Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and six Cabinet members begin 4 day Israel trip, first by a Canadian PM since 2000

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1/17/14, "John Ivison: As historic Middle-East trip nears, Harper may go even further in his staunch support of Israel," National Post

"When Stephen Harper touches down at Tel Aviv’s David Ben Gurion airport on Sunday, he will receive a hero’s welcome on the tarmac from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Harper’s four-day trip to Israel will see him acclaimed across the Jewish state. “Stephen Harper has been very important because the fact is, he takes a clear moral stand and it’s appreciated,” Mr. Netanyahu told CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme in an interview aired Thursday.

It will be the first visit to Israel by a Canadian prime minister since Jean Chrétien stumbled into the Middle East quagmire by backing the late Yasser Arafat’s policy of unilaterally declaring independence for his Palestinian Authority, in 2000.

Mr. Harper, and the six senior Cabinet members who will join him on the trip, may be prophets without honour in their own country, given the recent political climate, but in Israel they will be lauded as staunch allies who have spoken up for the Jewish state at the United Nations and at G8 summits.

Stopovers will include an address to the Knesset; a visit to the Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley bird sanctuary; and, a question and answer session with students at Tel Aviv University, where the Prime Minister will receive an honourary doctorate.

The reception is likely to be more muted in the West Bank, where Mr. Harper will visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, before meeting Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Ottawa points out that it has provided $650-million humanitarian assistance to the West Bank and Gaza since the Oslo Accord was signed in 1993.

But there can be no doubt where the sympathies of the Harper government lie — and they are not with the Palestinian Authority. They are certainly not with the Hamas administration in Gaza, which Canada considers a terrorist entity.

Mr. Harper’s admirers in Israel point to his staunch support for the Jewish state — boycotting the Durban conferences against racism in 2009 and 2011; robust defence of Israel’s operations in Lebanon in 2006; opposition to a statement criticizing Israel at the Francophonie; support for Israeli retaliation after Hamas aggression from Gaza; pressure at the G8 summit in 2011 on a draft communiqué that specified Israel’s pre-1967 borders should be the starting point for peace talks; and, Canada’s consistent backing for Israel at the United Nations General Assembly, including opposition to the vote to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-voting member entity” to “non-voting member state.”

Critics of Mr. Harper’s foreign policy like former diplomat Robert Fowler have dubbed it an “Israel: right or wrong” strategy, claiming it has undermined Ottawa’s credibility and contributed to rising Islamic terrorism.

But there are no signs that the Harper government is re-thinking its aggressive pro-Israel stance.

On the contrary, Mr. Harper may go further still. Official Canadian foreign policy, as expressed on the Department of Foreign Affairs website, says that Canada does not recognize Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem or permanent control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip). Further, it says Israeli settlements in the “occupied territories” are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

But when Mr. Harper’s communications director, Jason MacDonald, was asked Friday whether the West Bank settlements are illegal, he repeated the government’s mantra that “unilateral action by either party is not conducive to a [peaceful] outcome.”

The point being made was that Canada’s foreign policy is whatever the Prime Minister says it is, regardless of the policy being pursued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (or Canada’s legal commitments under the Geneva Convention).

A former Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, and a number of Toronto area lawyers have called for the Foreign Affairs website to be changed “to align with statements and policies expressed by the prime minister.”

Mr. Baker has said the issue is likely to be raised by senior Israeli government officials during Mr. Harper’s visit.

Another item that is likely to be brought up by the Israelis is the lack of recognition for Jewish refugees. Canada’s Foreign Affairs committee tabled a report in November recommending the Harper government recognize the experience of the estimated 850,000 Jews displaced from states in the Middle East and North Africa after 1948. Sources suggest that Canada will soon become one of the first countries to formally recognize that Jews also were forced to leave their homelands because of discrimination, intimidation and fear after 1948.

Jewish groups have long pointed out that while there have been 72 resolutions at the United Nations on the issue of an estimated 4.9 million Palestinian refugees, there have been none on the Jewish refugees — thus presenting “an incomplete version of history.”

The Prime Minister’s Office said this announcement is unlikely to be made on this trip. But if Mr. Harper indicates to Mr. Netanyahu it is coming, an already warm welcome could turn delirious." via Free Rep.


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