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Earlier on Tuesday, sprinting from President Barack Obama’s Cambodian tour, Clinton arrived in Jerusalem, held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and joined him at a news conference.

“The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Clinton declared.

Unlike Clinton, Baird offered no vestige of equivocation in his keynote speech to the Jewish National Fund’s annual Negev Dinner, held at Ottawa’s opulent National Gallery.

“I want to share reflections on how I came to be such a strong supporter of Israel and why Israel holds such a special place in my heart,” Baird said in prepared remarks.

Hamas, he said, was targeting innocent civilians with its onslaught of rockets aimed at Israel in “a despicable act of terror.”

He explained how the Harper government’s unabashed support of Israel — wildly unpopular among most in Canada’s Arab and Muslim communities — has manifested itself in recent days.

“On Twitter, one person said I supported the burning of children in Gaza. Another accused me of playing settler-colonial diplomacy with the lives of Palestinians,” he said.

“Views like this are rooted in ignorance, or worse … much worse.”

Baird said his safe, middle-class upbringing in suburban Ottawa stood in stark contrast to the suffering and struggle of the Jewish people to build a homeland in Israel.