Whose Murder is Worse?

How many Lebanese and Palestinian children have to die before Israel considers itself secure?

All our government and corporate media propaganda attempts to describe the Arab side as a force of murderous strangers hiding themselves among a civilian population. That is a lie. The people and the fighters are one and the same, and the Israelis have made them so by their continual acts of state-run military violence against them for two decades.

The most tragic thing is that every imagined success in their supposed war on terror merely increases the level of hatred against them. When every bomb kills a dozen, and creates two dozen new enemies, it is evident that continuing this evil policy will ultimately end in their own destruction. The Jewish people need friends who can save them from themselves. It's quite evident that the failed regime in Washington is not that friend. It's becoming equally evident that the uncaring clique in Ottawa who have turned their backs on Canada's role to stand up for a just and lasting peace in the region are no better.

You must remember how powerful a symbol the image was of a single man against a tank in Tien An Min Square. That symbol is now being renewed in Lebanon a thousand times, and is before the eyes of the whole world. When will these leaders bent on killing see that every dead Hezbollah fighter has a million mourners? Their policy is now, and will always be, self-defeating.

Before Canada loses every bit of respect the free world has for it, these Tories, so arrogant in their profound ignorance, must listen to the voices of people wiser than themselves and retract their words of support for war and military might. Before they take Canada marching in lockstep with the Bush administration's rush into a new disaster and the magnification of destruction wherever it meddles, we need to have a lengthy parliamentary debate on our foreign policy. An honest debate.

We need the Common's Foreign Affairs Committee given the power to call unaligned witnesses and listen to the words of all those who have evidence to give – not just hand-picked toadies who will parrot the Government's sympathies. It's easy to see why Harper chose to represent a constituency in Calgary, these are the tactics which have been perfected by the Klein autocrats over the past fourteen years.

This new cycle of hatred will only engender another, greater cycle to come. At least let us take Canada out of this never-ending path to disaster – not to turn our backs on either side, but to win ourselves the right to take a persuasive stance between them. Both sides in this conflict seem to want to rain down destruction until there is no civilization, no humanity left to save. But out of this wreckage will come new children, and a new tomorrow. Let Canada be there with the moral right to teach a better future than its present leaders envision.