Liberals’ shameful Israel arms embargo will come back to haunt Canada

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During the debate on the NDP’s proposal to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state last week, Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the government could not change foreign policy based on an opposition motion.

At the 11th hour, the Liberals reached a deal with the NDP to water down the proposal on Palestinian statehood to avoid a divisive public schism in their own ranks. A number of Liberal MPs had spoken in favour of the NDP motion and indicated they would vote for it.

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The amended deal contained a clause that called for Canada to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”

But this was not a change of policy based on an opposition motion. As Joly confirmed during the debate, no permits to export military goods to Israel have been granted since Jan. 8.

(The National Post first reported the story on Feb. 22.)

“It is a false premise to pick sides (in the conflict),” Joly said, which perfectly encapsulates the Liberal policy of straddling the fence to the point that iron is in danger of entering their blood stream.

In the days after Hamas’s bloody attack on Oct. 7, the Trudeau government said Israel had the right to defend itself and Hamas could not be allowed to govern Gaza. Since then, Canada has voted in favour of a UN ceasefire resolution that did not refer to Hamas’s atrocities, renewed funding to UNWRA — the controversial UN relief agency — and stopped issuing new export permits for military equipment for Israel.

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The fair-weather nature of Canada’s support has been noticed in Israel. Ron Dermer, minister of strategic affairs and a member of the five-person emergency war cabinet, said that the decision is a “badge of shame” Canada will have to wear for decades.

“The lines about ‘Canada will support Israel’. Really? Now you’re not going to deliver weapons to Israel when we’re fighting against sheer evil and we haven’t finished the job?” he said on the Call Me Back podcast with American-Canadian author Dan Senor.

Dermer, who is one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants, said Israel cannot stop while one quarter of Hamas’s fighters are continuing the fight. “Minister (Benny) Gantz said in one meeting that you don’t take out 80 per cent of the fire and leave 20 per cent, hoping that it’s going to turn out for the best but knowing that it’s going to come back to rage and take over Gaza.

“(Canada’s decision) is not going to wear well historically. It might (work) for the moment with public opinion, with their finger in the wind because of the difficult pictures. I get it…. But this is a moment that Canada is going to have to deal with for 10, 20, 30, 40 years — that in Israel’s darkest hour, they abandoned it. That’s what they just did and, frankly, I think it’s shameful.”

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The Liberals have been at pains to point out that their de facto arms ban is not an embargo, and that permits already issued are still valid.

Joly’s office said it is still accepting applications for new permits to export military goods to Israel but is not approving any at the moment because officials are unable to verify whether they might violate human rights. Civil society groups have pressured countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan and Italy to suspend shipments over concerns they might violate the Genocide Convention.

The minister appears to be aware that Canada risks falling foul of anti-boycott legislation in the U.S. that could impact Canada’s defence firms. Republican Sen. Jim Risch, who was co-sponsor of the Israel anti-boycott act in 2018 and is the ranking member on the Senate foreign relations committee, said on X he is disappointed that Canada’s government has halted arms exports to Israel “in its fight against Hamas’s unspeakable evil and anti-Semitic violence.”

The ramifications of trying to play both sides could conceivably extend to Israel itself. While Canada’s military exports amounted to $28.5 million in 2022, Israel has sold Ottawa weapons systems worth more than a billion dollars over the last decade, according to the Jerusalem Post, including key components for General Dynamics Canada’s armoured personnel carriers and Iron Dome radar systems.

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Israel’s embassy in Ottawa said it had no comment when asked if Jerusalem might reciprocate and suspend military exports to Canada.

Regardless, the real damage from the Liberal party’s efforts to keep itself whole is reputational.

It was clear when Justin Trudeau said Canada supports Israel and its right to defend itself that there would be difficult days ahead. As a sovereign country, Canada has the right to voice its concerns over civilian deaths.

But principled countries stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies, particularly those that have had thousands of their citizens murdered and kidnapped. Hamas must be defeated and a de-radicalization process initiated in Gaza and the West Bank.

Canadians would demand nothing less if this country had been attacked. It is a badge of shame that the government is vacillating.

jivison@criffel.ca

Twitter.com/IvisonJ

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