Commentary
The stormy debate in the House of Commons over the NDP’s motion to recognize a Palestinian state, ending with a profound last-minute government modification of the bill, revealed the widespread misunderstanding in Canadian official circles of the nature of the present conflict in Gaza. As originally formulated, while the NDP motion unambiguously recognized the right of Israel to exist, implicitly as a Jewish state, it ascribed no blame whatever to Hamas, which has governed Gaza for over 16 years, for the outbreak of the present war.
