Monday, August 15, 2011

Canada Is the World’s Most Pro-Israel Country Tablet Magazine

Since the 2006 election of the conservative politician Stephen Harper as prime minister, Canada has become arguably the most pro-Israel country in the world

BY JORDAN MICHAEL SMITH

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 in openly siding with Israel, he said. At the mere mention of Harper, who was not in attendance, Krauthammer’s audience suddenly burst into furious applause, as though its collective gratitude for the prime minister had finally been articulated for the first time.

As prime minister, Harper has transformed Canadian foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East. Abandoning Canada’s longstanding posture of even-handedness in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the country has become arguably the most pro-Israel country in the world. 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 has 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. “No other country in the world has demonstrated such a full understanding of us.” Read more »