Arabs Objecting to the Appointment of Jew As Canadian Envoy to Israel

A major Canadian Arab organization has expressed concern at Canada’s appointment of a Jew as its new ambassador to Israel.

But not all Arabs were alarmed at the appointment of Norman Spector, the prime minister’s chief of staff, who assumes the post on Feb. 1, replacing Michael Bell.

This marks the first time that a Jewish Canadian has been appointed ambassador to Israel.

“He’s going in with a clear pro-Israeli, anti-Arab bias,” said James Kafieh, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, representative of several Arab groups. “This is a patronage appointment, and it’s damaging Canadian interests.”

Spector, a 42-year-old Montrealer who has been a prominent political adviser to government figures, will be replaced as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s chief of staff by Hugh Segal, an adviser to the prime minister and principal secretary to Bill Davis, former premier of Ontario.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, which maintains an information office in Ottawa, took a neutral stance, however, saying that Spector’s “performance, and not his religion,” would dictate the outcome of the move.

Raymond Kneider of the Canadian Arab Coalition of Montreal said that he hoped Spector’s attitude toward Palestinians would be a fair one. “He is very capable and very intelligent,” Kneider said of Spector.

Arabs were not the only ones to criticize the appointment. The Liberal Party’s external affairs critic, Lloyd Axworthy, was quoted as stressing Spector’s lack of diplomatic credentials. “Mr. Mulroney is using a sensitive political post as a place to park a political problem for himself,” he said.

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers protested that a career diplomat was not given the sensitive job, rather than someone with no foreign service experience.

‘VERY SENSITIVE’ TO ALL SIDES

But Canadian External Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall said that she found Spector to be “very fair and very well-informed and very sensitive to the issue on all sides.”

The Hebrew-speaking Spector has a doctorate in political science, as well as many years of administrative experience in the public sector. He has advised politicians on a broad spectrum of issues, including the recent Persian Gulf War.

John Toogood, deputy director of the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security, said that a Jewish ambassador in Israel could have “special influence” in the country.

“By sending a Canadian Jew to that job, he is going to be better positioned to press the Canadian viewpoint on the Israeli authorities.”

Canadian Jewish groups unanimously applauded the move. Canadian Jewish Congress President Les Scheininger congratulated both Spector and Segal on their appointments “Both individuals bring a wealth of experience to their new assignments at a momentous time in both the Middle East and Canada,” he said.

B’nai Brith Canada President Marilyn Wainberg said Spector was “an excellent choice at this critical juncture in the Middle East’s recent history.”

Ian Kagedan, BBC’s director of government relations, said he was surprised by the negative response. “The issue of a person’s religion is not important,” he said in an interview from Ottawa.

The fact that no Jewish Canadian has ever been appointed ambassador to Israel is also controversial.

Spector could not be reached for comment, but in an interview with Southam News, he said he believed that the External Affairs Department, which is the Canadian equivalent of a foreign ministry, had a policy, either written or unwritten, against appointing Jewish envoys to Israel.

“I’m happy to see this is a policy that has now gone by the boards,’ he said. “I think it’s a policy, frankly, that would now be illegal.”

Department spokesman Rodney Moore denied that such a policy existed.