VIVIAN BERCOVICI: CANADA’S NEW AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL
Canada’s new ambassador to Tel Aviv is a lawyer and outspoken commentator on Middle East issues who has criticized Palestinian leaders for their “intransigence” and “ideological commitment” to Israel’s destruction.
Vivian Bercovici, who was appointed to the diplomatic post Wednesday by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, has been voicing her views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the opinion pages of the Toronto Star for the past year.
Ambassador Vivian Bercovici, in her own words
“For Israel, a nuclear Iran is a clear existential threat. It’s no joke.”
“The Iranian regime is a brutal theocracy … I wouldn’t buy snake oil from these guys, much less trust them, on a smile, when they assure that they enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.”
“To simply impose the apartheid paradigm on Israel is a Big Fat Lie.”
“Consensus in the Middle East is rare, but it seems that President Barack Obama has forged one inadvertently. Whether supporting or opposing American military intervention in Syria, there is little, if any, enthusiasm in any quarter for his dithering decision-making.”
“A weak president means a weak America, a very worrisome proposition for Israel.”
“In the UN, no country on the planet can be a more heinous violator of human rights than Israel.”
“That Western leaders, among them President Barack Obama and U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague, regard Israel as the peace spoiler, defies logic.”
Source: Toronto Star
In her columns, Ms. Bercovici has decried the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for “their collective ideological commitment to the total destruction of the state of Israel, which they regard as a blasphemous blight on the Arab and Muslim worlds.”
A year ago, she wrote about the “misguided fantasy” that Israel was the main obstacle to peace when there “is no willing negotiator on the Palestinian side.” She took on the boycott Israel movement next, saying that to invoke apartheid in the debate was a “Big Fat Lie.”
She also criticized the “farce” of the United Nations allowing such gross human rights abusers as Iran and Egypt to rebuke Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, was a “respected” leader who “has enhanced national security, immeasurably.”
While it is unusual for a senior diplomat to be so frank in public, Ms. Bercovici is not a career foreign service officer. Rather, she is a Toronto lawyer who was once a policy advisor to an Ontario finance minister and served on the CBC board of directors.
“I have had the opportunity to spend substantial time with Ambassador Bercovici and am most impressed with her knowledge and understanding of the region as well as the challenges confronting the Jewish state,” said Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
But Paul Dewar, the NDP foreign affairs critic, questioned whether she was the best choice for the sensitive posting. He said Canada needed experienced and insightful analysis from its diplomats in the region. “I suspect that’s not what we’re going to get with this appointment,” he said.
He said the position was previously held by trained, veteran diplomats. “And remember, this isn’t just a person who’s going to be working … with the government of Israel. They need to also be working with the Palestinian Authority and working with other countries in the region.”
‘Israelis will never relinquish settlements; Palestinians will never accept a Jewish state; and on and on it goes’
The appointment comes as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is preparing for his first state visit to Israel this month. Under the Conservatives, Canada has developed closer ties with Israel, defying the protests of pro-Palestinian activists. The selection of Ms. Bercovici suggests the government remains committed to strengthening that relationship.
“The Harper government will continue to affirm our government’s unfailing support for Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, as well as the close and long-standing relationship that exists between both countries,” a Conservative source said.
Handout/ Foreign Affairs, Government of CanadaIn her Toronto Star columns, Ms. Bercovici has taken the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to task
A mother of two, Ms. Bercovici studied at York University, Hebrew University, the London School of Economics and the University of Toronto. She has been a lawyer for 24 years, and was until recently a partner at Dickinson Wright LLP and an adjunct law professor at the U of T.
“Having lived in Israel and written extensively on the region, Ms. Bercovici has an excellent understanding of the challenges facing the country and deep insight into the opportunities provided by the strong links between our two countries,” Mr. Baird said.
With Syria in crisis, Lebanon on the brink of civil war, Egypt under military rule and Iran under pressure over its nuclear aspirations, her appointment comes at a challenging time. The U.S., meanwhile, has been trying to restart the stalled peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
In September, Ms. Bercovici wrote about walking through a Jerusalem mall that had been the target of a foiled Palestinian terror plot, “privately barraged with horrible images, images of unthinkable carnage averted.”
Her column seemed pessimistic. “Israelis are intransigent; Palestinians are intransigent; Israelis will never relinquish settlements; Palestinians will never accept a Jewish state; and on and on it goes.”
But she allowed that Israel and the West Bank were still “the most stable enclave in the perennially unstable region” and that over time both sides might come to “an imperfect coexistence.”
National Post
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