JERUSALEM (EJP)—Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his country will stand by Israel ‘‘through fire and water”, in his address Monday to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, the first by a Canadian leader.
“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,” said Harper whose speech was peppered with standing ovations.
“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 interest,” he said.
The Canadian premier said he believes “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.
“Let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel because it is right to do so,” he emphasized. “It is… a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.”
“The friendship between [Israel and Canada] 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,” Harper said in French and English.
Some of those shared values are “freedom, democracy and rule of law,” in which Israel “has long anchored itself,” he said.
“These are not mere notions,” he added. “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.”
Palestinians also deserve these things, Harper said, expressing support for “a viable, democratic Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish state of Israel,” though, “sadly, we have yet to reach that point.”
“I believe that a Palestinian state will come, and one thing that will make it come is when the regimes that bankroll terrorism realize that the path to peace is accommodation, not violence,” Harper stated.
Arab Members of the Knesset interrupted the Canadian Prime Minister as he spoke about anti-Semitism in some criticisms of Israel.
“We have witnessed in recent years the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain…. 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,” Harper stated.
“Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state,” Harper continued, as Arab MK Taleb Abu Arar shouted: “It is.”
“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, [a state]that is condemned – and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism. It is nothing short of sickening. But this is the face of the new anti-Semitism,” Harper went on.
Two Arab MKs demonstratively walked out as the audience cheered Harper for his comments against anti-Semitism.
Harper declared that Canada will not accept the delegitimization of Israel,“Canada finds it horrible that there are those in the international community who challenge Israel’s legitimate right to exist,” he said. “That with one solitary Jewish state among many others, it is all too easy to isolate Israel.”
He also told the Knesset that he believed expression of anti-Zionism to be on par with anti-Semitism. “Anti-Semitism still exists in its traditional form based on ignorance in some of the dark corners of the world,” he said. “In the Western world it takes on a more sophisticated form. With some intellectualized arguments on some campuses.This is the new face of anti-Semitism.”
He criticized world leaders who single out Israel because it is the popular thing to do.
“It is all too easy ‘to go along to get along’ and single out Israel,” Harper said.
The Canadian leader arrived on Sunday in Israel. During a royal welcome ceremony in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Harper’s courage and said he is a “great friend of Israel and the Jewish people.”