As soon as he became prime minister, Stephen Harper began tilting Canadian foreign policy toward Israel, abandoning our traditional attempt at even-handedness in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Under Harper, Canada became the first nation to follow Israel in cutting off aid to the Palestinian government led by Hamas, after Hamas was democratically chosen by Palestinians in parliamentary elections last winter.

But Harper’s strong pro-Israel bias took on a dramatic new dimension earlier this month with Israel’s devastating attacks on Lebanon, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the militant Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon. Suddenly, there were some 50,000 Canadians in harm’s way, trapped in a country that Israel was relentlessly bombing.

Now, I would have thought that the first duty of a Canadian prime minister is the safety of Canadians.

So, faced with a choice of expressing support for Israel or doing everything he possibly could to protect tens of thousands of vulnerable Canadians, Harper should have opted for protecting the Canadians. After all, he is Prime Minister of Canada.

But, astonishingly, Harper refused to do the very minimum necessary — to call for a ceasefire.

Instead, he did the opposite. He defended Israel’s bombing, calling it a “measured” response — a description he refused to withdraw even after a Canadian family vacationing in Lebanon was killed by an Israeli bomb.

This amounted to giving encouragement to a foreign army whose actions were directly endangering the lives of Canadians, and tens of thousands of others.

It’s fashionable to suggest Canada’s voice doesn’t matter in the world.

But Canada has a reputation for moderation and fairness, so Harper’s defence of Israel helped buffer Israel from international criticism and a growing chorus — led by the UN secretary-general and the Lebanese prime minister — calling for both sides to stop firing, in order to protect innocent civilians in Lebanon and Israel.

Having failed to advocate a ceasefire, Harper redirected his jet — with photographer on board — to Cyprus, ostensibly to help evacuate Canadians from Lebanon.

Not since George W. Bush appeared on a U.S. warship declaring “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq has there been a more transparent — and ridiculous — attempt by a political leader to portray himself as a heroic defender of his people.

Harper’s arrival may have actually interfered with the evacuation. As The Globe and Mail reported from Cyprus, Harper’s “rescue mission ended up adding confusion and delay to an evacuation effort that was already running into serious snags … A special diplomatic effort was needed, involving dozens of officials, to shift schedules so that at least some (Canadian evacuees) would arrive in Cyprus during the PM’s visit.”

Recently, Harper announced massive new military spending, ostensibly to make Canadians safer in the world. But if he really wants to make Canadians safer, he could start by simply calling for a ceasefire when thousands of Canadians are in the line of fire.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...