Why is this morning's paper all about the Golden Globes?

For some aggregation and sorting of information on Gaza, to which I have nothing very original to add, see the Galloping Beaver and Dr. Dawg. They make the point en passant that the Ignatieff Liberals are now following the Conservatives as they follow the Americans into mindless cheerleading for the very worst aspects of Israeli policy. And though our mainstream media isn't quite as indoctrinated as the US one (for just how bad it is down there, see Glenn Greenwald passim), it's still pretty reluctant to use the phrase 'war crimes' however well the shoe may fit. The Globe's coverage of Canadian foreign policy in all this has been dire bordering on invisible, thus neatly matching the policy itself. Demonstrations by Arab-Canadians don't even make the print edition.

What I'm still waiting to read is some analysis of how and why the Canadian spectrum got twisted in this way. Everybody knows what the Americans' problem is: AIPAC, and a political system so beholden to big money that a handful of rich fanatics can fix the Overton window wherever they want, wherever the rights and wrongs and the national interest may stand. (Again, that's AIPAC: it's a mistake to speak in more general terms of the Jewish lobby or Jewish voters, not only because of the unpleasant conspiracy-theory sound but because the ordinary Jewish voter is a sane person who has very little to do with all this -- just as ordinary Israelis know perfectly well that it is not actually in their interest to have the Sharons and Netanyahus constantly egged on by the most powerful nation on earth.)

But Canada doesn't have an AIPAC equivalent, so far as I know. (If we do, it's really time for someone to do an article on it.) So what's going on here? Why are Harper and Ignatieff trying to outdo each other in mealymouthed support for the insupportable? There's no way it's a vote-winner in the long run. Admittedly Harper's base includes the creepy kind of evangelical who 'supports' Israel in the sense of hoping it will do something awful enough to bring about the End Times, but is he really that far off his rocker himself? Or is it just that if the US decides to jump off a tall building, we always feel compelled to follow sooner or later? But the closest parallel to America's crazy Israel policy is their crazy Cuba policy, also dictated by a handful of unpleasant rich extremists; and Canadians have always rather enjoyed thumbing their noses at that one.

Ah, a closer communion with Mister Google has corrected me: we do indeed have our very own AIPAC. (I knew about Gerry Schwartz, which is how I knew what to ask Mister G.; but I thought he was a one-off.) Interesting that I had to go to this somewhat marginal lefty venue to find out about it -- and I wouldn't necessarily vouch for the impeccable fairness and insight of all the reporting there. Still, res ipsa loquitur. Alas.