From an arms sale to pushing for peace: Peres’s long relationship with Canada
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OTTAWA — Shimon Peres visited Canada countless times during a career that spanned more than six decades and included holding virtually every single position in the Israeli government. But it might be his first, in 1950, that was the most notable.
While Peres is being remembered as a champion for peace, one of his first jobs was to purchase arms for Israel, which at the time was under threat of attack by its Arab neighbours. The task was made more difficult by the fact the U.S. and other countries had imposed an arms embargo on Israel.
Canada, however, had indicated said it was willing to sell a number of surplus artillery pieces from the Second World War to Israel because they were “defensive” weapons. The only problem: Canada wanted $2 million for the guns, which the Israelis felt was too much.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine in 2008, Peres explained how he enlisted the help of a prominent Montreal businessman and Jewish leader Samuel Bronfman.
