Canada may lack the military might to back Israel to the hilt on the battlefield, but if Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper’s weeklong visit to Israel proved one thing, it is that Canada has surged past the US when it comes to being Israel’s best friend in the global political arena.
T
here are two sides to Stephen Harper.
One is manifested by the always-composed sometimes stoic expression he wears in public. The other is when that countenance gives way on a moment’s notice and he drops the formalities interrupting a speaking engagement to sit down and jam at the electric piano with his band Herringbone urging his audience to sing along with him to a popular rock tune.
Segueing speech into song is becoming a Harper trademark and one he even employed at last month’s Jewish National Fund dinner in Toronto where he announced his first-ever trip toIsrael.
But when it comes to setting the tone for Canada’s foreign policy especially toward Israel Harper doesn’t display two sides or two faces. Simply put he is Israel’s staunchest advocate in a world where support for the Jewish state is mired in the late stages of a global meltdown.
“Canada supports Israel fundamentally because it is right to do so” Harper declared in his speech to the Knesset last week. “This by the way 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.”
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