According to the CBC, the Harper government is considering the use of hate crime laws to outlaw the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Israeli government.  Harper has denied it but, as Glenn Greenwald explained, the CBC’s reporting was totally solid. Canada’s official opposition, the New Democratic Party (NDP), should be hammering the Harper government over its fanatical support for Israeli apartheid. In fact, the NDP should endorse the BDS movement as the United Church of Canada, the Canadian Quakers, and the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have all had the integrity to do.

Linda McQuaig, an eloquent social critic and easily one of the most impressive NDP candidates in federal elections that will be held this year, used her twitter account to broadcast ridicule of the Harper government’s threat against BDS.  When she was a Toronto Star columnist, McQuaig was also willing to state the obvious about Israel’s brutality. Unfortunately, her party has basically run for cover on this issue and that has helped embolden Harper’s extremist government.  If Canadians involved with organizing the BDS movement in Canada end up being prosecuted – through the use of any kind of legal chicanery – then the NDP will deserve a lot of the blame. Bullies like Harper succeed when people well positioned to stand up to them do nothing.

The astonishing cruelty of Israel’s government has alienated most of the Canadian public despite the fact that Israel is singled out for unconditional support from Harper’s Conservatives and much of the Canadian media. As of 2013, 57% of Canadians viewed the Israeli government negatively and its image will probably get worse, quiet deservedly, under Netanyahu’s new government. Decades ago, Israeli politicians like Moshe Dayan would keep their most bigoted remarks hidden from the international public. In its early days, the Israeli government’s leftist discourse also allowed it win over progressives abroad: Tommy Douglas is one striking example that Yves Engler discussed in his book “Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid”. There was never any excuse for Canadian progressives ignoring Israel’s crimes but it is truly remarkable that any support remains today when fascistic rhetoric has become mainstream in Israel.  Israel’s new Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, impatient with expressions that she feels are “avoiding reality” has simply proclaimed that “This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people.” The attitude of Israelis who showed up with lawn chairs to joyfully observe and cheer the bombing of Gaza last year – and even threaten a CNN reporter – is not the attitude of a powerless and unrepresentative fringe.

As Israel’s government has descended deeper into barbarism so have its apologists abroad. Joshua Treviño, who was briefly hired as part of the UK Guardian’s editorial team, called for the murder of Alice Walker and other Gaza flotilla activists; Washington Post pundit Jennifer Rubin endorsed genocidal remarks that the Post Ombudsman denounced (albeit timidly); and Canadian pundit  George Jonas declared shipments of crutches to Gaza to be an “act of war” and dubbed the flotilla activists “peace terrorists”. Outside fanatical circles, these “pro-Israel” outbursts generate nothing but disgust – and highlight the kind of pariah sate Israel has become thanks to decades of impunity it has received courtesy of the USA and other western states like Canada.

Of course it is US government support that matters most of all to Israel, not Canada’s. The NDP’s platform is focused on domestic policy and it promises a lot of nice things: reform of Canada’s idiotic electoral system, abolishing the unelected Senate, raising the minimum wage among other good policies. The NDP has never been in power at the federal level. Compared to the Liberals and Conservatives who have dominated federal politics, the NDP’s platform, though far from radical, offers significant positive change. But will the NDP have the courage and determination to stand up to corporate media ridicule and lies if voters finally give it a chance? In other words, how do we know Tom Mulcair, the NDP‘s federal leader, is not another Bob Rae?

Bob Rae led the Ontario NDP in 1990 when, with only 38% of the vote, it won a majority government in Canada’s richest and most politically powerful province. Nobody should underestimate how hard it would have been for a provincial government – which does not control monetary policy – to combat the right wing agenda of the federal government. It would have taken all kinds of conviction and skill but Bob Rae was lacking in both. His government capitulated to the cost cutting lunacy that prevailed at the time and that is generally referred to as “austerity” today. Linda McQuaig, whom I mentioned above, wrote a best-selling book entitled “Shooting the Hippo” which exposed how destructive monetary policy during the 1990s drove up public debt which was then used as a pretext for ruthless budget slashing. By 1995, Bob Rae had thoroughly repulsed the NDP’s working class base and, simultaneously, began receiving accolades in the corporate media.

In 2002, Bob Rae formally announced his break with NDP in an op-ed published in the far right National Post. He made a point of denouncing the NDP for being too critical of Israel and for not embracing Tony Blair:

“The NDP criticizes the Third Way, opposes the World Trade Organization, sits on its hands when Tony Blair praises the advantages of markets, and denounces any military action against terrorism whether by the United States, Canada or Israel. This is not a vision of social democracy worthy of support.”

As of 2012, the National Post comment editor still remembered Bob Rae’s op-ed fondly. Is it just a coincidence that the NDP’s most notorious and lingering embarrassment is a determined apologist for Israel?

If Tom Mulcair is not willing to join a boycott movement against Israeli apartheid, why should anyone believe he’ll have the courage to implement the NDP’s domestic platform?

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