Thursday, October 14, 2010

Hallucinate Much, Harpoon?

I expected Harpoon Siddiqui to weigh in on Canada's failure to nab a Security Council seat, and he didn't disappoint. In typical Harpoon fashion, he heaps contempt and derision on the Harper Tories for, well, acting like Tories (an unforgivable crime in Harpoonworld). He's even compiled a list of why the UN was right to snub Stephen Harper. Here's the litany (great moves all, if you ask me)--and, head's up, watch out for a surprise at the end:
It’s not just his pro-Israeli stance that made Canada a pariah at the UN. He
• Sabotaged the UN climate accord.

• Decried the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

• Downgraded UN peacekeeping — to 160 Canadian soldiers out of 105,500 worldwide, placing Canada 57th, behind Yemen and Uganda. (Tuesday, the day we lost the vote, was the anniversary of Lester B. Pearson’s Nobel Peace Prize for inventing peacekeeping.)

• Diminished our role at the UN and its agencies.

• Diverted Canadian funds from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to the Palestinian Authority, to boost Mahmoud Abbas against rival Hamas.

• Thwarted a probe into the alleged torture of Afghan detainees.

• Left Omar Khadr to rot in Guantanamo Bay, while defending the policy of indefinite detention as well as the American military’s kangaroo courts.

In many of the above policies, Harper copied George W. Bush. Whereas America has shaken them off, the Prime Minister is still pursuing them.

As for being pro-Israeli, that’s no sin. Most of us are, but not blindly.
Excusez-moi, Harpoon--most of us--meaning you and your readers--are "pro-Israeli"? In what alterate reality might that be occurring? Because, frankly, I've been reading you and your rag for years, and I have yet to detect even a trace of a pro-Israel slant. Unless, of course, you're "pro-Israeli" in the J Street sense of things--i.e. "pro-Israeli" in name only/not at all.

Update: Harpoon and the Star "pro-Israeli"? Not. At. All.

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