New Media

Probably the best thing to come out of this weird incident with NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies is the end of an unofficial two-track policy on Israel. With the statement from Thomas Mulcair, the NDP’s other deputy leader, the idea of Israel as an apartheid state is definitively ejected from mainstream political discourse in this country.

Let’s take a quick look at Mulcair’s statement as recorded in the National Post:

“No member of our caucus, whatever other title they have, is allowed to invent their own policy,” said Mr. Mulcair. “We take decisions together, parties formulate policies together, and to say that you’re personally in favour of boycott, divestment and sanctions for the only democracy in the Middle East is, as far as I’m concerned, grossly unacceptable.”

If the NDP caucus truly believes this, then it’s a sea-change for public discussion of foreign policy vis a vis Israel and the Palestinians in this country. The ideology behind boycott and divestment campaigns against Israel are firmly relegated to the land of 9/11 Truthers, Creationists and the more nefarious minds behind the Rhino party.

For political pragmatists like myself, the BDS campaign has always been an extreme phenomenon that never carried any official support from any legitimate political party or their rank and file, or at least shouldn’t have. Yet there’s no question that NDP rank and file were far more likely to have sympathy with the “Israel Apartheid State” view than their Liberal or Conservative party counterparts (and nobody really cares what Bloc members think about this stuff, anyway).

Now, many NDP members, particularly those a little higher up in the food chain, are forced to confront the reality that the BDS ideas they’ve flirted with for years are simply not part of the NDP platform — and really never have been. If NDP supporters want to retain ties to BDS, it will have to do so in a fairly clandestine manner; in the same way that when some Conservatives decide to make a statement about pro-life abortion politics, they do so in a private venue amongst their close colleagues. The days of NDP MPs like Libby Davies coming out overtly in favor of a controversial BDS campaign are now over.

That is to say, those days are over if the NDP really do mean what they’re saying.

Libby Davies Puts Her Foot In It

The story about the “peace flotilla” to Gaza and the Mavi Marmara just keeps getting better and better. The activists apparently collected all of their thrift store pants and expired pills from their medicine cabinets and threw them into a pile. From the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Of the seven flotilla ships, only four were freight ships. The Challenger 1 (small yacht), the Sfendonh (small passenger boat) and the Mavi Marmara (passenger ship) did not carry any humanitarian aid, except for the passengers’ personal belongings. Of the four freight ships – Gaza, Sofia, Defeny and Rachel Corrie – as of June 7, SIBAT had only offloaded equipment from the Defeny…

It should be noted that:

1. The equipment does not constitute humanitarian aid in the accepted sense (basic foodstuffs, new and functional equipment, fresh medicines).

2. The equipment awaiting entry into the Gaza Strip, both at the Kerem Shalom crossing and the Defense Ministry base, has been approved by COGAT.

3. The humanitarian aid on all the ships was scattered in the ships’ holds and thrown onto piles and not packed properly for transport. The equipment was not packaged and not properly placed on wooden bases.

4. Because of the improper packing, some of the equipment was crushed by the weight in transit.

5. The medicines and sensitive equipment (operating theater equipment, new clothing, etc.) are being kept in cool storage at the Defense Ministry base. Some of the medicines have already expired, and some will expire soon. The operating theater equipment, which should be kept sterile, was carelessly wrapped.

6. A large part of the equipment, particularly shoes and clothing, was used and worn

7. The construction material must be approved by COGAT and the political echelons before it can be transferred to the Gaza Strip.

It was all a hoax. And the world fell for it.

H/T to Covenant Zone

Now, a little bit of time to savor this news until the flood of comments comes accusing Israel of bald-faced lies and propaganda — like this video footage of Mavi Marmara passengers preparing weaponry:

“They show up wearing the kaffiyeh and shouting, and they just want to say Israel is bad, war crimes, apartheid, that is all. But that doesn’t make you pro-Palestine,” the brave Palestinian journalist and Jerusalem Post correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh told me. “That doesn’t make you pro-peace. Instead of organizing Israel Apartheid Week, they should be helping with human rights under Hamas, women’s rights under Hamas. A free press.”

From Terry Glavin in the Mark: No Israeli-Palestinian Reconciliation

Thanks to Backseat Blogger for this cartoon depicting the ruthless Israeli paintball assault on the Mavi Marvara Gaza flotilla:

We must help the Kurds! Let’s bring an aid convoy to Kurdistan and martyr ourselves against the Turkish aggressors! Free Kurdistan!

See the awful suffering of the Kurdish people under the oppressive war criminals of the Turkish nationalist entity.

There is only one solution: we shall unite peace activists, journalists, professors and ordinary people from around the world to give relief to the oppressed Kurdish people, the indigenous people of the region. The Kurds will rise, one nation, through all the land of historic Kurdistan!

These international criminals cannot be allowed to exist any longer. The Turks’ crimes are recorded from time immemorial. Remember their genocide of the Armenian people!

How many genocides will the world allow the Turks to perpetrate upon this planet? The state of Turkey will disappear, for it is illegitimate.

As we give aid to the Turks’ victims, who are the true inheritors of the land, the Turkish nation will be assailed by our campaign of boycott and and divestment. Don’t buy Turkish… uh, coffee. And, er, Turkish Delight!

No to neo-Ottoman Imperialism! Yes to the free people of Kurdistan!

There it is. The Israeli navy guys are in the little boat below intending to board the ship. The “peace activists” toss stun grenades into the boat and wave around a metal chain and iron rods. See the video:

There’s just no doubt anymore. The passengers on this boat wanted a fight. Well, they got one.

Now they have their martyrs. Of course, it’s a very different image of martyrdom than the traditional heroic definition.

A cop tries to pull your car over. You get out and hammer him with a club before he gets a chance to ask for your license and registration. Your buddies pile on with the chains, rods and slingshots you just happened to have readily to hand.

That doesn’t make you a martyr when his partner puts a bullet in your gut. It just makes you a dangerous wack-job.

The Israelis could have handled this differently. But I’m inclined to believe that the idiots on the boat who ended up going home in coffins pretty much got what they had coming.

H/T to Blazing Catfur