Israel Matzav: Would the Obama administration ever issue postage stamps like these?

The postage stamp pictured above is newly issued by Canada. That's not a big deal until you ask yourself whether any other country - including the United States under Obama - would ever consider issuing such a stamp (Hat Tip: Jerry G via The American Thinker).

Let's hear for Stephen Harper and his government!

Rabbi Bulka on PM's historic visit to the Middle East

PM Harper entertains at Jerusalem dinner

Prime Minister Harper's speech to the Knesset

Monsieur le Premier Ministre, Monsieur le Président de la Knesset, Monsieur le Président de la Cour Suprême, Monsieur le Chef de l’Opposition, Mesdames et Messieurs les Ministres, Et les Députes, Distingués Invités, Mesdames et Messieurs,

Shalom. And thank you for inviting me to visit this remarkable country, and especially for this opportunity to address the Knesset. It is truly a great honour.

And if I may, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my wife Laureen and the entire Canadian delegation, let me begin by thanking the Government and people of Israel for the warmth of your hospitality. You have made us feel extremely welcome. We have felt immediately at home.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Canada and Israel are the greatest of friends, and the most natural of allies. And, with your indulgence, I would like to offer a reflection upon what makes the relationship between Canada and Israel special and important. Because the relationship between us is very strong.

L’amitié entre le Canada et Israël prend ses racines dans l’histoire, se nourrit de valeurs communes et se renforce volontairement aux plus hauts échelons du commerce et du gouvernement ce qui est l’expression de fermes convictions.

The friendship between us is rooted in history, nourished by shared values, and it is intentionally reinforced at the highest levels of commerce and government as an outward expression of strongly held inner convictions.

There has, for example, been a free trade agreement in place between Canada and Israel for many years, an agreement that has already proved its worth. The elimination of tariffs on industrial products, and some foodstuffs, has led to a doubling in the value of trade between our countries. But this only scratches the surface of the economic potential of this relationship. And I look forward to soon deepening and broadening our mutual trade and investment goals.

As well, our military establishments share information and technology. This has also been to our mutual benefit. For example, during Canada’s mission to Afghanistan, our use of Israeli-built reconnaissance equipment saved the lives of Canadian soldiers.

All such connections are important, and build strong bridges between us.

Pour bien comprendre la relation particulière entre Israël et le Canada, il faut regarder, au-delà du commerce et des institutions, les liens personnels tissés par l’amitié et la parenté.

However, to truly understand the special relationship between Israel and Canada, one must look beyond trade and institutions to the personal ties of friendship and kinship. Jews have been present in Canada for more than 250 years. In generation after generation, by hard work and perseverance, Jewish immigrants, often starting with nothing, have prospered greatly. Today, there are nearly 350,000 Canadians who share with you their heritage and their faith. They are proud Canadians. But having met literally thousands of members of this community, I can tell you this: They are also immensely proud of what the people of Israel have accomplished here, of your courage in war, of your generosity in peace, and of the bloom that the desert has yielded, under your stewardship.

Laureen and I share that pride, the pride and the understanding that what has been achieved here has occurred in the shadow of the horrors of the Holocaust.

La compréhension du fait qu’il est juste d’appuyer Israël parce qu’après avoir connu la persécution durant plusieurs générations, le peuple juif
mérite d’avoir son propre pays et mérite de vivre en sécurité et en paix dans ce pays.

The understanding that it is right to support Israel because, after generations of persecution, the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and deserve to live safely and peacefully in that homeland. Now let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel because it is right to do so.

This is a very Canadian trait, to do something for no reason other than it is right, even when no immediate reward for, or threat to, ourselves
is evident.

On many occasions, Canadians have even gone so far as to bleed and die to defend the freedom of others in far-off lands. To be clear, we have also periodically made terrible mistakes as in the refusal of our government in the 1930s to ease the plight of Jewish refugees. But, as a country, at the turning points of history, Canada has consistently chosen, often to our great cost, to stand with others who oppose injustice, and to confront the dark forces of the world.

Il est donc dans la tradition canadienne de défendre ce qui est juste et fondé sur des principes, que ce soit ou non commode ou populaire.

It is, thus, a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.

But, I would argue, support today for the Jewish State of Israel is more than a moral imperative. It is also of strategic importance, also a matter of our own long-term interests.

Ladies and gentlemen, I said a moment ago that the special friendship between Canada and Israel is rooted in shared values.

En effet, Israël est le seul pays du Moyen‑Orient à s’être ancré depuis longtemps dans les idéaux de liberté, de démocratie et de primauté du droit.

Indeed, Israel is the only country in the Middle East Which has long anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. These are not mere notions. They are the things that, over time and against all odds, have proven to be the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic prosperity, may flourish. These values are not proprietary; they do not belong to one nation or one people. Nor are they a finite resource; on the contrary, the wider they are spread, the stronger they grow.

Likewise, when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere. And what threatens them, or more precisely, what today threatens the societies that embrace such values and the progress they nurture? Those who scorn modernity, who loathe the liberty of others, and who hold the differences of peoples and cultures in contempt. Those who often begin by hating the Jews, but, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not them. Those forces which have threatened the State of Israel every single day of its existence, and which, today, as 9-11 graphically showed us, threaten us all.

Ou bien, nous défendons nos valeurs et nos intérêts, ici, en Israël, nous défendons l’existence d’un État libre, démocratique et distinctement juif ou bien nous amorçons un recul, sur le plan de nos valeurs et de nos intérêts dans le monde.

And so, either we stand up for our values and our interests, here, in Israel, stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively Jewish state, or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will begin.

Ladies and gentlemen, Just as we refuse to retreat from our values, so we must also uphold the duty to advance them. And our commitment as Canadians to what is right, fair and just is a universal one. It applies no less to the Palestinian people than it does to the people of Israel.

Autant le Canada soutient sans réserve le droit d’Israël à la légitime défense, autant il préconise depuis longtemps un avenir juste et sûr pour le peuple palestinien.

Just as we unequivocally support Israel’s right of self-defence so too Canada has long-supported a just and secure future for the Palestinian people.

And, I believe, we share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders will choose a viable, democratic, Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish State of Israel. As you, Prime Minister, have said, when Palestinians make peace with Israel, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. It will be the first.

Sadly, we have yet to reach that point. But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be right behind you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, support – even firm support – doesn’t mean that allies and friends will agree on all issues all of the time. No state is beyond legitimate questioning or criticism. But our support does mean at least three things.

First, Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel.

Notre point de vue sur le droit à l’existence d’Israël en tant qu’État juif est absolu et non négociable.

Our view on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable.

Deuxièmement, le Canada est convaincu qu’Israël devrait pouvoir exercer ses pleins droits d’État membre de l’ONU et profiter de sa souveraineté dans toute sa mesure.

Second, Canada believes that Israel should be able to exercise its full rights as a UN member-state, and to enjoy the full measure of its sovereignty. For this reason, Canada has spoken on numerous occasions in support of Israel’s engagement and equal treatment in multilateral fora. And, in this regard, I should mention that we welcome Israel’s induction this month into the western, democratic group of states at the United Nations.

Troisièmement, Nous nous refusons à critiquer Israël de façon isolée sur la scène internationale.

Third, we refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international stage. Now I understand, in the world of diplomacy, with one, solitary, Jewish state and scores of others, it is all too easy “to go along to get along” and single out Israel. But such “going along to get along,” is not a “balanced” approach, nor a “sophisticated” one; it is, quite simply, weak and wrong. Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism runs rampant. And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of much more sinister notions can be easily planted.

And so we have witnessed, in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain. We all know about the old anti-Semitism. It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps. Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us. But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society. People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.

As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel. On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask the underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students. Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state. Think about that. Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short of sickening.

(At this point in Harper’s address, several Arab Knesset members, some of whom had earlier heckled him, got up and left the Knesset chamber. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Knesset stood to applaud Harper.)

Mais, il s’agit du nouveau visage de l’antisémitisme. Un antisémitisme qui vise le peuple juif en prétendant viser Israël.

But this is the face of the new anti-Semitism. It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable for a new generation. Of course, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic. But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while systematically ignoring – or excusing – the violence and oppression all around it? What else can we call it when Israel is routinely targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?

Ladies and gentlemen, any assessment – any judgment – of Israel’s actions must start with this understanding: Depuis soixante-cinq ans qu’existe comme nation l’État moderne d’Israël, les israéliens ont enduré d’innombrables attaques et calomnies et n’ont pas eu une seule journée de véritable paix.

In the sixty-five years that modern Israel has been a nation, Israelis have endured attacks and slanders beyond counting and have never known a day of true peace. And we understand that Israelis live with this impossible calculus: If you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread condemnation, over and over again. But should you fail to act you alone will suffer the consequence of your inaction, and that consequence will be final, your destruction.

La vérité, que le Canada comprend, est que beaucoup des forces hostiles dirigées contre Israël s’exercent aussi sur tous les pays occidentaux. Et Israël y fait face pour beaucoup des mêmes raisons que nous. Mais Israël y est confronté de beaucoup plus près.


The truth, that Canada understands, is that many of the hostile forces Israel faces are faced by all western nations. And Israel faces them for many of the same reasons we face them. You just happen to be a lot closer to them. Of course, no nation is perfect. But neither Israel’s existence nor its policies are responsible for the instability in the Middle East today.

One must look beyond Israel’s borders to find the causes of the relentless oppression, poverty and violence in much of the region, of the heartbreaking suffering of Syrian refugees, of sectarian violence and the fears of religious minorities, especially Christians, and of the current domestic turmoil in so many states.

So what are we to do? Most importantly, we must deal with the world as we find it. The threats in this region are real, deeply rooted, and deadly and the forces of progress, often anaemically weak. For too many nations, it is still easier to scapegoat Israel than to emulate your success. It is easier to foster resentment and hatred of Israel’s democracy than it is to provide the same rights and freedoms to their own people.

Je suis convaincu qu’un État palestinien viendra, et l’une des conditions qui va lui permettre de venir c’est lorsque les régimes qui financent le terrorisme se rendront compte que le chemin de la paix est celui de la conciliation, pas celui de la violence.

I believe that a Palestinian state will come, and one thing that will make it come is when the regimes that bankroll terrorism realise that the path to peace is accommodation, not violence.

Which brings me to the government of Iran. Late last year, the world announced a new approach to diplomacy with the government in Tehran. Canada has long held the view that every diplomatic measure should be taken to ensure that regime never obtains a nuclear weapon. We therefore appreciate the earnest efforts of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. Canada will evaluate the success of this approach not on the merits of its words, but on the implementation and verification of its promised actions.

Nous espérons vraiment qu’il soit possible d’obtenir que le gouvernement iranien renonce à s’engager, sur la voie sans retour, de la fabrication des armes nucléaires. Mais, pour le moment, le Canada maintient intégralement en vigueur les sanctions que nous avons imposées.

We truly hope that it is possible to walk the Iranian government back from taking the irreversible step of manufacturing nuclear weapons. But, for now, Canada’s own sanctions will remain fully in place. And should our hopes not be realized, should the present agreement prove ephemeral, Canada will be a strong voice for renewed sanctions.

Ladies and gentlemen, Let me conclude with this thought.

Je crois que l’histoire d’Israël est un très bel exemple pour le monde entier.

I believe the story of Israel is a great example to the world. It is a story, essentially, of a people whose response to suffering has been to move
beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society, a vibrant democracy, a freedom-loving country with an independent and rights-affirming judiciary. An innovative, world-leading “start-up” nation. You have taken the collective memory of death and persecution to build an optimistic, forward-looking land, one that so values life, you will sometimes release a thousand criminals and terrorists, to save one of your own.

In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our Government takes as articles of faith, and principles to drive our national life.

And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.

(MKs and hundreds in the Knesset gallery rise to give Harper a standing ovation.)

My friends, you have been generous with your time and attention. Once more, Laureen and I and our entire delegation thank you for your generous hospitality, and look forward to continuing our visit to your country.

Merci beaucoup.

Thank you for having us, and may peace be upon Israel.

Former Canadian Minister 'Shocked' by Visit to Temple Mount Stockwell Day, a former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount, was shocked to see the discrimination towards Jews.

A former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount on Sunday was shocked to learn of the discrimination shown by Israeli police officers towards Jews.

Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008, visited the Temple Mount following a coincidental meeting with a resident of Jerusalem, Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound.

Rabin, who spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday, said that his meeting with Day took place over Shabbat, when he visited friends for a Shabbat meal also attended by Day.

During the meal, Rabin said, he told the former Canadian minister about the situation on the Temple Mount where police, in an attempt to appease the Muslim Waqf which was left in charge of the compound after the 1967 Six Day War,  ban Jews from praying or performing any other form of worship. Police sometimes close the Mount to Jews altogether in response to Muslim riots - for days or weeks at a time - despite evidence that such violence is usually planned in advance for the specific purpose of forcing Jews out.

“When I told Day about the situation on the Temple Mount, it pegged his interest and he asked me to arrange a visit for him,” said Rabin.

After the Sabbath, Rabin got in touch with LIBA project coordinator Yehuda Glick, who accompanied Rabin and Day to the Temple Mount the next day.

"[The former Canadian minister] was shocked over how Jewish police can do these things to Jews. He did not understand how one can talk about the reunification of Jerusalem while at the same time Jews are not allowed to open their mouths on the Temple Mount," said Rabin, who added that during this particular visit, he encountered a new phenomenon whereby Jews were forbidden to speak with tourists who asked questions about the Temple Mount. Police forbade Israelis to speak with tourists about the compound, claiming it bothers the Waqf, he added.

Former minister Day, said Rabin, could not believe his eyes when he saw the long lines of Jews waiting to get in, the Arab disturbances on the compound, the conduct of the Waqf and the endless shouting. “He could not understand how the Israeli government could do this to Jews.”

Rabin told Arutz Sheva that Day is scheduled to meet Prime MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu during his visit to Israel and would bring up the issueof the Temple Mount during the meeting.

Day, a former leader of the Canadian Alliance party which later merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to become the Conservative Party of Canada, lost the party’s leadership to Canada's current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, in 2002. Nevertheless, he remained on good terms with Harper, who is also currently visiting Israel, and served as a minister in his cabinet before retiring from political life.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site and the location of the two Holy Temples of Jerusalem, the latter of which was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE. Despite that fact, Jewish visitors face severe restrictions upon ascending the Mount, while the Waqf works to remove any Jewish presence on the Mount and consistently destroys Jewish antiquities on the compound in a direct violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

Canadian Muslim group demands rabbi's removal from Harper delegation

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, one of Israel's best friends, is here visiting for a few days. One of the people how is part of his delegation is a rabbi named Daniel Korobkin. The National Council of Canadian Muslims - the Canadian branch of Hamas-affiliate CAIR - has demanded that Harper remove Rabbi Korbokin from his delegation. Pamela Geller explains why.

[T]he Rabbi attended and spoke briefly at my September talk in Canada.

Their letter charged that both Robert Spencer, who also spoke at that September event, and I “have a lengthy and clear record of promoting anti-Muslim sentiments and demonization.” In support of this, they listed a number of statements (wrenched from explanatory context, of course) that are demonstrably true and abundantly established by every day’s headlines. Do they think Harper, a strong defender of Israel, is so stupid as to be blind to the reality of Islamic jihad?

Whatever the nature of the things that I say, Rabbi Korobkin didn’t utter them and is not by any conceivable stretch of the imagination responsible for them. It is bitterly ironic that Islamic supremacist groups would label my efforts to defend the freedom of speech and equality of rights for all people before the law as “anti-Muslim.” That speaks volumes. However, whatever my work may be about, it is not Rabbi Korobkin’s work or his responsibility.

There is another strategy at play here: the message is being sent to every rabbi and clergyman, and everyone in the public square, that if you have anything to do in the public square with those fighting jihad and Sharia, they will come after you.

You don't think Canada's Muslims are trying to shut their opponents up, do you?

Canadian PM: I Will Defend Israel 'whatever the cost'

Ottawa, Canada - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he is prepared to suffer any political backlash that comes his way for speaking out against anti-Israel rhetoric.

Harper told an audience Monday that while Israel is receptive to fair criticism, Canada is obligated to stand up for its ally when it comes under attack from others.

"Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us."

The prime minister acknowledged that his position is not popular with all governments and organizations, including members of the United Nations and the Francophonie.

"And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations or any other international forum, the easiest thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israel rhetoric, to pretend it is just about being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of honest broker.

"There are, after all, a lot more votes—a lot more—in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But as long as I am prime minister, whether it is at the United Nations, the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost."

The prime minister's use of the phrase "honest broker" is an apparent reference to a recent speech made by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

Ignatieff criticized the Harper government for using Israel as a wedge issue with his political opponents in Canada, at the expense of the country's influence on peace in the Middle East. The Liberal leader called for a return to a time when Canada was perceived to be an honest broker in the global community.

Harper made his remarks at the start of a two-day conference on anti-Semitism that is being held on Parliament Hill during Holocaust Education Week.

TIMES OF ISRAEL: Canada and Israel — best friends forever?Why is Ottawa so extraordinarily supportive of the Jewish state? Has the Harper administration gone too far, and cost itself influence in the Arab world? And would a change of government see an altered stance?

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. Just this Thursday, Harper rebuked the world for its stance on what he called the “one stable, democratic” country in the Middle East. “There’s nothing more shortsighted in Western capitals in our time than the softening of support we’ve seen for Israel around the globe,” he said during a visit in New York.

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

Palestinians hold pictures of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper superimposed with a face of a dog during a protest following Harper’s remarks about the Palestinian UN bid for an observer state status, in front of Canadian representative offices in Ramallah, November 28, 2012. (photo credit: Issam RImawi/Flash90)

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. 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?

Or, perhaps even more important, would this uncompromising support for Israel disappear were Harper’s Conservative Party to lose power, as polls indicate it could in 2015?

‘When the victim is portrayed as the perpetrator and the perpetrator as the victim, this is not something we want to be associated with’

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.”

Minister Joe Oliver in Israel, May 2013 (photo credit: Mati Milstein/courtesy Canadian embassy)

But other Western countries also don’t love terrorism but still criticize Israel, for example over settlement expansions. “We have said that unilateral action on either side isn’t particularly helpful,” the minister responded, emphasizing that Canada doesn’t support the settlements. “I don’t know what else to say in this regard. There’s willingness on our part to demonstrate moral leadership.”

Oliver then quickly added that he doesn’t mean to say Canada is more moral than other countries. But, he said, “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 punished the Palestinians for the statehood bid by announcing to build homes in the controversial E1 corridor east of Jerusalem, the whole world forcefully condemned the plans. Except the Canadians: the government merely noted that such steps aren’t “helpful.”

Last month, however, marked a high point in Canada’s pro-Israel (and ostensibly anti-Palestinian) 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.

John Baird (left) and Shimon Peres (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Baird tried to play down the issue, saying that where he “had coffee with Tzipi Livni is, I think, irrelevant [and] doesn’t signal a change in Canadian foreign policy.”

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.

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 Palestinian 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.

While last month it still appeared that “the Canadian government might be able to pull off a dual Middle East strategy, combining co-operation with the conservative Gulf Arab states on security matters and sweeping support for current Israeli policies, the Livni meeting destroyed that hope,” Bell asserted in the Globe and Mail. That encounter “crossed a critical red line in the competing narratives of Arabs and Israelis. While Qatar and others were prepared to overlook their concerns about Canada more generally, Mr. Baird’s Jerusalem gesture went too far.”

‘Is the recommendation that we should have been anti-Israeli in order to get on the Security Council so we could be pro-Israeli?’

Still, Canadian politicians from both sides of the aisle continue to refute the notion that support for Israel is costing the country dearly on the international stage.

“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.”

Benjamin Netanyahu and wife Sarah, right, meet with Canadian PM Stephen Harper, left, in London. April 17, 2013. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

Irwin Cotler, a Canadian MP from the Liberal Party and former justice minister, tends to agree. Ottawa didn’t lose the Security Council seat because of Israel, he said, but because of Africa and because it generally did not appear interested in multilateralism. 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, it is not so much support for Israel — which has been a “cornerstone” of Canadian foreign policy for 35 years, he said — that’s damaging the country, but the bluntness with which it is presented to the world. 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. “But I think that you can do the right thing but not necessarily have to turn people off in the way you do it. My critique of the Conservative government is not the principles that they espouse but the manner in which they give expression to those principles.”

Support for Israel is bipartisan. 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.

Irwin Cotler speaking to a Knesset Committee (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

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.

Indeed, Harper’s unequivocal pro-Israeli rhetoric does not always match his official positions.

For instance, the Canadian government does not list Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and, its Foreign Ministry makes plain, “does not recognize permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip).” According to the Foreign Ministry’s website, “Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention” — and thus illegal under international law — and constitute “a serious obstacle” to peace.

“Baird doesn’t say that,” Cotler said. Rather, the Harper government makes a point of reaffirming that it is Israel’s best friend ever, without telling the world that Canadian foreign policy is not merely focused on Israel. Ottawa supports the Palestinian Authority with $300 million over the last five years, he noted. “But they don’t speak about it, so it’s not well-known.” If support for Israel were treated as one among several pillars of Canadian foreign policy, it would attract less media scrutiny and less Arab hostility, he argued.

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 centerpiece of their overall foreign policy.”

The next elections in Canada will take place in 2015, and the latest polls currently predict a loss for the ruling Conservatives. Will a different, more left-oriented government match that level of support for Jerusalem?

Most Canadians don’t think too much about their government’s policy vis-à-vis the Middle East, and so Israel is unlikely to become a wedge-issue in the elections, several observers agreed.

“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.”

Canadian FM: Israel Has ‘No Better Friend In The World Than Canada’

Jerusalem - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird kicked off his first full day in Israel by attending the opening of a new Holocaust education facility in Jerusalem.

Baird says the new seminars wing of the International School for Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem will play a key role in ensuring humanity doesn’t forget the lessons of genocide.

And he says Israel has no better friend in the world than Canada.

Baird and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will spend the next several days visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The campus holds seminars each year for educators from 55 countries around the world and Israel, and develops country-specific and custom-made tools for different age groups in more than 20 languages.

Jewish philanthropist Joseph Gottdenker, himself a Holocaust survivor, says Yad Vashem gives a voice and a name to each person who perished, “and restores to them the dignity of living history.”

“Holocaust education enables us to remember the lessons of the past and provides guidance to a more tolerant, hopeful and brighter future,” Gottdenker said.

In 2011, the school hosted 67 seminars for educators and lay leaders around the world, twice the numbers held in recent years.

Baird, a black skull cap perched on his head, emphasized the importance of Yad Vashem and its new 4,100-square-metre facility in documenting and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust.

“There is no better friend to Israel than Canada,”Baird said. “We shall always be there for you, and in front of you.”