TORONTO – Today, Canada’s House of Commons will debate an Opposition Day motion, presented by NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh (https://www.ourcommons.ca/en/ House Agenda, March 18: you can read it also at the end of the article). It is a clinical condemnation of political-military responses by the Israeli government against Gaza for the October 7, 2023 incursions, killings and kidnappings.
That is what is in the preamble [justification for] to the resolution, which effectively calls for an autonomous/independent, self-determinant Gaza whose right to exist as a political entity would be guaranteed and protected by international bodies. Without proffering views as to how desirable, or not, such a proposition might be, one doubts that even a serious discussion in a Canadian Legislative forum, ill-equipped to unilaterally enforce the outcome of its deliberations, would contribute to achieving that goal without taking into consideration the input of contrary views.
In this context, the Motion is nothing less than a blatant attempt to derive domestic political/partisan gain from someone else’s suffering. Its proponents may be trying to echo a 1970s theme “give Peace a chance”, alas, that’s the best a “sympathetic ear” might offer. It is not one that resonates well among those predisposed to dislike “Jews and [also] Muslims” equally. Take, for example, the negative reaction, last week, to the Pope’s “implied exhortation/plea” that Peace cannot be achieved until litigants and belligerents stop fighting, even momentarily.
No amount of vacuous “moralizing” by a political party with “no skin in the game” will change that – even if it is a partner in government. On that score, there is no moralizing in questioning the veracity of the numbers and data emerging from the conflict. It is, as they say, a soft target.
After five months of an unbalanced fight (Israel is one of the most potent, best equipped, military powers in the Greater Middle East, Gaza the worst), the number of casualties (31,0o0 to 1,200) would point to that. Advocates for both sides have taken to bringing the conflict onto the floor of the Canadian House of Commons, via a self-adulating opposition Motion whose only value will result in eliminating its movers as a Party worthy of consideration for government in the next federal election.
European countries, which are more immediately, potentially, affected have been much more proactive – because they have “levers” and gravitas that they have engaged since the very beginning. Even in the United States, a country on the verge of approving a transfer of military assistance to Israel – not Gaza – of close to $15 billion according to estimates released by the US Congress, the calls for meaningful intervention seems to be advancing.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, well-connected member of the Diaspora has begun to voice a distinction between Jews (the Diaspora) and the current government of Israel. The US President, Joe Biden seems to agree. At least they are making efforts to distinguish between the two with an eye on the future.
