Here are some MacKay “truisms”, and responses
 
Fiction: “A ceasefire and a return to status quo is a victory for Hezbollah.”
 
Fact: A ceasefire will save the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians, including those in Israel, and end the barbaric destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure in urban and rural areas. Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire. The U.N. and other nations including France, which have no sympathy for Hezbollah, have joined the U.N. in its call.

Fiction: “This [capture of soldiers] was an unprovoked attack [on Israel].”
 
Fact: Prior to Hezbollah taking two soldiers in exchange for the over one thousand Lebanese currently detained in Israeli prisons, Israel continuously carried out unprovoked air raids in Lebanon, bombed neutral targets, and committed clandestine assassinations inside Lebanon in contravention of international law.
 
Fiction: “What we are seeing now is an attempt to defend a sovereign nation…[Israel]”
 
Fact: Attacking an entire country and its civilian population is not self-defense. All of Lebanon is under attack. The burying of entire families under rubble, the cutting off of roads, the bombing of bridges, the shelling of power stations, the siege of ports, the closing down of commercial airports … this is happening in Lebanon, not Israel.
 
Fiction: “We are dealing with terrorists.You don’t have an ability… to get a rational response from Hezbollah or from Hamas – these are terrorist group who have an avowed purpose to destroy Israel.”
 
Fact: Hamas and Hezbollah captured Israeli soldiers to free prisoners. Israel launched all out attack on entire populations to free its prisoners. Whose response is rational? Whose response is terrorist? Hezbollah has called for a ceasefire, Hamas earlier for a truce. Israel has rejected the proposals. Whose response was rational?
 
Fiction: “You can’t have a process that will lead to the de-escalation of violence if … a terrorist organization is going to continue, from hidden locations mixed among civilians, in some cases mosques and people’s backyards, firing rockets into a sovereign country [Israel].”
 
Fact: Lebanon is also a sovereign country. It is not rockets from people’s backyards that are being fired into Lebanon, but hundreds of tonnes of bombs launched by one of the most advanced air, land and sea forces in the world.
 
Fiction: “Israel is defending itself as a sovereign nation.”
 
Fact: Israel’s military is one of the most powerful in the world. 
 
Fiction: “Canada has taken a definitive position in response to the circumstances … our prime minister has shown leadership.”
 
Fact: Prime Minister Harper has taken a definitive position to support the aggressor against the victims, to show total disregard for innocent human lives by not pushing for a ceasefire, and to fail in his leadership role by surrendering foreign policy decision-making to the Bush administration.
 
What MacKay said: “The current crisis calls for a response that is rational and based on information that is now available.”
 
What the Government did: The government refuses to call for a ceasefire, the rational response of any country genuinely concerned about ending hostilities and restoring calm and some sense of peace to the region.
 
What MacKay said: “We have to put the emphasis back on people and the protection of civilians…Canada is going to be a voice of reason Canada will continue to speak up for the protection of people and peoples right and the cessation of violence.”
 
Mackay’s “emphasis on people” :”[We support].a response that talks about a number of things that have to happen, the return of the Israeli soldiers that have been kidnapped, the stopping of Hezbullah rockets going into Israeli territory and effort to being back some reasoned discourse … all of that must follow.”