Making Nice In Israel

"We are not going to resettle in Canada ... the hundreds of thousands who want to live in a Palestinian state because they want to go home eventually.
"That is the objective we will be working towards under the leadership of the [United Nations Refugee Agency] and with our friends, allies and partners."
"With respect to Palestinian refugees, the objective we all share is for them to become citizens in a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution."
"It isn't for Canada or other countries to use or impose their own views on these two parties that have to resolve these issues together."
Canadian Immigration Minister Chris Alexander

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen arrive in Israel at Ben Gurion Airport January 19, 2014 in Lod, Israel. Harper is on a four-day visit ,his first visit to Israel and the first by a serving Canadian Prime Minister since 2000. (Heidi Levine-Pool/Getty Images)

The purpose of the trip, after all, was for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demonstrate unequivocally that under his governance, Canada has become the State of Israel's primary booster and loyal ally on the international scene. Not that it has been any great secret up until the formal visit to the Middle East. Canada is on record as having turned itself around from the 'moderate', 'reasonable' position evinced by previous governments to one of steadfastly supporting Israel in all its efforts and travails.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and wife Laureen visit Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel, on Sunday, January 19, 2014. Photo: CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

By no means was the reason to draw into Canada disconsolate, discontent Palestinians whom surrounding Arab countries in the Middle East appear to view as a pestilential presence which must be coddled as a symbol of Israeli aggression but never permitted the permanent settlement of citizenship, but to be herded back to the geography upon which Israel sits at the earliest possible opportunity.

Canada has experienced more than ample examples of Palestinian intrigues within Canada, pitting one ethnic group against another, and raising anti-Semitism to new levels.

For that matter, Canada's experience with generously doling out citizenship to various groups like Chinese Hong Kong immigrants and the Lebanese fleeing civil war, using Canadian citizenship and passports for their convenience to call upon the government irrespective of their double citizenship and loyalties, to rescue them instanter from threatening situations occurring on their return to home base.

A costly enterprise to mount such rescues from which the rescued lose no time in returning whence they came once the emergency has passed.

And Christopher Alexander has had his own learning curve, first as a diplomat, representing Canada as ambassador to Kabul, in Afghanistan, then travelling throughout the area, gaining an understanding of the tribal and clan conflicts, the religious fundamentalism, the position of women in a society and religious culture that views them as chattels, to form his own opinion of the difficulties inherent in dealing with the constant anomie. Fortified by his later position with the United Nations.

And so, Mr. Alexander responded to queries put to him by emphasizing "We want to work with our Israeli partners to find solutions to the security issues that represent threats to the region and indeed the world." Critically and typically, Mohamed El Rashidy of the Canadian Arab Federation expressed the fairly universal views of those whom he represents in Canada in their lack of enthusiasm for the direction this government has taken.

The Government of Canada's unwillingness to criticize Israeli presence as an occupying force to halt ongoing attacks against Israel and its people, represents a "very disappointing step" to the Canadian Arab Federation. The level of disappointment was made evident even while Prime Minister Harper addressed the Knesset on Monday, when two Arab-Israeli Members of the Knesset leaped to their feet to heap disdain on the Prime Minister for his effusive praise of Israel as a democracy in a geography unfamiliar with the concept.

The very actions of those two MKs more than ample evidence of the inability of the Arab Palestinians to understand how democracy works, and to shoulder responsibility incumbent on all intelligent people to work in harmony to achieve an end result important to and useful to two sides of an issue. Israel's democracy made possible citizenship for non-Jewish residents of the country, enabling them to be elected to represent their constituents in a Parliament.

They choose instead to belabour that parliament and the government representing it which has granted them the freedom to do so. They make no secret about their commitment not to the country which gives them this opportunity, but to the factions that seek to bring the country to its knees in despair and failure to prevent attacks. Their loyalty is to the militants who challenge the existence of Israel.

And yet, as though to prove their delusional irrationality, those same representatives have no wish to become part of a West Bank Palestinian government, balking at the prospect of having the majority Arab residential areas carved out of Israel and handed to the Palestinian Authority for inclusion in their new state, in a fair trade of the West Bank settlements carved out and handed to Israel.