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Netanyahu’s victory ensures “special friendship” with Harper will continue

A definitive win for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in Tuesday’s Israeli election ensures Canada’s “special friendship” with the nation, and its leader, will continue.

Netanyahu’s win has been called stunning. Polls had put him behind rival Isaac Herzog and the Zionist Union last week and in a last-ditch effort to hold onto government, Netanyahu tacked hard to the right.

He said he was abandoning the commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state and warned voters, in a video posted on Facebook on the day of the election, that Arabs were going to the polls in droves. His late in the game anti-Arab campaign seems to have worked, striking enough fear in the hearts of Jewish voters to get them to the polls and keep him in power.

The Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cozied up to Israel and Netanyahu more than any Canadian government in the past.

It was expected that a win from Herzog could, perhaps, mend relations a bit between Israel and nations like the U.S. and some in Europe that have been critical of the Middle Eastern country.

Relations between the U.S. and Israel are tense, and may become even more so with Netanyahu’s lengthened term in office. Part of his re-election pitch was opposition to the United State’s negotiations with Iran, and a sovereign Palestine has been an important part of America’s foreign policy for years — something Netanyahu has now disregarded.

The Harper government, though, has defended Netanyahu and his policies, even in the face of criticism from the likes of U.S. President Barack Obama.

A 2013 press release following a meeting between then-foreign affairs minister John Baird and Netanyahu called the meeting “warm,” reaffirming “the close and special friendship that underpins the bilateral relationship between” Canada and Israel.

Just last year Harper made a visit to Israel — on his first trip to the Middle East — and gave a speech to the Israeli Parliament. He was the first Canadian prime minister to do so, and spoke of the strong Canada-Israel connections, vowing Canada’s loyalty to its ally.

Harper also spoke in favour of a two-state solution; the Canadian government has stated that it supports settling the long, complicated Israeli-Palestine conflict.

"Sadly, we have yet to reach that point,” he said. “But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be right behind you."

Netanyahu’s suggestion that looking for a solution is off the table counters Canada’s stance, but given the close relationship between the two governments, and between the two leaders, that’s unlikely to change things.

Harper congratulated Netanyahu’s victory on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, noting that “Israel has no greater friend” than Canada.

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