Canadian Leader Says His Country Will Not Act to Undermine Israel

Allan MacEachen. Canada’s Minister for External Affairs, declared here that “the continuous existence of Israel is a cornerstone of Canada’s foreign policy” and “we refuse to become part of a plot to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel.” The Canadian diplomat, addressing the annual conference of the Canada-Israel Committee, also pledged that “Canada will not push around Israel forcing her to adopt policies contrary to her interests.”

He cited Canada’s stance at the United Nations where “Our decisions are taken in the sense of our principles and on these principles we have rejected the linking of Zionism with racism in the General Assembly last fall.” He recalled that the Canadian Senate and House of Commons “are the only legislative body in the world which has unanimously condemned that resolution.”

ISRAEL AIDED THIRD WORLD

MacEachen noted that “Israel has not failed to respond to the call for help of the. Third World countries.” He said that during his visit to Israel in January “we have examined whether we can compliment one another in third countries, thus expressing our common values by such cooperation.”

Referring to the upcoming Habitat Conference in Vancouver to which the Palestine Liberation Organization has been invited. MacEachen promised that “Canada will do its best to keep the conference on the rails. If extraneous questions are going to be introduced, the Canadian government will take its responsibilities the same as we did” at the UN.

Mordechai Shalev, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, told the conference that a “relentless assault upon Israel’s future” was “being waged at the United Nations and its various agencies” with the purpose of making “Israel an outlaw.” He said this campaign was “directed not only against Israel but against the ideals of Western democracy as well.”