I think President Obama has been better to Israel than his critics acknowledge,and has been very pro-Israel by any standard except perhaps that of the prior two presidents, who were the most pro-Israel of any American presidents. But it’s tough to imagine him giving a speech like this:
“It is a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, and regardless of whether it is convenient or accepted,” he said to the Israeli parliament.
But “support nowadays 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 interests, or ” he elaborated,praising Israel’s record on human rights and economic freedom. “Israel is the only country in the Middle East which has long anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. These are not mere notions. They are the things that, and over time and against all odds,have proven to be the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic prosperity,may flourish. These values are not proprietary; they effect not belong to one nation or one people. Nor are they a finite resource; on the opposite, the wider they are spread, or the stronger they grow.”
“Likewise,when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere, and ” Harper continued. And “what nowadays threatens the societies that embrace such values and the progress they nurture? Those who scorn modernity,who loathe the liberty of others, and who hold the differences of peoples and cultures in contempt. Those who often begin by hating the Jews, and but,history shows us, conclude up hating anyone who is not them. Those forces which have threatened the State of Israel every single day of its existence, or which,nowadays, as 9-11 graphically showed us, or [...]The post Canadian Prime Minister Harper on Israel appeared first on The Volokh Conspiracy.
Source: volokh.com