For Canada, its reputation in significant parts of the world will sink ever lower as a result. And for the State of Israel, it will have even more reason — with friends like Canada’s prime minister — to fear for its future.
Last month, Harper described Israel as “the light of freedom and democracy in what is otherwise a region of darkness.” He said this even though, at the age of 54 and after eight years as prime minister, Harper has never found the time until now to spend even one day visiting Israel or anywhere else in the Middle East.
In 2003, therefore, should we have been surprised that, as Canada’s opposition leader, he declared it was “manifestly in the national interest of Canada” to join American and British forces in their disastrous invasion of Iraq?
This same Stephen Harper, now the architect of Canada’s foreign policy, will be greeted warmly by Israel’s isolated political and business class. As perhaps the most pro-Israeli foreign leader on the planet, he will be treated like a “rock star,” as one Israeli commentator described it.
If Harper or anyone in the large Canadian contingent has self-esteem issues, this will certainly cure them. Tiny Canadian flags, clutched by bewildered Israeli schoolchildren, will undoubtedly abound. Even better for this touring group of Canadians, they — unlike the millions of Palestinians who live under harsh conditions in the Israeli-occupied territories — will be untroubled by the maze of roadblocks, security checks and hassles that make life for Arab citizens there so difficult. For these Canadians next week, life will be good.
For both sides, this will be an emotional coming together of two fantasy worlds. One from the Canadian side embodied by Harper and his Conservative government. Even though more than six in 10 Canadians didn’t support them in the 2011 election, they have felt they have the mandate to turn decades of Canadian foreign policy on its head and promote a world view about the Middle East that is even more hardline than many Israelis support.
The other fantasy world, and a very dangerous one, is embraced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the extreme right-wing coalition that supports him. Navigating his way through a dysfunctional Israeli political system, Netanyahu has been able to create a surreal parallel universe that tries to mask the profound divisions of Israelis themselves.
His universe imagines Israel living in peace with its neighbours and accepted by the world — as long as Jews are able to live freely throughout the West Bank and the other occupied territories, and as long as Palestinians, defeated and humiliated, accept a permanent state of subservience. But it is a delusion that threatens the future of Israel more than any Arab army.
Unlike U.S. President Barack Obama, who has warned Netanyahu that this approach will lead to the destruction of Israel, the Israeli prime minister will hear no such warning from Harper. Canada’s prime minister will tell Netanyahu what he wants to hear, and he will encourage the Israeli public to keep living in this fantasy world.
Harper’s supporters often justify this radical pro-Israeli tilt as an effort to correct an imbalance in the Middle East. This suggests that previous Canadian governments were hostile to Israel, even pro-Arab — which is absolute nonsense.
For decades, Canada’s traditional approach to the Middle East has been overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Israeli position. On occasion — but not many — Canada has spoken bluntly to Israel about its actions, as true friends would do. But the pride of previous Canadian governments in being “multilateral” and an “honest broker” can hardly be portrayed as being anti-Israel. Yet that claim is now accepted as fact by the conservative chattering classes of both Canada’s and Israel’s elites.
It is time for both countries to abandon their respective fantasy worlds. Israelis should work hard this week to ignore most everything they hear from Canada’s prime minister. And Canadians should work equally hard to wrestle back Canada’s foreign policy debate from Harper and his crowd. For both sides, time is truly running out.
Source: thestar.com/
Author:: Tony Burman
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