CANADA - The truest and best friend of Israel at all levels - Canadianpoliticians are bold and who represent a strong and proud nation

In the Middle East conflict, no other nation, not even the United States, has been so unstintingly supportive of the policies of Israel’s government as the Great White North - CANADA!

On November 28, 2012, one day before the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember state, a few Palestinian protesters gathered in front of the Canadian representative offices in Ramallah. They were holding posters saying “Shame on You, Canada,” and other slogans accusing the country of being a “subcontractor of apartheid.” 

Many demonstrators also held up banners showing a photo of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, superimposed with a face of a dog, next to the slogan “This dog doesn’t hunt.”

Of course that didn’t change Ottawa’s determination: Canada voted against the Palestinian statehood bid, one of only nine countries to do so (138 nations voted in favor and 41 abstained.)

Canada has always been a friend of the Jewish state, but in recent years — especially since the Harper government came to power in 2006 — Ottawa has redefined what it means to be staunchly pro-Israel. 

Indeed, in the Middle East conflict, no other nation, not even the United States, has been so unstintingly supportive of the policies of Israel’s government as the Great White North.

The UN vote was just one of many examples when Canada stood up for Israel, and against much of the world consensus. 

Canada regularly refers to Israel at the UN as the “one stable, democratic” country in the Middle East. 

One Canadian diplomat said “There’s nothing more short sighted in Western capitals in our time than the softening of support we’ve seen for Israel around the globe,” he said this during a visit in New York.

Which begs the question: why? What is in it for Canada?

It has been argued, not unconvincingly, that the world’s second largest country's determined support for the world’s 153rd-largest country has cost Ottawa dearly in terms of influence on the international stage. Not that an upstanding moral nation like Canada would worry too much.

Yet the support doesn’t falter. Could it be that Canada’s vast oil and gas reserves make it less dependent on resources from the Arab world, allowing the government to do what it pleases, as opposed to, say, oil-devoid European countries?

Canadian officials like to explain their government’s diehard friendship to Israel by pointing out that the two countries share many common values.

“I would characterize the position as one of moral clarity,” Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver told The Times of Israel earlier this month in Jerusalem. “If there’s a conflict between a democratic ally and terrorist groups that want to destroy it, we don’t see grays. The moral relativism that is sometimes a big factor is not what guides us. We think it’s important for countries to walk the walk as well as talking the talk.”

But other Western countries also don’t love terrorism but still criticize Israel.
Oliver explained "when you confront a situation like one sees at the United Nations constantly, where Israel is singled out for special criticism to the exclusion of massive abuses in all parts of the world… it’s very obvious you’re dealing with double standards. And when the victim is portrayed as the perpetrator and the perpetrator as the victim, this is not something we want to be associated with.”

Canada’s support for Israel — and opposition to Israel’s enemies — doesn’t only play out at the General Assembly. In 2008, Canada was the first country to boycott the Durban Review Conference against racism because it anticipated, correctly, that the conference would turn into an anti-Israel hate fest.

In September 2012, Canada severed diplomatic relations with Iran. Foreign Minister John Baird explained the move, by saying the regime in Tehran, among other things, “routinely threatens the existence of Israel.”

When Jerusalem announced to build homes in the controversial E1 corridor east of Jerusalem, the whole world forcefully and aggressively condemned the plans, including many Americans. 

Except the Canadians.

A few months ago, however, marked a high point in Canada’s pro-Israel moves, when Foreign Minister John Baird visited Israel’s justice minister, Tzipi Livni, in her East Jerusalem office. Since the international community doesn’t accept Israel’s annexation of the eastern part of the city, foreign diplomats usually refuse to meet Israeli officials there lest it be interpreted as a tacit recognition of Israeli
sovereignty.

“Either he’s ignorant of east Jerusalem being occupied territory, which is unforgivable in a foreign minister, or it’s a deliberate attempt to change the international consensus,” fumed Hanan Ashrawi, a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Baird ignored the rant, saying that where he “had coffee with Tzipi Livni is, I think, irrelevant!"

Until relatively recently, Ottawa’s unequivocal support for Israel did not seem to have damaged it ties to the Arab world. But this is changing.

In 2010, Canada lost its bid to gain one of the non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for the first time since 1945. Many observers, including Harper himself, linked the defeat in part to Ottawa’s support for Israel. 

Not that it bothered him or Canada and it just proved that Arab influence there does determine UN policy.

Earlier this month, some Arab nations tried to push for the relocation of the UN-affiliated International Civil Aviation Organization, from Montreal, where it has been headquartered since 1947, to Qatar. This move should be seen as the “combined efforts to strike back at Canada for its stand on Middle East  issues,” the country’s Globe and Mail newspaper wrote.

And Baird’s East Jerusalem meeting broke the camel’s back, claimed Michael Bell, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"The argument is made that we could have more influence in the Middle East if we got on the Security Council. Is the recommendation that we should have been anti-Israeli in order to get on the Security Council so we could be pro-Israeli?” Oliver, the natural resources minister, said laughingly. “We’re willing to make the sacrifices necessary to stand up for what we believe. Sometimes there’s a price to pay. Does it reduce our influence in the world or does it increase it? That’s something one can debate.”

Personally, Oliver actually believes that Canada’s global influence “has been enhanced” by the government’s principled stance. So far, he said, no Arab country has refused to do business with his government because of Israel. “They’re selling their oil to people who want to buy it,” he said.

Canada’s vast reserves of natural resources, some analysts believe, allow the government to irritate the Arabs because it doesn’t depend on their oil. 

“Canada has its own oil and so it doesn’t really need oil from Arabia,” said Israeli-Canadian journalist David Sheen. “Even without Canada on the Security Council, Canadian mining companies aren’t having any problems getting what they want. So Canada hasn’t really had to pay any price for its Israel policy.”

Indeed, few analysts argue that Israel alone was the main factor that caused Canada the coveted seat in New York.

“Canada lost its Security Council bid primarily because the European Union wanted two seats and threw its support behind Portugal,” said Shimon Fogel, the CEO of the Toronto-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. A “perceived shift in aid priorities away from Africa” also played a key role, he said. “Perhaps Arab and Muslim States cast their votes with Canada’s Middle East policy as a factor,” he allowed, “but none of them declared that to be the case. You’d think that if they were trying to flex their muscles on the Israel issue they would have been explicit about it.”

Irwin Cotler, a Canadian MP recalled another incident which got up the UNs nose. In 2009, he recalled, Harper attended the opening of a donut store in New York rather than the UN General Assembly, which was taking place at the same time in the city.

In Cotler’s view the bluntness with which Canada is presented to the world, annoys the UN and the fact that Canada does and says what it believes to be right rather than politically expedient to UN agreement. 

The Harper government believes in the rightness of its cause and therefore doesn’t care about what the world thinks, Cotler suggested, and that’s not a bad thing. 

Support for Israel in Canada is widespread. The Conservative Party has been “more sustained in its declaratory approach and more unequivocal in its rhetorical expression,” yet the actual policy positions of the Conservatives and the Liberals aren’t far apart, Cotler said.

On Iran, for example, the current opposition party had and still has “a stronger policy” than the Harper government, in that it calls for tougher sanctions, he said. And on the peace process, the status of Jerusalem, and the settlements, the two parties actually agree to not disagree. 

Harper’s touting of his pro-Israel stance is also the reason why the current government is perceived as so much friendlier toward Jerusalem than its predecessor, according to Cotler. “If a liberal government got into power, it might adopt the same positions and policies, but it would be among a whole set of positions with regards to foreign policy as a whole, whereas for the Conservative government this is a centrepiece of their overall foreign policy.”

The next elections in Canada will take place in 2015.

No government can move substantially beyond where its constituency is for very long. Therefore, we have to conclude that a majority of Canadians are indeed comfortable with the positions articulated by this government, and by-and-large supported by the opposition parties,” said Fogel, of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “While nobody can predict the future, there is a general consensus of support towards Israel in all the parties, and among Canadians in general.”