STEPHEN HARPER, Canada’s Conservative prime minister, has been an outspoken defender of Israel ever since he took office in early 2006. But until January 19th, when he began a four-day visit, Mr Harper had never set foot in the country he has defended so fiercely.
After waiting almost eight years he is now doing so in style, bringing a 208-member contingent of business and religious leaders along. They crowded the galleries of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on January 20th to hear Mr Harper’s address to members, the first by a Canadian leader. The series of standing ovations he received will have made a nice change for Mr Harper, who is under fire back home. But the rationale for the trip and for the policy that underlies it causes puzzlement in Canada.
The Conservative prime minister has abandoned Canada’s more nuanced policy towards the region under which it supported Israel but did not openly denigrate its neighbours as “a region of darkness”, as Mr Harper did in a speech late last year. His open scepticism about US-led negotiations with Iran over nuclear development hews more to the line taken by Binyamin...Continue reading
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