"Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government have intervened to pressure the Palestinian Authority to drop its bid for upgraded status at the United Nations, further cementing Canada’s transition into one of Israel’s firmest allies.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, rebuffed in an attempt last year to have the 15-member UN Security Council recognize a Palestinian state, on Thursday is planning to ask all countries at the UN to approve Palestinian status as a non-member observer state on Thursday – a bid Israel staunchly opposes.
Eight weeks ago, when he was in New York to accept an award from a private organization, Mr. Harper took a drive across the city as countries assembled for the opening of the new session of the UN General Assembly to have a short, brusque meeting with Mr. Abbas.
In a little room at the United Nations, Mr. Harper skipped most of the pleasantries in a 15-minute meeting, according to sources briefed on the session, and told Mr. Abbas he had come to deliver a message:
If you keep doing what you’re doing, he said – referring to the Palestinian bid for upgraded status – “there will be consequences.”
It was just one part of the bare-knuckle approach Canada has taken toward the UN bid, though largely out of public view....
Mr. Abbas’s Fatah is the faction that the West prefers, but the quick consensus in the Middle East is that Hamas “resistance” has won ground in public opinion during the week of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and moderate Fatah has been weakened, including in the West Bank....
The United States and Canada have listed Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat, has been more or less encouraged: the Palestinian Authority gets aid from Washington and Ottawa and its de facto diplomats are received in both capitals. So far.
A source said the Canadian government has warned the Palestinian Authority’s representatives that their “embassy” in Ottawa – in fact a delegation office, because Palestine isn’t a state –
- might be closed, and the Palestinian envoy, Said Hamad, sent home.
There are more serious potential aspects to the “consequences” about which Mr. Harper warned: cutting off money. Ottawa pledged $300-million in aid over five years starting in 2008, and that period is about to run out....
Mr. Abbas launched a bid for full UN membership last year, but that required approval of the 15-member Security Council, and it was stifled with the U.S. threatening a veto. Now he plans to return Nov. 29 with proposal to have the General Assembly – in a vote he is expected to win handily – grant “non-member observer state” status. The key word is state, for its symbolic value and because it might open doors to UN agencies and the International Criminal Court....
The U.S. is against it, and the Harper government has lobbied vociferously. Others, such as Britain, have also asked them to delay, arguing it is “not helpful” now. Mr. Abbas has been undeterred. His officials have said they’re willing to negotiate with Israel, but only once they win a “victory” at the UN....
Mr. Harper’s government has worked to derail Mr. Abbas’s plan, along with the U.S., Israel, and a few others."... via Mark Levin show
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11/27/12, "Canadian PM Personally Intervened to Stop PA Statehood Bid at UN," Israel National News
"Harper has long been recognized a strong friend of the Jewish state.
"[W]hen Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand," Harper said last year.
Harper said Canada must oppose demonization, double standards and de-legitimization.
"Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people
are in the longer term a threat to all of us," he said.
"Whether it is at the United Nations or any other international forum, the easiest thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israel rhetoric, to pretend it is just about being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of honest broker," Harper added. The Canadian prime minister further affirmed that "as long as I am prime minister… Canada will take not that stand, whatever the cost." via Atlas Shrugs
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PM Harper in Ottawa, 11/20/12, reuters
Above, a delighted Obama and Abbas, undated
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2 comments:
Harper? Civilized?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh you're serious? According to polls Harper has the dubious distinction of being the leader most disliked by his own people in any democratic country.
The recent elections in 2011 which gave him majority power are known to have been marred with electoral fraud charges against Harper and his cronies. They have been under investigation for the last 1.5 years by Elections Canada for electoral fraud and they have fought back by repeatedly replacing the head of the organization and slashing their budget.
This behaviour has lead Harper to have approval rating numbers in league with George W Bush and Richard Nixon.
Your comment didn't address the topic of the post, that Harper went out of his way to stand up against bullying and savagery against Israel by thugs at the UN. Israel is now surrounded on all sides by frothing, throwback Islamists armed with weapons often paid for by the US taxpayer. You open your attack on Harper with the phrase, "according to polls." That phrase is meaningless to me unless accompanied by the names of the polls, all the sponsors, all the questions, and a detailed breakdown of the respondents.
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