Review: Canada and Palestine
| Author | David Taras |
| Published date | 01 March 1984 |
| Date | 01 March 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900117 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
230
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
CANADA
AND PALESTINE
The
politics
of
non-commitment
Zachariah
Kay
Jerusalem:
Israel
Universities
Press,
1978,
Xii,
218pp,
Cdn
$6.50
Dr Zachariah
Kay's
book,
an
account
of
Canadian
attitudes
and
policy
toward
Palestine
from
Laurier's
prime
ministership
to
the
founding
of
the
state
of
Israel,
is
interesting
and
informative.
Its
main
argu-
ment
is
that
Canadian
policy
was
determined
by
external
factors,
par-
ticularly
Britain's
position
in
the
Middle East,
and
that
societal
forces
such
as
public
opinion,
attitudes
in
Parliament,
and
the
petitioning
of
domestic
lobby
groups
had
virtually no
effect
on
policy
outcomes.
The
author
puts
to
rest
the
myth
that
guilt feelings
after
the
Holo-
caust
significantly
affected
Canadian
policy
on
the
partition
of
Pales-
tine
in
1947.
Although
key
figures
such
as
Lester
Pearson
and
Ivan
Rand
became
quite
sensitive
to
the
Jewish
predicament,
Prime
Minis-
ter
Mackenzie
King
was
unmoved
by
such
concerns
and
strongly
resisted
appeals
made
by
Canadian
Zionists.
The
book's
title
is
somewhat
misleading.
Despite
Canada's
rhetoric
of
non-commitment,
in
the
final
analysis
it
continued
to
support
Brit-
ish
aims
and
ambitions
in
the
Middle
East.
Thus,
Canada
was
a
reluc-
tant
midwife
at
Israel's
birth.
According
to
the
author,
Canada's
vote
on
partition
and
its
decision
to
recognize Israel
in
1949
were
'the
least
unsatisfactory
of
alternatives'
at
the
time
and
not
a
warm embrace
of
Zionism.
The
book's
strength
lies
in
its
analysis
of
the domestic
political
set-
ting.
The
descriptions
of
the early
years
of
the
Zionist
movement
in
Canada,
the
changing
complexion
of
public
and
newspaper
opinion,
and
the
work
of
the Canadian
Palestine
Committee
(a
group
of
prom-
inent
non-Jewish
Canadians
who were
instrumental
in
promoting
the
Zionist cause
in
Canada)
will
be
of
interest
to
historians.
Dr
Kay
also
deftly
covers
the
significant
differences
that
existed among
and
within
the
major
political
parties.
The
Co-operative Commonwealth
Federation
was
the
most
sympathetic
to
the
idea
of
Jewish
statehood,
while
Social
Credit,
tinged
with
anti-Semitism,
was
the
least.
Many
Liberal
and
Progressive
Conservative
politicians
were
torn
between
a
strong
affinity for
Britain
and
a
sympathy
for
the
Jewish
cause.
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