Harper gave Israel permission to keep on bombing
Our Prime Minister, effecting the sharpest u-turn in Canada’s foreign policy in over half a decade, has effectively blessed Israel’s campaign against Lebanon. Stephen Harper said at the outset that Israel’s disproportionate use of force was, in his words, a “measured response”.
Israel uses the approbations of countries and leaders like Stephen Harper and George Bush as explicit permission to keep on bombing, no matter what the long term cost. Yesterday BBC News reported:
Israel says Wednesday’s decision by key world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light to continue. Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
Minister Ramon is fully distorting reality, since only a handful of nations have obligingly given Israel carte blanche, while the rest want both sides to stand down. Few nations actually approve of the use of disproportionate force, in part because it simply feels like the wrong thing to do, and in part because such lopsided war is against international law.
Thanks to The Independent, the following graphic makes it easy to see which nations – the few on the right – fully endorse Israel in its campaign of bombing homes, apartment buildings, civilian airports, civilian ports, milk factories, Red Cross ambulances and unarmed UN outposts.
On the left you have all the other nations who disapprove. Canada should be there, but is listed in error so I’ve fixed that. Don’t thank me, thank Stephen Harper.
The graphic reads Yes – Kofi Annan, speaking for the United Nations, said yesterday: “The collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop. What is urgently needed is the immediate cessation of hostilities.”
Canada (with my edit) joins Israel, Britain and the United States in supporting Israel without reservation as it carries on its disproportionate attack on Lebanon, on the Lebanese Army (which Israel says in one breath they want to see Lebanon’s army engage against Hizbullah even as in the next moment they bomb Lebanon’s army) and on UN forces.
Graphic©The Independent, with the minor editorial revision from me.