On December 2^nd, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution (161- 6) calling for a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Only six countries opposed the resolution. They were Israel, the USA, Canada and two other countries.

Mr. Harper and Mr. Baird have repeatedly made a point of saying that they do not intend to “go along, to get along” in order to stand on principle. But this is a doozy. It is hard to detect the principle underlying opposition to a nuclear weapons ban in the Middle East. Unless, of course, the principle is to support Israel no matter what it does. The resolution was introduced by Egypt, which has pushed for the establishment of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East and lamented that US-backed efforts to convene talks were abandoned in 2012. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Experts estimate that Israel has over 80 nuclear bombs. The resolution also called on Israel to put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Ironically, Iran, which Mr. Netanyahu has been criticizing for its nuclear program, voted in favour of the resolution, and indicated that it approves of putting its nuclear facilities under the UN’s supervision. Is is estimated that the United States and Israel have more nuclear bombs than the rest of the world combined. To support them, Canada voted against more than 90% of the world’s population. That must be a new record in neither going along nor getting along.