UNRWA Finally Recognized for the Failure It Is

"We're concerned about the fungibility of support directed by Canada to the agency, and ultimately where money goes and what it supports."

"There's been a very long track record of not just of internal corruption within UNRWA, but there were a number of UN investigations of the agency and impropriety on the part of their staff -- not just its local-hired staff, but the international UN staff that manages the organization."

"I think it would be great if Canada were to step up and seize opportunities to play a meaningful role [in the future of Israel]. But you can't do that independently -- it requires Canada to be more fully in sync with the approaches, the thinking and the considerations of our like-minded allies, and that's been where we haven't been as intentional as we could be, and perhaps as we should be."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, President/CEO, Centre for Israeli and Jewish Affairs 

"We've seen instances in which the United States and Republican administrations have frozen [funding and also under Stephen Harper [as Prime Minister of Canada prior to the current administration]."

"But the fact now that you have a Democratic administration in Washington, Biden, that froze [funding], and now all the other countries have followed, particularly Canada."

"The evidence has been very clear -- it's something countries have ignored for many years, but now because of the direct connection with the brutality of October 7, there's a recognition that UNRWA cannot continue to function the way it has been up until now."

Gerald Steinberg, president, NGO Monitor, Jerusalem

"What we are doing are taking these allegations very seriously."

"These are disturbing allegations, we have very serious concerns about those allegations, and I expressed Canada's concern over the allegations to the head of UNRWA."

Canadian International Development Minister Ahmed Hussein

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel on Jan. 21. Hamas claimed responsibility for rocket attacks that reached Tel Aviv on Monday. (Leo Correa/The Associated Press)

 

The New York Times on Sunday published an outline of Israel's indictment of UNRWA. It included the information that agency employees were directly involved in the atrocities that took place on October 7; mass murder, rape, torture, mutilation, and the abduction of 240 innocent civilians comprised of children, the elderly, women and men as well as non-Jews and foreign farm workers. 

A day later the Wall Street Journal published an article that led to the declaration that as many as ten percent of the 12,000 Gaza employees of UNRWA have ties to terrorist groups. According to the Israeli dossier, ten of the dozen UNRWA employees identified with links to terror, were revealed to have been implicated directly by participation in the Hamas/Palestinian Islamic Jihad storming of the Israeli border to commit countless acts of sadistic savagery on Israeli civilians.

Of that number of UNRWA employees directly involved, ten were full members of Hamas, while another was affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terror group. Of the employees implicated, seven were employed as teachers at UNRWA schools; facilities that have long been known to incorporate antisemitic and anti-Israel messaging in their school curricula. Two worked for schools in non-teaching positions and the remaining three were a social worker, a clerk and a storeroom manager, according to the New York Times. Stockpiles of weapons were kept in UNRWA schools as they were in hospitals.

The Times also pointed out that one of the implicated employees was a school councillor in Gaza. This man, assisted by his son, abducted an Israeli woman to take her as a hostage back into Gaza. She was wounded, and was kept prisoner in a room of the councillor's home. As well as participating in the taking of hostages, the UNRWA councillor was delegated the responsibility of co-ordinating vehicles and ammunition on October 7. When the Israeli woman was released in a prisoner exchange in November she related her experience as a captive.

 

An Israeli soldier guards the broken fence that Hamas militants crashed through to enter the Kfar Aza kibbutz days earlier, near the border with Gaza, Oct. 15, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel. Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty

By Monday of this week fully fifteen nations had announced they had cut their financial support for UNRWA following the American announcement of their decision to do so, late last week. It is worth noting that the Republican administration under Donald Trump had cut its donations to UNRWA in recognition of its links to Hamas terrorism, and in Canada under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, funding by Canada was also discontinued.

In both countries succeeding administrations resumed UNRWA funding. Despite that it was well known how compromised UNRWA was, an utterly failed institution that knowingly allowed its schools to have textbooks glorifying violence against Jews and Israel, portraying the Jewish state as the 'enemy' of Palestinians. In Canada, funding will continue for Palestinian aid funnelling it through other UN agencies; the World Health Organization and the World Food Program.

The problem there is that aid tends to end up in the possession of Hamas, which uses the medicines, food, water, fuel for its own purposes, stockpiling it for their own use. Any that does reach ordinary Palestinians is often 'sold' to them at outrageous cost, further propping up Hamas rule. In other words the West continues through its humane generosity to the suffering Palestinian population, to support and sustain the Palestinians' terrorism oppressor.

Several countries, including Canada, have cut funding to the United Nations relief program for Palestinians after accusations that some workers had links to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. The reduced funding is expected to make aid in Gaza more precarious. CBCNews

"We had so many warning signs about UNRWA. There were studies done by NGO Monitor and others that were rejected by Canadian diplomats, but the evidence is staring them in the face."

"Now, the evidence was so stark that there was clearly documentation that shows members of UNRWA were actually moonlighting as terrorists. It got to the point where they just ignored the evidence, but it's not as if the evidence wasn't there, they didn't want to see it."

"The evidence was hiding in plain sight."

Aurel Braun, professor of international relations, University of Toronto

Living In An Orwellian World

"[The fact that the court was willing to discuss the genocide charges was a] mark of shame that will not be erased for generations."

"We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Judges of the International Court of Justice are seen while ruling on a request by South Africa on behalf of Gaza on Friday. (Remko de Waal/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide established in 1948 represented a determination to ensure that the crimes of the Holocaust would never be repeated. The crime of genocide requires proof of intentional destruction "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". When the Third Reich destroyed the lives of six million Jews in a deliberate, state-planned eradication of Europe's Jews, it was the very quintessence of genocide. The intent was there, the outcome spoke for itself. 

Israel saw its founding that same year of 1948. It exists today as a bulwark against another Holocaust. Finally, Jews had a reborn national territory of their own established on a small portion of their original ancestral land. And that nation developed a military for the obvious purpose of defending itself and Jews from another attempt at genocide. The International Court of Justice delivered its provisional response to South Africa's claim of genocide perpetrated by Israel on Gaza, on the very memorial date of the Holocaust.

Could anything be more spectacularly grim and ironic? Israel, by the metric of the court consenting to hear the case and adjudicate it well into years ahead before reaching a final decision even while failing to order Israel to retreat from Gaza, has been held in suspicion of genocide, marking it as the fifth country to face the charge of genocide in the ICJ. As in the United Nations itself, it is always the human-rights-abusing nations that hold Israel to account for violations of human rights. 

 

Israel's violation can be seen in the fact of its existence, in the indisputable fact that it exists only because it defends itself.

Sudan committed an intended genocide in Darfur. And when its president and the head of the Sudanese military were condemned by the ICC as war criminals the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League paid no mind. Syria's Bashir al-Assad has been accused by the United Nations itself of having killed 300,000 of its own citizens. Today he is in good standing in the Arab League. Iran threatens genocide against Israel, has done so openly, former President Ahmadinejad openly declared at the UN General Assembly Iran's intention to destroy Israel.

Open displays of of rampant antisemitism and the celebration of the Hamas terrorist bloody rampage through southern Israel on October 7 have taken place in huge rallies throughout the Western world. A world that stands by and merely observes 'pro-Palestinian' calls in gatherings on city streets calling for another intifada, calling for a Palestine 'from the river to the sea', calling for 'gas the Jews'. These are akin to the rallies and the vicious propaganda that presaged the Holocaust.

How can any rational mind support a charge of genocide against Palestinians by Israel, when the populations of both Gaza and the West Bank have risen steadily at a rate not seen elsewhere in the world? Of a people considered by the United Nations to be refugees. Whose leaders gather huge sums of funding from the international community free to plunder and amass personal wealth. And for Hamas to build a network of offensive tunnels while amassing a huge cache of weaponry. 

 

The target is Israel. The intent is there, the attacks are deadly. 

In Israel, 20% of the population is comprised of Palestinians. They have citizenship, a quality of life denied Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, while their leaders accumulate personal riches and deny proper administration of the territories that would allow the Palestinian people to prosper, have proper employment and live satisfying lives instead of being fed non-stop malicious lies about a neighbour hoping at some time to be able to relax its military vigilance.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather outside the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, on January 26, 2024.

Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images

Failing to Validate South Africa

"In my respectful dissenting opinion the dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political one, calling for a diplomatic or negotiated settlement."

"It is not a legal dispute susceptible of judicial settlement by the Court."

"This case is complicated by the fact that in the context of an ongoing war with Hamas, which is not a party to these proceedings, it would be unrealistic to put limitations upon one of the belligerent parties but not the other."

Judge Julia Sebutinde, Ugandan ICJ court member

Judge Julia Sebutinde

"[Israel must also take] immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

"The Court is acutely aware of the extent of the human tragedy that is unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continuing loss of life and human suffering."

International Court of Justice

After due consideration and hearing of legal arguments from all perspectives the ICJ did not call for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the IDF to withdraw. The Ugandan judge sitting on the International Court of Justice, along with 16 others, was the only judge to have voted negatively on all of the six provisional measures set out by the IJC. Even the Israeli justice on the court voted positively for several of the rulings. Justice Sebutinde felt none of the rulings represented total fairness and voted accordingly. 

 

She has become a heroine to Israelis, an outcast to the government of Uganda and a much detested personage to Hamas and its South African supporters.

 

Uganda is a country that produced two quite notable individuals, whose ethics, morals and perspectives couldn't be more distant from each other; while both distinguished themselves as Ugandans, one, Idi Amin its former President, did so by disrepute, not only hosting Palestinian plane hijackers at Entebbe airport in a collusion against Israel where a daring raid rescued the Jewish passengers and led to the death of the raid leader, Benjamin Netanyahu's brother, but he also expelled Asian/Indian minorities of long-standing residence in the country.

 

A country that was also capable of producing a keen and highly respected legal mind who gained a different kind of notoriety when she defied her own country on a previous occasion. Her actions at the IJC had a response from Uganda’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, Adonia Ayebare, who issued a statement to the effect that:

"Justice Sebutinde’s ruling at the International Court of Justice does not represent the Government of Uganda’s position on the situation in Palestine."

"She has previously voted against Uganda’s case on DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]. " "Uganda’s support for the plight of the Palestinian people has been expressed through Uganda‘s voting pattern at the United Nations." 

While Israel's actions in Gaza in response to Hamas's savage assaults against southern Israel where over a thousand people were murdered, hundreds taken hostage, an untold number of women raped, mutilated and murdered, children killed along with the elderly and entire families scorched to death when their homes were torched, over ten percent of the 3000 young Israeli music lovers at the Nova Music Festival were killed by fanatical psychopaths, the actions of the Hamas terrorists were never taken into account by the Court. 

South Africa's charge to the Court of Israeli genocide deliberately side-stepped the genocidal intent of the rulers of Gaza. To ascribe intent of genocide to Israel, on the very eve of Holocaust Remembrance represents the apex of moral failure. October 7, its outcome and its aftermath represented a repeat of a loathing for a people so reprehensible that it led to genocide; to ascribe that intent to the inheritors of the Holocaust must be accounted a crime unto itself.

The single issue that gave credit to the Court was its statement that it was "gravely concerned about the fate of the hostages" abducted by Hamas, calling for "their immediate and unconditional release". Creditable, but barely; treated as an aside to the main issue of holding Israel suspect of genocide.
Any focus on a two-state solution where there is but one side of the issue prepared for dialogue and to reach a useful solution acceptable to two parties in the absence of the second, is a fallacy.

Getty Images

"It was brought to the attention of the Court that South Africa, and in particular certain organs of government, have enjoyed and continue to enjoy a cordial relationship with the leadership of Hamas. If that is the case, then one would encourage South Africa as a party to these proceedings and to the Genocide Convention, to use whatever influence they might wield, to try and persuade Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the remaining hostages, as a goodwill gesture."

"I have no doubt that such a gesture of goodwill would go a very long way in defusing the current conflict in Gaza."

"Unfortunately, the failure, reluctance or inability of states to resolve political controversies such as this one through effective diplomacy or negotiations may sometimes lead them to resort to a pretextual invocation of treaties like the Genocide Convention, in a desperate bid to force a case into the context of such a treaty, in order to foster its judicial settlement."

"It is clear that a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only result from good-faith negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian representatives working toward the achievement of a just and sustainable two-state solution. A solution cannot be imposed from outside, much less through judicial settlement."

Judge Julia Sebutinde

Islamist Caliphate Group Retreating to the Dark Recesses of Jihad

"Until they can provide the right guidelines for the organization's English-language speaking areas they will avoid, as much as possible, their membership and activists making statements in the public arena."

"Unless they can control what their membership is saying in English, then they can't be sure that they aren't going to say something they will regret." 

"Australia and Canada tend to, in counterterrorism matters, follow where Britain goes. It will be quite likely that if the ban and proscription in Britain is upheld by the British courts, they will apply the same thing in Australia and Canada."

"The Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy, it rejects participating in governance with other parties, it rejects the electoral process as a method of gaining power -- the only way is by the overthrow of government by revolution."

"The Hizb ut-Tahrir don't engage in material action, does not undertake violent acts. They can, however, be accused of 'sanitizing terror ideology and calling for revolutionary change."

"They express quite extreme forms of antisemitism."

"They don't do it as a group, so their members don't engage in it [violent action]. Neither do they call for their members to do so. However, they do believe that military action to liberate these countries is acceptable There is an ambiguity there."

Rashad Ali, resident senior fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, counter-extremist think tank, London, England

"As a listed terrorist entity in the United Kingdom, the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization should not be given an opportunity to promote and indoctrinate Canadians with their extreme and radical viewpoints through their Khalifah Conference."

"If it had not been pre-emptively cancelled, we would have expected the authorities to step in to identify it as a potential security risk and prevent the conference from moving forward."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

A recent screen shot of the Hezb ut Tahrir Canada website before the group removed it from the internet. Photo by Screenshot / Hizb ut Tahrir

 

Following the U .K. declaring an Islamic organization a terrorist group, the Canadian branch of the group cancelled a scheduled conference meant to be hosted the past weekend, calling for the resurrection of the Muslim caliphate and the imposition of Shariah law. The plan was to convene the Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada conference in Mississauga. The Khalifah Conference 2024; Khalifah the Arabic word for caliphate, a Muslim community governed under Islamic (Sharia) law.

 

Posters, a website and a promotional video, reflect the group urging rejection of a Jewish state and the involvement of the United Nations, international law, or other 'compromises' in the Middle East, in favour of encouraging military forces in the Muslim world to defeat 'occupiers'. All meant for use during the conference. Those materials as well as its online presence in its entirety -- active since 2012 including a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and X accounts were deactivated or deleted internally. 

 

Prior to its cancellation the annual conference was a cause of concern, given its statements: antisemitic, dedicated to eradicating Israel, and though not committed to violence on its own, supporting militant jihadi violence from well known sources. U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly speaking of Britain's proscription order stated: 

"Hizb ut-Tahrir is an antisemitic organization that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks."

"Proscribing this terrorist group will ensure that anyone who belongs to and invites support for them will face consequences. It will curb Hizb ut-Tahrir's ability to operate as it currently does." The designation of a terrorist entity was effective from January 19.

 

A poster advertising Khilafah Conference 2024

A notification to registered attendees to the Khalifah Conference in Canada that the event was cancelled was accompanied with a note: "It is with a heavy heart that Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada has decided to cancel the Khalifah Conference 2024 because of unforeseen circumstances", apologizing for inconvenience, absent an explanation. Thematically the conference was dedicated to "Khalifah : Eliminating the obstacles that are delaying its return", with materials referring to Israel as "the Zionist Entity", emulating the Islamic Republic of Iran.

One of the keynote speakers, Muhammad Malkawi was quoted saying in a speech last month that if Muslims came together "You don't even need to fight for Palestine because there will not be a Jewish state there." He is based in Jordan, the location of Hizb ut-Tahrir's central headquarters. "He is very well known, very public, a popular speaker within the party and has been active for decades", explained Rashad Ali, a former leader with the group who now is involved in extremist deradicalization.

Another scheduled speaker, Mazin Abdul-Adhim is resident in London, Ontario, active on social media, describing himself as a Hizb ut-Tahrir member, his avatar on X, the logo for the cancelled conference. He reacted to Britain's ban stating: "By banning HT, they make us a much stronger force, impenetrable and absolutely bulletproof from their false allegations and lies". A similar conference is scheduled for March in Chicago, organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir America.

The organization has been banned in a number of countries, including Russia, China, Germany, Indonesia, and in most Arab countries. The group's message is one of overthrowing Muslim governments, posing as an enemy of many Muslim states. Ironically, it is not banned in Israel. The English translation of the organization' name is "Party of Liberation", founded in 1953 as a revolutionary party to serve as a springboard to power in countries with large Muslim populations in the spirit of unification to restore the Muslim empire of medieval times.

 

A Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstration outside the Egyptian embassy in London in November 2023 (X)

"[The British government says that Hizb ut-Tahrir] has a footprint in at least 32 countries [with its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon]."

"The U.K. government assess that Hizb ut-Tahrir, including its national branches, is currently concerned in terrorism, and meets the 'promotes and encourages' limb of the statutory test."

"A number of articles were posted online on Hizb ut-Tahrir's central media website [and third-party websites], attributed to several of Hizb ut-Tahrir's branches, which celebrated and praised the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas and associated events."

"The content of these articles, many of which refer to Hamas as 'heroes', and encourage further terrorist activity constitute the promotion and encouragement of terrorism."

British government statement

Commitment to Ukraine by Europe

"No one  talks about stopping after this [massive bombing attack on residential neighbourhoods] happens."

"The sanctions aren't working. The West must stop procrastinating with ammunition, air defence and financial support, or what we are getting here will come to their countries."

"Do you want Russia on your borders? Do you think they will stop?"

"The war is not over and Putin's getting stronger and won't stop. Why would he stop? He must be defeated."

Ukrainian political leader Kira Rudik

"I therefore call on our allies in the European Union to also step up their efforts in support of Ukraine."

"The arms deliveries for Ukraine planned so far by the majority of EU member states are by all means too small."

"We need higher contributions."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

"My personal priority is to have an agreement by 27 [countries]."

"And if this is not possible, we are prepared for an agreement by 26 [minus holdout Hungary]."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

 

Russia has renewed its attacks against Ukraine, likely emboldened by the stale-mate in Washington which has placed further support for the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Kremlin on ice for the time being at a time when ongoing military assistance is critical. In Europe, leaders are attuned to the nature of Vladimir Putin's bellicosity and hunger for expansion. They fully understand that nothing will stop Putin, and they are just as likely to be next on his 'special military operation' agenda as any.

This uppermost in mind, European leaders are looking to increase their support. Data, in fact, from the German-based Kiel Institute indicates that aid to Ukraine from European nations represents a doubling of the aid being provided to the embattled country as compared to what the United States has committed to. 

 

Britain and France jointly reaffirmed a pledge to defeat the Russian war machine. "What we have to do is make that economic strength [the combined economies of the West 25 times larger than Russia's], and that commitment pay", asserted British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. "I have no doubt that we can make sure that Putin loses and it's essential that he does lose."

When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier in January visited Kyiv, he announced a $4.3 billion support package.  In the same token, French President Emmanuel Macron made an announcement of his country planning to deliver additional military aid to Ukraine that would include 40 long-range cruise missiles and hundreds of bombs.

The Baltic states and Norway together delivered the equivalent of over one percent of their economies in support of Ukraine, according to figures released by the Kiel Institute. Fighter jets have been pledged by European countries and last summer the Netherlands and Denmark pledged they would supply Ukraine with 61 F-16s in coming years. As new replacement models arrive, Belgium is prepared to deliver over 50 jets, and Norway is to donate  upwards of 10 F-16s.

A new trilateral initiative to improve maritime safety in the Black Sea and assist Ukraine in maintaining open shipping lanes by clearing Russian mines, was signed off by Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Members of the European Parliament in Brussels have taken to efforts to strip Budapest of its veto powers so that they can prevent Hungary from blocking aid to Ukraine.

 

The G7 is considering whether to confiscate $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to finance the war in the realization that they have no option but to assist Ukraine in defeating Russia or risk becoming the next countries to face an unexpected invasion with Russian bombs destroying their own homes and neighbourhoods.

"Europe has clearly overtaken the United States in promised aid to Ukraine, with total European commitments now being twice as large."

"A main reason is the EU’s new €50 billion “Ukraine Facility,” but also other European countries have upped their support with new multi-year packages."

"For the first time since the start of the war, the US is now clearly lagging behind. This is one of the results of the latest update of the Ukraine Support Tracker."

Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Fortifying Ukraine's Armaments in Jeopardy

[

The most recent package for Ukraine was announced on Dec. 27, and it included $250 million in artillery, air defenses and other weapons. | Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

"[The lack of funding forced the Pentagon to] pause [sending additional weapons from its inventories] given the implications for our own military readiness."

"This of course prevents us from meeting the most urgent battlefield needs, to include things like artillery rounds, anti-tank weapons, air defense interceptors."

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder

 

"Without funding, we would not be able to match the pace that we have provided Ukraine with since the start of this conflict."

"[That’s why the Pentagon is focused on] the need to answer Congress’s questions so that they are able to move forward on a decision to pass a supplemental."

"The conflict hasn’t died down. And in fact, the intensity remains high based on Russian activity."

Celeste Wallander, Pentagon top official overseeing international security affairs

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's most influential, most materially-generous supporter in his nation's valorous bid to prevail against Vlaldimir Putin's deadly invasion of Ukraine has been forced to stand down from its generosity, likely temporarily due to political infighting between Democrats and Republicans that has the Biden government awaiting the U.S. budget to pass through Congress, leaving Ukraine in a bind that its staunch allies elsewhere have tried to unravel with their own ongoing commitments to shore up its need for additional military hardware.

The United States, while hosting the monthly gathering of some fifty countries in an international coalition established to support Ukraine by U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2022, is itself unable on this occasion to send to Ukraine promised and sorely needed ammunition and missiles used to fend off Russia's war with Ukraine. Awaiting the critical budget which would enable the administration to fulfill its stated obligations to Ukraine and approve additional allocations, it is to its allies in the struggle to keep Ukraine supplied with war materiel that the defence secretary now turns.

"I urge this group to dig deep to provide Ukraine with more lifesaving ground-based air defence systems and interceptors", opening remarks by Austin -- video broadcasted from his home, recuperating from prostate cancer surgery -- stated. In Brussels NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke of a new $1.2 billion joint contract for over 222,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition, some of the most heavily used munitions in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The contract he announced to be used to back-fill allies whose reserves had gone to Ukraine.

"Even though we aren't able to provide our security assistance right now, our partners are continuing to do that", stated deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh. Russia's attacks against Ukraine have been ongoing, not as well reported any longer, with the conflict between Israel and Hamas dominating the news for the past three months. A barrage of over 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles were launched by Moscow into Ukraine's largest cities days earlier.

 

On the morning of Jan. 23, 2024, Russian troops fired missiles at a residential area of Kharkiv. One of the missiles destroyed an entrance to a five-story building, damaged nearby houses, and destroyed half of the market. Dozens of people were hospitalized. Several people have died. The search for people under the ruins continues. (Oleksandr Stavytskyy/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Moscow had, a day before its latest attacks refused to consider any agreement that Kyiv and its Western allies backed in a bid to bring the almost two-year war to a conclusion. Of the missiles, Ukraine's air defence intercepted some 21, while the attacks hit four districts of Kyiv, injuring several dozen people. The last U.S. security assistance for Ukraine was announced on December 27 representing a $250 million package including 155 mm rounds, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other  high-demand items from existing U.S. stockpiles

No further additional munitions can be supplied until funding to replenish the stockpiles can be appropriated, awaiting Congress's approval of more funds. Leaving over $110 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel stalled over the disagreement over policy priorities between Congress and the White House, including additional security for the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

Airmen from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron use a forklift to move 155 mm shells ultimately bound for Ukraine, April 29, 2022, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. On Jan. 23, 2024, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will host a monthly gathering of about 50 allies as the U.S. is out of money for Ukraine, unable to send Ukraine the ammunition and missiles it needs to fend off Russia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Hamas Psychopathy on Ego-Steroids

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Prime Minister’s Office)

"Contrary to what is [being] said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas."

"On the other hand, there is our initiative, which I will not detail."

"If we agree to this [the Hamas demand that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from Gaza and end its war with Hamas] we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens."

"We will not be able to return the evacuees safely to their homes, and the next October 7 will only be a matter of time."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Demonstrators hold up portraits of hostages held by the Hamas terror group during a rally to demand their release, near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Israel has been attempting to negotiate through third parties with Hamas for the release of the remaining 136 Israeli hostages being held by the terrorists in Gaza. Public pressure and the desperate pleas of the hostages' families, along with the state's own fervent intention to have all Israelis rescued from the plight of further traumatic treatment at the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza have exerted pressure on the government which cannot function solely on its pledge to destroy any future capability of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to mount further attacks on Israel and its citizens. 

The Israeli Prime Minister speaking to representatives of the hostage families in a meeting, apprised them of that simple fact; no offers that could be seriously contemplated have been received from Hamas whose suggestions for the release of the remaining hostages come from a source that believes it has the upper hand in the certainty of how dearly Israelis take the well-being of their citizens to enable it to put forward the kind of offers that no sane government could ever contemplate; certainly not one tasked with the security of its nation.

Benjamin Netanyahu did on the other hand, confirm that during negotiations Hamas demanded the retreat from Gaza of the Israel Defense Forces, and that Israel commit to ending its war with the terrorist group -- a unilateral demand in that whatever Israel might commit to in withdrawing its troops and its commitment to destroy the terrorist group, Hamas would have no intention of stopping its intermittent violent attacks against Israel. Hamas's arrogance demands "the release of all the Nukhba (terrorist commando) murderers and rapists, and leaving Hamas intact."

Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released on January 23, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

 

A committee session at the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem (Knesset) saw several dozen relatives of Israelis held hostage disrupt the event with demands that the lawmakers make a greater effort to free their family members. Many of the protesters carried photographs of their family members taken to Gaza. 

 

"Is it reasonable that 260 trucks of flour are entering Gaza now while my brother is eating nothing", Adi Angrest shouted. His brother Sgt. Matan Angrest remains a  hostage in Gaza. "It doesn't make any sense that my brother isn't eating anything when they bring them [Palestinians] 260 trucks of flour!"

 

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Issues being discussed included the Paris-brokered agreement where medicines were to be delivered to Israeli hostages suffering from chronic illnesses that were destined to be provided to them entered the Gaza Strip last week and which the International Committee of the Red Cross stated they had no intention of delivering to the hostages. Instead, they said, the deliveries would be entrusted to Hamas. 

Mr. Lecornu was informed by Netanyahu that he is awaiting evidence that any of the medicines had actually reached the Israeli hostages, emphasizing that the implementation of the agreement must be monitored. Official Israeli figures state that 136 hostages remain in Gaza out of the total of 240 taken there on October 7. An unknown number are believed to have been killed there. 100 of the hostages had been released in November through a deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar.

Israeli authorities have no reason to believe that the hostages received any of the life-saving medications prescribed for their medical conditions. Instead, there is a common belief that just as Hamas operatives had commandeered much of the fuel, food, water and medicines sent by the international community into Gaza through border crossings to alleviate Palestinian shortages, so too did the Hamas terrorists advantage themselves with the delivery into their hands of medications meant for ailing Israeli hostages.

Friends and family members mourn during the funeral of IDF soldier Hadar Kapeluk in the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on January 23, 2024, a day after he was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Nothing Is As It Seems

"Gender binary is a colonial and white supremacist structure rather than a natural and indisputable truth."

"Because of colonialism, gender in Ontario and Canada, and specifically in the education system, still tends to be understood in binary terms or as being on either end of this 'spectrum' or somewhere in between it."

"European settlers forced their rigid views on gender upon the civilizations they invaded, reforming Indigenous gender roles through colonial restrictions as a tool to align patriarchal family and kinship structures that mirrored the privileged European family systems during the time of the invasion."

"Cisgenderism, cissexism and cisnormativity are the root of the violence perpetrated against trans and gender diverse people."

Trans-Affirming Toolkit for teachers, federal gov't funded

The Progress Pride Flag flies at Syncrude's Wood Bison Viewpoint. Photo by Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia Network

As difficult as it is to credit, the Liberal government of prime minister Justin Trudeau has financed a 'Trans-Affirming Tookit' for the use of teachers with a stated purpose to educate teachers on transgender-identifying students. This is a 100-page instructional to be used in Canadian schools, addressing social justice theory, leftist identity politics, and assertions relating to biology, history and sex.

Teachers are informed via this teaching tool that biological sex has seven elements to determine gender; no single element, it insists, can determine sex; certainly not DNA. No, the elements related to external genitalia, internal sex organs, gonads, secondary sex characteristics, hormone production, hormone response and chromosomes all come into play, and teachers had better familiarize themselves with all of them for they will be held accountable  for the manner in which they disport themselves in the classroom as advocates of promoting the well-being of .09 percent of the population.

Above all, teachers must flush out of their minds the wildly inaccurate assumption that people are either male or female, for this is clearly racist. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence and common sense, it points out, must acknowledge that gender norms are of European derivation, and since Europeans were colonial settlers that oppressed indigenous populations everywhere, so-called gender norms are inherently oppressive.

The instructional encourages teachers to 'audit' their personal views on gender and take the time to introspectively deconstruct them -- in the classroom. According to Statistics Canada, 99.7 percent of the population identify as female and male. The vast majority of any population are not trans-represented despite the toolkit insisting such assumptions to be cruel and unjust social constructs. Teachers would do well, the teaching tool emphasizes, to review their 'cis-privilege', and reflect on unfortunate instances when they made 'cisnormative assumptions'. 

Progress Pride flags should be on display in every classroom and gender ideology embedded in the curriculum. Teachers have an obligation to speak about trans people throughout lessons, and students should be taught about dogmatic privilege hierarchies that are the driving mechanism behind social justice. Teachers must consider reading books about transgender children to their classes. Students should be charged with completing gender-introspective worksheets.

In the toolkit, Critical race theory has its place, encouraging teachers to apply 'intersectionality' theory to identify layers of oppression. This new initiative can partner with the federally funded "Anti-Hate Toolkit" for teachers that speaks of the Red Ensign as a symbol of white supremacy. Wayne Martino, professor of 'equity and social justice education' at Western University had a hand in producing the Trans-Affirming Toolkit. Teacher trade unions are circulating the treatise to their member-teachers.

University of Western Ontario

"Every single student needs to learn about gender diversity in all areas of the curriculum, inclusive of science and mathematics, and not just in language arts and history."

"Knowledge about gender diversity in the study of biology is important, for example. Learning about trans and gender diverse communities for their brilliance beyond gender-based activism, survival in the face of violence and transition stories that center linear representations of transition is vital."

"Students must be affirmed in their identities, and so no assumptions should be made about them [for example, educators should not assume that all students are cisgender as the default]."

"Dedicated separate spaces must also be provided for students who are Othered so that they might find support if and when they experience harm."

Trans-Affirming Toolkit

Looking for Peace, Opportunity, Future

"[We're waiting for] border patrol to come pick us up and give us protection."

"It doesn't matter if it's cold. There is peace here."

Sudanese migrant, Izzeddin, 32, migrant encampment, Sasabe, Arizona

"In terms of migrants per day, December 2023 has been larger than any average we have ever seen."

"Every official who is commenting on it, on all levels, says they're near or past the breaking point."

"If you move to a place that's super remote, there won't be a lot of agents on staff, and that increases your chances of being released into the U.S."

"There is nowhere to put people They can't hold you."

Adam Isacson, migration expert, Washington Office on Latin America

Women wait in a hallway Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at a Border Patrol station in Ajo, Ariz. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In a remote, cold and lonely place while awaiting the arrival of border guards, dozens of migrants huddle close to a hole in the border wall. They have been given coffee by aid group No More Deaths. Given blankets, food and emergency telephone calls should there be any there who sustained life-threatening injuries on their journey. Those hailing from Sudan have escaped another Darfur-like conflict, patiently waiting for their search for haven to end far from their homeland.

Among them are others, not only themselves fleeing war in Sudan, but those escaping from Central American violent gangs and Mexican cartels. All have crossed illegally into the United States, trekked over rugged terrain for tiring hours, to arrive near Sasabe, Arizona exhausted, hungry and cold. They wait to turn themselves over to authorities to be given the opportunity to ask for asylum; stranded in the Arizona desert, but hopeful.

Just as night time temperatures begin dropping, a convoy of American Border Patrol agents roll in. The men are loaded into a van where they're briefly processed. The van continues driving in its search for more people needing rescue. "We are not equipped to deal with this. It's a humanitarian disaster", comments Scott Carmon, a Border Patrol watch commander, of the crisis unfolding at the southern U.S. border.

 

A migrant walking along a road shadowed by the steel columns of the separation border between Mexico and Arizona. AP

 

Once again, migrant encounters reach toward record levels, testing the capacity of American law enforcement. Thousands of migrants arrive daily, on their way from Africa, Asia, the Middle East or South America. Relentless violence, desperation, fear and poverty drive them from their places of birth where they can no longer find a future.

There was a broad sigh of relief in the spring when crossings into the U.S. declined after the lifting of pandemic border restrictions. The anticipation was that the floodgates would burst, but they held. More lately, numbers have spiked. The number of apprehensions in a recent week soared to over 10,000 a day -- the Border Patrol found itself stretched beyond capacity. 

 

Small towns on both sides of the border were overwhelmed with people funneled through new routes by human smugglers, to evade capture.

American officials monitored a caravan moving north through Mexico comprised of over 2,000 migrants, heading toward the United States; unlikely to complete their journey according to experts, but drawing significant media notice to the migrant tide crossing the border. What has caused the recent swell is as yet unknown.

Theories include larger numbers of Mexicans fleeing from cartel turf battles; rumours of a key legal pathway ending; smugglers who push desperate people of all nationalities to attempt entry at increasingly remote parts of the vast border. Border officials in Arizona closed a key port of entry to legal crossings early in December to enable them to focus on the unlawful entries.

Migrants huddle around fires for warmth along the U.S.-Mexico border near Lukeville, Arizona. Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News

Which 'Two-State Solution' Might That Be?

"It's still delicate, it's fragile, and it will take a long time, but I think that it is actually an opportunity to move forward in the world and the region toward a better future."

"When nations come forward and say 'two-state solution', they have to first deal with a preliminary question, which is a core question for human beings: Are we offered real safety?"

"Israelis lost trust in the peace process because they could see that terror is glorified by our neighbours."

"[Hamas's attack on Israel was planned and carried out by one of the proxies of the] empire of evil emanating from Tehran."

"We are praying that all the medication …. will reach them [Israeli hostages held in Gaza], but that’s only the beginning."

"We all understand that there has to be a vision, and I think part of it should be also going back to the normalization process of Israel and its neighbors in the region. I think it’s part of a package."

"But that requires to support Israel's efforts to undermine the capabilities of Hamas, and it’s still there."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speech, World Economic Forum Davos Meeting 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS

The day before Israel's president addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, spoke on a Davos panel of the Kingdom having agreed "regional peace includes peace for Israel". That Saudi Arabia "certainly" would recognize Israel as part of a larger political agreement. Of course, there are conditions, nothing new about those conditions, since they're reiterated constantly.

"But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state", he averred in a familiar refrain. Omitting the obvious, that 'peace for the Palestinians' is actually in the hands of the very Palestinians that Saudi Arabia persists in advocating for. It is the Palestinians that have had their peace negotiators throw roadblocks time and again during now-defunct/frozen/dead peace talks with Israeli negotiators, where each and every concession at great cost to Israel, was rejected.

It is from Fatah, through the Palestinian Authority that incitements to violence and encouragement of children through school curricula to seriously consider the avocation of 'martyr' as 'resistance to occupation' has taken place, with the PA speaking one set of conditions to its audience in the West, and its true intentions to its home audience. It is from Hamas that the assurance comes that it will never abandon its charter promise to eradicate Israel from the map of the Middle East. Details, mere details.

As for the United States' position on the necessity of a 'two-state' solution to the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took that opportunity as well to exhaust the patience of any Israeli leader in the wake of October 7, and subsequent West Bank Palestinian polls that showed Hamas enjoying high popularity among Gazans and even more so among West Bank residents, averaging out to 82 percent of Palestinians believing Hamas did well in prosecuting their cause by raping, mutilating and slaughtering over 1,200 Israeli civilians.

Traumatized Israelis, said President Herzog, are focused on their security, translating to low support for the two-state conditions the outside world insists on imposing on Israel. What other nation on Earth would be prepared to live in such conditions that Israelis face day by day, never knowing when some hate-crazed assassin will lurch at someone standing at a bus stop with a knife, with intention to kill, or a vehicular homicide perpetrated by a Palestinian, or a forced night-time entry to a girl's bedroom who will be raped and murdered.

Knowing that people who live a stone's throw across a border are prepared at any given time to wreak  havoc and target Jews for death, either singly or in gatherings, Israelis live with an existential tension few other countries have ever had to contend with. The lesson taught by Hamas terrorists, supported by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PLFP on October 7 was a stark reminder of the level of lethal hate Israel is subjected to. Horrendously, ordinary civilian Palestinians flocked into southern Israel with the terrorists to add to the demonic chaos and death count.

Israel still awaits the return of 130 of the hostages left in Gaza. In reality there seems to be scant hope they will be recovered. Signs are that Hamas has been murdering the hostages they hold; bodies of Israeli hostages are being discovered by the Israel Defense Forces. Hostages with chronic health conditions were to have finally been given medication as a result of mediation, yet the Red Cross which has never stirred itself to insist it be given access to hostages to evaluate their conditions refused to deliver the drugs, handing them over to Hamas.

Once again the world community stands by in shallow sympathy with the Jewish state, just as they stood by when genocide was being actively perpetrated by state machinery addicted to annihilating Europe's Jews during the Holocaust years, when neither the Vatican, the Red Cross, Interpol, or world powers made any overtures to intervene. On that occasion it was Jews abandoned and alone; on this occasion it is the Jewish state reborn to protect their own.

President Isaac Herzog speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2024, alongside a photo of Hamas-held Israeli hostage Kfir Bibas. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)