"[The military took] a number of steps prior to the strike to avoid civilian casualties."
"[Other measures included aerial surveillance and] delaying the attack to further assess the expected civilian presence."
"[The deaths of the civilians in the strike were a] devastating incident, which we did not expect."
"We
are working to verify the cause of the fire. It is still too early to
be determined. Even when we do find the cause of the fire that erupted,
it won't make the situation any less tragic."
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari
On
Sunday night a large explosion and fire occurred at an encampment where
Palestinian Gazans sought shelter from the Israeli military's conflict
with Gaza's terrorist groups, in its determination to destroy the
ability of Hamas to endlessly repeat -- as they declared was their
intention -- the devastating atrocities they brought to Israeli citizens
on October 7 in a maelstrom of rape, torture and mass murder,
culminating with the abduction of 250 Jewish infants, children, men and
women along with a number of foreign farm workers and Muslim Israelis.
The
Gaza health ministry, an arm of Hamas, along with the Gaza civil
defence agency and Gaza media office reported that the explosion
resulted from a deliberately planned strike by the Israeli military on a
marked refugee region. One which Hamas characterized as a "Zionist massacre of civilians",
justifying its launch of yet another barrage of rockets targeting
Israel. The Palestinian humanitarian Red Crescent reported a "large number of martyrs" hit by "the occupation" had resulted when "Israeli aircraft shelled tents in this area". The world soon learned that 45 Palestinians died and over 200 were injured.
And
international condemnation of Israel flowed, fast and furious. Media,
relying on these initial, obviously deliberately biased and incorrect
reports by arms of a flaming terrorist group held Israel guilty of a
micro-bloodbath that resulted from an "Israeli strike on Rafah camp", as The Washington Post put it. "We are horrified by strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah" stated Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, demanding an "immediate ceasefire".
Fire rages at an area designated for displaced Palestinians in the Rafah area on Sunday Reuters
Two days after the explosion, the IDF released a satellite image with the explanation that they struck a target that was "a closed structure"(huge warehouse complex where two Hamas commanders were meeting) away
from the tent area. The image that was released showed that the
warehouse that was actually the target was about 180 metres from the
Al-Mawasi Humanitarian Area, where the fires broke out and Palestinian
civilians were killed. The strike had been carried out with precision
munitions, explained the IDF.
Munitions
of such limited strength they would not have generated the level of
damage shown in videos of the camp when the explosion and fires
occurred. A CNN analysis published Wednesday identified the remnants of a GBU-39 small diameter bomb at the site made by Boeing, marketed as a "precision-strike weapon" to minimize "collateral damage". And according to Rear-Adm. Daniel Hagari, damage to the camp resulted from "secondary explosions" hazarding that unknown weapons caches were ignited by the strike.
Attributing
the explosions and resulting fire to the probability of huge caches of
explosive devices in the warehouses was supported by videos of the fire
that Gazan civilians had produced, showing multiple blasts following the
initial, small, controlled strike. A narrator in one widely circulated
video is heard speculating in Arabic that the fire resulted from a
strike on "a vehicle filled with ammo and weapons".
The
IDF declared its overnight airstrike targeted Hamas commanders with the
deliberate use of small munitions incapable of causing a fire of those
dimensions independently. Leaving the IDF to suspect the fire was
ignited by a secondary explosion from hidden munitions or related
combustible materials used by Hamas. The target was a Hamas compound
distanced from civilian areas.The IDF is committed to investigate fully
even while its operations to dismantle Hamas and return the Israeli
hostages will proceed without interruption.
As
is usual for the IDF, civilians were instructed to move to designated
safe zones preceding the strike while Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and
Khaled Najjar were being tracked. Both died in the strike that used two
small munitions with a 17-kilogram warhead each, the smallest that can
be used with their jets and which were absent the strength to start "a fire of this size". "Israel
has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two
senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli
civilians", a White House spokesman stated earlier in the week.
When
Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad butchered over 300,000 of his own
Sunni Syrian citizens, the level of horrified condemnation was
relatively muted in comparison to the international attention and
censure that Israel -- in defence of its existence, and always in its
actions never deviating from international laws on self-defence and the
right to protect its citizens from an unrelenting death threat
--invariably is targeted with.
"As
Anishinaabe, we are troubled by the expressions of hatred against Jews
and Zionists, and the disappointing ignorance, fuelled by misinformation
coming from universities."
"Ignorance
about the indigeneity of the Jewish people in the region that is
Israel. Ignorance about the values that Israel, as a democracy, stands
for -- as imperfect as it is. Ignorance about the rights and
responsibilities Israel has as a nation state and member of the United
Nations. Ignorance about Zionism -- its compatibility with Palestinian
self-determination, a two-state solution, and the fact that the vast
majority of Jewish people identify with Israel. Ignorance about the
current reconciliation efforts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Canadians. Ignorance about our shared history and the intentions of our
original relationship."
"And
how quickly the sadistic savagery of Hamas's invasion of Israel and its
promises to repeat October 7 again and again and again are forgotten."
Harry Laforme, Karen Restoule, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation; Dokis First Nation
Anti
Israel protesters rally at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall
as the university’s deadline to remove the encampment has passed,
Monday May 27, 2024. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /National Post
Karen
Restoule specializes in public affairs, and with her law degree she is a
vice-president with Crestview Strategy, honourary witness to Hamas's
October 7 attack suffered by Israel. Harry Laforme is a retired
appellate court judge, and practising lawyer. They submitted their
impressions of the recent takeover of Canadian university grounds by
pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters, on unceded First Nations
territory and their outrage at the protestors' bald assertions that
First Nations are in support of their slanders against Israel and
intimidation campaign against Canadian Jews.
For
them the land in question has a spiritual essence that calls out to
Canada's Indigenous population as the original inhabitants of the great
land mass called Canada: "All
relations with Indigenous peoples need to be based on the recognition
and implementation of their right to self-determination", which universities claim to recognize, respecting rights and Treaties governing authentic First Nations lands. "The Land has spiritual essence and we are its custodians", a reality of "duty to consult" when Treaty Lands are used.
Their
written submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice
and Human Rights Study of Antisemitism notes the fact that on the Treaty
Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation six universities
are positioned and that universities recognize the Indigenous peoples
whose territory it is they occupy. Universities display fidelity to
reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, express awareness of Indigenous
presence and land rights but often fail to respect the Treaties that
govern the lands, as they have latterly been doing in permitting,
without consultation of their Indigenous partners, the occupation of
areas falling within the lands, for a purpose insulting to and opposed
by them.
Of
the six universities on Treaty Lands, five host encampments without
having consulted the MCFN, where encampment occupiers along with
pro-Palestinian protesters have taken control in illegal actions,
excluding Jewish and Zionist students and faculty, limited their access
to Treaty Lands and threatening them. The evident hatefulness of
exclusion, bigotry, harassment, antisemitism, lawlessness and
unadulterated antipathy are offensive to the values of the Treaty Land
owners on their sacred land who are affronted by the level of
lawlessness on full display.
The
narratives of false history, rampant slander, and fiction posing as
fact to delegitimize Israel and its historical claims of ancestry vastly
predating by millennia any slender claims made by former Egyptian
migrants to Palestine, as the original 'Palestinians' are offensive both
to reason, and truthful history. Their goal of isolating and spreading
hate against Jews offend the concept of equal human rights. To the
Indigenous peoples of Canada the proponents of hate's use of sacred
ceremonies like lighting of a Sacred Fire, smudging, drumming by
activists in encampments on university campuses are beyond the pale in
misappropriation of another culture.
The accusations of "colonizer", "settler", and "decolonize"
as part of the slanderous public relations machinery of those who
celebrate the Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians to justify
terror, kidnapping, rape and massacres are anathema to humanity's most
core values of civilization.
"These words are used to assert revolutionary violence 'by any means
necessary' and that 'all forms of resistance', are justified. ... We
unequivocally reject these assertions and any allyship with those who
hold such views", the authors of the submission wrote in justifiable outrage.
Supporters walk past a sign at the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on UQAM University campus, in Montreal, on May 27.Photo by Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
"We,
as Anishinaabe Zionists, are made to feel unwelcome on our Treaty Lands
by treaty scofflaws and encampment occupiers, who self describe as part
of the current colonial regime that marginalizes and oppresses
Indigenous peoples -- us. Perhaps, they should begin an examination of
the illogic of their own activities on our ancestral Treaty Lands."
"Our
Treaty partners must enforce the law and codes of conduct on campuses
and communities across the country Codes of conduct consistent with the
Treaties and The Seven Sacred Teachings should be developed."
"The
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of
antisemitism must be applied by all who fall within areas of federal
oversight, influence, and authority. Indigenous people should be
consulted with, about how Treaty Lands will be used. Universities must
stop the false narratives. Facts, reality, truth -- not fiction,
feelings and ideology -- should be taught."
Harry Laforme, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations
"As a founding member of NATO, Canada is a valued ally and has long contributed to essential NATO operations around the world."
"However, the transatlantic Alliance now faces one of the most severe threat landscapes in its history. As a consequence, we call on all NATO allies, including Canada, to uphold their commitment to ensure a stronger, sustainable NATO by accelerating efforts to reach the two percent defence spending target set by the alliance."
"By the end of 2024, 18 NATO countries will meet the alliance's goal to ensure NATO's continued military readiness."
"This is a historic investment in our collective security, led by NATO allies like Poland, a country that has already exceeded three percent of its GDP for defence spending."
Letter to PM Justin Trudeau from U.S. Senators
"The current government are the ones trying to manage this problem, but this problem did not happen in the last eight years -- this has been decades in the making. We don't take defence and security seriously and this is a manifestation of that lack of seriousness."
"That [every dollar not spent on defence in Canada spent on other priorities] may be extremely attractive to the Canadian government and Canadian voters, but we've been funding a lot of our own domestic national priorities thanks to the benevolence, charity and generosity of the United States, who basically have been carrying the vast majority of the defence and security obligations that we should have been contributing more to."
"Our relationship with Washington is absolutely essential, not only to our security but to our economic stability, and it affects more broadly some of the key relationships we have in Europe, Asia and elsewhere."
"We need to get our act together."
Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, former vice-chief of defence staff, head, Royal Canadian Navy
A bipartisan
group of U.S. senators has written a letter to Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, urging him to meet the NATO spending target Canada first agreed
to in 2014. Kevin Cramer, a U.S. senator who co-wrote the letter, says
Canada has to ‘step up a little bit’ to help secure freedom. CBC
Canadians share the top two-thirds of North America with the United States, and the longest contiguous undefended border in the world which seems to endow the Canadian government with the belief that to protect their own national security, the United States must ensure its border is safe and that Canada, its northern neighbour which has always shirked its neighbourly obligation of equal cooperation with the U.S. is secure from any enemy incursion that would invariably affect the U.S. With that assurance, Canadians have always flippantly passed on the expense of mutual protection from enemy aliens to the U.S.
That seems to work for the southern border, but Canada boasts its sovereignty 'from Sea to Sea to Sea', so there's the matter of the Canadian Arctic to be defended. Just as much of Europe is working on bringing their defence spending in line with the overall agreed-upon minimum of two percent of the national budget to be spent on national defence -- an emergent priority since Russia's 'special military operation' in Ukraine -- one that threatens the stability and autonomy and borders of Eastern Europe, Canada is rivalled for its Arctic holdings by Russia.
The letter made public this week signed by 23 Democratic, Republican and independent American senators spoke to the reality that Canada's laxity in ensuring it is amply prepared to defend itself in compliance with NATO's preparedness guidelines, has irritated its American neighbour for decades. When Donald Trump held the presidency he made no bones about his annoyance over NATO members in general failing to pony up their fair share of defence necessities in their military equipment and troop numbers. All lacking in reaching the required two percent of GDP to defence.
With a degree of understatement the American Senators' letter speaks of the dangerous level of the current international geopolitical situation, requiring vital levels of investment by member countries allied through NATO. Canada's relatively feeble 1.33 percent commitment simply doesn't make the grade, ranking it ahead of Sprain, Belgium and Luxembourg, whereas eleven NATO members -- Poland, the United States, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Denmark met or exceeded the two percent benchmark.
"This letter coming after [Defence Minister Bill] Blair's visit [to Washington] is a pretty good indication that they heard what they saw and said 'nah, not good enough'."
"He [Donald Trump likely to return as U.S. President in November] practises grievance-based politics."
"So what's the grievance with Canada right now? Defence."
"If it's a widespread view within the U.S. Senate and House that Canada is a laggard in spending and they're not happy with it, you know that this will become a bilateral issue because Trump will look for a grievance to pick at, and this is an easy one."
Defence analyst Richard Shimooka
Our North, Strong and Free, Canada's new defence strategy, was unveiled earlier in the year, with a pledge of $8.1 billion in new defence spending in a five-year period, projecting defence spending to each 1.76 percent by 2029-2030, which albeit increasing Canada's defence spending, still leaves it below the required 2 percent expenditure expected of all NATO members. And despite the impending change of American leadership come November, Canada is still not taking the situation seriously or recalling Donald Trump's searing criticism in 2019 of Canada's failure in meeting the benchmark of two percent.
There can be no doubt that the issue highlighted by the letter to Justin Trudeau given that of the letter's 23 signatories, ten were Republican senators, indicated beyond a doubt that Washington's concerns represents a cross-party issue. Since the United States is Canada's largest and most important trade partner, among other issues, Canada can ill afford to alienate the powerful government in Washington regardless of whose administration it is.
"We are very significantly increasing defence spending in Canada. In fact, our defence budget will go up 27 percent next year over this year."
"We recently came up with a defence policy that I think applies a very significant and necessary focus on continental defence, which I would share with the concerned senators."
Canadian Minister of Defence Bill Blair
Defence
Minister Bill Blair says Canada is still short of meeting its NATO
commitment to spend two per cent of GDP on defence but is making strides
towards that goal, and new investments in military infrastructure
inevitably will push spending past that target. CBC
Canada's Abandonment of Democratic Embattled Israel
"About
a year ago, we had this whole debate about judicial reform. That didn't
actually happen in the end, right? So right now, at this point in time
... there's absolutely no argument about how independent the courts in
Israel are."
"When
it comes to civilian casualties, every strike, every single strike,
goes through legal evaluation. Also the larger humanitarian situation
within war zones, and Gaza specifically, is always something which the
international law department of the army always accompanies. And so you
always have this legal envelope in order to ensure that everything is
done according to international law."
"Canada
as a country over the years, has been an incredible friend of Israel.
But after having said that, I have to say that I've been very
disappointed with a lot of things that have come out of Canada."
"...Since
October 7, in the beginning, we felt a lot of support, but then very
quickly, we've seen a lot of actions we've been very disappointed with.
That includes the famous vote [in Parliament]."
"And yes, there's a lot we've been very disappointed with in Canada's policy in general."
Dan Illouz, transplanted Montrealer, current Likud member of Israeli Knesset
"It's
likely that they will issue these warrants that the prosecutor asked
for, which means that the prime minister and the defence minister can no
longer travel to any country in western Europe."
"So this means that if the president of France wants to speak with the prime minister of Israel, he'll have to come here."
Shmuel Rosner, Israeli journalist, political commentator
Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Credit: Loey Felipe/U.N. Photo
Arrest
warrants, according to International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim
Khan are awaiting production. Three meant for the Hamas leaders who are
responsible for the orchestration through practise, and eventual
execution of a planned-for border invasion from Gaza into Israel for the
very specific purpose of terrorizing and victimizing Israeli citizens,
mostly Jews, but including some Muslim Israelis and a number of foreign
farm workers. In total 1,200 people were mercilessly slaughtered while
countless Jewish girls and women were systematically raped, tortured and
murdered.
As
were infants and children, along with their families, many burned alive
when their homes were set fire, their safe rooms that sheltered them
becoming the ovens of their destruction. The sheer savagery of the
attacks represented a hell on Earth; men, women and children slaughtered
because they were Jewish Israelis. Jewish Israelis living in border
kibbutzim who empathized with Palestinians living in Gaza to the extent
that many of the Jews committed to hiring Palestinians as farm workers,
and many others were regularly transported as a humanitarian gesture to
Israeli hospitals for treatment.
None
were spared. Among the Palestinian civilians who flooded across the
border from Gaza into Israel with the terrorist invaders were those who
had formerly shared food in the kibbutz mess halls with Israelis when
they worked on the kibbutz farms. They knew the locations within the
kibbutzim of the buildings that housed the community's security
personnel, and those were the first of the buildings to be entered by
the terrorists, their security residents summarily executed before
moving on to the homes of community families.
The
estimated 3,000 members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, alongside Palestinian Gazan
civilians dispatched any Jews they could find, and there were hundreds
hunted down and murdered at the site of the Nova music festival taking
place that holiday weekend in southern Israel, young men and women
gathered for a celebratory music festival when their gaiety and
comradeship suddenly turned on Saturday, October 7 into a desperate
flight for survival that not all succeeded with.
Karim
Khan's announcement of the arrest warrant requests included Israel's
Prime Minister and its Defence Minister; Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav
Gallant. Nothing to distinguish these two Jewish-Israeli leaders who are
overseeing their nation's response to that mass murder of October 7 by
invading Gaza with the direct purpose of destroying terrorism's future
opportunities to wreak such sadistic violence again on Israel's
citizens. Acting in complete accordance with international standards of
conflict, but in the style that Israel has pioneered, with far fewer
civilian casualties than any similar conflict.
It
should be noted that the International Criminal Court's mission is not
to prosecute figures from nations with law-objective judiciaries enabled
to handle their interior/exterior affairs in the finest tradition of
Western democracies where any and all potential violations of
international are investigated thoroughly without fear or favour. Dan
Illouz with his law degree from McGill University served with the Israel
Defense Forces as an adviser on international law. The IDF is mindful
that its actions be in keeping with international obligations, supported
by strict procedures.
In
Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , his foreign minister and deputy
prime minister refused to take a position to deny support for the ICC's
request for arrest warrants, much less whether Canada would commit to
arresting Israeli state figures should the warrants be granted. It has
been made abundantly clear over the months since the October 7 invasion
that equivocation, uncertainty, and eventual abandonment now marks
Canada's relationship with its erstwhile friend and partner in
democracy.
Seven
in ten Palestinians responding to a poll approved of the Hamas
barbarity of October 7. The Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas has an
approval rating in the single digits; seven in ten Palestinians call on
his resignation. Abbas at 88 won his electoral mandate close to two
decades ago. It is a certainty that if an election were called today for
leadership of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Hamas would win a wide and
clear majority of votes. Not only is the Trudeau government playing to
its home audience comprised of a far larger Muslim than Jewish
population among whom Palestinians have mounted a pro-Hamas campaign,
but it seems to find itself in favour of promoting a Hamas future
government as well.
"[The attempt to get Netanyahu and Gallant arrested is an] unrestrained
frontal assault on the victims of October 7 and our 128 hostages in
Gaza."
"While Hamas murderers and rapists commit crimes against humanity
against our brothers and sisters, the prosecutor mentions in the same
breath the prime minister and defense minister of Israel alongside the
vile Nazi-like monsters of Hamas—a historical disgrace that will be
remembered forever."
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz
"The statement of the chief prosecutor at
the International Court of Justice on his request for arrest warrants
against Israel’s leaders is a shameful act of moral bankruptcy."
"Comparing Israel—a democracy that
cherishes and protects civilian life—to Hamas terrorists who commit
atrocities and glorify death, is a scandalous and shameful distortion of
justice. …"
"This disgrace must be strongly condemned and will not be
allowed to pass without a strong response."
Dan Illouz, Likud Knesset member
In the wake of the recent release of a video showing the abduction of
female soldiers from the Nahal Oz base, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has requested the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to release a
modified version of the 43-minute video documenting the brutal events of
the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7. JNS
"The
State of Israel is committed to continue fighting to return its
hostages and promise the security of its citizens -- wherever and
whenever necessary -- including in Rafah."
"We
will continue operating in accordance with international law wherever
we might operate, while safe-guarding to the best extent possible the
civilian population."
"Not because of the ICJ, but because of who we are and the values we stand for."
Benny Gantz, Israeli war cabinet member
Troops of the Nahal Brigade operate in eastern Rafah in the southern
Gaza Strip, in a handout image published May 22, 2024. (Israel Defense
Forces)
There
is no arm of the United Nations which has not been permeated with a
solid antipathy toward the State of Israel. The entire mission of the
United Nations; equality, peace and security for all, has been
perverted for decades with the steady infiltration of cadres of UN
authorities and employees of the institution that harbour an ingrained
message of antisemitic rejection, one that singles Israel out in every
conceivable way to use it as the proverbial whipping-boy for all that
may be wrong anywhere in the world; yet seldom in Israel.
In
the direct wake of the International Criminal Court condemning Israel
for its incursion into Gaza for the express purpose of routing and
defeating its terrorist government in direct response to the Hamas
terrorist attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 Israelis, mostly
citizens dead, the Palestinian terrorists having taken body cam videos
of devastatingly savage and psychologically sadistic rapes and
accompanying mutilations, where infants, children, the elderly and
infirm were all slaughtered, a second censure from the International
Court of Justice followed.
There
is no nation on Earth, self-respecting and committed to the defence of
its population, that would not respond to the brutality, the depths of
depravity committed and the horrors of invaders murdering their people
as Israel has done. The terrorist group Hamas has refused to surrender
any of the 135 hostages of the original 250 it had captured and brought
back to Gaza. Maintaining them in the countless tunnels that honeycomb
the Gaza Strip, they are abused and used as human shields knowing how
Israel values the lives of all its citizens.
Israel's
sworn intention to destroy the Palestinian terrorist ability to
continue their barbaric attacks on its people includes not only the
destruction of the stockpiled weapons in the possession of the terror
groups, but their operatives as well. It is the least that any other
country would designate their ultimate goal. Yet ostensible collegial
Western countries choose to chastise Israel for placing the lives of
Palestinian citizens at risk, even while the Israel Defense Forces take
precautions no other military would undertake in similar circumstances.
That
the International Court of Justice's order that Israel halt its
military offensive immediately, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, it
has no capacity to enforce the order and Israel will not accept the
court's jurisdiction. Yet both the courts' judicial and prejudicial
interventions slamming Israel and supporting the Palestinian 'cause'
prejudice unjustly Israel's flagging global reputation.
"The
International Court of Justice's decision opens up the possibility for
relief, but only if governments use their leverage, including through
arms embargoes and targeted sanctions, to press Israel to urgently
enforce the court's measures."
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director, Human Rights Watch
"[Fears
the court expressed earlier this year about an operation in Rafah have]
materialized. [Israel must] immediately halt its military offensive [in
the city and anything else that might result in conditions that could
cause the] physical destruction in whole or in part [of Palestinians
there]."
Nawaf Salam, ICJ president
Two
weeks ago, Israel began disseminating evacuation orders as military
operations began on the city's edge. The IDF says an estimated million
Palestinians have since left the immediate area as Israeli forces press
deeper within. Rafah is considered the last and ultimate stronghold of
Hamas, where four of its divisions are sheltering, and it is there as
well that Israel expects the bulk of the Israeli hostages may be
found.
Judges arrive at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on
South Africa's request on a Rafah and wider Gaza war ceasefire, in The
Hague, on May 24, 2024 (Nick Gammon / AFP)
"The
National Microbiology Laboratory scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding
Cheng essentially used Canada's highest-security biohazard laboratory as
a lending library for Chinese military interests."
"During
her time as head of vaccines and antivirals in t he NML's zoonotic
diseases and special pathogens division, Qiu repeatedly acted on China's
behalf, including by transferring knowledge and materials from the NML
to Chinese institutions."
Peter Shawn, senior features editor, C2C Journal
"Conduct the interviews in a respectful and professional manner."
"Care
will be taken to avoid any comments or behaviours that could intimidate
or be perceived as badgering or threatening the interviewees."
NML interview instruction
Xiangguo Qiu wears a biocontainment suit while working in the
containment lab at the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. (CBC)
Simultaneous
to the time that two bio-researchers of Chinese origin who were
Canadian citizens were held in suspicion of releasing Canadian
intelligence out of Canada's only high-security biohazard laboratory,
two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were being held on
trumped up charges of espionage presenting a danger to Chinese security,
in retaliation for Canada responding to a U.S. request to hold Meng
Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei for indictment under U.S. state secrets law. They
were held for over two years before their release back to Canada.
China
plays rough, its detainment diplomacy signals that they do not take
kindly to imposing uncomfortable penalties on Chinese nationals, groups,
or businesses for behaviour harmful to host countries. Canada, on the
other hand, treads lightly for fear of offending those involved in clear
conduct of espionage threatening Canada's intelligence interests. Just
how lightly Canada treads has been revealed with the 600-page release of
classified documents related to NML security breaches.
Canada's
national security interests were subordinated and contorted by
diplomatic delicacy in efforts to avoid being labelled racist. The new
values-driven concerns surrounding victimology that has been integrated
into the federal bureaucracy, instructs those involved in these
sensitive issues to be very, very careful. Leading to spies like
Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng treated with kid gloves even
when the extent and seriousness of their actions injurious to Canada's
interests were fully revealed.
"During
the grievance hearing, you described the significant emotional toll
that you and your family have experienced as a result of this process. I
understand this and sympathize with the feelings you expressed."
"I
appreciate that this may be a stressful time, and remind you that the
Employee Assistance Program is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
Official denial of racism claim
A
routine "insider threat briefing" at the National Microbiology Lab
conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 2018 began to
reveal reasons to suspect Qiu and Cheng's activities with respect to
China. Their electronic devices had been tapped by CSIS and what was
then amassed was a troublesome brief of their activities, including
violations of security protocols, along with revelations of links to
researchers with connections to the Chinese military.
Following
an anodyne disciplinary letter forwarded to them in 2020 fully one and a
half years after their suspected activities were verified, the federal
government was satisfied they could return to the lab. However, at that
point CSIS discovered new information that showed their involvement in
China's many 'talent' programs; disguised espionage schemes whose
purpose was to purloin knowledge from other countries;
research-time-and-talent saving short-cuts for Beijing.
Mid-2020
with ample evidence at hand, the duo was called to return for follow-up
interviews. Offered the opportunity to refute the conclusions reached
by CSIS related to their actions, Qiu responded with a facade of the
brilliant, but naive scientist."It
was only during the investigative interview that I started to know some
new words to me, such as 'NATO', 'spy' and 'espionage'", she claimed, all innocent sweetness and concerned light.
Both
Qiu and Cheng claimed racism was at work trying to ruin their
reputations as reputable scientists. they launched a grievance through
their union, claiming to be victims of "racial profiling" making use of
their Chinese backgrounds. The entire case being brought against them
should be discarded, they
contended. It was well known in the intelligence community that Qiu and Cheng deliberately and repeatedly lied to investigators.
Qiu
had been working actively in favour of transferring data to the Wuhan
Laboratory; in 2019 she arranged the shipment of 30 vials of deadly
virus samples that included Ebola and Henipah, fron NML's stockpile to
go to China, without permission from the National Microbiology Lab,
withholding news of the event from her superiors. Her husband had a
three-year research project at his NML lab that benefited China's Centre
for Disease Control, unknown to NML authorities.
Canadian
citizens involved secretly as foreign agents harming Canada's national
security. While authorities at the Winnipeg Lab as well as government
political figures went about on tiptoes wary of being held to account
with accusations of racism and riling Beijing, should they act on the
knowledge that Canadian intelligence agencies had been informing them
about and warning them of, for years.
Intelligence
documents detail why Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were
fired from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg in 2021. Still from Video, CBC
Negotiated Settlements Set Aside by Norway, Ireland, Spain
"Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing
that we recognize the state of Palestine. Each of us will now undertake
whatever national steps are necessary to give effect to that decision."
"There is never a wrong time to do the right thing".
"It was my government’s preferred position to recognize a
two-state solution as part of a peace process to bring that about, but
sadly, unfortunately, such a comprehensive peace settlement now seems,
in many ways, further away than it has ever been."
"We believe you can’t say you’re in favor of a two-state
solution and not recognize the very existence of two states."
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris
From
left, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, Spain's President Pedro Sánchez
and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are pictured. Getty Images/PA/Reuters
Was
ever a sentence uttered that should have been corrected as 'There is
never a right time to do a wrong thing'? Israel, in reacting to the
tripartite statement in shock and disbelief is entirely correct in
chiding these three Western democracies for their gross error in
judgement, deciding between them that the 'right thing' to do is to
reward terrorist groups in the Middle East for their vicious penchant to
declare their intention to destroy a legally and morally constituted
state on its own ancestral geography that has been challenged for
possession by a group of Arab (of mostly Egyptian origin)
colonizers claiming it as their own. Did the three ask themselves why it
was that a negotiated settlement was further away than ever?
The
opportunity for a two-state 'solution' was offered through the UN's
partition plan, promptly and gratefully accepted by Israel, furiously
rejected by those now calling themselves 'Palestinians' who preferred to
wait out the intentions of surrounding Arab/Muslim countries to march
on the nascent state of Israel with a view to preventing the
establishment of the Jewish state. Succeeding wars failed just as the
initial one did, but the Palestinian-Arab determination to wreak havoc
on Israel with the ultimate aim to destroy it and murder all its
population has never faded.
The
October 7 butchery that took place in southern Israel by the terrorist
groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, aided and abetted by Palestinian civilians
exhibiting raw savagery in the sordid, ghoulish sadistic cruelty meted
out to innocent civilians has few parallels in modern history. This
declaration by Palestinians both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who
have been polled to render 85% support to Hamas terrorism and their
approval of the October 7 bestiality represents the level of
civilization that Spain, Norway and Ireland are prepared to recognize
and legitimize with statehood.
Israel
is dismayed, but perhaps not completely surprised by the three
countries turning their backs on the only democracy in the Middle East,
distinguished from all others because it is Jewish, its origins the very
land it now sits upon, along with other areas the world prepared to
honour and hand over to an Arab population that has no intention, ever,
of living in peace with the original inhabitants of the land. In their
preparation to recognize the State of Palestine, no effort has been made
by Spain, Norway and Ireland to condemn the Palestinians for their
aspirations to destroy Israel.
Nor
has any overture been made to persuade the Palestinians through their
leadership to turn their ambitions toward statehood infrastructure and
the merits of civilized behaviour in favour of completely foregoing its
lethal hostility against Israel. Needless to say, with no expectations
of Palestinians curbing and abandoning their commitment to violence
against Israel, the announcements of support in the form of recognition
of their ambitions to form a legitimate state with no pre-conditions
sits extremely well with the Palestinian leadership -- the Palestinian
Authority and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
Envoys
of the three countries were summoned by Israel in a diplomatic
expression of profound disappointment in their judgement and
decision-making. The European ambassadors to Israel, Israeli Foreign
Minister Israel Katz said grimly, would be requested to witness video
footage of the October 7 attack, to ensure they had intimate first-hand
knowledge of what had transpired, through videos produced by the
terrorists themselves as they rampaged through Israeli farming
kibbutzim, raping and vandalizing, torturing children and women before
murdering them.
"[A Palestinian state is] a prerequisite for achieving peace in the Middle
East."
"There will be no peace in the Middle East without a
two-state solution."
"There can be no
two-state solution without a Palestinian state."
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
"This recognition is not against the people of Israel and
certainly not against the Jewish people."
"It’s not in favor of
Hamas."
"It’s in favor of co-existence."
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
"[Recognizing a Palestinian state would be a] reward for terror."
"This will be a terror state, which will attempt to
perpetrate the onslaught of October 7 time and again, and to that we
shall not agree."
"This evil must not be given a
state."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
A man waves the Palestinian flag in front of the Norwegian Parliament
building during a demonstration in Oslo, Oct. 28, 2023. (Frederik
Ringnes/NTB via AP)
"[Mohammad Al-Massi -- commander-in-chief Hamas military wing -- Ismail Haniyeh -- head of Hamas political wing -- Yahya Sinwar -- Hamas/Gaza chief -- charged by the International Criminal Court with extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, torture and outrages upon personal dignity; the three] planned and instigated the commission of crimes on October 7th, and have, through their own actions, including personal visits to hostages shortly after their kidnapping, acknowledged their responsibility for those crimes."
International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan
Three master-terrorists, utterly conscienceless sadistic monsters for whom human life is irrelevant to their greater goals of the total extermination of a re-born Jewish State, an ancestral Judaean land where historical antecedents leave no doubt Jews were domiciled for thousands of years until the Roman Empire sent its legions to pacify and control the Middle East for centuries until a time when Jews rebelled, fought and died and ultimately were exiled for a second time in ancient history. Palestinian terrorists are working on a third time.
And the State of Israel -- in the aftermath of a horror that slaughtered 1,200 of its citizens as well as a handful of foreign farm workers, where sadistic savagery was displayed in a volume of mass rape, jubilant mutilation, rape and murder of Jewish girls and women, where infants were killed along with their entire families and children, the elderly and ill, Israeli men and women were abducted and taken into captivity in Gaza -- reacted with fury and righteous offense.
Israel's dispatching of its military into Gaza for the sole and singular purpose of disarming the Hamas war machinery, including dispatching the leaders of the terrorist groups Islamic Jihad and the PFLP on a martyrdom trip to Paradise; to militarily confront the groups, to dispossess them of their stockpiled weaponry, to destroy their tunnel system in Gaza, was meant to ensure that a promised repeat of the ghoulish October 7 attack would never re-occur.
Israel's reaction was the very same as any other self-respecting nation whose first duty it is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, a well understood and expected response to the fracturing of a nation's trust that a neighbouring country or group of people aspiring to achieve recognition of a nation dedicated to their civil futures would never seek to commit that magnitude of violence on another. The unremitting hatred expressed by Palestinian terrorist groups toward Israel refutes that trust.
Yet in Israel's committing to protect its own from any further such terrorist acts after sustaining multiple decades of recurring lethal attacks massacring its citizens and in the process of response through battling its enemies takes the kind of humanitarian care to take highly unusual steps to mitigate civilian deaths in the geography hosting them alongside their terrorist government, condemnation at the plight of Gazan civilians emanates from all quarters.
Apart from the reality that a majority of Palestinians approve of violence against Israel, approve of Hamas, approve of its charter to destroy Israel, approve of the unspeakable action of October 7, Israel does its utmost to protect the lives of non-combatant civilians. Which is far more than can be said of any other fighting force in history. Where during World War II, the Allied forces fire-bombed civilian infrastructure and cities as punishment for their leaders' instigation of war.
That the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for the Prime Minister of Israel and the Israeli defence minister -- as well as warrants for Hamas leaders, clearly indicates that in his opinion one group equates with the other. An outrage of discretionary choice to place leaders of a responsible, liberal democracy on a similar footing with leaders of a proud death-cult culture aspiring to destroy an entire people and its state.
Yet the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant along with Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh of war crimes and crimes against humanity in both the Gaza Strip and in Israel. The actual granting of the warrants is the responsibility of a panel comprised of three judges tasked to consider prosecutorial evidence to make their determination whether to issue arrest warrants so that a case can proceed.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan
"[Israel fights with] one of the strictest [moral codes, respects international law and has a robust judiciary capable of investigating itself -- and has in the past, impartially]."
"The State of Israel is waging one of the just wars fought in modern history following a reprehensible massacre perpetrated by terrorist Hamas on the 7th of October."
Benny Gantz, former military chief, member Israeli war cabinet
As for Hamas; it has accused the prosecutor of trying to "equate the victim with the executioner", a statement of such appalling absurdity, turning reality inside out, a trait and a twist of reality typical of Palestinian logic as a manipulative skill to convince others that night is daylight in appealing to the sympathy of the outside world for the 'victims' of Israeli aggression. Hamas, the statement went on, has the right to resist Israeli occupation, including "armed resistance". Israel is 'occupying' ancient Judaean land that Palestinians insist is their own rightful inheritance.
"Hardliners will probably seek a candidate capable of balancing their faction following recent political tensions."
"No
significant crises are anticipated until the presidential election,
which is expected to follow a similar format to previous ones."
Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, former Iranian reformist vice-president
"One
of the main culprits of yesterday's tragedy is the United States, which
... embargoed the sale of aircraft and aviation parts to Iran and does
not allow the people of Iran to enjoy good aviation facilities."
Mohammad Javad Zarif, former Iranian foreign minister
Former Iranian president speaks in 2024.Vahid Salemi/AP
The
world's major state fomenter of antisemitic violence of the decidedly
lethal variety has lost its sitting president, slated to take the place
sooner than expected of the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, 85 and said to be suffering from cancer. A man as wickedly
nasty as they come, he earned the title Butcher of Tehran, for the
death of thousands of Iranian dissenters was an integral portion of his
legacy. Broadly speaking, and judging from the wild celebrations that
have taken place in Iran over news of his death, he will not be missed.
But
what, after all, do Iranians know? In the hallowed halls of the United
Nations, the man and his theocratic-ruling colleagues have found deep
respect, elevated as authorities to tutor other countries about human
rights, women's rights and issues relating to weapons of war. The very
country, through its Revolutionary Republican Guard Corps whose al-Quds
division is responsible for training, arming and funding 'revolutionary'
Islamist groups like proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in
Yemen, as well as Gaza's Hamas terrorists lauded in the UN.
Ebrahim
Raisi did not die alone. With him in the helicopter that was several
decades old and which likely hadn't undergone routine mechanical checks,
were the state's foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and Iran's
East Azerbaijan provincial governor, along with a senior cleric from
Tabriz, a Revolutionary Guard official and three helicopter crew. In
actual fact, they, none of them will be missed anywhere, not by
Iranians, not by Israel whose most recent death-cult experiences are
credited to the dead 'authorities' as well a direct sabre-rattling
confrontation.
Iranian
authorities can indirectly point to Israel as the fount of a chain of
circumstances that led to their late, lamented cabinet members' demise;
the Zionist-entity and its sponsor, the Great Satan's imposition of
stringent sanctions linked to Iran's quest for nuclear weaponry has
struck the country's finances, and American influence and power has
persuaded those reliant upon its good graces to refrain from trade with
the proscribed nation.
Elected
in 2021 after the mercurial, threatening and leering Ahmadinejad -- who
in an address to the UN spoke of his country's mission to destroy
Israel as well as the oncoming appearance of the Hidden Mahdi whose
return to life would presage Armageddon, when faithful Shiites would
ascend to heaven to join the Prophet Mohammad in Paradise, and
non-Muslims would perish ingloriously -- on a record-low turnout
excluding reformists and veteran politicians on the election slate, he
vowed to bring Iran closer to China and Russia, and away from Western
influence.
The United Nations on Tuesday lowered its flag to half-staff outside of
its New York City headquarters to honor Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi,
who died in a helicopter crash Monday. (UNTV)
Viewed
as a protege of the ruling Khamenei, Iran's quest with its enriched
uranium program has brought it perilously close to its goal of producing
weapons-grade uranium, and ultimately the nuclear devices it envisions
will hasten its re-conquest of the Middle East, over Arab, Sunni-Muslim
majority nations leery of the Persian Shiite country's intentions. His
hand in Hamas's October 7 savage attack in southern Israel is evident --
that has led to a greater Middle East fallout where regional violence
has increased exponentially.
Shiite
militias in Iraq and Syria have taken to targeting American bases in
those countries, while Yemen's Houthis have interrupted and continue to
threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and Hezbollah in Lebanon
launches daily missiles into Israel, in a restrained and deliberate
scheme to draw the IDF away from Gaza as the need to respond to
provocations from across Israel's northern border has become a critical
diversion.
Widespread,
violent protests broke out with the death in police custody of Mahsa
Amini, a young woman accused of improperly covering her head.
Repercussions from the Iranian public from the majority who fear and
detest the regime brought out large hordes of enraged protesters. The
protests were systematically and violently disrupted, the protesters
brutally beaten, imprisoned, and murdered.
Russia
has found a dependable ally in the Islamic Republic which supplies the
Russian military with armed drones used strategically in Ukraine in
Moscow's infamous 'special military operation'. Raisi had travelled in
2023 to China to meet personally with Chinese President Xi Jinping; the
three countries have formed a bond of 'understanding' and support for
one another.
And
in the United Nations, the decision was made to honour this man and his
nation by lowering the UN flag to half-mast. And, fittingly enough,
given the venue and canted purpose of the United Nations, a grave
minute-of-silence in mourning for this mass murderer whose
responsibility weighed on ensuring that his country was notable for its
support for and inciting terrorism with an especial focus on Israel,
took place at the UNGA. No shame!
Tehran– International organizations across the world observed a minute
of silence on Monday and Tuesday in honor of the tragic passing of
President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.
"What
Israel has been up against is not just a people of death, but a cult of
death, a cult which wishes to annihilate an entire race, and which
after dealing with that race has made very clear what it wants to do
with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America."
Douglas Murray, British commentator
"On
college campuses, in the streets and in the media, there has been a
readiness to demonize Israel for its response to a terrorist attack in
which women were raped and children butchered."
"If
ignoring the atrocities of Hamas, such as the fate of [the] young
Israeli-German woman who was raped and murdered, then paraded through
Gaza on the back of a truck, [if that] isn't that a form of
antisemitism, what is?"
"Polls
have shown a massive majority of Canadians support Israel in its fight
against Hamas terrorists. But silent support is now insufficient as the
radicals breaking the law in our midst have become increasingly
emboldened."
"The fig leaf of arguing that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism has been long extinguished by the conduct of these crowds."
Howard Levitt, employment and labour lawyer, Levitt Sheikh
University of British Columbia is among nine Canadian universities that have seen encampments erected in recent days. (Chuck Chiang/The Canadian Press)
The
ongoing mass protests on the streets, before hospitals, the encampments
on university campuses, the pro-Hamas mobs appearing at municipal
meetings demanding that official statements condemning Israel and
supporting Palestinians be issued forthwith, and that all and anything
connected with Israel be boycotted continue to turn normal life in
Canada on its head. Illegal occupations, threats issued to Jewish
students and teaching staff, school boards that cannot see their way
through to offering protection to Jewish students all have upturned life
for Canadian Jews.
The
violent rhetoric, the criminal acts of torching Jewish parochial
schools, synagogues, the defacing of Jewish owned businesses, the
demands that the public ostracize and penalize Canadian Jews for the
actions of the Israel Defense Forces invading Gaza to rout and disarm
Palestinian terrorists have amply demonstrated that many Arabs,
Palestinians and other Muslim immigrants, refugees and migrants who have
arrived in Canada are not sociologically and culturally fit to live in
the country with its emphasis on respect for the law and acceptance of
equality for all.
The
strident chorus of isolating Israel, of boycotting its products, of
damning Jews for their existential imperative to defend themselves from
the violent malice of its detractors and predators illustrate the
mindless hate percolating through society in the mass infiltration of
Western traditions and culture set aside with scorn by people hailing
from dictatorships and theocracies who discipline lethally those who
spurn their calls for obedience to Sharia and obeisance to Islam.
Boycott
Israel? The nation whose research and development represents the
highest of any advanced country? Whose research and development eclipsed
that of South Korea and Taiwan? Israel's R&D was ranked on a
percentage of its GDP, number one globally, three times higher than 21st
rated Canada. Jewish tradition weighs heavily in favour of ensuring
that their children receive good educations. 437,000 Jewish immigrants
left Europe for Palestine between 1881 and 1939, among them engineers,
scientists, doctors, lawyers, architects and musicians.
In
the 1990s a major migration of scientists following the collapse of the
Soviet Union and its Eastern European appendages, heading for Israel
along with other professionals committed to continue building prosperity
for their future and that of the nation in a concerted,
government-supported-and funded re-education focusing on new technology.
"I'd
never before heard so many unconventional observations -- one after the
other. Junior employees had no inhibition about challenging how we had
been doing things for years", observed Scott H. Thompson, PayPal president, in 2007.
Israeli
scientists are boldly innovative, their enterprise and curiosity lead
them to scientific breakthroughs that tend to have a wide audience as
their products and inventions engage other countries in the use of new
technologies from the 'startup nation'.
The flexible medical stent;
The computer firewall;
Micro-irrigation;
sophisticated bee-breeding;
Clean water produced from air;
Road safety (Waze);
Harm-free pest control;
The Iron Dome;
A-I systems conducting automated vehicle inspections;
Gray Maters Health Prism device for post-traumatic-stress disorder.
Pro-Israel demonstrators protested last week near a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University's campus in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
