UNRWA, Facilitator of Palestinian Terrorism

"UNRWA has taken steps to address allegations regarding individual employees' support for terrorist organizations and demonstrated its willingness to pursue and implement reform of internal processes."

Co-signed (Canada, Australia, France, Germany Japan South Korea, U.K.) statement

"[The new laws in Israel] would de facto render UNRWA's vital operations in Gaza impossible, and seriously hamper its provision of services in the West Bank."

"[The laws stand] in stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental principle of humanity."

Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

 

"UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable. Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future."

"In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Security personnel work at the UNRWA headquarters, in Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

 

Israel  has moved to make it illegal for the United Nations' Relief and Works Agency(UNRWA) to continue its operations in Israeli territory. State officials in Israel may no longer, under the law, co-operate with the UN aid agency. A large majority of the Knesset passed the two laws in the wake of ongoing revelations of UNRWA staff complicity in the Hamas October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.

According to an unnamed U.S. State Department official, the Biden Administration is "deeply concerned" over this turn of affairs. Despite which had the United States been the subject of such barbarian savagery, there would be no question of the ferocity of its retaliation against the perpetrators of the inhuman nature of such barbarism against its civilian population by a conscienceless aggressor. Think back to September 11, 2001. For Israel, September 11 and October 7 are interchangeable.

Afghanistan facilitated and nurtured the al-Qaeda conspiracy that resulted in 9/11 which led to a long and ultimately fruitless pursuit of both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The latter's mastermind was eliminated but the state of mind that he expressed lives on. UNRWA has, since its inception as a permanent crutch for the interminable victimhood of Palestinians aided and abetted and incited its spirit of malevolent intentions against the Jewish state in the interests of destroying Israel.

According to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini,the legislation "opposes the UN charter and violates the State of Israel's obligations under international law". When in fact, UNRWA's actions over the past 70 years have deliberately nurtured Palestinian Arab resentment, victimhood and hatred against Jews living in their ancestral homeland with the rebirth of Israel on a slender tract of land that represents a small portion of its original homeland. Another portion of which Palestinians rejected outright for their future state in preference to claiming the entire geography as their entitled due.

Accusations of malfeasance against UNRWA are not new; most Palestinians are taught at UNRWA schools throughout the Palestinian territories and in 'refugee camps' in the Arab world, using tainted curricula that fosters hate and terrorism. 30,000 staff are employed by UNRWA, mostly Palestinians. It operates in Jordan and Lebanon as well. The UN agency has long been known to provide cover and income to Palestinian terrorists and actively undermining attempts at peace negotiations.

 

Ayelet Samerano reacts as she screens the video of her son's body being kidnapped to Gaza by an UNRWA social worker, during a UN Watch summit in Geneva, February 26, 2024. (Screenshot: Hostages Families Forum)

 

Evidence surfaced in the wake of October 7 massacres when 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis, men, women, children, the elderly were murdered, another 250 abducted from their homes to be taken as prisoner-hostages back to Gaza to be maltreated, tortured, raped, starved and murdered while being used as barter by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The atrocities were participated in by UNRWA employees who also happened to be members of Hamas.

"A social worker for a so-called humanitarian organization kidnapped my son. How can someone working for an organization that claims to do good in this world do something so cruel and inhumane?" "How can the UN pay this man who dragged my son’s limp body along the ground and then picked him up as if he was a prize into Gaza."

"How many more lives have been ruined by this person, hauling my son like he isn’t even a human being into an UNRWA car?"

Ayelet Samerano, mother of man killed and taken hostage by UNRWA employee to Gaza

Of the over 1,000 Gazans employed by UNRWA, an estimated 450 are members of terrorist organizations located in Gaza, mostly members of Hamas. UNRWA experts dispute that the legislation newly enacted in Israel is in contradiction to international law. Simply put, Israel is not party to treaties compelling it to engage with a group such as UNRWA that actively agitates against the Jewish State. To permit UNRWA to continue its ongoing actions deleterious to Israel's survival would represent a nonsensical act of self-destruction on Israel's part.

Afghanistan's Virtue and Vices Administration

"Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear."

"How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else."

"[These are] new rules and will be gradually implemented, and God will be helping us in each step we take."

Afghan Minister of Vice and Virtue, Mohammed Khalid Hanafi

Taliban minister Khalid Hanafi said: “God will be helping us in each step we take” Credit: AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

"Whatever he says is a form of mental torture for us."

"Living in Afghanistan is incredibly painful for us as women. Afghanistan is forgotten, and that’s why they are suppressing us – they are torturing us on a daily basis."

"They say we cannot hear other women’s voices, and I do not understand where these views come from."

Afghan woman, Kabul

The Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university Credit: MOHSEN KARIMI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Women and girls in Afghanistan have suffered yet another blow to their human rights. There does not appear to be anything left of their civic, civilian and feminine rights as human beings to be withdrawn from them. The Taliban minister of vice and virtue (shades of the Islamic Republic of Iran) issued a directive in the last week. Women must now no longer recite the Qur'an aloud in the presence of other women, for it is haram for their voices to be heard. "If a woman is not permitted to perform Takbit (reading from the Islamic holy book), then how could she be allowed to sing?" So singing is out as well.

According to strict Islam, the voice of a woman is considered awrah; that which must be covered and should not be heard in public, not heard even by other women, according to Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi. Known for his Islamist piety in the West, Hanafi is blacklisted by the United Nations (for what that's worth) and sanctioned by the European Union (which is doubtless of zero concern to the man, attuned to the sub-humanity of females).

From August 2021 when Western powers decamped from Afghanistan with their diplomats, their militaries and their human rights groups, and the Taliban moved from the hinterlands of Afghanistan into governing control of the entire country, a series of restrictions have been restored in reflection of how the Taliban ruled that poverty-stricken, benighted, backward country before 2001. Afghan girls are once again barred from attending middle and high schools and universities. They may not work in government and international non-governmental organizations, since 2021.

Social restrictions have been imposed such as the closure of beauty salons; women are prohibited from leaving their homes other than in the presence of a male guardian. When they do exit their home, they must cover their entire bodies and faces. 

"They [the Taliban] are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices."

"The world has abandoned us. They left us to the Taliban, and whatever happens to us now is a result of Western government policies."

"I feel depressed. The world is advancing in technology and having fun with their lives, but here we cannot even hear each other’s voices."

"They want us not to exist at all, and there’s nothing we can do about it."

"They may succeed at some point, as many are taking their lives due to the pressure."

"They think ruling Afghanistan is only about suppressing women – we didn’t commit a crime by being born as women."

Former female civil servant under previous Western-supported Afghan government

An Afghan woman searches for recyclable materials at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif     Credit: ATIF ARYAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

Taliban restrictions intensified in the past two months, recounted Samira, a midwife who traditionally goes by one name. Working in remote villages in western Herat province for eight years, she said female health workers are now forbidden by the Taliban from meeting with the male companions of female patients, complicating health services. "They don't even allow us to speak at checkpoints when we go to work. And in the clinics, we're told not to discuss medical maters with male relatives."

The United Nations special rapporteur of human rights in Afghanistan released a new report where the human rights situation in Afghanistan for women, children and minorities is detailed. A litany of edicts, rules and policies have been imposed, restricting virtually all aspects of women's and girls' lives. They are prevented from exercising fundamental rights; freedom of movement, education, work, health care, freedom of expression and access to justice.

"Other provisions further cement Taliban control over the lives, bodies and behaviour of women and girls."

"Women can be punished for singing or speaking outside their homes, while Muslim women are instructed to cover themselves in front of 'non-believing' women."

"Adult women and men who are not related are forbidden from looking at each other's bodies and faces."

Report, Richard Bennet, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan

Armed Taliban security personnel ride motorcycles during a street patrol   Credit: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Flirting Dangerously With Prospects of World War III

"Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region."

"[The move represents] a significant escalation [in North Korea's involvement in the conflict and marks] a dangerous expansion of Russia's war."

"[NATO is] actively consulting within the alliance, with Ukraine, and with our Indo-Pacific partners [on developments]."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte

 

"This is our sovereign decision."

"Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. "

"It’s our business."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

"North Korean soldiers are deployed to support Russia’s war of aggression. It's a grave escalation in this war and a threat to global peace."

"[The EU would] respond together with our like-minded partners."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen  

"[A] portion [of those soldiers had already moved closer to Ukraine."

"The US is increasingly concerned that Russia would use these soldiers] in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk oblast [region]."

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh

The Ukrainian spy agency released video that it says was intercepted from Russian soldiers complaining about North Korean troops and the language barrier. Reuters

A high-level South Korean delegation, along with top intelligence and military officials as well as senior diplomats briefed NATO's 32 national ambassadors at NATO headquarters in Brussels on what is known at this time respecting the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia for training to take part in the Russian conflict against Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister pointed out that Pyongyang and Moscow had signed a joint security pact in June. Although he was responding to the statement by NATO's Mark Rutte, he confined himself to that single remark, side-stepping any confirmation that North Korean soldiers were actually in Russia at this point. On the other hand, he pointed out, Western military instructors have been deployed covertly to Ukraine to train its military in the use of long-range weapons supplied to Ukraine by its Western partners.

NATO has confirmation that troops from North Korea have been dispatched to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine, elaborating with the additional confirmation received that some troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region where significantly, the Russian military has been attempting to push back a Ukrainian incursion into Russia well beyond the border between the two that appears to be well dug in.

Thousands of North Korean soldiers -- an estimated total of 10,000 -- would represent a significant boon to Russia in Europe's largest conflict since the Second World War. In the process the situation will place greater pressure on Ukraine's overstretched military and underarmed, war-weary soldiers. On Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that about 650,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. "They [Russians] are not collecting the bodies... their people are rotting on the ground." 

 

Geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the greater Indo-Pacific region including Japan and Australia are being stoked, according to Western officials. The more complex the situation becomes, the more heated the conflict and wider in its implications, drawing in sympathetic supporters on either side -- East and West -- the likelier it is that the embers of a greater and more widespread conflict can accelerate the flames of war; that World War III hovers on the horizon.

 

It is obvious that Vladimir Putin's end-game is the goal of reshaping of global power dynamics, seeking a counterbalance to Western influence during a summit of BRICS countries where the leaders of China and India visited Russia a week ago. Direct assistance for his war was sought from Iran, whose supply of drones has been most useful to the Kremlin, alongside North Korea's contribution of ammunition to Russia's war machinery.

• NATO says N.Korean troops may be headed to front line
• South Korea and Ukraine vow to step up cooperation
• North Korea's foreign minister arrives in Russia for talks
• Kremlin doesn't deny reports of N.Korean troops in Russia
  

"This war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries."

"We agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation."                                                                                                             Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A news broadcast in Seoul showing a satellite image of Russia's Ussuriysk military facility, where intelligence agencies said North Korean personnel were gathered within the training ground. Photograph: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

 

Canadian Justice in Action (Inaction)

"When mental illness contributes to the commission of an offence, general deterrence will be a less important consideration because a mentally ill offender is not a suitable exemplar to dissuade other members of the public from similar conduct."

"Understanding the root cause of his [Stanley Jago] criminality, and finding ways to address it, is in my view, the key to the long-term protection of society."

Court of King's Bench Justice Anna Loparco

"The Crown certainly takes no issue with the fact that Mr. Abbas's personal experiences as a Muslim Canadian would have undoubtedly played a role in him coming before the court today."

Pre-sentence report

 

"Mr. Woods recalls playing with cousins, picking berries and learning how to cut and jar fish."

Provincial Court Judge R.P. Harris

 

"She is haunted with nightmares; that going outside fills her with anxiety."

"That her foundation of trust and empathy has been lost."

Victim impact statement 

Paul Knox, Michael Finlay's longtime friend, said Finlay's journalistic career, particularly his interest in reporting on Africa and his mentorship of new reporters, was shaped by his concern for the underdog. (Submitted by Lena Sadiwskyj)

 

In Canada's DEI, woke, Critical Race Theory pervasive social climate, serious crimes at trial must be viewed through the lens of compassion and woke justice where the crimes themselves and their perpetrators must be handled differently than those of the aggregate society, if the criminals' backgrounds, ethnic/cultural origins, familial situation, state of personal security, mental health, place in society deem them to be psychologically fragile. Psychopathic tendencies must be set aside, as too the severity of their crimes to take second place to consideration of their personal backgrounds.

Should they fall into the categories of ethnic minorities, visible minorities, poverty, mental instability, membership in colonialized groups, low education level, struggling immigrant class, Indigenous or Black heritage, special attention must be given to their poverty of opportunity as opposed to the privileged white demographic who commit unforgivable crimes for whom penalties are considered to be reflective of their societal status, superior lifestyles and fulsome life opportunities earning them the full impact of justice earned for criminal behaviours.

Offenders who fall into the socially deprived classification pay criminal penalties judged to be commensurate not with the crime but with their backgrounds of want and neediness, social and mental. A malefactor whose unstable upbringing allied with dependence on drugs and/or alcohol gives them the status of having been underprivileged, and thus must be viewed through a different lens, one that is forgiving of his bad fortune and in reaction, finds lesser penalties for capital crimes appropriate.

Examples of these special dispensations abound, but a few stand out for their inappropriate society-harmful diminishing of injustice done to victims of criminal violence. Anthony Woods, 27, stabbed 72-year-oldAlex Gortmaker in the chest on an elevator, leaving him to bleed to death. He was inebriated and high on drugs at the time. Four years on, he was given what amounts to a free pass out of prison, spending eight months in jail. The judge cited Woods' ADHD, unstable childhood and alcohol dependence. Above all, that he was Indigenous.

Over a 25 year period, 44-year-old Saeed Abbas racked up a criminal record of 25 convictions; arson to car theft, and 22 breaches of parole. His latest offences included breakins, fraud, and car thefts and stolen wallets. He carried a loaded, illegal gun when caught breaking into a Mercedes-Benz dealership. The Crown recommended a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment. The crimes, believed the judge and the Crown, were to be considered not entirely his fault. Reason: He is of Arab extraction, and his parents are Muslim; no positive expectations drawn from that combination.

 

Stanley Jago (left) has been sentenced to five years in prison, plus probation, for the manslaughter of Thomas Gignac. Postmedia, file

At a homeless shelter in Edmonton, Thomas Gignac disturbed the sleep of another resident on his way back from the bathroom. Stanley Jago, in reaction to his disturbed sleep, brutally attacked Thomas Gignac who suffered a fatal seizure, as a result. At the time he killed Gignac, Jago was on probation. Sentenced to five years in prison, taking pretrial custody into account after the 2022 killing, he will be out of prison in less than a year.

Of Haitian descent, raised by an adoptive family, Jago merited a lighter sentence in view of his severe mental health problems that, according to the sentencing judge, reduced his "moral blameworthiness" for the crimes he committed. While committed to excusing the homicide given a condition of mental health problems, the judge spoke of her awareness that he is likely not to submit to treatment to keep his mental illness from further similar aggression against others.

In 2023, 73-year-old former CBC producer Michael Finlay, walking along Danforth Avenue in Toronto was violently shoved to the ground. The assault, unprovoked and by a stranger, caused a punctured lung, broken ribs and led to medical problems that caused the man's death soon after the assault. The serial offender convicted of the charge of manslaughter was handed a sentence of three years. Robert Cropearedwolf, 43, earned criminal convictions for violent crime from 1995 forward in both Canada and the U.S.

 

Cropearedwolf, 45, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Finlay's death. (Toronto Police Service)

Cropearedwolf is Indigenous. His sentencing reflected his family history, including his mother's substance abuse. In a victim impact statement, a friend of Mr. Finlay's pointed out that: "There are large numbers of Aboriginal people, Black people and people of all sorts of backgrounds who have had very dreadful times and most of them don't hurt people".

"Religious Infiltration/Islamist Infiltration" in Quebec Public Schools

"Clearly there is a discomfort in intervening or discussing these religious questions very frankly and for me, this is not unrelated to the very Canadian anti-secularism discourse."

"[Quebec is facing a case of] ideological infiltration, anti-secularism and anti-Bill 21 activism."

"The federal government is truly the champion of defamation of Quebec's secularism, which is no stranger to the woke movement that presents secularism as a form of racism when it is actually a form of living together in peace."

"[Quebec must do more in terms of secularism in our schools to protect children] from all religious proselytism [and] ensure the duty of neutrality of teachers, which must be applied to all manifestations of religious beliefs, regardless of religion."

Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon

 

"Obviously, if it comes out that there was a concerted effort to conspire, to impose your own religious values on others or on a public institution, of course that's unacceptable. But the report doesn't conclude that."

"Being visibly Muslim is seen somehow as threatening. That's a real social problem. And politicians should not be pandering or exacerbating fears around diversity."

Stephen Brown, CEO, National Council of Canadian Muslims 

"Our first concern must be the children. As a government, our first responsibility is to clean up this school and protect the children."

"There’s something very disturbing in this case, this attempt by a group of teachers to introduce Islamist religious concepts into a public school."

"In Quebec, we decided a long time ago to take religion out of public schools. We’ll never go back on that decision."

"We need all Quebecers to denounce these situations without fear of intimidation. The whole of Quebec must defend the choice of secularism in our public institutions. Let’s not be afraid."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault 

Eleven teachers at Bedford elementary school were suspended this past weekend for allegedly creating a toxic environment since 2016. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada

 

It appears that an untoward situation pertains; a group of teachers at a Montreal public elementary school has been ignoring the curriculum, turning instead to their conception of how subjects of their choosing should be taught to students in an education-hostile environment that they have transformed into an opportunity to teach students non-typical subjects with an Islamist bent, which has only recently been reported in the news, evidently because other teachers, along with students, have been intimidated to the point where they fear a violent backlash, restraining them from divulging the volatile and fraught situation.

The Quebec Ministry of Education published a report following a lengthy investigation, concluding that the dominant group of teachers was "mainly composed of people of Maghrebi origin", adding "although the majority clan is mainly composed of people of Maghrebi (North African) origin, people of other origins are also associated with it. Likewise, the minority clan is also partly composed of individuals of Maghrebi origin, including some of the strongest opposition to the majority clan." The group of problematic teachers are reported to frequent attendance at local mosque.

"The clans present different visions and understandings of education, pedagogy and relations with students", according to the report. One group of like ethnic/cultural/religious origins has protested against the majority group's educational ethos as inappropriate to their current setting in Montreal. The ruling clique aggressively pursues its own teaching methods and agenda separate and apart from the approved curricula. The result is a toxic, challenged environment, felt by the students and leading them to under-perform academically.

The situation runs counter to the State Secularism Act, known as Bill 21, adopted in 2019 by the National Assembly, to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols by those in positions of authority inclusive of teachers and principals of public elementary and secondary schools in the province. Montreal's Bedford School was the model identified as having a "toxic environment" which led to the Education Ministry's investigation and subsequent report on the situation.

Debates between teachers revolve around the use of foreign languages in common areas of public schools, acts of violence and humiliation against children while disciplining them, and opposing methodologies of teaching, which led to the suspension of eleven teachers during the time of the investigation. The report from the Quebec Ministry of Education points to a "dominant clan" comprised of North African teachers attempting to indoctrinate children while maintaining a "clan" dynamic among teaching staff, ongoing since 2017. 

The teaching of science, ethics and sex education was rejected by some teachers who instead used traditional rigid methods, some shouting at students as a form of discipline. A teacher was mentioned in the report in "an act of violence ... reported to the administration when a teacher allegedly closed the door to his classroom with a brutal gesture while one of his students had her fingers in the door frame". Rescued by another individual, from having her fingers crushed between the closing door and the door frame.

According to investigators, the local Muslim community exerted a "strong influence" within the Bedford school, where some teachers prayed in their free time in classrooms, performed ablutions in community bathrooms. Occasionally these performances were carried out in the presence of students. The spokesman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims states that should the politicians be unable to conclusively prove people are plotting to impose their ideology on a public institution prior to the completion of an independent investigation "it reeks of political opportunism".

It appears that other examples have emerged -- at Jewish schools and Catholic schools -- related to religious indoctrination. The difference, of course, being that these are schools independent of the public school system, with their own particular curricula. Students in attendance at parochial Jewish schools are there because their parents were interested in having them achieve an education comparable with that of the public schools, but overlaid with Judaic concepts and values. The same is true of the Catholic school system.

Parents of children attending public schools, particularly in a province that emphasizes secularism, anticipate that their children will receive an education compatible with a non-religious observance. It has been, in fact, some Muslim parents themselves, among others, who have been alarmed that their children are being exposed to a rigid form of Islamic overlay in the public system where teachers refuse to teach some of the subjects that will be elemental to a fully rounded education in Canadian society.

Controversially and ironically, it is in other provinces, particularly Ontario, where school boards and principals and teaching staff of some schools have contrived to have students exposed to Islam. More troubling has been the penchant for some among them to espouse distinctly un-Canadian views of championing Palestinian terrorist groups while demonizing the state of Israel, and in the process discriminating against Jewish students in a toxic mix of woke, DEI, Critical Race Theory and antisemitism.

Rally outside of the Toronto & District School Board headquarters on Yonge Street, Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

"The issue here is how to manage our schools to make room for all families who have very different perspectives on this subject."

"And the only solution is to not let religion enter our school system."

"So I can't help but talk about religion in the school system."

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon

Speculation, Suspense, Surprise Strategy: Reality

"It could have enough weapon-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapon-grade uranium, it could have enough for twelve [nuclear weapons' production]."

Institute for Science and International Security report

 

"There are many many targets that can be hit without causing suffering to Iranians, because the regime is weak, and without its proxies, it's only a rather weak country because Iran doesn't have sufficient conventional military might."

"Even the Americans cannot destroy the nuclear sites because they are dug inside the mountains, under the earth. The problem is not only to get there and to drop bombs, the problem is to destroy them. So I don't know how it's possible."

Alex Grinberg, Iran expert, Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy 

"Although damaging or destroying export infrastructure would surely be the most direct way to limit Iran's oil revenue, it could also be impossible to avoid some form of a subsequent price spike."

"Washington is doubtlessly keen to avoid a major jump in oil prices from the loss of Iranian supply, particularly so close to a hotly contested election."

Colby Connelly, director, economic and energy program, Middle East Institute

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Security Cabinet following the missile attack by Iran on Oct. 1, 2024. Photo by Avi Ohayon/GPO.

 

Israel, there is little doubt, has the capability to strike deep within Iran to target military installations, nuclear facilities, oil and gas centres, given its advanced arsenal, which includes F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, along with sophisticated drones. Israel had reportedly informed Washington that for the time being strikes against the Islamic Republic's oil and nuclear sites would not be considered; instead the IDF planned to target Iran's military assets. 

Experts argue the most powerful conventional bombs and missiles, including bunker busters, would potentially be incapable of destroying missile and drone factories in Iran, since they are buried deep underground, making targeting them a challenge of significant proportions. Iran expert Alex Grinberg felt that targeting military leadership would "create disorganization. I don't know how they will command themselves", he mused.

It is impossible to overlook the profound existential threat that Iran's network of nuclear sites, buried deep within mountains, unreachable by powerful bombs, possess a dire threat to Israel. Natanz and Fordow are located under several dozen metres of rock, the facilities are where Iran enriches uranium to 60 percent purity. The United States has made it clear, however, that it would not support an Israeli strike on these sites. 

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu meets security chiefs after the IDF carried out airstrikes on Iran. Photograph: Israel Mod/Zuma/Rex

 

Western democracies in general refuse to fully support Israel in its lonely war against terrorism, despite that this is a war that threatens them all, in time. Israel was very well aware of its forlorn status as the sole impediment to Iran's desolating plans for regional domination, which would in time expand outward... Iran's ballistic missile attacks on Israel signalled significance in that no other free nation came under such an outright challenge to its sovereignty by another nation, anywhere.

"[Israel could conduct a] combined military operation [involving assassinating senior military officials in Iran, cyberattacks, and deploying Israeli special forces to destroy military targets."

"It's not only one thing, not only one theatre. They did something very unusual [in the IDF operation in Syria]. They not only attacked the Iran missile factory in Syria [but] special troops also landed in the factory."

Alex Grinberg

Explosions heard in Tehran after Israel announces precise strikes on military targets  Still from video

 

As it happened, only last night Israel did make its move. The government of Israel weighed its options while also attending to the diplomatic aspect of its major supporter/benefactor's 'advice', and decided this time around that by demonstrating its capabilities in a lightning strike that would represent the largest airborne strike group in any conflict anywhere else in the world, it would accomplish what it set out to do; exact a penalty on the Islamic Republic of Iran's military installations.

In the process leaving the indelible message, on the return safely home of all its air crew and planes, that it is capable of more, much more, should any future occasion yet arise. Should Iran decide to respond to this latest demonstration of Israel's capability to mount an air attack on military installations in a move that elicited no defensive response to a massive air attack where distance and overflights in alien jurisdictional airspace were no issue, that potential would be unleashed.

Explosions seen near Tehran, amid an Israeli attack on Iran, October 26, 2024 (photo credit: SOCIAL MEDIA

Samidoun: Offended It is Recognized as a Terrorist Group

"[Between the three politicians [Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre] recklessly and maliciously [accusing Samidoun as a terrorist entity owing a retraction and apology, a lawsuit has gone forward]."

"The suit will force the biggest mouths in government to actually show proof of the allegation of terrorist activity."

"It is very dangerous if we allow a government to decide who gets to enjoy full rights and who doesn't without showing actual proof."

Toronto lawyer Stephen Ellis

 

"The Liberals cannot legislate away our right to free speech."

"If they contend we are terrorists, let them prove it in court."

Charlotte Kates, co founder, Samidoun

 

"Samidoun does not have any material or organizational ties to entities listed on the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European Union."

Samidoun statement

Anti-Israel demonstrators march in Ottawa on March 9, 2024. Samidoun, a group listed in Israel as a terror organization and banned outright in Germany, is one of the main groups organizing pro-Palestinian protests in Canada. Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

 

Vancouver-based Samidoun established a global network of support branches to which they give direction in the promulgation of 'public relations' announcements and protests in support of Palestinian 'rights' and entitlements in a world where Palestinian terrorism wreaks havoc as it mounts terrorist assaults against Jews universally and within Israel in particular, exacting a penalty of murder as the price it feels Israel must pay for its insistence that it has a right to exist on its own ancestral land. 

Palestinian terrorism is geared toward penalizing Israel and Jews through a never-ending devotion to lethal assaults against their 'oppressor'. Portraying themselves as victims seeking restitution of land they claim as theirs despite that it is historically Judean land, and Jews the original inhabitants native to the land, those identifying themselves as 'Palestinians' are in fact looting from the indigenous Jewish population the heritage that was never theirs.

There is, and never has been, a shortage of militant terrorism among the Arab Palestinian population. Among the earliest and most barbaric has been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, involved in plane and sea-going vessel hijacking, hostage-taking and murderous assaults. Samidoun is a later, public-relations manifestation of Palestinian terrorism's realization of what can be accomplished when slanderous lies are repeated frequently enough to seem believable to the history-ignorant West.

Samidoun, ostensibly created to speak for the rights of Palestinians in Israeli prisons serving sentences for violent crimes against Israelis -- to agitate for their recognition as 'freedom fighters' eligible for release by virtue of the fact that whatever crimes were committed were in defense of their right to 'struggle against' their colonialist oppressors -- is committed to portraying violent criminals as merely asserting their humanitarian right to free themselves from imperialist colonizers.

 

Protesters from the Samidoun organization gather in front of the Muelheim train station in Cologne, Germany, on April 15, 2023, to commemorate Palestinian Prisoners' Day (Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

 

Those like Charlotte Kates preach to a public in the West for whom antisemitism is not unknown, that there is a connection between colonizers of the past and those of the present, as despised, indigenous-injurious exploiters of original, authentic territorial populations. Not only do they promote chants of 'death to Israel', but also 'death to Canada', tarred with the same colonizing brush as Israel. Samidoun portrays itself as a human-rights group seeking justice for all disentitled people, with a special emphasis on Jews and Israel, its first and foremost agenda.

Its links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are obvious enough, not least since the other of its co-founders, Kates's husband Khaled Barakat, is a prominent leader in the PFLP. Kates has run afoul of Canada's hate-speech prohibitions in law, with Vancouver Police leading an investigation following on her having fulsomely praised the savage Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Jewish groups in Canada have identified Samidoun for what it is, lobbying government to have it recognized as a hate group and enabler of terrorism; linked in its formation and purpose with an already-listed terror group, the PFLP.

Several weeks back, no longer able to ignore the reality of Samidoun's purpose, linkages and incitements the federal government finally relented and announced its decision to place Samidoun on the country's terror list. With the kind of impudent, defiant arrogance recognizable as a hallmark of Samidoun, it now portrays itself as ill done by, a victim of government over-reach, and should apologies not be forthcoming, a full-scale lawsuit is to be mounted.

The leader of the official opposition in Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, had called on the Liberals to designate Samidoun as a terror entity, emphasizing that the group had "clear and direct ties" to designated terror groups abroad. Mr. Poilievre stated, before the official announcement of its designation, that prime minister Trudeau and the federal New Democratic Party "have allowed terrorist organizations to operate freely across Canada", which qualified him a place alongside Canada's public safety minister and prime minister in the pending lawsuit.

A screenshot of the Samidoun-led anti-Israel protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery where Charlotte Kates was arrested, April 26, 2024. Photo by freepalestinetricitiesbc/Instagram

Sacrificing Canada-India Diplomacy for Domestic Votes

"We have repeatedly raised our strong concerns regarding the violent imagery being used by extremist elements in Canada against our political leadership."

"Celebration and glorification of violence should not be a part of any civi8lized society. Democratic countries which respect the rule of law should not allow intimidation by radical elements in the name of freedom of expression."

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman, Indian Foreign Affairs Department

"We would work with them on any evidence or any concerns they have around terrorism or incitement to hate or anything that is patently unacceptable in Canada."

"My position and Canada's position is to defend the territorial integrity of India. One India is official Canadian policy and the fact that there are a number of people in Canada who advocate otherwise does not make it Canadian policy."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Though times are quite different now, India always remembers the era of militant Sikh separatism in the 1980s and associates any separatist claims of positions with violence and militancy, as a threat to Indian safety, security, and sovereign integrity."

Neilesh Bose, associate professor of history, University of Victoria

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shake hands on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. Photo by - /PIB/AFP via Getty Images

 

Canada has a long history of effectively shielding war criminals from the justice they deserve. Infamously, Nazi war criminals were given haven in Canada and although their presence in Canada as permanent residents and citizens has been well known to governments over the decades that passed since the Second World War, general disinterest in exiling them and returning them to their country of origin was dismissed but for a few rare instances under pressure from Jewish groups. And nor was it only WWII war criminals involved, but others as well, from Tamil Tigers living in Canada agitating for conflict in Sri Lanka, to Sikh Khalistani extremists violently expressing their hatred for India.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pious words of 'Canadian policy' and his government's responsible attitude to having no tolerance for those preaching violence in Canada against their countries of origin is nonsense, unreflective of reality. Sikh separatists dedicated to forcing India to agree to splitting off part of their geography to satisfy its Sikh population's demand for a homeland and using violence to achieve that end finds itself right at home in Canada which hosts the largest expatriate Sikh population in the world outside of India itself where the Khalistani movement has calmed.

Charging the Indian government, as Justin Trudeau has done twice, in Parliament, with fomenting schemes of assassination in Canada to target extremist Khalistanis, represents diplomatic failures in communication and action on the part of Canada, alienating a collegial democracy for partisan political purposes. Official Canada appears to have conveniently forgotten the worst terrorist incident that Canada has ever experienced when Khalistanis in Canada plotted the bombing of Air India Flight 182 that killed over 300 people, most of them Indo-Canadians.

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own trusted Sikh guards during the violent insurrection period when Khalistani militants took haven in the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the Indian military fought a gunbattle with them at the gurdwara, the holiest of Sikh temples which the Khalistanis themselves had defiled by bringing weapons into the temple, and engaging with the military in that conflict in 1984. Since then, the Khalistani movement has been muted in India, but carried on with greater ferocity against India through extremists living in Canada.

Appeals by the Indian government of Narendra Modi for Canada to extradite convicted Sikh criminals to India to stand trial for their crimes have gone unheeded. As have appeals by Indian diplomats for Canada to respond to the public exhibitions of Khalistani protests and marches in Canada depicting the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi as well as the demonization of the Modi government. The Liberal Trudeau government has chosen to favour instead placating the Khalistani movement seeking an exclusive Sikh homeland carved out of India.

Rather than side-stepping the anti-India, anti-Hindu sentiments expressed violently by Sikh separatists, Canada's prime minister plays a game of innocence against India's accusations, instead accusing the Indian government of bringing lethal violence to Canada. By not acting to stem the violence emanating from a minority within the Sikh diaspora in Canada, this government is shirking an elemental responsibility, just as it has with the raging antisemitism being promoted and expressed through radical 'pro-Palestinian', pro-Hamas rallies crucifying Israel and targeting Jewish Canadians.

Float featuring the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in front of the Indian Consulate in Vancouver. (FILE IMAGE)

"Canada would help mend relations a great deal by taking seriously any public act of violence, intimidation, or harassment by Khalistani activists, and condemning such acts publicly."

"Hindu temples in Canada have been defaced and defiled by Khalistani activists and Indian diplomats have been threatened, and such acts have not been condemned by Canada."

Neilesh Bose, Associate professor of history, University of Victoria