We Know Where Harper Stands. Where Does Dion Stand

EDITORIAL: Harper a true friend of Israel

One thing we admire about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Mideast policy is that he has chosen sides.

He has spoken plainly.

He has provided "clarity."

Harper's position is that Canada is Israel's friend.

Not it's friend only when it is expedient to be one.

But rather, a true friend.

As Harper put it in a speech to the Canadian Council for Israel this week, "a battle between a democratic state and the terrorist groups who seek to destroy both it and its people, is not a matter of shades of gray. It is a matter of right and wrong ... When faced with such threats, Israel will always have a steadfast friend" in Canada.

Bravo. We have urged Canadian governments to take this position for years. Because it is the right position.

Harper has not changed his view from the moment he took power a year ago, despite constant whining from the opposition parties and many in the media that his position lacks "nuance" and betrays Canada's traditional role as an "honest broker" in the Mideast.

Actually, that was the Liberals' position when they were in government and there was nothing "honest" about it. It was a position of unceasing moral equivalency, in which Israel was deemed a "friend" only when it was easy to be one. Harper, has been a friend of Israel even when it was not easy.

To be sure, Harper went too far last summer when he accused the Liberals of being anti-Israel during its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In fact, Liberal policy toward Israel -- as indicated by Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who spoke to the same group on the same night as Harper -- is not actively "against" Israel. The problem is it is not actively for it, either. Dion gave the traditional Liberal line that Canada supports Israel's right to exist in a secure and peaceful Mideast.

Two points. First, the Mideast is not peaceful. Nor has Israel's place in it ever been secure.

For anyone, including Dion, to say they recognize Israel's right to exist, is really to say they recognize the facts on the ground in the Mideast today. Yes, Israel exists.

The question is, given that Israel exists, do you support its right to defend itself?

Dion is merely the latest Liberal leader to fudge the answer.