Huge LGF kudos to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for his unequivocal statements supporting Israel: Neutral stance rejected. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

PARIS - Making his strongest statement yet on the Middle East crisis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that more innocent people will die unless Israel and its terrorist enemies negotiate an end to the violence.

Once again confronting the conflict that has followed him around the globe in the past week, Mr. Harper made no apologies for stating the government’s position “somewhat differently and [more] forcefully” than Canadians are used to hearing from their leaders.

Mr. Harper repeated his defence of Israel’s right to live peacefully, condemning the violence of Hezbollah terrorists and speaking out against the suffering of innocent people in Lebanon and Gaza — responsibility for which he laid squarely at the feet of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas, the terrorist organization that forms the government of the Palestinian Authority.

“We all want to encourage not just a ceasefire, but a resolution. And a resolution will only be achieved when everyone gets to the table and everyone admits that recognition of each other,” Mr. Harper said, in a pointed reference to the refusal of Hezbollah and Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

“But I have to say this. I read in some papers somewhere that someone involved in this said, ‘Well, Hezbollah will protect, Hezbollah will take care of us,’ ” the Prime Minister said.

“Hezbollah’s objective is violence. Hezbollah believes that through violence it can create, it can bring about the destruction of Israel. Violence will not bring about the destruction of Israel … and inevitably the result of the violence will be the deaths primarily of innocent people.”