In December, a poll ranked the leading issues for Israeli voters ahead of March 17 national elections. The economy placed first at 34 per cent, followed by security (30 per cent) and social justice (14 per cent). On the other end of the list, only one per cent said foreign relations would figure in their voting decision, but you’d hardly have guessed that after a week in which Israel’s ties with two of its key allies, Canada and the United States, took centre stage.
John Baird and Lisa Raitt, Canada’s foreign affairs and transport ministers respectively, began the week in Israel, where they signed a handful of new agreements with the Jewish State, including plans to co-operate against “efforts to single out or isolate Israel.” Ottawa also took a stand last week against the increase in hatred and violence toward Jews when Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney told a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly “Canada is deeply concerned about the alarming increase in anti-Semitism worldwide.”
There was more. The federal government announced plans to fund 10 Israeli companies to the tune of about $150,000 each, with an aim to develop health, water and agricultural innovation in developing countries. (The seeds of that partnership were apparently sown a year ago, when Prime Minster Stephen Harper made his first state visit to Israel.) And later in the week, Baird again confirmed the government’s support of Israel: “Israel is the only democracy in the region,” he told CJN reporter Paul Lungen. “They are our strong friend and ally.”
The mood in Washington was decidedly tenser, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became publicly involved in a clash between President Barack Obama and the Republican Party.
Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, where he is expected to speak in favour of new sanctions against Iran, an initiative opposed by the president. The White House complained Netanyahu breached protocol by accepting Boehner’s invitation without first consulting the Obama administration and announced the president would not meet with the prime minister while the latter is in town.
Experts subsequently proclaimed “a new low” in Israel-U.S. relations, and a senior U.S. official said “Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price” for snubbing the White House.
Netanyahu’s speech to Congress has since been moved from Feb. 11 to March 3, when he will be in Washington for the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Yitzhak (“Bougie”) Herzog, head of Israel’s Labour Party and co-leader of the centre-left bloc now known as the Zionist Camp, will also speak at the AIPAC summit.
That means two weeks before the Israeli election, the two front-runners to lead the next Knesset will be halfway across the world, looking to drum up support among people who don’t have a vote. Perhaps after Paris, the calculus has changed. But ultimately, Israelis will be left to decide the value of politicians pursuing foreign friendships at a time when there are other pressing concerns at home. — YONI