One of the more odious aspects of the era ushered in by Steve Harper and Mike Ignatieff was the wholesale embrace of Israel over the Palestinians in Canadian foreign policy. Ignatieff seemed to go so far as to pre-absolve Israel for its excesses in the Gaza invasion by claiming the Palestinians had only themselves to blame. Canada has always supported Israel, just not as uncritically as it has over the past five years.
So just what have we bought into with this new policy? A group of former Israeli soldiers have created an organization, Breaking the Silence, to tell the world how Israeli forces routinely and systematically abuse, degrade and humiliate the Palestinian people. They're posting a series of YouTube clips explaining what happens, day to day, in the Occupied Territories.
Once again we find ourselves at odds with the international community that, in September, will pass a United Nations resolution to recognize Palestinian statehood. With that, supportive nations will be legally entitled to recognize the sovereign Palestinian state and its government and to enter into agreements, even alliances with it. Other states, exercising their sovereign rights to deal with another sovereign nation may well challenge Israel's policy of denying, by force, access to the Palestinian nation. Israel could very quickly find itself isolated, an international outlaw or rogue state.
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