OTTAWA — Conservatives are trying to turn Prime Minister Stephen Harper's principled stand on the Middle East conflict into a money-maker for the party.

Using the Lebanese turmoil -- in which hundreds of civilians, including at least nine Canadians, have been killed -- to make a fundraising pitch has drawn the ire of at least one Liberal leadership hopeful.

Gerard Kennedy called the ruling party's latest appeal for donations "crass" and "offensive."

"We have people dying and families being displaced on both sides of this conflict and meanwhile Stephen Harper is allowing his foreign policy to be used as a partisan fundraising tool," Kennedy said Friday.

"This crosses the line."

Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, called the fundraising appeal "shameful and appalling."

Kennedy and Mouammar were reacting to a fundraising appeal e-mailed to prospective donors Thursday night from Conservative executive director Michael Donison.

Donison prefaces his request for donations with praise for Harper's resolute support for Israel during its bombardment of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

"Admit it," Donison says. "Moral clarity feels a lot better than the endless equivocation we found with our previous government."

He boasts that Harper was "amongst the first of the world's leaders to take a principled stand" and suggests that since then "leaders the world over have risen to stand with Stephen Harper."

But Donison observes that "not everyone is grateful" for Harper's "strong, clear direction," particularly not the country's opposition parties which "are only interested in maneuvering for party advantage" and are "blindly determined" to topple Harper's minority government.

"And so," Donison says, "I must turn to you to ask you for your support."

"This government is worth the fight; help us make sure we win the next election whenever it comes. We can expect an avalanche of Liberal fury to get back into power and a flood of media support for their effort," he adds.

"Help us keep the focus on principle and character and Canada's return to its place in the world."

Donison then asks for "a special contribution" of $150 or $75 to help the party "defend the decisive leadership of Stephen Harper."

Donison could not be reached for comment Friday.

But a senior Conservative source made no apologies for the executive director's pitch.

"The point of the letter is to remind Canadians that they have a prime minister that's able to make decisions and at times those decisions may be tough," the source said.

"But unlike the Liberals, he doesn't dither, he decides."

However, Kennedy called on Harper to "repudiate" Donison's pitch "in the strongest terms possible."

"The implication it makes is that this is just another political issue to make hay out of. That's got to be offensive to people on all sides," Kennedy said in an interview.

"It's crass and unacceptable and we would expect much, much more from the party in power ... They're wanting to collect on the position that they've taken."