Canada congratulates Netanyahu on election victory

Amid a slump in ties between Jerusalem and the White House, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday to congratulate him on his election victory.

Harper reaffirmed the deep bonds shared between the two nations and the Canadian government’s resolute commitment to Israel’s security as the homeland of the Jewish people, according to a statement by the Candain government.

Harper also reiterated Canada’s longstanding position in favor of a two-state solution, just as it appeared that the Israeli leader backtracked on comments made last week that he would not allow a Palestinian state on his watch.

Multiple world leaders and Jewish officials saluted Netanyahu in the days since Tuesday’s election, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President François Hollande, even though he has yet to cobble together a coalition with smaller factions and form a government.

Netanyahu’s Likud party won a landslide victory with 30 seats, compared to the Zionist Union party’s 24, even though straw polls leading up to vote indicated that the incumbent premier could lose.

Unlike Harper, Washington came out strongly against the Israeli leader in recent days, amid a series of election day comments by Netanyahu that were interpreted at defaming Israel’s Arab voters.

US President Barack Obama vowed to “reevaluate” bilateral ties between the two countries in the wake of Netanyahu’s controversial election remarks.

Harper, however, has a record of supporting Netanyahu during his three terms as prime minister.

In recent years Canada has come out as an unusually warm friend of Israel, consistently backing the Jewish state at international forums and lending very public, verbal support.

Speaking before the Knesset on his last visit to Israel in 2014, Harper declared that “through fire and water, Canada will stand with you” and denounced those who “disgracefully castigate Israel as an apartheid state.”