“Since Stephen Harper became the country’s prime minister in 2006, Canada went from being a middle-of-the-road friend of Israel – somewhere between the US and the European Union – to setting the gold standard for support of the Jewish state.  There is not a government on the planet today more supportive of Israel than Harper’s Canada.”

That glittering tribute pops up early in an article just published in The Jerusalem Post, “Israel’s best-selling English daily.”

Titled ‘Warm support from the chilly North,’ the article is a chatty interview with John Baird, the current Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada, about “his government’s tremendous support of Israel.”

If you have the stomach for it, the article is a shocking – not surprising, but still, shocking – look at the kind of thing that’s being said and done these days by the Harper regime in the name of Canadians.  As if we had elected them to speak for us.

The gold standard.  Better even than the USA.  What can I say?  Oy.  The shame of it.

It’s a clear measure of what we’re up against, any of us who working for  justice, equity and peace in Palestine-Israel.  Or sanity in the world, for that matter.

It’s also yet another indicator of what we stand to lose if we allow this place to actually become “Harper’s Canada.”