Raphael Ahren is the diplomatic correspondent for the Times of Israel.
“I don’t comment on any other element of this; calling this complex is perhaps the world’s largest euphemism,” he said. “But Canada’s position has been to help a two-state solution to move towards lasting peace. This, to me, is not inconsistent with the fact that Canada seeks to be a fair intermediary and a friend.
Then he alluded to his doubts about Netanyahu’s planned annexation: “I place it in the world of diplomacy, they are the closest to you, they are your dearest friends, who can tell you when you’re wrong, or that maybe you deserve to wait a day before making a decision … In reality, we never inspire unilateral action that can provoke very negative reactions.
Pressed on his position on Israel’s objective of unilaterally implementing sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and all West Bank agreements, he replied: “A negotiated agreement that an imposed annexation is the preferred route. This is consistent with the classic Canadian position. We don’t need to interfere with this [annexation] resolution if it’s approved by the Israeli government – if it’s taken, and that’s the key word here, I think there’s a genuine option that will make long-term negotiations more difficult.”
The Canadian Conservative Party will elect a new leader in late August and, according to recent polls, MacKay has the chance to succeed outgoing President Andrew Scheer. But he’s not complacent, going from one crusade to another.
“I run like I’m late. It is vital for your well-being to make that extra phone call, shake that extra hand and deliver,” he said.
Canada has just had a national election in October, but Trudeau has failed to make a majority and lately leads a minority government that can fall at any time, especially in the midst of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
MacKay said it was unlikely that there would be early elections in the fall, that he was not actively campaigning for it. Trudeau, who faces a complaint about not recusing the government’s decisions that have financially benefited his close circle of member relatives, can simply hold a new vote himself, has assumed his future successor.
“As the economic landscape worsens and others reflect on their difficulties, they may conclude, as they do, that a socialist party is not the most productive party in force during an economic crisis. And they [the Liberal Party of Trudeau] may need to move forward with this achievement,” MacKay said.
Canada is historically one of Israel’s closest allies, but under Trudeau, “they have followed the classic liberal position, which is in the middle,” MacKay said. “They have not supported Israel at the United Nations on many occasions.”
Statement on the Canadian Embassy in Israel Canada’s Jewish network that the Conservative Party is shoulder-to-shoulder Array..
Peter MacKay, 4 February 2020
MacKay now supports the transfer of the Canadian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but on February 3, he reportedly said he had to investigate the matter first.
“It’s a confusing issue and I’m not in a position to do so, so I can’t be presumptuous in making those kinds of commitments until I listen to people,” he told The Post Millennial, an online newspaper based in Montreal. Site.
Speaking to the Times of Israel, he said claims that he had replaced his brain to align it with his rivals in conservative leadership came from the other applicants in an effort for “partisan positioning.”
“I am a longtime supporter of Israel. My position with regard to the embassy in Jerusalem is the position of the party, and there have been attempts to prove that I am misunderstanding; that’s just not true,” he said. .
Would you move the embassy to Jerusalem after appointing the prime minister, without further review? “Absolutely, ” he answered. “This is where the Canadian Embassy will be.”
MacKay, who was a prosecutor before entering politics, has long been an unwavering friend of Israel, although he has been critical. In 2007, for example, the then foreign minister publicly expressed fears about the progression of the Israeli security fence in the West Bank.
In 2011, as Defense Minister, MacKay told the IDF Chief of Staff (and now Foreign Minister) Gabi Ashkenazi that “an opposite risk to Israel is a risk to Canada.” This caused some consternation in Canada, as some saw it as a commitment to fight alongside Israel in an imaginable military conflict.
When asked how it would give concrete meaning to these theoretical statements, MacKay cited superior defense cooperation, “demonstrative signs” that Canada will protect Israel and its right to exist, and for the Canadian Jewish network and the fight against anti-Semitism. “These measures might seem modest, but taken in their entirety, shows that Canada is in fact a friend of Israel,” he said.
MacKay is married to Tehran-born Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who left Iran with her circle of relatives after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has since brabably criticized the regime. As foreign minister, he requested the arrest of the Iranian attorney general for his complicity in the murder of a Canadian photojournalist. A few years later, he harshly criticized the 2015 nuclear deal and supported the White House’s resolve to finalize it.
“We have opposed the regime and recent and ongoing acts of aggression very strongly,” he said. “Iran will have to meet foreign criteria and this will require enormous tension sustained by Western democratic countries.”
When asked if he would make a pre-emptive strike by the Israeli army opposed to Iran’s nuclear program, the prime minister replied: “Israel has the right to protect itself. These kinds of questions are hypothetical. But I also know that Israel’s intelligence-gathering capacity is quite evident, it’s probably one of the best, if not the best, in the world, so I put a lot of religion into those decisions.