Who should lead #Israel advocacy in #Canada? Ryan Bellerose responds. @fenris69

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In response to the Winnipeg Jewish Post article: http://www.cuwi.ca/uploads/2/3/4/9/23493612/cija_spokesman_steve_mcdonald_gives_effective_tips_how_to_advocate_for_israel.pdf

"I think that Mr. McDonald should probably not be teaching tips for effective advocacy for @CIJAInfo. Those may actually be the worst tips I have ever seen. In response to your 7 points:

1. You do not need to feed "the complexity" but you need to couch the discussion in understandable terms while making sure people understand its complex.

2. Actually what you need to do is reframe the other sides arguments and use examples that are understandable to the audience, not give in to the other sides argument by changing the subject. @StandWithUs has an effective tool for this.

3. We do not need to acknowledge the legitimacy of their grievances; we should however be willing to discuss them in their entirety. The issue is when people who are not educated on this conflict "acknowledge legitimacy of some of [the Palestinian] arguments", they make it sound like the Palestinian's position is legitimate. It is not. in fact the worst thing you can do if you are not educated in this is admit the Palestinian's claims have legitimacy. Very dangerous.

4. No you actually do make it about taking sides: you are either someone who believes in human rights and follow that logic to its conclusion or you are not. You either support rule of law or you support terrorism. Again, you use real world examples that people will understand. You do not allow them to set the clock at 1947. Again make sure you know what you are talking about.

5. The only thing correct in this entire piece is that we have to maintain the moral high ground - it's integral. This is why we need to know the legal aspects of these matters including the fact that the settlements are on Jewish ancestral lands and are in fact not illegal.

6. This is not worth mentioning unless you use the proper phrasing and terms; it is about the ineffectiveness of "land for peace" and in fact Israel has done it several times and only once with Egypt was it even marginally effective. Only bring up the breaking of ceasefires if they do first, because that takes you down the rathole of responding to attacks.

7. This last one, just shows that Steve shouldn't be teaching advocacy to anyone let alone Jews defending Israel. In fact im pretty disgusted this was even posted [Editor's note: Mr. McDonald has said that Jewish Post printed a misquote. He clarified: "If someone does something criminal (as happens in ANY country), don't try to defend it. It's indefensible, period"]

Let me make this simple: Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are an indigenous people who were forcibly displaced but who regained control of the majority of their ancestral lands. The "settlements" are in fact legal according to international law; it is actually false to claim they are illegal or immoral. In point of fact: if one follows the logic to its inevitable conclusion, one would say that if the settlements are illegal, then all of Israel is in fact illegal. I suggest that Mr. McDonald go and do some serious studying before presuming to teach EFFECTIVE advocacy.

If you like I can give him some more tips on EFFECTIVE advocacy, its clear Cija needs to get with the times on this"

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