UN votes deepen Canada’s pro-Israel shift under Harper

[CHIMO]

Canada has shifted its position on Middle East votes at the United Nations, taking a firmly pro-Israel stand on almost every question ranging from settlements to Palestinian refugees.

The changes place Canada in a small club of Israel’s most staunch allies at the UN. On several resolutions Thursday, Ottawa voted as part of a tiny minority of seven countries, alongside Israel itself, the United States, and four small South Pacific island nations closely allied to Washington – Palau, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Nauru.

That fits with the pro-Israel policies adopted by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, but they change Canada’s historical stand. On Thursday, Canada voted against a resolution blasting Israel for allowing settlements in East Jerusalem and the Golan; it had voted for similar resolutions in previous years.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird described the voting shift as a kind of objection to “the sheer number of United Nations resolutions critical solely of Israel.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/un-votes-deepen-canadas-pro-israel-shift-under-harper/article2232437/