Mulcair’s position on the Middle East<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 it speaks of Canada being an “honest broker” in the region, condemns Israeli settlements as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and generally criticizes the current federal government as one-sided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict \u2013 hardly seems like a carbon copy of the Conservative position.<\/p>\nIJV also accuses Mulcair of fighting to mute NDP criticism of Israel for its 2008\/09 invasion of Gaza, for joining Rae and Harper and their parties in censuring NDP MP and Deputy Leader Libby Davies for saying Israel’s occupation of “Palestine” began in 1948, and for condemning Israeli Apartheid Week on Canadian campuses.<\/p>\n
Again, none of these things ought to be litmus tests of progressive values. Israel had legitimate reasons for invading Gaza. Libby Davies often speaks without thinking. And Israeli Apartheid Week should really be renamed Middle East Bloodshed Promotion Week, because that’s what it’s really all about, as I argue here<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhatever else Mulcair can be criticized for \u2013 bullying, brusqueness, political opportunism, being a Liberal \u2013 it’s politically brave of him to stand up on the left and proclaim himself a supporter of Israel’s right to exist and of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n
And I think that loving his wife has something to do with why he’s gone out on a limb to do so.