A 180-degree reversal in policy
The sharp change in policy toward Israel and the Palestinians under the Conservative government is dramatically illustrated by Canada’s role at two international summits:
In 1996, at the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit for Israel and the Palestinians, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stood shoulder to shoulder with U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and other world leaders.
In 2011, at the Deauville G8 Summit, an isolated Stephen Harper rejected a reference in the final communiqué to a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was advocated by President Barack Obama and fellow G8 leaders.
A major goal in 1996 had been to bolster Peres’s electoral prospects against Benjamin Netanyahu, a bitter opponent of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. In 2011, Harper chose Netanyahu over the U.S. president, a 180-degree reversal in Canadian policy.
A similar change took place at the UN. Canada long had a reputation as a fair-minded supporter of Israel. Fair-minded no longer, on a 2012 resolution giving Palestine observer state status at the United Nations, Canada isolated itself from virtually all Western countries by voting against it with Israel and the U.S.
Through its one-sided approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues, Canada has undermined its ability to con- tribute to a peace settlement.
The eggs and old shoes that greeted then foreign minister John Baird in the West Bank in January, when Palestinians angry at Canada’s perceived proIsrael stance pelted his convoy, demonstrate just how difficult it would be for the Harper government to play any role as an intermediary. Nor should Canada ever expect to win a UN Security Council seat as long as its record on Israeli-Palestinian issues is so out of sync with the rest of the world.
But the damage done to Canada’s interests by this approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues runs much deeper. At the Deauville summit, by supporting Netanyahu rather than Obama, Harper deeply angered the U.S. president. He decided to satisfy a hard-line Israeli leader at the risk of jeopardizing the Keystone XL project, which the prime minister maintains is a vital Canadian interest.
It is troubling that today, on Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran, the Conservative government has again taken a position closer to that of Israel than of the U.S. None of our G7 partners has chosen to do so. Such actions leave Harper the odd man out and show that he seems prepared to put support for Israel ahead of Canada’s larger interests.