadian public. People need a rounder understanding of the situation,” Estrin tells The Times of Israel.

He is concerned about what he sees as a prevailing anti-Israel focus among his party’s 12,000 official members and Canadians in general. He has noticed a lack of knowledge about the conflict and its history on the part of those who are quick to defend the Palestinians and point fingers at the Israelis.

“The Green Party internationally has six core principals, one of which is non-violence. When we consider the violence going on, we need to look at Hamas and not just Israel,” he says.

In the blog, Estrin challenges the support given by citizens of countries around the world to the Palestinian leadership in Gaza, whom he claims is indifferent to the injury and death of their own civilian population.

“And yet, these are the same people who are embraced and loved by the international community, with marches on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, and in cities throughout the world, holding banners and chanting about the destruction of the State of Israel and of death to the Jews,” Estrin writes.

Calling the “noble” actions of international activists “grossly misplaced,” Estrin fears that the Gazan government has been emboldened to continue on its terrorist course, and that Israel could consequently (and justifiably) be forced to take more extreme measures against it.

Estrin admits that, although he disagrees with many policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, he is pleased that it supports Israel’s right to defend itself.Hmmm....Standing up for Canadian values.

Video - 'Canadian values' in your Toronto neighborhood - Al Quds Rally in Toronto.

HTand more at BlazingCatfur.

Jewish Professor Quit University of Calgary After School Refused to Act Against Students Who Endorsed Terror Groups.

Jewish Professor Quit University of Calgary After School Refused to Act Against Students Who Endorsed Terror Groups. HT: Algemeiner.

A tenured professor at Canada’s University of Calgary said he left the school after it ignored his concerns about students spreading radical Islamist views, the National Post reported on Thursday.

Aaron Hughes, an author on religion who holds a PhD on Islamic studies, said he once found an Arabic message written on his classroom’s chalkboard endorsing terror groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The professor and researcher, who is Jewish, said he considered the message to be anti-Semitic and that the university refused to remove the offending student from his class.

“Ultimately, the reason I left the University of Calgary is because my colleagues gave me no support,” he said.

“I would have to go teach this class as a victim staring my aggressor in the face,” he said.

The university also failed to act when Hughes reported that he was uncomfortable teaching religion in what he called a hostile environment, he told the National Post. Hughes also became concerned when he heard students in his Islamic studies classes promoting a view of Islam that denounced scholars as heretics and certain fields of study as non-Muslim.

Hughes said he is not surprised Calgarians have joined extremists in battle, given what he experienced at the University of Calgary. He wondered whether radical Muslim influences on university campuses are helping encourage youths to support Islamist jihad in Syria and Iraq.

Hughes said he once saw a young Muslim stand up during a University of Calgary memorial service for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and say, “Islam will always stand up for those who are dispossessed.” Later, he saw a Calgary student wearing a Hamas terror group headband. Hmmmm........I guess "Canadian Values" have gone down the Drain thanks to 'Liberal PC'? Read the full story here.

Video - Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau talks of tolerance right after Muslim speaker quoted Koran on punishment of 'unbelievers'.