Canada and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: 'Another arrow in our quiver'
As Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) recognized, Great Powers (like the United States) have relative freedom in determining their foreign policies; smaller powers (like Canada), however, have somewhat less autonomy.[1]
Separating independent Canadian foreign policy from US pressure to conform to American interests is not always a straightforward exercise. National conceit leads us to assume our independence and good intentions, the record often suggests otherwise.
Describing pressure to join an American initiative in 2004, former Liberal minister of foreign affairs Bill Graham explained:
Foreign Affairs’ view was there is a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington. All we had was Afghanistan to wave. On every other file we were offside. Eventually we came onside on Haiti, so we got another arrow in our quiver.[2]
Aiding in the coup that overthrew Haitian democracy in 2004 and helping the murderous suppression of Haiti’s majority political movement was ‘another arrow in our quiver’.
Canadian foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine has become another such ‘arrow in our quiver’, bolstering our relationship with ‘the political masters in Washington.’
Canadian policy towards Israel has always left a great deal to be desired. However, beginning under the Liberal government of Paul Martin and continuing under the current minority Conservative governments of Stephen Harper, Canada has been removing itself from the international consensus it reluctantly joined over the course of the 1990s.
The United States has long had a policy of demanding obedience from less powerful states at the United Nations. Under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan said in a January 1976 cable that breaking up the large bloc of “mostly new nations, which for so long have been arrayed against us†was to become a “basic foreign policy goal†of the US.
