This is a very important date in the life and political career of my friend Stephen J. Harper, 22nd Prime Minister of our country. First off it was on this date in 1994 that he delivered his maiden speech in the House of Commons. You can read that speech here.And, exactly 20 years-later on January 20, 2014, then Prime Minister Harper made history, becoming the first Canadian Prime Minister to address Israel’s Knesset. Even Mr. Harper’s opponents during his service to Canada as Prime Minister respectfully recognized his steadfast commitment to Israel.So happy anniversaries to Mr. Harper on this special day. His speech to the Knesset is below.
To the KNESSETJerusalem, Israel20 January 2014Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.Shalom.Thank you for inviting me to visit this remarkable country, and especially for the opportunity to address the Knesset.It truly is a great honour.And I also thank you for the honour of the key to the Knesset.So now I feel I can come and go whenever I choose.And if I may, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my wife Laureen and the entire Canadian delegation, let me just begin by thanking the Government and people of Israel for the warmth of your hospitality.You have made us feel extremely welcome.You have made us feel immediately at home.Ladies and gentlemen, Canada and Israel are the greatest of friends, and the most natural of allies.And, with your indulgence, I’d like to offer a reflection upon what makes the relationship between Canada and Israel special and important.Because the relationship between us is very strong.This friendship between us is rooted in history, nourished by shared values, and it is intentionally reinforced at the highest levels of commerce and government as an outward expression of strongly held inner convictions.There has, for example, been a free trade agreement in place between Canada and Israel for many, many years, an agreement that has already proved its worth.The elimination of tariffs on industrial products, and some foodstuffs, has led to a doubling in the value of trade between our countries.But this only scratches the surface of the economic potential of this relationship and I look forward to soon deepening and broadening our mutual trade and investment goals.As well, our military establishments share information and technology.This has also been to our mutual benefit.For example, during Canada’s mission to Afghanistan, the use of Israeli-built reconnaissance equipment saved the lives of many Canadian soldiers.All such connections, and I can mention many more – science and technology – all built strong bridges between us.However, to truly understand the special relationship between Israel and Canada, one must look beyond trade and institutions, to the personal ties of friendship and kinship.Jews have been present in Canada for more than 250 years.In generation after generation, by hard work and perseverance, Jewish immigrants, often starting with nothing, have greatly prospered.Today, there are nearly 350,000 Canadians who share with you their heritage and their faith.They are proud Canadians.But having met literally thousands of members of this community, I can tell you this:They are also immensely proud of what the people of Israel have accomplished here.Of your courage in war, of your generosity in peace, and of the bloom that the desert has yielded under your stewardship.Laureen and I share that pride.We share that pride and the understanding that what has been achieved here has occurred in the shadow of the horrors of the Holocaust.The understanding that it is right to support Israel, because after generations of persecution, the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and deserve to live safely and peacefully in that homeland.Let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel fundamentally because it is right to do so.This by the way is a very Canadian trait, to do something for no reason other than it is right, even when no immediate reward for, or threat to, ourselves is evident.On many occasions, Canadians have gone even so far as to bleed and die to defend the freedoms of others in far-off lands.To be clear, we have also periodically made terrible mistakes.As in the refusal of our Government in the 1930s to ease the plight of Jewish refugees.But, as a country, at the great turning points of history, Canada has consistently chosen often to our great cost, to stand with others who oppose injustice and to confront the dark forces of the world.It is, thus, a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.But, I would argue, and as you know Prime Minister I have argued, that support today for the Jewish State of Israel is more than a moral imperative.It is also a matter of strategic importance, also a matter of our own, long-term interests.Ladies and gentlemen, I said a moment ago that the special friendship between Canada and Israel is rooted in shared values.Indeed, 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.And these are not mere notions.They are the things that over time and against all odds, have proven to be over and over again the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic prosperity, may flourish.These values are not proprietary.They do not belong to one people or one nation.Nor are they a finite resource.On the contrary, the wider they are spread, the stronger they grow.Likewise, when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere.And who threatens them, or more precisely, what today threatens the societies that embrace such values and the progress they nurture?Those who scorn modernity, those who loathe the liberty of others, and those who hold the differences of peoples and cultures and religions in contempt.Those who, often begin by hating the Jews.But, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not like them.Those forces, which have threatened the State of Israel every single day of its existence, and which, as 9-11 graphically showed us today, threaten all of us.And so, we either stand up for our values and our interests here in Israel, stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively Jewish state, or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will begin.Now ladies and gentlemen, just as we refuse to retreat from our values, so we must also uphold the duty to advance them.And our commitment as Canadians to what is right, fair and just is a universal one.It applies no less to the Palestinian people than it does to the people of Israel.Just as we unequivocally support Israel’s right of self-defence, so too Canada has long supported a just and secure future for the Palestinian people.And, I believe we share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders will choose a viable, democratic Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish State of Israel.As you, Prime Minister, have said, when Palestinians make peace with Israel, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations, it will be the first.Sadly, we have yet to reach that point.But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be right behind you.Now ladies and gentlemen even firm support doesn’t mean that allies and friends will agree on all issues all of the time.As you and I know Prime Minister, no state is beyond legitimate questioning or criticism.Indeed, Israel as a democratic state makes such criticism a part of your national life.But our support does mean at least three things.First, Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel.Our view that Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable.Second, Canada believes that Israel should be able to exercise its full rights as a UN member-state and to enjoy the full measure of its sovereignty.For this reason, Canada has spoken on numerous occasions in support of Israel’s engagement and equal treatment in multilateral fora.And in this regard, I should mention that we welcome Israel’s induction this month into the western, democratic group of states at the United Nations.Third, we refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international stage.Now friends I understand that in the world of diplomacy, with one, solitary, Jewish state and scores of others, it is all too easy to go along to get along and single out Israel.But such going along to get along, is not a balanced approach, nor a sophisticated one.It is just, quite simply, weak and wrong.Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism today runs rampant.And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of a much more sinister notion can be easily planted.And so we have witnessed in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.We all know about the old anti-Semitism.It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps.Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us.But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state.Now think about that statement.Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that.A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, founded so that Jews can flourish as Jews and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history.That is condemned, and it is condemned in the masked language of anti-racism.Friends, that is nothing short of sickening.But, this is the face of the new anti-Semitism.It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable to a new generation.Now of course friends, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic.But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?What else can we call it when Israel is routinely singled out, targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?Ladies and gentlemen, any assessment, any judgment of Israel’s actions must start with this understanding:In the 65 years that modern Israel has been a nation, Israelis have endured attacks and slanders beyond counting and have never known a day of true peace.And we understand, we Canadians understand that Israelis live with this impossible calculus:If you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread condemnation over and over again.But should you fail to act, you alone will suffer the consequence of your inaction and that consequence will be final.It will be your destruction.The truth that Canada understands is that many of the hostile forces Israel faces are faced by all western nations.Israel faces them for many of the same reasons we face them.You just happen to be a lot closer to them.Of course, no nation is perfect.But neither Israel’s existence nor its policies are responsible for the instability in the Middle East today.One must look beyond Israel’s borders to find the causes of the relentless oppression, poverty and violence in much of the region, of the heartbreaking suffering of Syrian refugees, of the sectarian violence and the fears of religious minorities, especially Christians, and of the current domestic turmoil in so many states.So what are we to do?Most importantly, we must deal with the world as we find it.The threats in this region are real, deeply rooted and deadly, and the forces of progress often anaemically weak.For too many nations, it is still easier to scapegoat Israel than to emulate your success.It is easier for them to foster resentment and hatred of Israel’s democracy than it is to provide the same rights and freedoms to their own people.I believe that a Palestinian state will come, and one thing that will make it come is when the regimes that bankroll terrorism realize that the path to peace is accommodation, not violence.Which brings me to the Government of Iran.Late last year, the world announced a new approach to diplomacy with the government in Tehran.Canada has long held the view that every diplomatic measure should be taken to ensure that regime never obtains a nuclear weapon.We therefore appreciate the earnest efforts of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany.Canada will evaluate the success of this approach not on the merit of its words, but on the implementation and verification of its promised actions.We truly hope that it is possible to walk the Iranian Government back from taking the irreversible step of manufacturing nuclear weapons.But, for now, Canada’s own sanctions will remain fully in place.And should our hopes not be realized, should the present agreement prove ephemeral, Canada will be a strong voice in the world for renewed sanctions.Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude with this thought.I believe the story of Israel is a great example to the world.It is a story, essentially, of a people whose response to suffering has been to move beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society, a vibrant democracy, a freedom-loving country with an independent and rights-affirming judiciary, an innovative, world-leading start-up nation.You have taken the collective memory of death and persecution to build an optimistic, forward-looking society.One that so values life you will sometimes release a thousand criminals and terrorists to save one of your own.In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our Government takes as articles of faith and principles to drive our own national life.And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.Thank you, friends ... Thank you for having us and may peace be upon Israel.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
To the KNESSETJerusalem, Israel20 January 2014Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.Shalom.Thank you for inviting me to visit this remarkable country, and especially for the opportunity to address the Knesset.It truly is a great honour.And I also thank you for the honour of the key to the Knesset.So now I feel I can come and go whenever I choose.And if I may, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my wife Laureen and the entire Canadian delegation, let me just begin by thanking the Government and people of Israel for the warmth of your hospitality.You have made us feel extremely welcome.You have made us feel immediately at home.Ladies and gentlemen, Canada and Israel are the greatest of friends, and the most natural of allies.And, with your indulgence, I’d like to offer a reflection upon what makes the relationship between Canada and Israel special and important.Because the relationship between us is very strong.This friendship between us is rooted in history, nourished by shared values, and it is intentionally reinforced at the highest levels of commerce and government as an outward expression of strongly held inner convictions.There has, for example, been a free trade agreement in place between Canada and Israel for many, many years, an agreement that has already proved its worth.The elimination of tariffs on industrial products, and some foodstuffs, has led to a doubling in the value of trade between our countries.But this only scratches the surface of the economic potential of this relationship and I look forward to soon deepening and broadening our mutual trade and investment goals.As well, our military establishments share information and technology.This has also been to our mutual benefit.For example, during Canada’s mission to Afghanistan, the use of Israeli-built reconnaissance equipment saved the lives of many Canadian soldiers.All such connections, and I can mention many more – science and technology – all built strong bridges between us.However, to truly understand the special relationship between Israel and Canada, one must look beyond trade and institutions, to the personal ties of friendship and kinship.Jews have been present in Canada for more than 250 years.In generation after generation, by hard work and perseverance, Jewish immigrants, often starting with nothing, have greatly prospered.Today, there are nearly 350,000 Canadians who share with you their heritage and their faith.They are proud Canadians.But having met literally thousands of members of this community, I can tell you this:They are also immensely proud of what the people of Israel have accomplished here.Of your courage in war, of your generosity in peace, and of the bloom that the desert has yielded under your stewardship.Laureen and I share that pride.We share that pride and the understanding that what has been achieved here has occurred in the shadow of the horrors of the Holocaust.The understanding that it is right to support Israel, because after generations of persecution, the Jewish people deserve their own homeland and deserve to live safely and peacefully in that homeland.Let me repeat that: Canada supports Israel fundamentally because it is right to do so.This by the way is a very Canadian trait, to do something for no reason other than it is right, even when no immediate reward for, or threat to, ourselves is evident.On many occasions, Canadians have gone even so far as to bleed and die to defend the freedoms of others in far-off lands.To be clear, we have also periodically made terrible mistakes.As in the refusal of our Government in the 1930s to ease the plight of Jewish refugees.But, as a country, at the great turning points of history, Canada has consistently chosen often to our great cost, to stand with others who oppose injustice and to confront the dark forces of the world.It is, thus, a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.But, I would argue, and as you know Prime Minister I have argued, that support today for the Jewish State of Israel is more than a moral imperative.It is also a matter of strategic importance, also a matter of our own, long-term interests.Ladies and gentlemen, I said a moment ago that the special friendship between Canada and Israel is rooted in shared values.Indeed, 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.And these are not mere notions.They are the things that over time and against all odds, have proven to be over and over again the only ground in which human rights, political stability, and economic prosperity, may flourish.These values are not proprietary.They do not belong to one people or one nation.Nor are they a finite resource.On the contrary, the wider they are spread, the stronger they grow.Likewise, when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere.And who threatens them, or more precisely, what today threatens the societies that embrace such values and the progress they nurture?Those who scorn modernity, those who loathe the liberty of others, and those who hold the differences of peoples and cultures and religions in contempt.Those who, often begin by hating the Jews.But, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not like them.Those forces, which have threatened the State of Israel every single day of its existence, and which, as 9-11 graphically showed us today, threaten all of us.And so, we either stand up for our values and our interests here in Israel, stand up for the existence of a free, democratic and distinctively Jewish state, or the retreat of our values and our interests in the world will begin.Now ladies and gentlemen, just as we refuse to retreat from our values, so we must also uphold the duty to advance them.And our commitment as Canadians to what is right, fair and just is a universal one.It applies no less to the Palestinian people than it does to the people of Israel.Just as we unequivocally support Israel’s right of self-defence, so too Canada has long supported a just and secure future for the Palestinian people.And, I believe we share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders will choose a viable, democratic Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish State of Israel.As you, Prime Minister, have said, when Palestinians make peace with Israel, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations, it will be the first.Sadly, we have yet to reach that point.But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be right behind you.Now ladies and gentlemen even firm support doesn’t mean that allies and friends will agree on all issues all of the time.As you and I know Prime Minister, no state is beyond legitimate questioning or criticism.Indeed, Israel as a democratic state makes such criticism a part of your national life.But our support does mean at least three things.First, Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel.Our view that Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable.Second, Canada believes that Israel should be able to exercise its full rights as a UN member-state and to enjoy the full measure of its sovereignty.For this reason, Canada has spoken on numerous occasions in support of Israel’s engagement and equal treatment in multilateral fora.And in this regard, I should mention that we welcome Israel’s induction this month into the western, democratic group of states at the United Nations.Third, we refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international stage.Now friends I understand that in the world of diplomacy, with one, solitary, Jewish state and scores of others, it is all too easy to go along to get along and single out Israel.But such going along to get along, is not a balanced approach, nor a sophisticated one.It is just, quite simply, weak and wrong.Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism today runs rampant.And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of a much more sinister notion can be easily planted.And so we have witnessed in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.We all know about the old anti-Semitism.It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps.Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us.But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state.Now think about that statement.Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that.A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, founded so that Jews can flourish as Jews and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history.That is condemned, and it is condemned in the masked language of anti-racism.Friends, that is nothing short of sickening.But, this is the face of the new anti-Semitism.It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make the old bigotry acceptable to a new generation.Now of course friends, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic.But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?What else can we call it when Israel is routinely singled out, targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its Human Rights Council?Ladies and gentlemen, any assessment, any judgment of Israel’s actions must start with this understanding:In the 65 years that modern Israel has been a nation, Israelis have endured attacks and slanders beyond counting and have never known a day of true peace.And we understand, we Canadians understand that Israelis live with this impossible calculus:If you act to defend yourselves, you will suffer widespread condemnation over and over again.But should you fail to act, you alone will suffer the consequence of your inaction and that consequence will be final.It will be your destruction.The truth that Canada understands is that many of the hostile forces Israel faces are faced by all western nations.Israel faces them for many of the same reasons we face them.You just happen to be a lot closer to them.Of course, no nation is perfect.But neither Israel’s existence nor its policies are responsible for the instability in the Middle East today.One must look beyond Israel’s borders to find the causes of the relentless oppression, poverty and violence in much of the region, of the heartbreaking suffering of Syrian refugees, of the sectarian violence and the fears of religious minorities, especially Christians, and of the current domestic turmoil in so many states.So what are we to do?Most importantly, we must deal with the world as we find it.The threats in this region are real, deeply rooted and deadly, and the forces of progress often anaemically weak.For too many nations, it is still easier to scapegoat Israel than to emulate your success.It is easier for them to foster resentment and hatred of Israel’s democracy than it is to provide the same rights and freedoms to their own people.I believe that a Palestinian state will come, and one thing that will make it come is when the regimes that bankroll terrorism realize that the path to peace is accommodation, not violence.Which brings me to the Government of Iran.Late last year, the world announced a new approach to diplomacy with the government in Tehran.Canada has long held the view that every diplomatic measure should be taken to ensure that regime never obtains a nuclear weapon.We therefore appreciate the earnest efforts of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany.Canada will evaluate the success of this approach not on the merit of its words, but on the implementation and verification of its promised actions.We truly hope that it is possible to walk the Iranian Government back from taking the irreversible step of manufacturing nuclear weapons.But, for now, Canada’s own sanctions will remain fully in place.And should our hopes not be realized, should the present agreement prove ephemeral, Canada will be a strong voice in the world for renewed sanctions.Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude with this thought.I believe the story of Israel is a great example to the world.It is a story, essentially, of a people whose response to suffering has been to move beyond resentment and build a most extraordinary society, a vibrant democracy, a freedom-loving country with an independent and rights-affirming judiciary, an innovative, world-leading start-up nation.You have taken the collective memory of death and persecution to build an optimistic, forward-looking society.One that so values life you will sometimes release a thousand criminals and terrorists to save one of your own.In the democratic family of nations, Israel represents values which our Government takes as articles of faith and principles to drive our own national life.And therefore, through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.Thank you, friends ... Thank you for having us and may peace be upon Israel.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.