XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Çons@32%   
      
   Mar 1, 2012   
      
   Why Israel’s Prime Minister is coming to Canada before meeting Obama   
      
      
      
   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Ottawa Friday, expected   
   to seek Canada’s   
   support for any future actions against Iran before he moves on to a   
   less-friendly reception in   
   Washington.   
      
   Canadian officials have been touting the country as Israel’s “best friend,” at   
   a time when U.S.   
   President Barack Obama has distanced his administration from Mr. Netanyahu.   
      
   The Israeli Prime Minister leaves Sunday for Washington, with observers   
   anticipating he hopes   
   to use freshly committed Canadian support as leverage when he meets with Mr.   
   Obama on Monday.   
      
   “Clearly Netanyahu would like to put pressure on the Obama administration to   
   support a more   
   muscular, meaning possibly military, response to Iran’s nuclear program. He   
   knows full well   
   that there’s zero enthusiasm for that in the United States,” said Rex Brynen,   
   a McGill   
   University political science professor and Middle East analyst.   
   “He’s trying to create more pressure on the President and to do that I think   
   it makes some   
   sense to talk to Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper whom he knows is kind of his   
   ideological   
   soulmate on this issue and is likely to support him, just in the sense of   
   creating momentum.   
   Whether it has any impact on Washington I think is negligible.”   
      
   Indeed Mr. Harper has shown a very pro-Netanyahu position in the past few   
   weeks in regards to   
   Iran, said Houchang Hassan-Yari, a Middle East specialist at Queen’s   
   University and Royal   
   Military College. “So for Mr. Netanyahu this is a good opportunity to come to   
   his friend and to   
   maybe get support for his position in regards to Iran, politically or morally,”   
   Mr. Netanyahu told his Cabinet this week there is “no doubt” that the issue of   
   how Israel can   
   protect itself from the “continued strengthening of Iran and its nuclear   
   program” will be at   
   the centre of talks on his North American trip.   
      
   Mr. Harper’s majority Conservatives are perhaps the most likely government to   
   back Israel on a   
   file much of the international community has so far shied away from, he said.   
      
   Mr. Harper’s warning last month about Iran’s “dangerous” development of a   
   nuclear arms program   
   may also prompt the Israeli Prime Minister to request Canada’s support for   
   “initiating war”   
   against Iran — something the Obama administration is less likely to offer up,   
   Mr. Hassan-Yari   
   said.   
   Recent western trade sanctions on Iran are already hurting the country’s   
   economy, Mr.   
   Hassan-Yari said, and Mr. Harper could be in a position to ask his Israeli   
   counterpart to hold   
   out and see if the sanctions will really make an impact before considering   
   military options.   
      
   Hoping to placate Israel, Mr. Obama has pointedly refused to rule out military   
   action, saying   
   “all options remain on the table” and insisting the U.S. would never accept a   
   nuclear-armed   
   Iran.   
      
   But Mr. Netanyahu wants the U.S. President to set the threshold for military   
   action lower,   
   according to officials in the Israeli government, bringing it into line with   
   Israel’s “red   
   lines.” Mr. Netanyahu has also said he does not believe the sanctions have   
   done enough.   
      
   “In Canada, I think Israel sees one of the countries that truly appreciates   
   what the stakes are   
   and why it’s so necessary for us to leave no stone unturned in the effort to   
   make sanctions   
   work,” said Shimon Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs   
   in Ottawa.   
      
   He expects Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama will have a discussion about the Israeli   
   leader’s visit   
   before Mr. Netanyahu makes it to Washington, so that the President can be in   
   the loop on what   
   was discussed during the visit to Canada.   
      
      
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