Author: Evan Dyer

Warning: This story includes an archival image of dead bodies.Canada’s relationship with Israel has travelled a long way since 2015, when prime minister Stephen Harper and aspiring rival Justin Trudeau competed to claim the title of best friend of the Jewish state.After winning his majority in 2011, Harper realigned Canada’s votes at the United Nations, joining a firmly pro-Israel bloc comprised of the U.S. and a group of Pacific island microstates that normally follow Washington’s lead. That bloc would often be joined by a wider circle of pro-Israel nations; on the most controversial matters, however, its core members voted alone with Israel against overwhelming majorities.From 2011, Canada opposed almost all motions favouring Palestinians or criticizing Israel — a near-reversal of its votes on the same annual Israel-Palestine motions 15 years earlier.Harper also developed a personal friendship with Israel’s eternally returning prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even serenading him at the piano in 2014. (Harper remains a popular figure in Israel today.)And yet Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser Stephen Bronfman claimed the Liberal was an even better friend of Israel, pointing out that he, unlike Harper, had actually visited the country (a deficiency Harper has since made up for several times).WATCH | Carney says Canada will investigate IDF firing at diplomats in West Bank:Carney calls for investigation into IDF shots fired near Canadian diplomats in West Bank2 days agoDuration 2:32Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling for a ‘full investigation’ and an ‘immediate explanation’ after the Israel Defence Forces fired shots at at a diplomatic delegation in Jenin that included four Canadians. The tour was assessing the humanitarian situation in the West Bank city. Senior officials at Global Affairs Canada say embassy staff are shaken up, but are receiving support from the department.

Canada “must always be a strong, true friend of Israel,” Trudeau said during the 2015 campaign, and for several years afterward, Israel had no reason to doubt that sentiment.The Harper government took the position that Israel was being “singled out” unfairly at the UN, and instructed Canadian diplomats to oppose even those motions that upheld Canada’s own official positions on the conflict. Trudeau continued that approach.Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference in Jerusalem in January 2014. The two developed a close friendship.