While it has limited value and smacks of political theatre, it is, as they say, a good start.
Canada, alongside four other countries, is formally sanctioning two Israeli ministers for comments they say are “incitements of violence against Palestinian communities.”
The sanctions were announced by the foreign ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Norway on Tuesday in a joint statement.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will both see their assets frozen and face travel bans.
Both men face sanctions for being “responsible for, engaging in, inciting, promoting and/or supporting activity which amounts to a serious abuse of the right of individuals not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in particular acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals in the West Bank.”
“These two individuals promoted extremist settler violence and it has to stop,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand on Tuesday afternoon.
While the sanctions have limited value in and of themselves, they at least mark a departure from the former Trudeau government's slavish adherence to America's stance on Israel. And, delightfully, that new stance has inflamed the U.S.
The United States has condemned Canada and four other countries for imposing sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement the United States urges the countries to reverse the sanctions.
Rubio says the sanctions do not advance the United States' efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the region, bring home hostages and end the war.
Since the Yanks always stand "shoulder to shoulder with Israel," as they like to say, Rubio's response is predictably reflexive and senseless, as is much of America's contemporary foreign policy. The real problem, in my view, is the limited nature of the sanctions. Why restrict them to two cabinet ministers?
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said Canada should be sanctioning all senior members of Netanyahu's government.
"Canada should respect international law and sanction Netanyahu and his cabinet immediately for their role in the genocide of Gaza. All Israeli officials who incite or are responsible for genocide should be sanctioned," McPherson said in a media statement.
In what is becoming a rudderless world, that, apparently, would be a bridge too far for the West, However, one can live in hope that spines will grow as the senseless slaughter of Palestinians continues apace.
