NATIONAL POST, THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014 nationalpost.

com A11
DAVID BUIMOVITCH / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
A missile is launched by an Iron Dome battery in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on July 18.
Re: The Path Toward Peace
In The Mideast, Marc Ct, July 30.
Marc Ct asks, what if Israel didn t
respond to the missiles launched by
Hamas? His answer: At some point,
Hamas would run out of bombs, or come
late to the realization that an Israeli re-
taliation wasnt forthcoming. The attacks
would stop.
It appears as though Mr. Ct thinks
he is watching a cowboy movie, where
the gunfight lasts until everyones gun
clicks empty and they all live happily
ever after.
Uri Samson, Toronto.
It is wonderful that Marc Ct has such
a hopeful view of the world, and I share
his wish for peace in the Middle East. But
his understanding of the consequences of
the Treaty of Versailles and the sequence
of events preceding the Marshall Plan are
flawed.
While it is true war reparations placed
an unsupportable burden on Germany,
the treatys main flaw was that it allowed
the Nazis to claim that the country had
been robbed, rather than defeated on the
battlefield. As for the Marshall Plan, it
was preceded by the unconditional sur-
render of both Germany and Japan and
it took a couple nuclear bombs to achieve
that surrender.
In the Middle East, peace will come
when the majority of Arabs accept Israels
right to exist. Until then, we should hold
the optimism.
Hazen McDonald, Mississauga, Ont.
Is Marc Ct really saying that if the Jews
let their enemies hit them until their
arms get tired, that Israel will eventually
win? Really?
Sam Leinwand, Markham, Ont.
Marc Ct suggests that Israel stop re-
sponding to Hamas attacks, in order to
stop the cycle of violence. This brings
to mind the advice that Mahatma Gandhi
gave Britain in 1940, when that country
was at war with the Nazis.
I would like you to lay down the arms
you have as being useless for saving you
or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler
and Signor Mussolini to take what they
want of the countries you call your pos-
sessions. If these gentlemen choose to
occupy your homes, you will vacate them.
If they do not give you free passage out,
you will allow yourselves, man, woman
and child, to be slaughtered, but you will
refuse to owe allegiance to them.
Diane Weber Bederman, Caledon, Ont.
According to Marc Ct, Israel should
just stand pat and let its Iron Dome mis-
sile defence system shoot down Hamas
missiles, because at some point, Hamas
would run out of bombs.
But what if Israel runs out of Iron
Dome missiles first. Then what? More-
over, some Hamas missiles do get through
the Iron Dome and all of them regard-
less of whether they hit their target ter-
rorize Israeli civilians on a daily basis.
Most importantly, what happens when
Hamas gets its hands on missiles that can
defeat the Iron Dome?
Mr. Ct is wrong. The time to defeat
Hamas is now, not later.
Keith Bell, Ottawa.
Marc Cts point seems to be that Israels
propensity to retaliate against Palestin-
ian attacks cannot resolve matters (wit-
ness the last 10 years or so), but that if the
country stopped responding to Hamas
rockets and halted the development of
new settlements, that somehow peace
would blossom. Mr. Ct backs up his as-
sertion by comparing the failure of the
retribution approach taken at the end
of the First World War, to the success of
the Marshall Plan used after the Second
World War.
However, this comparison fails on
multiple levels. The Allied victory at the
end of the Second World War was not
the result of restraint. It was due to an
overwhelming defeat of the Axis power.
This involved extraordinary destruction,
horrific civilian casualties, the complete
elimination of the enemys leadership and
the occupation of Germany and Japan for
years to come.
If Israel stopped retaliating, Hamas
would lose some of the sympathy it has
been getting from other countries, but to
what end? The only way to end this con-
flict is for the Palestinians to institute a
government thats determined to turn
Gaza into a viable entity, while renoun-
cing violence against Israel.
Ron Hoffman, Toronto.
I invite Marc Ct and other armchair
critics of Israels tactics to send their chil-
dren to summer camp in Israel this Au-
gust, just until Hamas would run out of
bombs or the attacks would stop. I ll
pay the fees.
Ron Freedman, Toronto.
Marc Ct is on to something when he
says that retribution doesnt work and
that what the Mideast needs is a Marshall
Plan. I agree completely.
One minor detail missing from this
suggestion is that both Germany and
Japan surrendered unconditionally. So
all we need is for Hamas, Islamic Jihad
and Fatah to do the same. Or was Mr.
Ct anticipating that Israel would do
the surrendering?
Charles Evans, Toronto.
Marc Ct makes the extraordinary com-
parison between the current conflict in
the Middle East and the situation the
United States was in at the end of the
Second World War. He claims that the
Marshall Plan brought peace because the
Americans wisely eschewed retribution
in the form of Versailles-style reparations.
He thinks that this sort of fresh approach,
which is to be exemplified on Israels side
by its refusal to rise to the bait of thou-
sands of rockets fired at it from Gaza,
secure under the shelter of Iron Dome,
would lead to opportunities for long-term
peace.
Aside from the simplistic nature of this
analysis of the post-war condition, the
comparison completely ignores the fact
that Hamas exists specifically to destroy
Israel. Only the hopelessly naive could
believe that these terrorists could be con-
vinced to start loving their neighbours.
This is not bringing a fresh approach
to the problem; it is the merely wishful
thinking.
Simon A. Brooks, Lunenburg, N.S.
Re: U.S. Chafes At Israeli Criticism, July
29.
Upon the outbreak of hostilities between
Israel the only democratic state in the
Middle East and Hamas, U.S. President
Barack Obamas reaction was one of
moral equivalency. This begs the ques-
tion: What was the purpose of branding
Hamas a terrorist organization, if one
does not recognize acts of terrorism when
one sees it?
Should the hostilities end with Hamas
remaining capable of resorting to vio-
lence, it will be a victory and a source of
inspiration for the various terrorist groups
in their war against western policies and
society. Conversely, the free nations of the
world have an opportunity to inflict a de-
cisive defeat on one such group, Hamas,
by giving Israel its full support.
The loss of any life is a horrible tragedy,
but these terrorist organizations consider
violence to be the only way of achieving
their ends. On the other hand, Colonel
Justin Kemp, a British army officer with
experience in the previous battles in Gaza
testified before a UN commission that the
Israel Defense Forces did more to safe-
guard the rights of civilians in combat
zones than any other army in the history
of warfare.
Israel is the free worlds first line of
defence against Islamic terrorism. It be-
hooves the leaders of the free world to
summon the courage to support Israel.
This will send a message to each and
every terrorist group that, in the face of
violence, the free world will stand strong
and prevail.
Sam Mitnick, Cte St. Luc, Que.
The people of Palestine sealed their fate
when they voted Hamas into power. The
leaders and followers of Hamas are reli-
gious zealots who have one objective: the
destruction of the State of Israel. Those
Palestinians who suffer and die as a result
of this objective are seen as a cost of doing
business. The UN and the United States
need to be supporting Israel in no uncer-
tain terms, or other fanatical groups will
be emboldened.
Leone Wright, Surrey, B.C.
The free world will
stand strong and prevail
KEVIN G. LYNCH
AND KAREN MISKE
W
ith our abundant
reserves and large
capacity for exports,
Canada could be a world lead-
er in developing our liquid
natural gas (LNG) supplies.
Instead, we are lagging behind
our competitors.
China recently signed a
$400-billion LNG deal with
Russia. The U.S. Department of
Energy gave the green light to
seven new LNG projects. And
the construction of large pro-
jects in Australia and Mozam-
bique are currently under way.
Energy security is becom-
ing an urgent priority for many
rapidly growing Asian econ-
omies. Our competitors in-
cluding Australia, Russia and
the United States are moving
to lock in long-term export con-
tracts with those countries.
Amidst all this global action,
how is Canada positioned? In
British Columbia, we are still
waiting for the first LNG pro-
ject to receive approval. We
have a number of proposed
pipelines that would move oil
to the West Coast, but no over-
arching statement of national
purpose or government leader-
ship. The west-to-east pipeline
appears to have more broad-
based support, but still faces
numerous regulatory hurdles
in what is sure to be a lengthy
approval process.
In Asia, where government
matters in building long-term
economic relationships, the
Canadian government has been
inconsistent at best. Nor do we
have a coherent strategy when
it comes to exporting to Europe
a region in desperate need of
secure energy supplies.
In this rapidly changing
world, where early Canadian
projects would generate cru-
cial momentum, attract inter-
national investment and shape
our energy export future, we
have to up our game. Canada is
not only missing out on many
lucrative opportunities around
the world, we are doing our-
selves a disservice by not di-
versifying our export market
beyond the United States.
Here are five elements that
could contribute to a diversifi-
cation of Canadas energy ex-
ports, in a manner that would
allow us to be competitive and
take advantage of emerging
markets.
First, we need to foster a
broad public dialogue on our
energy future. If energy export
diversification is in the national
interest, not just private inter-
ests, then the dialogue should
be about the public interest in
energy diversification, rather
than a series of narrow debates
about specific projects.
This will take leadership
from both governments and
the business community. As the
debate over free trade demon-
strated, Canadians are willing
to reject the status quo and
make transformative changes,
but only if they are engaged in
a meaningful public discussion
one that fosters an under-
standing of the potential risks
and benefits of any proposed
policy change.
Second, we need to obtain
social license for pivotal
change. A key element of
gaining support for change is
establishing confidence that
the change is in the public
interest. When we negotiated
the Free Trade Agreement
(FTA) with the United States,
there were concerns about the
competitiveness of Canadian
firms and fears about job
losses. Yet, governments were
able to take steps to allay both
these concerns.
When it comes to pipelines
to the coast, many are con-
cerned about the potential
environmental risks and the
adequacy of consultations with
First Nations. Surely, having
obtained social license for the
FTA, we can find appropriate
mechanisms to reduce environ-
mental risks and deal reason-
ably with Aboriginal issues.
Third, we need a competi-
tive environment for Canadian
energy producers. Govern-
ments have to set fiscal and
royalty regimes that balance
international competitiveness
and a reasonable return to the
taxpayers of the province where
the resources are extracted.
Corporations are also sensi-
tive to the tax and royalty en-
vironment, and they have op-
tions in other jurisdictions.
They also highly value long-
term policy certainty and, in
this regard, the fact that the
B.C. government has yet to
formalize the LNG income tax
proposed in its February 2014
budget, adds uncertainty and
can contribute to project delays.
There are also concerns
about whether Canada has
enough skilled labour to meet
the future needs of major ener-
gy projects. There are currently
13 proposed LNG projects in
B.C. If three or four of them
come to fruition, it is question-
able as to whether Canada will
have enough skilled labour to
fill all the positions. British Col-
umbia has begun to develop a
skilled trades plan, but it needs
to be much larger in scale and
more national in scope.
Fourth, we need to be in-
novators in the production and
distribution of our energy re-
serves. Canada has an impres-
sive history of innovation in
natural resource extraction and
processing, and we need to step
up our investments in all as-
pects of unconventional energy
production and distribution.
Fifth, we need to think more
strategically about our energy
future, make long-term plans
and act with a greater sense of
urgency. Notwithstanding our
professed desire to be an ener-
gy superpower, we lack a na-
tional energy strategy. And we
have many competitors such
as the U.S., Australia and num-
erous countries in East Africa
that are approaching this
energy transformation more
strategically than us. We simply
cannot afford these shortcom-
ings, if we are to be a global
energy player.
LNG exports to China, South
Korea, India, Taiwan and Japan
represent an enormous oppor-
tunity for Canada. Energy ex-
ports can also be a beachhead
for other sectors in these emer-
ging markets. But the window
of opportunity will not remain
open indefinitely. Canada must
act, and it must do so with ef-
ficiency and purpose, or these
energy export opportunities
will pass us by.
National Post
Kevin G Lynch is the vice-chair-
man of BMO Financial Group;
Karen Miske is a senior advisor
at BMO Financial Group.
Becoming
an energy
superpower
We are doing
ourselves
a disservice by
not diversifying
our export
market
National Post welcomes letters to the editor (200 words or fewer)
by mail, fax or email. Please include name, address and daytime
telephone number. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject
letters. Mailing address: 300-365 Bloor St. E., Toronto, Ont. M4W 3L4,
Canada. Telephone: 416.383.2300; fax: 416.383.2305; email: letters@
nationalpost.com or fpletters@nationalpost.com. Copyright in letters
and other materials sent to the publisher and accepted for pub-
lication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees
may freely reproduce them in print, electronic and other forms.
L E T T E RS T O T HE E DI T OR
LETTERS
KEVIN LIBIN
MANAGING EDITOR,
FINANCIAL POST
JONATHAN KAY
MANAGING EDITOR,
COMMENT
GAYLE GRIN
MANAGING EDITOR,
DESIGN & GRAPHICS
BENJAMIN ERRETT
MANAGING EDITOR,
FEATURES
TERENCE CORCORAN
FP EDITOR
DIANE FRANCIS
FP EDITOR-AT-LARGE
ANNE MARIE OWENS
EDITOR