[R-G] Canada honoured for pro-Israeli support

[Anthony Fenton]

Canada honoured for pro-Israeli support
Steven Edwards
Canwest News Service
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1027946

CREDIT: Chris Wattie / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS - Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon goes before  
a leading Jewish umbrella group in New York on Thursday to pick up an  
award acclaiming Canada's support for Israel, just as analysis shows  
the Conservative government has interrupted annual increases in its  
backing of Israeli positions at the United Nations.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is  
giving Prime Minster Stephen Harper and the wider Canadian government  
its first International Leadership Award, and Cannon will attend a  
dinner to receive it on behalf of the government.

"We are giving (it) to express appreciation for their courageous  
stands on the Durban conference, on their support for Israel and their  
efforts at the UN against incitement and . . . the delegitimization  
(of Israel), where they have taken a role in the forefront," said  
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the conference.

Canada under Harper's leadership was the first country to pull out of  
the UN's so-called Durban II "anti-racism" conference, which is billed  
as a review of the 2001 gathering in the South African city that  
critics say turned into a racist and anti-Semitic debacle.

But this year marks the first since Harper became prime minister that  
Canada has not incrementally shifted its voting in the UN General  
Assembly towards Israeli positions on a raft of recurring Middle East- 
related resolutions.

Islamic and a number of developing countries have long used what's  
called their "automatic majority" to push through the texts, which  
critics say are unfairly weighted against Israel on issues ranging  
from nuclear proliferation in the Middle East to the plight of  
Palestinians.

In his address at the award presentation, Cannon is not expected to  
refer to the resolutions as he stresses Canada's commitment to  
Israel's survival as a state.

"When it comes to the Middle East, and Israel's right to exist, there  
is no ambiguity or hesitancy in Canada's position," he is expected to  
say.

"As Prime Minister Harper reminds all of us in his cabinet - 'Our  
position is clear: it is fair and principled.'"

Jewish community activists say they are optimistic the annual  
incremental transfer of support is not ended.

"We would have liked to have seen more (this year), but we have every  
faith that the shift will continue," said Karen Lazar, spokeswoman for  
B'nai Brith Canada, one of the groups that track UN voting patterns  
closely.

In a related development, the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch  
has listed Canada top among the 47 member states of the UN Human  
Rights Council in voting to promote human rights.

"But the bad news is that the Human Rights Council as a whole is in a  
state of crisis," says a statement accompanying the report, which the  
group presented to the Canadian parliament.

"The council is dominated today by an alliance of repressive regimes,  
including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia, that has acted systematically  
to undermine and erode core (human rights) principles and effective  
mechanisms."
© Canwest News Service 2008