Baird says Canada is a better friend of Israel than United States is

OTTAWA - Canada is a better and stronger friend of Israel than the United States is, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Baird offered that and other musings in a sweeping interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper Friday that capped a Middle East trip highlighted by his unabashed support of Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians.

The NDP characterized Baird's pro-Israel rhetoric as simplistic and something out of a good-versus-evil "Star Wars movie."

In the interview, Baird blasted previous Canadian foreign policy that saw the government vote against Israel in resolutions at the United Nations.

And as he did earlier in the week, Baird sidestepped any direct condemnation of Israel's continued practice of building settlements in Palestinian territories — playing down Canada's past position that it had "concerns" about expanded Israeli settlements.

Baird took the bait of his interviewer, who followed up on his earlier comment this week that Israel has no better friend than Canada.

"Where is the U.S. in this?" asked the interviewer.

"I think the U.S. is a good friend, too. I like to think we are better," said Baird. "A stronger friend."

U.S. President Barack Obama angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last spring when he declared in a speech that the pre-1967 borders of Israel should form the basis of new peace negotiations with the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.

Obama said that would mean Israel and the Palestinians would have to swap land to account for the large West Bank settlements of Israelis since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — a new proposal that rocked Israeli-U.S. relations.

Asked whether Canada intervened to smooth relations between Obama and Netanyahu, Baird said he hoped, "there is never a day when the prime minister of Israel needs the intervention of the prime minister of Canada in Washington."

Baird referred to Canada's lonely opposition to a G8 communique at a leaders' summit last May — shortly after Obama's speech — that sought to endorse the U.S. president's new pre-1967 proposal.

"Take the G8 communique. It made reference to President Obama's speech. It made reference to certain things he said in the speech. But if you want to talk about 1967 borders with land swaps, let's talk about Israel as a Jewish state. If you want to talk about this, we can talk about a future Palestinian state being demilitarized. If you want to talk about the speech, we'll talk about the speech," said Baird.

"If you want to be general we can be general. If you want to be specific, we would want some of those more favourable comments toward Israel included in the communique."

So, was Canada "out in front of the U.S. on that issue?" asked the interviewer.

"Yes. President Obama was very supportive in the end," Baird replied.

The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa had no comment Friday.

NDP foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere said her party is in total agreement "that we should support the Israelis, their right to existence, their right to live in peace."

But she said Baird's remarks this week reinforce her view that the government is "biased too much" towards Israel.

"There was a number of statements that were surprising, many speeches with the good guys and the bad guys ... it was almost like being in a Star Wars movie," she said.

In Friday's interview, Baird dodged a direct question about whether Israel should freeze settlement construction.

"I think unilateral action on either side is unhelpful," Baird replied, repeating the same answer to a similar question at a press conference in Jerusalem earlier in the week.

Laverdiere accused Baird of being deliberately ambiguous on the contentious settlement issue.

"We heard the minister at the (House of Commons) Foreign Affairs committee. His answers on this topic (the settlements) were pretty ambiguous, saying no, we haven't really changed our policy but Canada changed its votes on the resolutions last fall at the United Nations," she said.

"It is always a lack of transparency. We're not quite sure which way we're heading."

Baird also said the government's strong support of the Jewish state may have resulted in Canada's historic loss of a temporary seat on the UN Security Council in 2010.

"There is no doubt that it was unhelpful in the Security Council. I don't think you could say there was one particular reason. But that was certainly one of the reasons," Baird said.

In October 2010, Canada was beaten out by Portugal for a temporary, two-year term on the Security Council — the country's first such loss since the 1940s.

At the time, numerous critics cited Canada's support of Israel for costing it votes among Arab and Muslim countries.

In a preamble to the interview, a Jerusalem Post scribe said Baird likes Israel "a lot" and that makes him no different than Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Since Stephen Harper became the country's prime minister in 2006, Canada went from being a middle-of-the-road friend of Israel — somewhere between the U.S. and the European Union — to setting the gold standard for support of the Jewish state," wrote journalist Herb Keinon.

"There is not a government on the planet today more supportive of Israel than Harper's Canada.

"And the love runs both ways."