Indeed, since his election in 2006, Prime Minister Harper has broken with Canada’s long-time reputation as a ‘neutral broker’ in the Middle East for a consistently pro-Israel – indeed many would say pro-Likud Party – stance. At odds with US President Obama’s somewhat cautious attitude towards Netanyahu, and indeed with Canadian public opinion, Harper’s Conservative government, says Paul Heinbecker, a former Canadian ambassador in the region, has pursued an “unprincipled” and “one-eyed foreign policy that sees Israeli virtues and turns a blind eye to Israeli transgressions and Palestinian suffering and rights.”