Name: Anonymous 2011-08-18 15:18
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/62595/prime-minister-steers-canada-on-a-pro-israel-course/
One night in August 2006, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer was speaking at a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal’s Israel Emergency Campaign in a Toronto hotel. Before an audience of 2,500, Krauthammer extolled the virtues of those leaders who were supporting Israel in the conflict then under way with Hezbollah in Lebanon. He singled out for praise Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was showing great leadership, he said, in openly siding with Israel.
At the mere mention of Harper, Krauthammer’s audience burst into furious applause, as though its collective gratitude for the prime minister had been articulated for the first time.
As prime minister, Harper has transformed Canadian policy toward Israel and the Middle East. Abandoning its longstanding even-handedness in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Canada has become arguably the world’s most pro-Israel country. From being the first world leader to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority in 2006 when it was taken over by Hamas, to speaking out against growing global anti-Semitism, Harper has embraced Israel as no Canadian leader before him.
“It is hard to find a country friendlier to Israel than Canada these days,” gushed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in 2010.
While Harper’s pro-Israel bona fides are not in doubt, his motivations are less clear. Harper may not stand to gain politically with such a passionately pro-Israel stance. In a country of nearly 34 million, Canadian Jews number only 315,000 — and that figure is declining.
The prime minister said at an Ottawa conference on anti-Semitism in 2010 that he supports Israel “not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us … that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us.”
One night in August 2006, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer was speaking at a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal’s Israel Emergency Campaign in a Toronto hotel. Before an audience of 2,500, Krauthammer extolled the virtues of those leaders who were supporting Israel in the conflict then under way with Hezbollah in Lebanon. He singled out for praise Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was showing great leadership, he said, in openly siding with Israel.
At the mere mention of Harper, Krauthammer’s audience burst into furious applause, as though its collective gratitude for the prime minister had been articulated for the first time.
As prime minister, Harper has transformed Canadian policy toward Israel and the Middle East. Abandoning its longstanding even-handedness in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Canada has become arguably the world’s most pro-Israel country. From being the first world leader to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority in 2006 when it was taken over by Hamas, to speaking out against growing global anti-Semitism, Harper has embraced Israel as no Canadian leader before him.
“It is hard to find a country friendlier to Israel than Canada these days,” gushed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in 2010.
While Harper’s pro-Israel bona fides are not in doubt, his motivations are less clear. Harper may not stand to gain politically with such a passionately pro-Israel stance. In a country of nearly 34 million, Canadian Jews number only 315,000 — and that figure is declining.
The prime minister said at an Ottawa conference on anti-Semitism in 2010 that he supports Israel “not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us … that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us.”