Although enemies of Islamism, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism must make common cause against the terrorists, the appeasers and their apologists in the world today, some Canadian conservatives are making partisan hay out of these defining issues of our time.

In so doing, they have foolishly targeted MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler as a way of condemning the Liberal party for its weak response to the challenge of terror when Jean Chrétien was prime minister.

It doesn’t make sense. Conservatives shouldn’t be making support for Israel, rejection of anti-Semitism, the fight against Islamism and the push for human rights partisan issues. Democracies work when not everything is reduced to partisan warfare, when patriots can distinguish between areas of disagreement and those arenas where they share common values, methods and goals.

As someone who denounced Chrétien’s snivelling policies regarding Islamist terrorists as well as his moral paralysis in the face of anti-Israel terror, and as someone who continues to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism today, as well as someone who has frequently thanked the Stephen Harper government for its courageous stands on these issues, I am appalled that Conservatives are fighting Cotler rather than Canada’s real enemies.

We must confront the appeasers and apologists, the new anti-Semites and the terrorist Islamists who threaten us today. But Cotler has led the fight worldwide against anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and illiberalism, serving as an invaluable ally during the darkest days of former Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat’s war of terror, and pushing Liberals to evolve better policy stances – which most of them did.

We should be celebrating Canada’s non-partisan support for Israel and anti-Semitism as one of this government’s achievements, rather than making it a divisive, partisan issue. The Jewish community must stand strong, both defending Cotler and sending the message that we can’t be played for fools.

In the ultimate absurdity, the indictment against Cotler hinges on accusing him of failing to stand up when he actually took political risks to stand strong. Accusing Cotler of complicity in the 2001 Durban hate-fest is like claiming the Canadian Mounties were never interested in getting their man. When historians look back on the Durban debacle and its aftermath, they will put Cotler front and centre in the story. Since that awful conference, Cotler has done more to highlight its abuses than almost any other living person. He has been the conscience of the Liberal party, as well as of Canada and of the human rights community.

For the record, I am a colleague, friend and fan of Prof. Irwin Cotler of McGill University, a Canadian hero, a Jewish hero and one of the great men striding across the world stage today. These attacks have inspired me to do what I have long thought of doing – in this new year, I am asserting one of my few powers as an academic and nominating Cotler for a prize he has long deserved, the Nobel Peace Prize.

For decades – as a lawyer, law professor and legislator –  Cotler has stood up for the world’s downtrodden. He has represented dissidents fighting for their lives in dictatorships and has prodded democracies to remember that human rights begin at home but are universal. He has freed prisoners of conscience and been the world’s conscience, most recently confronting the Iranian government’s calls for genocide, its nuclear ambitions, its support for state-sponsored terrorism and its unholy war against its own people.

He’s dedicated his life to protecting the rights embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fulfilling the universal ideals that united democracies in the fights against Nazism, and guaranteeing that “Never again” is a watchword for us all. He has protected the Canadian patrimony while embodying Canada’s noble commitment to being a force for good in the world.

I am thrilled that Harper’s Conservative government has returned Canada to its role as the world’s conscience. But I also acknowledge Cotler’s role in making many of these issues non-partisan and all-Canadian. In this new decade, let’s co-operate to defeat our enemies, remembering that, even in election years, the core values uniting us should override the policy differences that may occasionally divide us.