Fmr Canadian Prime Minister: We shouldn’t have to ask if politicians support Israel… We should expect it

Protesters stood outside the building with Palestinian flags, signs, and banners decrying the “oppression” and “genocide” they claimed were being perpetuated by the event inside. Attendees at the “Breakfast for Israel,” including myself, were met with a police presence, who kept close tabs on the zealous few outside who brimmed with hatred for the Jewish State.

Far from aiding in “genocide,” the event sought to raise funds for Kibbutz Kissufim in Israel—an agricultural community lying in ruins following the Hamas attack on October 7th, which massacred whole families and kidnapped residents from the Kibbutz. Clearly, all it took was for the protesters to hear the words “Jewish,” “Israel,” and “donation” for them to sprint to grab their keffiyehs and red paint.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the featured speaker at the JNF event held in London, Ontario, addressed the protesters and others who would like nothing more than the end of the Jewish State. “The people who attack Israel, the organizations, the Hamas leaders, the enemies of Israel, are enemies of Canada,” he underscored.

Since October 7th, university campuses and city streets across the globe have been rocked by protests, which regularly feature vicious antisemitic language and the burning of national flags. Harper didn’t mince words, underscoring that a lack of “moral leadership” among Western governments was to blame for the anti-Israel rhetoric flourishing in our countries.

“This kind of culture of smoke and outrage as opposed to facts, arguments, and trying to see points of view… goes really beyond social media,” Harper described, noting that many Western institutions, including in academia and our media, “have for a couple of generations now preach this kind of anti-Israel ideology.”

Leaders Playing Both Sides

While governments today should be actively working to root out anti-Israel hatred, their foreign policy has placed them on crumbling ground as they “play both sides” of the war in Israel.

“I think it is outrageous what too many Western governments are doing,” Harper told the audience. “I think it is incumbent upon all of us to demand our leaders, in every level of government, display the correct moral leadership on an issue like [Israel]… If they don’t show that leadership, we need to support other people who will do so.”

“I have often been asked why I stood strongly for Israel [as Prime Minister]. While I was growing up, as a child in the ’60s and a teenager in the ’70s, you wouldn’t have asked a politician from a country like Canada why he supported Israel; you would have expected it,” Harper stressed.

While he was Prime Minister, Harper highlighted the criticism he faced for putting an “undo emphasis” on the nation of Israel. “If you don’t know why I was doing it, then hopefully you have figured [it] out now,” he said, adding that our ally Israel faces an “existential threat” to its existence.

The former Prime Minister discussed the role Iran played in the October 7th attack and decried the decision by many nations to continue appeasing the regime.

“The regime in Iran [is] dedicated to not just religious war against Israel but, frankly, global religious jihad and is the power behind Hamas,” he explained. “We require a Western leadership that understands this is a challenge, and that is willing to stand up, push back, and rally the free and democratic world against what Iran stands for. That was not being done.”

“What we require is Western leadership; unfortunately, it barely exists today,” Harper stated. “While the Biden Administration was supporting reconciliation with Saudi Arabia and Israel, they were also trying to reconcile with Iran and have a new nuclear deal.”

“That kind of schizophrenia is what led us into this situation,” he asserted.

A Two-State Solution… With Who?

Since the beginning of the war, world leaders have placed constant pressure on the State of Israel to make peace with the terrorist organization ruling Gaza. A mere 17 days after the brutal Massacre of 1,200 Israelis, US Sec. of State Antony Blinken was insisting that a two-state solution, a plan which would divide the Jewish State between Israel and Palestinians, was “the only road to peace and security in the region.”

Calls for a two-state solution have not wavered despite polls finding that a large majority of Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) support Hamas’ October 7th massacre.

Stephen Harper, who visited the Kibbutz in Israel following the attack, shared the powerful accounts he heard, which highlight the current absurdity surrounding calls for a two-state solution.

“Many people that I met in the Kibbutz, business owners and others, were people who, on a personal level, had tried to build bonds between themselves and Gazans,” he recounted. “They had hired Gazans; they had done business partnerships with Gazans. They had developed what they thought were friendships and relationships with people across that dividing line. I heard these stories up close and personal.”

“What did they discover on October 7th?” Harper continued. “That the people they thought they were developing friendships and relationships with within Gaza were, in fact, spending their entire time simply scouting out their homes and their communities for Hamas and were, on October 7th, directing Hamas on where to find them and how to kill them.”

“That is the context on which people say ‘two-state solution’… that is the context in which Israelis now hear that,” he insisted. “A State with who?”

“When people say ‘two-state,’ my question is: what is the other state? The reality is there is not a single prominent Palestinian who will stand up, advocate, and lead a state that will recognize the existence of Israel and their Jewish State. They don’t exist, and that is the real barrier,” Harper warned. “Not only does Israel have to eradicate Hamas, but the global community has to put its shoulder to the wheel to de-Nazify that population.”

“Hopefully, soon,” he continued, “we will have Western leadership that understands we need to be very clear in our principles, very clear in who our enemies and allies are, and move the world in the right direction.”

Faith-Based Diplomacy

In 2022, Stephen Harper was named one of Israel’s “Top Christian Allies” by the Israeli Allies Foundation (IAF). “Today, it is Christians, not countries, that are standing with Israel,” IAF President Josh Reinstein stated, applauding Harper’s “faith-based diplomacy” and Biblical worldview, which drove his unwavering support for the Jewish State.

Tiauna Lodewyk, an intern for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Canada who attended the “Breakfast for Israel,” agreed with the former Prime Minister that “moral leadership” pertaining to Israel is essential, especially in light of God’s Word.

“In Genesis 12:1-3, God made a promise that those who bless His people, Israel, would be blessed and those who curse His people would be cursed. Throughout the Bible, we see examples of nations that chose to stand against God’s people and the consequences that followed,” she told Harbinger’s Daily. “There is a judgment of nations for their treatment of Israel, the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10).”

“Not only is Israel an allied nation with strong democratic ties to the West, but they are also the first line of defense against terrorism,” Lodewyk described. “I believe that it is a moral obligation for Western Governments to recognize this reality and choose to take a stand.”