After completing his law studies at the Hebrew University, the future ambassador did his Israeli army service. He was due to be discharged from the army on the day after Yom Kippur in 1973, but the Yom Kippur War changed his plans. Baker served on the front lines in Sinai. “They automatically extended my army service for another six months and, after that, I decided to stay on in the army as a military lawyer.”
Baker spent two years prosecuting terrorists in Sinai and Gaza before moving on to Tel Aviv where he became an army senior legal counsel in international law.
“As a legal counsel to the army and the ministry of defense, I was involved in dealing with the International Red Cross; with humanitarian law; laws of warfare; international conferences on weapons, both conventional weapons and non-conventional weapons; laws of the sea and laws of armed conflict. I did a lot of travelling abroad, including to Canada. I used to come to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal to deal with aviation terrorism,” he recalled.
In 1979, Baker joined Israel’s diplomatic service, again as an expert in international law. “I was involved in negotiations with the Egyptians, the Lebanese, the Syrians and the Palestinians on the various documentations involved in the peace process.”
Baker was directly involved in negotiating the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, a process that led to the most hopeful period in the history of Israel’s long conflict with the Palestinians.Asked about the current peace negotiations, the ambassador spoke of Israel’s commitment to work toward the two-state solution but expressed doubts that an agreement could be fully implemented as long as Hamas remains in control of Gaza.
“As long as Hamas, in any form, has influence or is the predominant political party or element in Palestinian society, as a result of elections or whatever, then there’s no real hope of establishing peace because the basic ideology of Hamas doesn’t accept a Jewish state, doesn’t accept Israel,” he said.
The key to Israel achieving real peace with the Palestinians will be the Palestinian public deciding that Hamas’s policies are not in their interests.
“I’ve been involved in negotiations with the Palestinians since 1991. It’s now 2008 – almost 20 years. We’ve gone through periods of hope and joy and I remember the kissing and hugging with Arafat and Abu Mazin (Mahmud Abbas) when we signed the interim agreement in 1995. We genuinely believed we’d broken the back of the bitterness and were going to move forward toward peace. And look what happened.
“The whole thing broke down and we’ve now got this terrible development of fundamentalism, of Jihadism, which is taking over a lot of the Arab world and creating a huge problem for the more moderate Arab states. I don’t see a rosy future from this point of view.”
But, despite Hamas, Israel remains committed to pursuing peace with the Palestinians and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“We’re committed to finding every way possible to reach peace,” said Baker. “We can’t just give up and say, ‘Well, OK, nothing doing, so let’s not do anything.’ We have to continue to make every effort to reach peace.”
However, Baker warned, “even if we complete negotiations, it won’t be implementable until the Palestinians are able to dismantle Hamas and form a stable government.”
According to Baker, the influence of the Iranian regime is to blame for much of the current conflict in the Middle East. Not only for the situations between Israel and Hezbollah, but also for the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
“In my opinion, Iran is the source of all evil. I think the international community is completely and utterly naive in not pushing forward to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. The Iranians are laughing at the international community,” he said.
Baker blamed the Russians and the Chinese for the weakness of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Iran to prevent it from pursuing nuclear weaponry. This weakness, he said, provides the Iranians with a green light to proceed.
“We’re trying to shout to the international community. The Canadians are fully aware of it, the Americans are fully aware of it, but the Europeans, the Russians and the Chinese don’t seem to be taking it seriously. I think this is a big mistake and they’ll live to regret it. So will we.”
Baker arrived in Canada as Israel’s ambassador in 2004.
“I’ve had the title of ambassador for many years as one of the leading Israeli negotiators. But this was the first time that I’ve been given a country and told to go and be an ambassador in that country,” he said.
He’s enjoyed the experience. From following the minority government politics we’ve experienced here during his tenure at the Israeli Embassy to travelling the country meeting with the Canadian public, with various other communities, including First Nations, and, of course, with Jewish communities.
“We’ve travelled extensively throughout Canada,” he said, “and we’ve tried to visit the smaller Jewish communities in places like Regina, Sydney, Hamilton, London and Windsor. Places that ambassadors don’t always get to. We consider it very important.”
Baker said he’s enjoyed good access to the prime minister and other senior ministers he deals with in the areas of bilateral relationships between Israel and Canada.
The ambassador said that he’s often frustrated with the Canadian media.
“What’s coming from correspondents based in Israel, whether it’s The Globe and Mail or CBC or CTV, is slanted, manipulative and biased. So the average Canadian gets that type of reporting and thinks that’s the situation in Israel. It’s my job as ambassador to try and straighten out wrong impressions. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t. Some of the newspapers are fed up with getting my articles, op-eds and letters. In my opinion, that’s a job of an ambassador. It’s been a challenge,” he said.
“Another of my big challenges has been dealing with the campuses. I make a point of speaking on campuses wherever I go and sometimes it’s been a battleground with huge amounts of anti-Israel propaganda from left wing and Muslim elements. Left wing Jewish elements are particularly offensive and problematic for an Israeli ambassador,” he said. “It’s been an uphill battle with these types of people.”
Despite the challenges of the media and the campuses, Baker said the Canadian public generally regards Israel as a strong ally with many common interests and values, including economic interests. Israel and Canada have a free trade agreement as well as an industrial research and development agreement to fund and encourage research and development in various industrial projects. Baker also pointed to the Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce, which encourages Canadian and Israeli entrepreneurs and business people to partner with each other.
The Canadian Jewish community, said the ambassador, is united in its support for Israel.
“I found it very encouraging, for instance, during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when community after community got together, donated money and sent missions to Israel.”
The relationship, with the Ottawa Jewish community, Baker added, is very strong. However, the ambassador admitted to being frustrated at relatively low attendance at certain events.
“For instance, we had 150 people at an event with three residents of Sderot who came to Ottawa to tell of their experiences. In a community of 16,000 people, a turnout of 150 is very disappointing.
“It’s not just Ottawa. I think it’s the general Canadian Jewish community,” he said. There’s a huge willingness to donate, to organize events and dinners, and to honour people. But sometimes I tend to feel the enthusiasm to be involved in this type of thing is far greater than the enthusiasm for doing something practical vis-à-vis Israel.
“I don’t want this to be misinterpreted as criticism, but I think it would be far more important if more members of the Jewish community would write op-eds and would take serious issue with the anti-Israel elements on the campuses in Ottawa.”
The ambassador encouraged Jewish Ottawans to go to the universities and take part in the debates.
“Supporting Israel isn’t just organizing dinners and honouring people who have donated a lot of money,” he said. “Supporting Israel means that you have to fight the battle on the campuses. You have to help the students and give them as much support as possible.”
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