Britain's Finest

For many Canadians he is persona non grata. Not, however, for fellow travellers, those who believe, who think, who act as he does. We're such a tolerant nation, we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, we want everyone to feel comfortable doing what they do, although we do draw the line at harming others in the process of 'doing what they do'.

Unless, of course, those who engage in the 'doing' are conceived of as representing an underdog community, and those whose tender sensibilities become wounded at being accused of being filthy racist human-rights-bashers just happen to be Jews.

It's their own fault, after all; who told them to support the State of Israel?

See, it's not the fact that they're Jews, per se, it's the fact that as Jews they support the State of Israel. Supporting the State of Israel, ipso facto, means they're part and parcel of an Apartheid state that demeans and oppresses non-Jews who live in the neighbourhood.

Part of the debasement of those non-Jews is that they're granted Israeli citizenship and are able to elect represents to the Knesset, but these are inconvenient details we mustn't allow to get in the way of 'facts'.

Fact is, Israel is a totalitarian, brutish state existing contiguously alongside a stateless people whom Israel has denied a state of their own by garnisheeing territory belonging to them. Overlooked by the world at large, the fact that opportunities to create a Palestinian state were always denied Palestinian Arabs by their Arab brethren.

And Partition in 1947 as offered by the United Nations after long and due consideration simply had no appeal to the Palestinians, far less to their Arab-nation brethren, all of whom acted in concert to overturn the creation of the State of Israel. Bad move. Time and time again.

And now, those poor, defenceless Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip whom courageous Hamas militants defend from rapacious IDF troops have their many champions in the world of the West. Not so much in the Middle East where brother Arabs deign not to absorb them as worthy peers, but certainly in the West.

And of course, George Galloway, once a British Member of Parliament whose unabashed support of Hamas as legitimate protectors of Palestinian interests against viciously racist Israel is highly resentful of having been the recipient of a denial of permission to enter Canada on a casual basis for a brief guest visit as a speaker.

An invited speaker, beloved of the peace-loving leftists whose agenda in support of Palestinians, Afghanistan and Iraq Mr. Galloway exemplifies. That Hamas is considered a terror group by Canada is also irrelevant; one chooses as one's friends those whose values reflect one's own.

The Canadian leftist coalition that appealed to the Federal Court on Mr. Galloway's unfair banishment from his Canadian speaking engagement has been left crestfallen at the (wishy-washy) conclusion of Mr. Justice Richard Mosley dismissing the appeal of the ban which was in fact never carried through since Mr. Galloway chose to bypass the potential of being refused entry at the border.

Still, one takes comfort in small victories whenever and wherever they occur, haphazardly even, and by happenstance.

England is stuck with George Galloway, yet another bitterly mad eccentric of whom the country has more than plenty. And long may he remain there, to stew in his very own juices of misery and discontent, labelling injustices as he sees them.