Moscow Winter Aerial Bombardment of Ukraine

"These widespread attacks n Ukraine's cities show [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy."

"We must continue to stand with Ukraine -- for as long as it takes."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

 

"Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland's airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace."

"We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies [in NATO]."

Polish defence chief, General Wieslaw Kukula

 

"Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions."

"I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquarters, and Parliaments, which are currently debating further support for Ukraine."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kubela

A teacher inspects her classroom, which was damaged after a missile attack in Lviv, Ukraine, on Friday. Russia launched missiles as well as drones against Ukrainian targets during the night. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images)

Across Ukraine 122 missiles and dozens of drones flew from Russia against Ukrainian targets, considered by air force officials to represent the largest aerial barrage of the two-year-old conflict.

An unknown number of people were buried under rubble during the 18-hour onslaught which hit a maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools among other buildings across the country where damage was reported and 27 civilians killed.

 

Most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and Shahed-type drones that hit overnight were intercepted by the Ukrainian air force, according to Valeriii Zaluzhny, Ukraine's military chief. Warning had recently been given by Western officials and analysts that Russia had up to the present limited its cruise missile strikes for months, apparently to build stockpiles for such massive winter strikes, with the intention of breaking the spirit of Ukrainians. 

That strategy resulted in "the most massive aerial attack" since Moscow's February 2022 full-scale invasion was launched, according to Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk. The current onslaught was greater than the previous biggest assault that took place in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles, and March earlier in 2023 when Russia launched 81 missiles, according to air force records.

Local residents stand inside a damaged building after a missile attack in Odesa, Ukraine, on Friday. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Winter weather has bogged down fighting along the front line in the wake of Ukraine's summer counteroffensive which failed to produce a hoped-for significant breakthrough along the 1,000-kilometre line of contact. Which has led to Ukrainian officials urging Western allies to provide greater numbers of air defences for the war to turn in Ukraine's favour. Appeals that have as yet garnered little response, while war fatigue strain has led to inaction in support of Ukraine.

Russia on Friday bombarded Ukraine with one of its biggest missile attacks of the war, killing at least 27 civilians and wounding dozens more, officials said. A fire broke out at a maternity hospital in Dnipro, and there was heavy damage in Kyiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv.  CBC News

Hamas's Delusions of Repeating October 7

"[The war will] continue for many more months [to ensure that] our achievements are preserved for a long time."

"There are no shortcuts when it comes to thoroughly dismantling a terrorist organization except being stubborn and determined in the fighting." 

Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) 

"It was a night of hell."

"We haven't seen such bombing since the start of the war."

"[Warplanes flew overhead, gunfire and explosions echoed from the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp]."

Rami Abu Mosab, Bureij camp

Israel adamant there will be no peace until Hamas is destroyed   Reuters

It is not possible that Hamas failed to calculate what the response would be by Israel when its operatives flooded into southern Israel, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians who flocked after the two terrorist groups, to wreak deadly havoc on unsuspecting civilians in towns and villages, farming communities and kibbutzim bordering Gaza, by breaching the separating wall. The extent and breadth of the uninhibited human carnage so profound that even now, months after the October 7 bloodbath, forensic pathologists are still identifying human remains.

 

The terrorist horde were given implicit instructions to impose horrors on the defenceless civilians, to rape and to kill, and to record their triumphs for posterity. And record them they did, the horrendously sadistic savagery imposed on children, the videos of mass rapes of girls and women, the slaughter of entire families; there was no mercy from the butchery. The videos produced by the Hamas terrorists while they were in the throes of committing inhumane acts of deranged violence reflected the pride they took in anguishing their victims with dread and pain. 

The Hamas commanders who ordered this massive loss of life in the space of a day where 1,200 mostly civilians were mutilated and murdered, women and girls violently raped before their deaths, infants killed in their cribs, and over 240 men, women and children, among them a handful of Israeli soldiers taken hostage to experience months of fear and deprivation until half were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, would have known what was in store; a military campaign to respond to the unthinkable. 

They knew also that while the Israeli military focused on carrying out their mission to counter the terrorist groups there would be civilian casualties since Hamas plans for them, too, by installing their weapons depots and command centres in public spaces like hospitals, mosques and schools where the populace is dense and most vulnerable, given the vast underground tunnel system from which Hamas operates and finds shelter for themselves only, from the incoming fire responding to their assaults on Israel.

Israel Defense Forces spokespeople are quite clear; the terror infrastructure was being targeted. And the al-Bureij camp was described as an "established Hamas terror nest". Israeli forces, during the operation, located a tunnel shaft leading to a wide underground route with a Hamas training complex and weapons caches. The IDF announced that 200 Hamas targets were attacked in 24 hours on the 82nd day of the conflict across the Gaza Strip. The Hamas elite leaders are fond of assuring the world that Palestinians are prepared to die for the cause of destroying Israel. 

And so, they are dying in Israel's cause of destroying Hamas. For Hamas repeatedly states that nothing will stop them from imposing as many October 7 events as they deem are required to annihilate Israel. Israel intends to beat them at their own game. Even while Palestinians are suffering in Gaza, from lack of water, food, medicine, Hamas has ample supplies; the humanitarian goods that come through to Gaza to relieve the plight of the citizenry, is hijacked by Hamas for its own needs.

 

About 85% of Gaza's population has been displaced: UN  EPA

 

Even while Israel speaks of the bombing campaign and ground offensive to dismantle Hamas and prevent repeats of the October 7 attack, Hamas continues to send rockets into Israel, from border communities to central Israel. There is no lack of rockets, nor the fuel to send them off. Israel has made it abundantly clear to the outside world its attention fixed on the plight of the Palestinians, that it is Hamas that has imposed this plight, and because Hamas's intention is to destroy Israel and it vows never to surrender, this is a conflict with a long life ahead of it, until Hamas is destroyed.

Just as Israel is adamant that it cannot and will not rest until Hamas is gone as a threat to Israelis, Hamas says no more hostages will be released until Israel ends the war, and the remaining captives will be traded by Hamas for large numbers of Palestinian prisoners including high-profile terrorists imprisoned for mounting deadly attacks in Israel. Hamas feels entitled to dictate any terms related to a conflict that it initiated through terror and indiscriminate slaughter. Terrorists have no sense of conscience at the results of their murderous savagery.

Egypt has presented a proposal to end the war that would include release of all hostages held in Gaza and all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The fault line there is that Palestinians imprisoned in the past for terrorism and the murder of Jews, have a tendency to return to the very same tactics that brought them imprisonment to begin with, and since the entire point of Israel's intention to destroy Israel is to protect its citizens from any future October 7s, releasing more Hamas operatives opposes the purpose of defanging that serpent.

 

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip set up tents in Deir al Balah, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Some Good News For Ukraine

"[The military had a plan on the number of mobilized conscripts for 2024]."
"As for this number, we have generated it for the next year, it of course takes into account the coverage of the current kit, the formation of new military units, and also the projection of our losses that we may suffer in 2024."

"I can't divulge the numbers for each of these indicators. This is a military secret."

"I cannot predict whether it will be six months, five months, three months. The situation can be completely different."

"If people propose a six-month rotation, they should understand that the amount of ammunition needs to be at least doubled."

"As far as military enlistment offices are concerned, frankly speaking, I'm not satisfied with their work yet."

"In the 21st century, the development of science, weapons, and military equipment will undoubtedly lead to changes in tactics."

"[The war in 2024] must differ [from 2023 because otherwise] we can expect what I wrote about in the article [for The Economist] to happen."

"For about 90% of [the problems of the war] we have found solutions that will help us act more efficiently, and more importantly, save the lives of our people."

"Our enemy is not far behind us, you can see what is going on in the last days especially, that there is a pretty intense competition in terms of the use of technology, but we are not letting up in this effort."

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief  Valerii Zaluzhnyi

Ukraine's Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny in Kyiv on Dec. 26, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

There are mixed messages in the fortunes of both sides in this conflict. The hope for a better outcome with Ukraine's summer counteroffensive remain elusive; the front line has hardly moved. A draft law was submitted by the Ukrainian cabinet to parliament, laying out a new mobilization plan for the army. The latest effort to resolve disagreements between the political and the military leadership over the sensitive subject of conscription.

The draft age lowering is envisaged by the bill during the conflict for men without military experience, to age 25 from the current 27, according to the parliamentary website. Limiting as well grounds for delaying enlistment, proposing the introduction of "basic military training" for citizens under age 25 The army's depleted ranks require replenishing, a matter of importance high on the country's agenda while its forces confront Russian troops during the second winter of the conflict.

Compounding the issue is the reality of a shortage of ammunition on the near horizon; over $110 billion in financial aid has been held  up  for delivery as a result of political infighting between the Republicans and Democrats in Washington and Brussels. The disappointingly small gains realized in Ukraine's counteroffensive weigh heavily, with Russian troops attempting a forward momentum in the eastern regions of Ukraine from occupied and annexed Donetsk and Kharkiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while considering the conscription plan has not yet signed it, though it's been sitting on his desk since June. Ukraine's military leaders foresee the need to mobilize up to 500,000 people, according to President Zelenskyy, awaiting a comprehensive package including a blueprint for troop rotations and leaves. An urgency that cannot remain unaddressed as Ukraine counters an adversary with forces that far outnumber Ukraine's; while Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree expanding Russia's armed services.

But there is also good news. While commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi revealed that his troops had retreated from Marinka, leaving it in the hands of Russia, the city Russia has taken control of is in ruins, despite its strategic location. Also news is that the Ukrainian air force shot down 13 of 19 drones that Russia launched at the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. The several not shot down caused infrastructure damage, but no casualties. 

 

Aftermath of the attack on a Russian ship in Russian-occupied Feodosia in eastern Crimea in the early hours of Dec. 26, 2023. (Photo: Ukrainska Pravda / Crimean Telegram channels)

And there was good news in that Ukraine's military destroyed a large Russian landing ship docked in a Russian-occupied Crimean port in an overnight attack, another major blow on Russia's already limping Black Sea Fleet. Landing ship Novocherkassk was hit at the city of Feodosia's base by guided missiles launched by planes. According to the Ukrainian Air Force the port of Feodosia was attacked around 2:30 am.

The contested peninsula of eastern Crimea was the port's location, in Moscow's illegal possession since 2014. Fire, followed by a massive explosion could be seen from kilometres' distance, verified by Storyful, a social media intelligence firm; shot at the right time and place to coincide with the attack. "The Russian fleet has become smaller", Ukrainian air force Cmdr. Mykola Oleschuk said mockingly, urging Russians to leave Crimea "while it's not too late". 

Designed to land troops and vehicles during amphibious assaults, the 370-foot long ship was capable of carrying ten tanks and 340 personnel, while the regular crew numbered 87. Ukrainian authorities believed the ship was carrying an ammunitions shipment and possibly that included drones. "Photos have already emerged where there is only a skeleton left out of the ship, everything else was burned down", noted air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said President Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the attack.   (Reuters: Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool)

Setting the Right Mood for the Year Ahead: Zelenskyy

"The stronger our air defence, the fewer Russian devils will be in our skies and on our land."

"[In praise of Ukraine's] capabilities in negotiations with partners, capabilities in bolstering our sky shield, capabilities in defending our homeland from Russian terrorists."

"This Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead." 

"Every Russian pilot must make a clear choice whether to continue participating in this war."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelanskyy

File image of a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns.

Nicola Marfisi/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

President Zelenskyy's message belies concern emanating from Western sources murmuring of battlefield disappointment and the future of Western support in material aid for the Ukraine war effort. His message was upbeat, and coincided with Ukraine's first official observation of Christmas on December 25 instead of its traditional observation of the holiday on January 7. His announcement was a gift to his audience as he addressed the nation, informing them that another three Russian fighter planes had been shot down and destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

Russia too had a statement of their own, of a battlefield advance, when Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Moscow forces have control of Marinka, now deserted, but considered important for its strategic value located some 20 kilometres west of Donetsk, the largest city in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. "This allows us today to more effectively protect Donetsk from attacks", said Shoigu, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

 

Attacks, needless to say, from a country reclaiming its own territory. Ukraine announced that its air defence forces had intercepted 28 Russian drones, along with having shot down the three Russian warplanes. The total number of drones over Ukraine came to 31, but it remains unknown what occurred with the three that hadn't been intercepted and where they may have struck. The Kherson region, under Ukrainian control continues to experience frequent attacks.

Legislation was signed in July to move the traditional Orthodox Christmas holiday date. There are two Orthodox Christian churches in Ukraine; one with long affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separate from the authority of the Russian church had been granted full recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Orthodox Christianity's top authority, in 2019.

 

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church operated as a branch of the Russian church, but soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it announced its intention to break its ties with Moscow. Even so, its parishes still follow the same calendar as the Russian church, observing Christmas on January 7. And for that special occasion gifts keep piling up, as Ukraine demonstrates its military proficiency not only in the air, and on land but also at sea.

"[Latest developments indicate that Russia’s dominance in the Black Sea] is now challenged."

"This latest destruction of Putin’s navy demonstrates that those who believe there’s a stalemate in the Ukraine war are wrong."

"They haven’t noticed that over the past four months, 20% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been destroyed."

British defence secretary, Grant Shapps

A file photo of the Novocherkassk. Photograph: Yoruk Isik/Reuters

The winter counteroffensive is starting out very nicely indeed for Ukraine. Perseverance, endurance and courage, all requisite endowments in the Ukrainian spirit of self-defence in its determination to shove Moscow's troops back into Russia, recover its east, and demonstrate unequivocally to Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is indivisible and sovereign. The Russian landing ship Novocherkassk stationed in the Crimean port city of Feoddosia was struck by the Ukrainian air force.

"The fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the air force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!" the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Mykola Oleshchuk announced on Tuesday.

Russia-appointed head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, issued a statement that there had been "an enemy attack in [the] Feodosia area, [that] detonation has stopped and the fire has been localized", without adding such inconvenient details such as that the ship was totally destroyed.

 

Large explosion in Crimea as Ukrainian airstrike hits Russian warship – video

An Unsung Hero of Ukraine

"There are fewer [bionic] arms available than lost ones."

"I now know a lot not only from textbooks but also from my own experience."

"I feel uncomfortable when I'm without the prosthesis."

"But when I have the bionic arm on, I feel comfortable. It's like a part of you."

Alexis Cholas, volunteer combat medic, hospital rehabilitation specialist, Ukraine

Engineer Oleksandr collects bionic prostheses for Ukrainian soldiers at the Esper Bionics office in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.  Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

Since the conflict that Russia inflicted on Ukraine in February 2022, an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have suffered amputations; soldiers for the most part, whom blast wounds caused the loss of arms or legs. Ukrainians can access artificial limbs through the country's public health-care system. Artificial limbs are available to anyone who needs them, free of charge. Conventional artificial limbs cost between $800 and $2,800. But a bionic artificial limb, a far more sophisticated device enabling the wearer to perform tasks of a delicate nature, have a far higher cost, up to $50,000.

So, while the state steps in to provide a basic replacement of an amputated limb, anyone with thoughts of being able to replace natural fine motor skills to allow for an amputee to continue working in a profession requiring delicacy of movement in fine-tuned mode, would yearn for a bionic arm. That type of costly prosthetic enables natural and fluid movements, unlike the functionality of the basic artificial limb. 

26-year-old Alexis Cholas lost his right arm while operating as a volunteer combat medic close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine. With that, his profession as a surgeon was no longer possible. Despite which, as one of a small number of amputees, he was fitted with a bionic prosthesis, far more advanced than the basic, providing greater mobility. Thanks to his bionic hand, his movements are natural and fluid, enabling him to remove a bandage with ease, and dress a patient's wounds on his own, without nursing assistance.

Bionic artificial limbs are sophisticated replacements picking up electrical signals from the muscles above the amputation site in bioelectric technology that functions in carrying out an intended motion. Before 2022, the manufacturer of the bionic arm installed for Dr. Cholas by Esper Bionics targeted the U.S. market until a sharp rise in demand in Ukraine for prosthetic limbs leading to Esper distributing 70 percent of its products now in Ukraine.

 

Dr. Alexis Cholas, left, examines the amputated limbs of Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Symyshyn at the hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

Produced in Kyiv, the company is working at full tilt, over 30 workers producing roughly a dozen bionic hands monthly. A small group of engineers program, assemble and test the bionic arms known as Esper Hand. Despite ramping up production, the company struggles to meet demand. Close to 120 people are on the wait list for the prosthetic which, in Ukraine, the company absorbs no profit for, selling the arm for about $7,000, enough to just cover production, whereas the hand sells in the U.S. for over $20,000.

Another feature of the Esper Hand is artificial intelligence, powering an ability to adapt over time, as it learns the wearer's unique interactions with the hand. Dr. Cholas returned to volunteering as a combat medic on the front lines once he was outfitted with his bionic arm. He maintains his day job in Kyiv as a rehabilitation specialist in a public hospital, where his patients are members of the military or civilians who have lost limbs. His own amputation experience aids him in developing rapport with his patients.

Dr. Alexis Cholas, left, examines an amputated limb of a Ukrainian soldier at the hospital's rehabilitation center in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023.  Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

"No Holiday Atmosphere"

 

"Three quarters of the village  has fled. The people who stayed are in a state of sadness and no one has put up decorations or even a tree in their house."

"As soon as there is a ceasefire, we will re-open the school."

"We've been living war in every sense of the word."

Sister Maya Beaino, head, Saint Joseph des Saints-Coeurs School, Ain Ebel, Lebanon

 

"The people who have children took them out of here, first of all because of their safety and secondly so they don't miss out on school."

"The ones who remained are older, like me."

Wassin Al-Khalil, municipal council member, Rashaya al-Fukhar, Lebanon

 

"[My family is] separated and scattered in different places."

"It's possible if the situation is stable that we'll get together for the holidays."

"I hope there will be peace and quiet, especially on this day of celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, who gave peace and goodwill to the Earth."

Marwan Abdullah, village resident

A priest leads mass at a church on the Lebanese southern border with Israel

It's Christmas in Beirut, Lebanon, and its Christian population is celebrating as usual. Restaurants are full of celebrants, hundreds of Lebanese have gone to Christmas markets leading up to Christmas. The mood is completely different in border towns where houses are empty and businesses shuttered, where residents have left their homes to be with relatives or to stay in rented apartments in Beirut; anywhere further from the conflict that has broken out on the border between Lebanon and Israel. 

 

A U.N French peacekeeper, centre, gives a gift to a girl at Saint-Joseph des Saints-Coeurs School in Ain Ebel, a Lebanese Christian border village with Israel, in south Lebanon, on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

 

Israel is at war on its southern border with Gaza. Responding to the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas  terrorists on Israeli border communities. Where Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives followed by Palestinian civilians flooded through gaps they produced breaking down the protective border wall to enter on foot, by truck or motorcycle Israeli villages and kibbutzim closest to the border. The Nova music festival nearby was another target of the Palestinians, shooting to kill as many Israelis as possible.

Israel responded to the savagery of mutilation, rape, torture and mass murder by sending the Israel Defense Forces into Gaza to destroy the death-cult whose singular purpose of existence is to murder Jews and extinguish the  Jewish state. Palestinians in Gaza have paid dearly for their leadership deliberately placing them in harm's way, by using them as human shields, building tunnels for weapons storage and terrorist activities and attacks in a vast network under the towns and cities of the Gaza Strip.

 

The intentional placing of rocket launchers beside and inside hospitals, schools and dense civilian enclaves is a hallmark of the Hamas strategy to sacrifice the lives of Palestinians to their psychopathic drive to annihilate Jewish life and presence in the Middle East. And while Hamas continues to send rockets into Israeli border towns and reaching into central Israel, the Israel Defense Forces are bombing Gaza, aiming at the tunnels and the command centres of the terrorist group.

 

Hamas's alter ego in Lebanon on Israel's northern border has been busy attacking Israeli communities over the border into Israel, drawing IDF forces to the north and in the conflict there border towns in Lebanon have come under return fire causing residents to empty the villages. Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terror group that holds Lebanon hostage to its similar aspiration to destroy Israel, has emulated Hamas, placing Lebanese lives at risk of injury and death. 

 

Clashes on a near-daily basis on the border have led to the death of around 150 people on Lebanon's border; most representing Hezbollah operatives and allied terror groups, but among them an estimated 17 civilians. Roughly 72,437 Lebanese are estimated to have been displaced. Schools in border communities have been closed as a result of the fighting. Three sisters, aged 14, 12 and 10 were killed with their grandmother when an Israeli strike hit the car they were in, in early November. 

 

It hasn't been a happy time for border Lebanese. Heavy storms flooded roads in Lebanon, cars floated on the floods, and four Syrian refugee children died in northern Lebanon when their home's ceiling collapsed and the building flooded. Smoke rises daily from surrounding hills in the southern village of Remeish, from shelling and airstrikes, leading the village mayor to say, there is "no holiday atmosphere at all". 

Hezbollah is not Christian, but Muslim, and it has no conscience over spoiling the Christmas holidays for Christian Lebanese. And far, far from the Middle East, Muslims that have settled in Europe, and in North America have been busy championing Hamas terrorism as cause for 'liberation' celebration, disrupting life in towns and cities in the West, marching into Christmas markets vociferously shouting 'Palestine will be free from the river to the sea!' and 'gas the Jews'.

 

 

Bewildered children brought to malls and shopping centres decorated with bright Christmas lights, lining up to sit on Santa's knee, become fearful, seeing loud, unruly men and women carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags, shouting and pushing people about. Christmas joy and celebrations are being disrupted everywhere by those claiming their support for Palestinians when what they are really supporting is 'death to Jews!'.

 

 

Canada: A Haven for Gazans, a Threat for Jews

"[The government is going to be granting three-year temporary resident visas for extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents] so they can come to Canada and be reunited with their family members residing here."

"Israelis and Palestinians already in Canada who feel unsafe returning home at this time will also be eligible for the fee-exempt study or open work permits."

"The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has created a humanitarian catastrophe of an unprecedented scale in Gaza."

"If you extrapolate from the number of people that we have brought out, and look at perhaps what their family relations are, it looks like it could be in the hundreds but we don't have a clear precise sense at this time."

"We will continue to work with our partners in the region to facilitate the exit of Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller  

Protesters hold Palestinian flags outside the United States consulate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada November 4, 2023. Photo by Kyaw Soe Oo/REUTERS

Palestinians living in Canada feel perfectly safe, Muslims living in Canada now vastly outnumber the the total Jewish population. While there has been a slight uptick of hostility from some sources against the Muslim population, antisemitic attacks and violence has skyrocketed in Canada, in lock step with the growing numbers of Muslims immigrating to Canada from all majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Jews are finding it increasingly fear-inducing in their introduction to the new viral antisemitism. Yet it is mostly the Muslim population that shrieks 'Islamophobia'. 

 

It seems the Trudeau government feels Canada hasn't had enough just yet of the insufferable protests by admirers of Hamas terrorism posing as 'pro-Palestinian' supporters upsetting life for ordinary Canadians not linked to, affiliated with, or admirers of the psychopathic terrorist group that committed a horrific mass slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, and the population is yearning for greater numbers to come out and disrupt Canadian cities, blocking roads, shouting their genocidal threats to Israel. 

 

Amazing enough that a democratic country that has made a sharp turn to autocratic rule where loyal Canadians lawfully protest against government COVID mandates imposed upon the population, found themselves classified as 'racists' for calling out Justin Trudeau's totalitarian approach to unity, having federal, provincial and municipal police brought out to crack down on their 'illegal' protest of the Truckers' Convoy that settled into central Ottawa last winter. 

 

The pro-Palestinian raucous, disruptive, illegal and racist bigotry demonstrated in full view of police, however, mounted by Hamas supporters, with Hamas flags partnering with those of the Palestinian Authority brings out no governmental outrage, much less a crackdown on their presence, not only in public spaces, but private ones as well, where criminal behaviour disrupting Christmas markets take place and no moves are made by police to apprehend and arrest those responsible.

 

Instead, the Trudeau virtuous humanitarian reaction has gone into overdrive, amending current immigration law to extend a welcome to extended Palestinian family members in the Gaza Strip, to bring them to 'safety'. This, of course, is the same government that took over a month to make public note of condemnation at the rape and mutilation of Jewish women in Israel. The very government that berated Israel for bombing a Gazan hospital, taking the word of Hamas over that of Israel.

Everyone deplores the loss of life, and in Gaza now, there is a reflection of the shellshock that has overtaken Israel in the wake of the Hamas atrocities where terrorists were followed across the border into Israel after both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by ordinary Palestinian citizens, some of whom had benefited from having work permits for construction and farm work in Israel. Both the terrorists and the citizens attacked border villages and kibbutzim, slaughtering over 1,200 people, raping girls and women, abducting children and the elderly, and looting and destroying the towns and Kibbutzim.

Israel's campaign in response to the atrocities is meant to eradicate Hamas and Islamic Jihad completely from the region. The Israel Defense Forces have attacked the vast tunnel networks built by Hamas under Gaza's towns and cities and 'refugee' camps. Where weapons storage, command posts and terror operatives find shelter in the crowded enclave, and where rocket launchers are deliberately placed near mosques, hospitals, schools and apartment blocks to ensure maximum deaths occur when Israel responds to rockets launched across the border.

 

 

The greater the number of civilian deaths and particularly those of children, the more the terrorist publicity campaigns accusing Israel of genocide can resonate in empathetic compassion from the West, to apply pressure on Israel to stand down from its mission, despite the Hamas mission to eradicate the Jewish state. When civilians are used as human shields, when children are taught from primary school onward the glories of violence and tutored in the use of weapons while being infused with a martyrdom complex, the world is silent.

But Canada's government has now committed to absorbing as a humanitarian gesture in sympathy with the plight of Palestinians suffering the blowback of what their leaders inflicted on Israel, a temporary visa program operational by January 9. Where applications will be accepted for people with extended family connections to Canada, which will include parents, grandparents, siblings and grandchildren; categories ordinarily outside the framework of Canada's legal family unification program.

In addition to which spouses and children of Canadian citizens and permanent residents already in Canada since leaving Gaza in the aftermath of October 7 can also apply for a free study or an open work permit, courtesy of the Canadian government. The warped psychopathy of hatred for Jews prevalent among Palestinians who have been steeped in racist hatred all their lives will be imported along with those being brought to Canada. Where the rise in antisemitism is threatening the future of Jews in the country they have lived in for over 300 years. 

"The Aggression on Gaza"

"Despite the United States' position, the Hamas movement is watching the growing cause by several Western governments to end the aggression on Gaza."

"In addition to the other calls worldwide demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip -- the last of which was a statement by Canada, Australia and New Zealand backing sustainable ceasefire in Gaza -- we welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally and ending the longest ever occupation in our modern time."

"Israel is a country that has no place on our land."

"We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished."

"[Hamas] must teach Israel a lesson; [everyday Palestinians are willing to] pay the price."

Dr. Ghazi Hamad, senior leader, Hamas 

Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. International aid agencies say Gaza is suffering from shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies as a result of the two and a half month war between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Palestinian civilians are indeed 'paying the price'. But, as Hamad, the gentle soul advocating for the annihilation of Israel and all Jews sheltering within their ancestral homeland, the leaders of his terrorist group, while happy to allow the population whose best interests they claim to represent to become martyrs for their cause of obliterating Jews in another genocidal effort they promise will be more effective than the last, will themselves evade the consequences of drawing Israel into the bombardment of Gaza.

 

A bombardment made rather complex by the sinister work of Hamas diverting international funding for Palestinians to their cause of establishing underground battlements, weapons storage units, safe places for terrorists, in a vast network of tunnels some sophisticated enough for vehicles to drive through, outfitted with electricity, water, heating and air conditioning. There, command centres are built under hospitals and ammunition depots under mosques. Shafts to the tunnels can be accessed from beneath apartment complexes, day care centres and private homes.

And since the tunnels, the rocket launch sites, command posts have been established within densely-inhabited areas of a crowded strip of land, incoming responses to outgoing rockets are meant to devastate civilians living within those areas. The more civilians that are wounded or killed by answering strikes from Israel to rockets coming over the border from Gaza, the more ammunition Hamas has for its public relations, crying out their victimhood from merciless Israeli military forces.

Now, after committing a monumental barbarism against Israeli civilians, young and old in southern Israel, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad feel entitled to control and direct the reaction of the West to the spectacle of Gaza being bombed by the Israel Defense Forces tasked to destroy the Hamas control centres, the tunnels, the weapons depots, the rocket launchers and Hamas leadership, along with their terrorist corps of psychopaths. 

 

Israeli troops take positions in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian terrorists across Gaza in the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The carnage they wrought in Israel with mass rapes, mutilation of children and women, and a bloodbath of mass murder that elicited outrage in the West and celebration among Palestinians and their supporters worldwide, has been set aside. Now the instant communication of the present era linked to the infiltration of the West by Muslim immigrants, refugees and migrants who view events through the narrow lens of Islam's jihadist entitlements hold the world hostage to savagery in the name of 'freedom'.

And a once-proud nation like Canada sees its current government, heavy with an elected and elevated caucus of Muslims influencing the federal vote and a prime minister all too aware of his tenuous position as a leader who has outlived even his widely acknowledged incapability of leading a nation. From a tradition of standing beside and supporting a fellow democracy located in a sea of autocrats, dictators, theocracies and monarchies, Canada has chosen to give its oblique support to terrorism.

When the time has arrived that a high-level spokesman for the most notable terrorist group whose function clearly is to destroy Israel and the Jews within, records a video to express appreciation for the support of the governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand in their call for a ceasefire, translated in this politically charged climate as Israel standing back from its stated goal of destroying Hamas, those three countries, along with all others at the United Nations General Assembly who vote for an unconditional ceasefire, ignoring Hamas's atrocities and its goals, have made their deal with the devil.

United Nations Security Council passes a compromise resolution to try to deliver more aid and to create ‘conditions’ for peace. Most security council members wanted the resolution to demand an immediate ceasefire.  Still from video

Surrender or Die

"We will continue the war until the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed, until victory."

"Whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality."

"[Every member of Hamas is] marked for death."

"Surrender or die."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Trucks with humanitarian aid wait to enter the Palestinian side of Rafah on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip on December 11, 2023. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP)

Skilled at perpetually extracting compassion from the world community, portraying itself as the champion of Palestinian human rights, Hamas has never hesitated to sacrifice the lives of Palestinians for the greater cause of destroying Israel and accomplishing the mass murder of Jews, for their charter sets out just that very goal it is determined to bring to fruition. And while Hamas trains Palestinian children in Gaza to become the next generation of dedicated shaheeds fully incorporated into holy jihad as their purpose in life for the glory inherent in killing Jews, it portrays itself abroad as both liberator and victim.

 

Palestinians generally have taken great pains to persuade the outside world that they are victims of Israeli aggression, that Jews have committed the greatest of sins in 'occupying' land consecrated to Islam by reinstating their ancient ancestral lands into 20th Century Israel for all future generations of Jews to find haven from a hostile world. Jews have rediscovered anew just how hostile the world is to their presence after an all-too-brief post-Holocaust interregnum from discrimination and persecution. 

 

Palestinian public relations campaigns have convinced the gullible West that Palestinians are invested in the concept of a state of their own alongside that of Israel, that perpetual slogan of a 'two-state' solution to the current state of simmering conflict. But it's really a one-state 'solution' that they hold dear, the prospect of which they shield from the West, but pursue by indoctrinating their young to consider Israel an interloper, illegally and immorally sitting on Palestinian geography, and it is the duty of all Palestinians to 'resist the occupation'.

 

Smoke trails are seen as a salvo of rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, as seen from southern Israel, December 21, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Funding terrorist attacks is a great inducement in support of appealing to Palestinians' sense of nationalism and victimhood. Fatah's campaign is more subtle but it is one of total reclamation of the land and destruction of Israel; Hamas is more upfront about its ambitions, hiding from no outside source its lethal intentions against Israel and Jews living in their ancestral homeland. The savagery of the October 7 incursion into Israel with its planned sadistic rapes, mutilations and mass murder was Hamas showing the world what it is dedicated to: pure terrorism.

 

And show the world it did, in evidence they produced themselves through videos proudly demonstrating their capacity to inflict pain and suffering on the innocent, from babies to the elderly and infirm, from girls and women being repeatedly raped, tortured, mutilated and finally murdered; even dead bodies of old men, of African farm workers, of women are desecrated, driven through the streets of Gaza City, eliciting great whoops of joy at the bodies of dead Israelis, whipping up enthusiasm for striking at the corpses. Incredibly, even the airing of these monstrous atrocities failed to convince the world that Israel's loss is worth mourning.

 

Yet now that Israel is responding, even while Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continue bombarding Israel with rockets, the world condemns Israel for the deaths of Palestinians. While Israel warns civilians to remove themselves from harm's way, Hamas orders its civilian population to remain in place, and will even shoot to kill those who waver and intend to move to safety. Western media hang on every statistic that the Hamas Health Ministry publishes of Palestinian death numbers attributed to Israeli bombing in Gaza. Wildly inflated numbers to elicit greater sympathy cannot be validated.

 

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this handout picture released on December 21, 2023. Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

 

That bombing is strategic and meant to  target Hamas infrastructure, including the vast network of tunnels it has built under the Gaza Strip's cities, towns and 'refugee camps'. The tunnels and their shafts are built into and under mosques, hospitals, UNRWA-operated schools, apartment complexes and ordinary houses. In those tunnels, weapons caches are stored, and Hamas operatives find safe haven when they shoot off rockets from depots placed in crowded civilian areas, inviting a response from the IDF. The greater the number of civilian casualties, the lustier the outcry from the press and Western governments, playing right into Hamas's schemes.

The tunnels have been useful in providing hiding places for some of the hundreds of Israeli children, elderly, women and men that the terrorist groups and ordinary Palestinian civilians have taken  hostage. Each time rockets are aimed at Israel, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cheer and applaud when they reach their goals. Support among the Palestinians, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, is robust, the majority support Hamas and feel the atrocities of October 7 were justified in the name of 'freedom' for Palestinians. 

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been playing host and interveners between Israel and Hamas in negotiations for temporary ceasefires when prisoners in Israeli jails can be exchanged for hostages. It is in very fact, Hamas terrorist elites that are giving the orders and calling the shots. All of the commanders of the terrorist groups, in the wake of October 7 made themselves very scarce, going into hiding to preserve their lives, leaving their lower-order operatives to battle with the IDF under their instructions.

Their lives are expendable, those of the civilian population are ultra-disposable, while the commanders shield themselves from repercussions of their wholesale slaughter of Israelis and foreign farm workers on October 7. With pressure on Israel to be 'proportionate', and empathy for the plight of the Palestinians brought upon them by their psychopathic leadership Hamas leaders feel emboldened to dictate acceptable strategic variances from combat for access to humanitarian shipments of aid to the embattled Strip.

 

Armed, masked men reportedly affiliated with Hamas can be seen atop trucks carrying humanitarian aid that arrived in the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Rafah crossing, December 17, 2023. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

 

When agreement is secured to open border crossings, another opportunity is presented to terrorist leaders to slip out of the Gaza Strip in an escape from the punishment meted out by Israel's military. At the same time, while tractor-trailers stuffed with needed food, water, medical supplies, oil and gas are brought in to relieve the crisis for civilians to endure the conflict, the trucks and their humanitarian goods are commandeered by Hamas operatives for their own use, once more depriving the civilian population of access to life-saving food and medicine.

Drone footage