Starvation in Sudan

"Even we're [medical personnel] eating animal feed."

"People [the international community] seem to have forgotten  us."

"Oh my God, it's a very painful story." 

Dr. Omar Selik, El Fasher, Sudan 

 

"Since April 2023, more than 600,000 people have been displaced from El Fasher and its surrounding camps. Inside the city, women and girls are enduring famine-level conditions, as classified by the IPC. With food stocks depleted and efforts by the United Nations and its partners to move in with supplies hampered by attacks, families are now surviving on animal feed and tree leaves. There have been repeated attacks on humanitarian personnel and assets in North Darfur over recent months."

"More than forty-one health and educational facilities in the state have been destroyed, and supplies of medicine have been depleted. Pregnant women are giving birth into the hands of unskilled attendants with no access to emergency obstetric care.  Women in need of reproductive health services and survivors of rape have no access to any medical services."

UN Women 

El Fasher has been under siege for months as RSF paramilitary forces try to take control of western Sudan

 

Some 40 severely malnourished children arrive daily seeking help at the last functioning hospital in El Fasher, Sudan which has been bombed over 30 times, and there is nothing to give the children, other than animal feed. This Sudanese settlement is the peak battleground of the brutal civil war raging in Sudan. The city in Darfur's western region has been under siege by the paramilitary intent on starving it into submission. A 30-kilometer earthen wall has been erected around the city's outer boundaries, effectively locking everyone in, and keeping others out. 

 

If residents make the agonizing choice to remain they risk being bombed or starved. Should they decide to leave in desperation, they risk being killed, robbed or sexually assaulted. Over two years earlier, clashes between Sudan's military and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, broke out, a conflict that has forced some 12 million Sudanese from their homes, killed tens of thousands, and set the stage for a major famine which aid groups speak of as the world's largest humanitarian crisis. 

 

The Rapid Support Forces were expelled from the capital, Khartoum, in March and the group has since redoubled its campaign to capture Darfur, the vast area where most R.S.F. fighters (once known as Janjaweed, Arab horsemen who savagely attacked Black Darfurian Muslim farmers) originated. The focus on El Fasher is to dominate the last city standing in their way to capture the entire Darfurian region under their command. 

 

The RSF allowed food to reach displaced people in Tawila, but not El Fasher, which they kept under a tight siege, 27 April. Photograph: Jérome Tubiana

 

In April the R.S.F. rampaged through the famine-stricken camp of Zamzam, located 11 kilometers south of El Fasher, killing between 300 and 1,500 people, leading to a half-million people from El Fasher fleeing the city in a panic of desperate survival. What followed was the erection of the giant berm to keep people in and humanitarian groups out. Now some 260,000 residents are left in the besieged city where a kilo of pasta costs ten times the normal price. The Emergency Response Rooms, a humanitarian aid group, recorded the deaths of 14 children from malnutrition over a recent two-week period, where cholera has now been spreading.

 

United Nations food convoys have been unable to deliver aid to El Fasher for over a year, since they were attacked by drones in their approach to the city. Five aid workers were killed when a strike in June on a 15-truck convoy and another in August destroyed three trucks, forcing the remainder to turn back.  When young men  scrambled over the berm during the night in an attempt to flee the city, they were executed by R.S.F. fighters.

 

Tawila, a small town 65 kilometers to the west, packed with over 600,000 refugees, was able to be served by international aid groups but the journey to reach Tawila is perilous, fighters roaming the area, robbing or extorting fleeing civilians, raping the women, on a road lined with shallow graves and abandoned bodies. At the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Tawila, about 40 women, victims of rape, are treated weekly, with evidence suggesting "that is nothing compared to the true rate". 

 

A UN truck carrying aid to El Fasher destroyed by an RSF drone attack. Photograph: X/PresstvExtra

 

Some residents smuggle small amounts of food and medicine into the city, through during the night scrambling over the earthen berm, but those the fighters catch face beatings and threats. Of some 200 medical facilities in El Fasher prior to the war, one only remains, the Al Saudi hospital, where a handful of medics are hanging on, despite the bombing, starvation and a dwindling supply of medicines. An R.S.F. drone fired a missile into a crowded ward in January, killing 70 patients and staff.

 

Doctors at the hospital shelter in foxholes during bomb raids, while malnourished patients are sustained with animal feed. Known locally as ambaz, the animal feed is a dangerous alternative to human-grade food, given that it is prone to fungal contamination. Thus far, 18 residents have died recently after consuming ambaz. "But there is no other option", explained a senior doctor who has received death threats for his work, and chose to be quoted anonymously. 

 

 

 

"The repeated violations of our airspace are unacceptable. The message is clear: Russia is testing the European Union and NATO."

"And our response must be firm, united and immediate."

"At today's meeting, we agreed to move from concept  to concrete actions."

"[Ministers backed a broad plan to bolster the EU's eastern defences; the] immediate priority [should be a] drone wall, with advanced detection, tracking, and interception capabilities."

EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius 

 

"[Ukraine is] ready to participate [in the project]."

"The drone wall will create a fundamentally new defence ecosystem in Europe, of which Ukraine is ready to be a part."

Ukraine's defence minister Denys Shmyhal  

A mobile radar installation is seen at the Danish military site on Amager, Pionegaarden, near the village of Dragoer and on the coast of Oresund, the sea between Denmark and Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (Steven Knap/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

The urgent need to create a "wall" of anti-drone defences following airspace violations by Russia, was unanimously agreed to by European Union countries on Friday. The threat that was made glaringly obvious this past week when  unidentified drones gave Denmark and Norway little option but to close down some of their airports gave sharp focus to the extent and breadth of the threat facing EU and NATO-member nations.

 

Online discussions were held by the EU defence commissioner with ministers from ten EU states located mostly along the bloc's eastern border. Ukraine, though not a member of the EU, was invited to take part in the discussions, given its proven capabilities to detect and disarm the missiles in their airspace by shooting down Russian drone swarms. 

 

The meeting participants agreed that focus would initially be on the development of a network of sensors to assist in better detection of such threatening incursions', feasibly on line within a year. Building full interception capabilities would take longer in the goal of intercepting the drones. Ursula von der Leyen, EU chief, in a keynote speech this month produced the first call for a "drone wall", mere hours following a NATO shoot-down of Russian drones in Poland. 

 

An engineer watches a Ukrainian-made quadcopter drone at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) 

NATO's initial response had little option given its unpreparedness, other than to use top-of-the-range fighter jets to fire expensive missiles with an aim of shooting down a handful of cheap Russian drones, emphasizing gaps in the alliance's arsenal for addressing such airborne threats. Since then, the alliance conveyed additional hardware to its eastern flank, yet the sort of low-cost capabilities of fending off Russian attack drones lack Ukraine's experience.

 

The proposal for the "drone wall" represents a portion of the broader impetus by Europe to  support an addition to its defences in recognition of the threats emanating from Russia. The program thus considered should be regarded as a new flagship defence project being worked on by the bloc in its response to Moscow's growing belligerence. 

 

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to launch an Avenger UAV drone in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. ( AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

Confronting Allies and Enemies At The United Nations

"The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again and again, no matter how diminished their forces. That is why Israel must finish the job." 

"I want to tell you a secret behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us, privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented time and again, terrorist attacks in their capitals, time and again, saving countless lives."

"Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after 9/11. This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it."

"To the remaining Hamas leaders and to the jailers of our hostages, I now say, lay down your arms, let my people go, free the hostages, all of them, the whole 48 free the hostages. Now, if you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down."

"I want to ask you a simple question, a simple logical question, would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2025 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

 

Isolated, friendless, it takes nerves of steel and a steely determination to shunt that aside and confront those who, by failing to stand with a country that has for the entire time of its existence been pilloried in public opinion, militarily attacked by its neighbours, suffered a slanderous public relations campaign to delegitimize its legacy and its presence in the Middle East, contended with constant lethal violence committed by terrorist groups whose sole purpose is to destroy the Jewish state, yet calmly, dispassionately and searingly make the point that Israel will nonetheless prevail.

 

Israel's longtime Prime Minister stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations not only to defend itself against malodorous accusations of genocide and apartheid, but to flagellate the inconstancy of those who have posed as allies of the tiny state, as a fellow democracy, trading partner and reliable intelligence source in a world increasingly pummeled by rogue state actors. Allies, many of which have decided in their perfidious worldview of 'progressive' liberalism that the originators of terror and violence against Israel and Jews are, as they claim, the victims, and Israel their oppressor.

 

It is unseemly for a Jewish state in defense of its people, their safety, security and future, to take up arms against those who seek to destroy it. The very nations who would themselves move heaven and earth to destroy the violent threats to themselves by full military responses unforgiving of the welfare of the population from whence the threat emanates, fully expects Israel to stand back and patiently await the next round of sadistic savagery certain to arise from terrorists who openly declare their intention to strike again and again and again.

 

Hamas has run the Gaza Strip since 2007   Getty Images

 

Israel's invasion in Gaza has the intention to ensure that the terrorist group Hamas that has ruled the Palestinian territory for 17 years will never again have the opportunity to repeat the horrors of October 7, 2023. That intention relates to the utter destruction of Hamas, its leadership, operatives, weapons depots, infrastructure, headquarters, launch sites and network of tunnels. The Israel Defense Forces operate as a model of military discipline, capable and employing intelligence enabling it to fire precise missiles for the distinct purpose of eliminating threats from terrorism, while still mindful of minimizing civilian deaths.

 

No mean feat when fighting a terrorist mentality that sees its own civilian population as living shields for the protection of the terrorist structure. The propaganda arm of Hamas has been on overdrive, celebrating the 'martyrdom' of its civilian population as a prop in convincing the international community that Israel's objective is the annihilation of Palestinians in their entirety. Ages-old distrust of the global Jewish community, both the diaspora and now the state that defends the historical dispersed has erupted in an orgy of viral antisemitism.

 

The general membership's diplomacy of the United Nations exercised their sanctimony in an exercise of moral debasement to walk out of the chamber where the Israeli Prime Minister spoke rather than remain even as a diplomatic courtesy practised in a civilized manner respectful of the opportunity to hear out the reason and logic behind an embattled nation's response to an existential threat it has lived with for most of its existence, culminating in the most recent assault of monumental barbarity.

 

"We will not commit national suicide because  you don't have the guts to face down a hostile media and antisemitic mobs demanding Israel's blood", Netanyahu confronted his detractors. Israel's intention is to continue the war in Gaza until Hamas is no more. Recognizing Palestinian statehood, when its leaders continue to deny Israel's right of existence, when its leaders continue to incite to violence against Israel, when its leaders give financial rewards to those who attack and murder Jews, when its leaders teach its younger generation through school curricula, plays, television programs, poetry and music to hate Jews and aspire to become 'martyrs' against the Jewish state's existence, translates to awarding terrorism its goal. 

 

Palestinians rally beneath images of President Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images

 

Liberal Gov't of Canada Where Freedom of Speech and Protests are Protected -- Just Not Against the Gov't

"It is Mr. Barber's position that he followed the instruction of the police as to where to park Big Red and that he moved Big Red at the request of the police when it was safely feasible for him to do so; as such Big Red was not used in the commission of the offence of mischief."

Defence documents filed in Gov't suit

 

"It would amount to, in my opinion, cruel and  unusual punishment. [If the judge sentences Barber to prison time and he loses his truck], that would be a really harsh financial hardship for him and his family."

"[Taking his truck would be] totally out of proportion [to the mischief caused]."

"Now his son is also driving, and he has a couple of employees that sometimes drive it too, so it's a legitimate source of business for himself, his family and his employees. [Taking away Barber's truck would cause his family] extreme financial difficulties."

"That truck's been part of his family for over 20 years. His children grew up in that truck. One of his dogs died in the truck. He had wedding pictures by the side of the truck. So, that truck is part of the family. It was named Big Red by his children when they were younger." 

Lawyer Diane Magas  

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic prioritizes the health and safety of Canadians. We are committed to keeping our transportation sector, including employees and travellers, safe and secure.

Transport Canada has taken action in all modes to protect passengers and essential transportation workers while continuing to support the flow of critical goods and services during this unprecedented global crisis. 

Vaccination plays an important role in keeping each other and our transportation system safe and secure. That is why we are ensuring travellers and workers in the transportation sector are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Since October 30, employers in the federally-regulated air, rail and marine transportation sectors have been required to have vaccination policies in place for their employees.

The vaccine mandate that came into effect in October has helped to protect transportation workers from the impacts of Omicron by reducing the frequency and severity of the COVID-19 illness.

With vaccination rates at home and around the world increasing, and the epidemiological situation continuing to evolve, it is important that Canada’s border and travel related measures reflect the current global and domestic context.

 

During the height of the COVID pandemic, Canada's federal lockdown strategies and inoculation mandates infuriated many Canadians. In particular a mandate that all truckers, including long-haul be vaccinated in line with government orders. Non-compliance would result in the nullification of truckers' licenses; they would effectively be put out of commission, jobless. It might have made sense for drivers of buses or any other vehicles where the drivers came in contact with other people, but truckers sit alone in their rigs, delivering goods, seeing few other people other than at delivery ramps.

 

A coalition of dissenting truckers began a cross-Canada journey in a convoy of like-minded people, all seeking to protest the government's mandates on COVID-19 infection prevention in a joint agreement that the government had gone too far, impacting the lives of tens of thousands unnecessarily and their plan was to confront the government directly, as they headed to Ottawa. Once there, the convoy parked their vehicles in the downtown area close to Parliament Hill, asking to speak to the prime minister who soon made his contempt for them and their mission a matter of public display.

 

In the central downtown area where the convoy was parked, friction between residents and convoy participants soon arose; commotion, blocking access to local businesses, noise emanating from the honking of the horns of the rigs, all conspired to arouse resentment and anger in locals. Justin Trudeau refused to meet with or speak to the organizers, one of whom was trucker Chris Barber. The upshot of a standoff where the convoy invoked their right to peaceful assembly and protest and freedom of speech, and the municipality of Ottawa dealing with neighbourhood complaints came to a head when the Trudeau government invoked the modern version of the War Measures Act (Emergencies Act) enabling government to put an end to the convoy's presence.

Protesters participating in a cross-country truck convoy walk near Parliament Hill on January 29, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/CP)

 

Part and parcel of the Emergencies Act implementation was to bring court cases against two of the more prominent convoy organizers, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich. As for citizens who supported the convoy with donations, they were identified and their bank accounts frozen. Draconian measures were imposed by government on any individual or group or company that had been involved in support of the convoy and its protests. Dramatic persecutory actions belying the democratic nature of the country. The Crown seeks a 7-year sentence for Lich, and eight years for Barber. 

"I’ve worked hard all my life as a trucker, and ‘Big Red’ is the heart of my business."

"Taking it away wouldn’t just be punishing me — it would take away my ability to provide for my family and employees." 

"The Crown is trying to forfeit this truck and then destroy it," Chris Barber says. Photo by Courtesy Chris Barber // JUSTIN TANG / The Canadian Press

 

More recently Canadian cities have been witness to thousands of keffiyeh and mask-clad supporters of a terrorist-proscribed Palestinian group, Hamas, assembling time and again to block intersections, interfere with traffic, threaten Jewish Canadians, picket synagogues and Jewish parochial schools, vandalize Jewish businesses, call for a global Intifada, chant slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, intimidate and threaten those who disagree with them, and no government or police action has ever been taken. 

 

In those protests it is not uncommon to see the flags of Palestinian and Yemeni terrorist groups flown, even though these are recognized terrorist groups and are present on Canada's terror list, including Samidoun, which continues to have its headquarters in Vancouver, and continues its agitation, with the federal government looking the other way. Palestinian supporters have protested in front of the offices of Members of Parliament, they have interfered with public events and shut down special events, yet no official action is taken, even when pedestrian and vehicular traffic is blocked off for mass Islamic street prayers.

 

The long-standing persecution since 2022 of the convoy principals continues with a Crown forfeiture application to take the 2004 Kenworth long-haul truck valued at over $150,000 from the ownership of Swift Current, Saskatchewan trucker Chris Barber. Should Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey judge that the truck was used in the commission of mischief, the truck called Big Red would be seized. "The Crown is trying to forfeit this truck and then destroy it", states Mr. Barber, pointing out "It's been my home fore the better part of 22 years". Where the collar of his dog Buddy, hangs from the ceiling. "The dog travelled with me for the better part of 17 years".

 

Both Barber, 50, and Tamara Lich, both Freedom Convoy organizers, convicted of mischief under the argument that the protest was the cause of broad community harm, have had many court appearances during their prolonged trials. Any unaffected objective observer would come away from the charade of government upholding the law on civil disobedience with its determined persecution of these people bearing the indelible impression that this is a government bent on vengeance, not upholding the law, applied unevenly to suit the mood of the government apparatus. 

 

Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber outside the courthouse in Ottawa in a file photo. Photo by Justin Tang /The Canadian Press 

"There's a great divide between the two sides. There are citizens of Ottawa that really took it to heart and felt interfered with and still some have a hatred. He's got death threats."

"I've got emails from people that were very hateful to me as a lawyer for him. I've been a criminal lawyer for over 30 years, defended a lot of different types of crimes much worse than this, and never got that type of attention and hatred from regular people."

"Mr. Barber has to cross into the United States for his work purposes. [A criminal record might see him turned away at the border]."

Lawyer Diane Magas 

Rewarding Terrorism, Complicit in Support of Terrorism/France, U.K., Canada

"This is a reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace."

"It sets the dangerous precedent that violence, not diplomacy, is the most expedient means for terrorist groups like Hamas to achieve their political aims."

"[Recognition is] especially troubling [considering the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, when citizens of the U.K., France and Canada were among those killed that day]."

"Hamas's war crimes are clear, and its rejection of diplomacy should lead your countries to impose more pressure. Instead, you offer greater rewards." 

Open letter to France, U.K., Canada by U.S. Republican Congressmen and Senators 

 

"[Carney's recognition of a Palestinian state] vindicated [hostage-taking,  handing victory to the] violent mobs who block streets, vandalize businesses, target synagogues, and even shoot up schools [in Canada, post-7 October]."

Deputy Leader, Conservative Party of Canada, Melissa Lantsman 

Protest in support of Palestine in Toronto on Saturday, October 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey

"This action is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing an independent state with Holy Quds as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

Hamas congratulatory response to Canada/U.K./France announcement  

"We are proud to sacrifice [our] martyrs. We are prepared to stage events similar to October 7, 2023, again and again until Israel ceases to exist", stated Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad. This most recent congratulatory message by Hamas to Canada in response to Palestine-supportive statements from Canada's Liberal government is the third of its kind. Canadian branches of the Palestinian Youth Movement and Toronto4Palestine student group openly celebrated the attacks of October 7, organizing demonstrators to call for supplanting the "Zionist entity" with a Palestinian state.

 

Hamas has run the Gaza Strip since 2007   Getty Images

 

A sour note was hit by Toronto4Palestine, taking a break from applauding the Liberal Party's most recent turnabout from an ally and supporter of the state of Israel, to condemning it for its military response to the terrorist sweep through southern Israel when sadistic savagery was on full display with the rape and dismemberment of Israeli girls and women, and the massive death toll of Israeli children, women, men and foreign farm workers. Prime Minister Carney was condemned by Toronto4Palestine for calling for Hamas to "play no role in t he future governance of Palestine". Even while he was praised for recognition a Palestinian state without preconditions.

 

The stated conditions for recognition of the nascent Palestinian state, in Toronto4Palestine's opinion, "undermine Palestinian self determination", failing to "acknowledge the reality in Palestine". Of course, in actual fact, Hamas itself has long had a place on Canada's terrorist list. Flying the Hamas flag, celebrating its 'courage' in confronting the Zionist Entity by murdering civilians, rapine and pillage, under Canadian law merit arrest, but no such thing happened, while the pro-Hamas contingent in Canadian society rampaged through Canadian streets chanting to universalize the Intifada. 

 

Canada's State Immunity Act emphasizes that a state must not wage aggressive war, must not commit atrocities and must not support terrorism to be recognized as a state. The status of state recognition has its rights, but carries responsibilities as well. States that finance, facilitate or take part in terrorism for the benefit of designated terror groups can be stripped of immunity and held to account in Canadian courts. The West Bank government of the Palestinian Authority which Canada proposes to govern a newly declared Palestinian state has and does in fact, finance, facilitate and take part in terrorism. 

 

 

 

Promoting the Palestinian Authority as the future governing agent of the West Bank and Gaza elevates a  terrorist financing, promoting group. And if France, the U.K. and Canada promote this accession of Fatah, itself on terror lists (while forming the backbone of the Palestinian Authority) does that not make these three Western democratic countries complicit in terrorism themselves? At the very least, willing to look past these inconveniences to shore up their arguments that Israel's determination to rout out the terrorist Hamas which uses Palestinian civilians as shields, to hold Israel accountable for deaths that Hamas causes.

 

For years the Palestinian Authority has paid convicted terrorists and the families of those carrying out attacks, bonus awards for 'confronting the occupation'. The 'Occupation', needless to say, is Israel's defense against constant, ongoing Palestinian attacks against the Jewish state and its people. Rewarding terrorism incites more terrorist acts; a double game perfected by Palestinian politicians. And it is not only Hamas, but the Palestine Liberation Front, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups beloved of the Palestinians all committed to Israel's annihilation.

 

Easily overlooked by Israel's allies now turned detractors and Palestinian human rights defenders, who deny Israel's human rights. Fatah founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, another listed terrorist entity in Canada that excelled in suicide bombings, civilian shootings, kidnappings and October 7. Fatah is the terrorist arm of the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Whose popularity in the West Bank is low, while Hamas gains majority plaudits in the West Bank, greater than its support by Gaza residents. 

 

Palestinian politics:  

 

Sacrificing Israel to Appease Hamad's Jihad and Conquest

"The name Palestine, in its Geek form Palaistine, was both a  transliteration of a word used to describe the land of the Philistines and, at the same time, a literal translation of the name Israel."

Historian David Jacobson, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 

 

"The Palestinian people does not exist ... there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese."

"We are all part of one people, the Arab nation [...] Just for political reasons we carefully underwrite our Palestinian identity. Because it is of national interest for the Arabs to advocate the existence of Palestinians to balance Zionism."

"Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons[...] Once we have acquired all our rights in all of Palestine, we must not delay for a moment the reunification of Jordan and Palestine." 

1977 interview with PLO's Zuheir Mohsen  

Caanan/Palestine/Israel NASA

Palestine in the ancient world was part of the region known as Canaan where the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were located. The term `Palestine' was originally a designation of an area of land in southern Canaan which the people known as the Philistines occupied a very small part of.

The Canaanites, Canaanite-Phoenicians, and the Israelites, among others, established themselves in the area much earlier. The Philistines are thought to have come to the area toward the end of the Bronze Age c. 1276 BCE and established themselves on the southern coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea in an area afterwards known as Philistia.

The whole of the region was referred to as `Canaan' in Mesopotamian texts and trade records found at Ebla and Mari as early as the 18th century BCE while the term `Palestine' does not appear in any written records until the 5th century BCE in the Histories of Herodotus. After Herodotus, the term `Palestine' came to be used for the entire region which was formerly known as Canaan.

Joshua J. Mark, World History  

 

Hamas is fulsome in its praise for the definitive statements on Palestinian statehood issued by France, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others. All of these countries formerly while supporting Palestinian statehood as an aspiration were supportive of the diplomatic channels between Israel and Palestinian leaders to reach a joint agreement on such a declaration in support of statehood for 'Palestinians'. Time and again efforts to reach that historical agreement failed. And time and again it was those calling themselves Palestinians that rejected that two-state solution, just as they had in 1947.

 

It took a cataclysmic event to convince Israel's purported allies to jettison their historical approach to Palestinian statehood. With the full knowledge available to them that it would take a final and absolute agreement on the part of the Palestinians to recognize Israel's existence, and to no longer challenge that existence. That event was the October 7, 2023 savagery that Palestinian terrorists - from Hamas operatives to the PLFP, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians themselves breaching the border from Gaza to Israel to launch a well-planned raid of farming communities; raping, mutilating, murdering and  hostage-taking.

 

That wholesale sadistic barbarism led inevitably to the launch of a military invasion by Israel, which responded as any other country that would have reeled in shock and disbelief at the scope and depth of the depravity of terrorism targeting their civilian population by marching into the enemy territory from whence wholesale death emerged to destroy the structure, weaponry, and leaders, alongside the foot soldiers of terrorism in a determination that never again would that source commit such a mass atrocity. A source more than committed to offering up its own civilian population as protective shields.

 

The victimhood plight of Palestinians used as a public relations tool whereby Palestinian  terrorist groups could arrest and manipulate international public opinion to damn Israel and support Palestinian statehood aspirations. "We're under no illusions that this [recognition of a Palestinian state] is any sort of panacea, but it's necessary, in our judgment and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now. So, we're doing what we can, but recognizing limitations", offered Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

 

A prime minister and a government in Canada that has permitted its own Muslim population and Palestinian student groups to maximize the pressure of threats on Jewish Canadians for two years, since October 7, violating the very hate laws of the country in the process, and committing continual civic infractions of the public and social and law-and-order weal with impunity, because Jews are expendable and all the more so, Israeli lives under ongoing threat of the Middle East Islamist threat to the existence of a Jewish state. 

 

Hamas itself, the instigator and perpetrator of the mass atrocity that ultimately spurred Europe and other 'allies' of civilized, democratic Israel to abandon justice for the sake of their sanctimonious perceived need to avoid the spirit of 'genocide' purportedly threatening Palestinians, is delighted with those allies and indeed the entire reaction of the United Nations' membership. Aside from continuing to attack Israel, alongside its other Iran-sponsored-and-armed surrogates Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas fairly chortles with delight over the success of its propaganda war uplifting its agenda of Jewish annihilation and territorial conquest.  

"[Recognition, representing reward for] years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice."

"This action [of state recognition] is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing n independent state with Holy Quds [Jerusalem] as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

Hamas statement

 

"We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally, and ending the longest-ever occupation in our modern time.
"[Israel] constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished."

Ghazi Hamad, Hamas spokesman 

"There is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad. All initiatives, proposals, and International Conferences are all  waste of time and vain endeavours." 

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [endowment] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up." 

"The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism."

"Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Muslim brethren in Palestine. As for the other Arab and Islamic countries, they are asked to facilitate the movement of the fighters from and to it, and this is the least thing they could do."

"Writers, intellectuals, media people, orators, educators and teachers, and all the various sectors in the Arab and Islamic world - all of them are called upon to perform their role, and to fulfill their duty. Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy." 

"The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression."

"Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea."

"Hamas welcomes the stances of states, organizations and institutions that support the rights of the Palestinian people."

Hamas Doctrine, Wilson Center 

"This is a reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace."

"It sets the dangerous precedent that violence, not diplomacy, is the most expedient means for terrorist groups like Hamas to achieve their political aims."

"Hamas's war crimes are clear, and its rejection of diplomacy should lead your countries to impose more pressure. Instead, you offer greater rewards." 

28 Republican members of U.S. Congress 

 

"[My government's goal in recognizing Palestinian statehood is to keep the topic] front and centre [at the United Nations General Assembly with a host of] influential but not decisive countries." 

"We're under no illusions that this is any sort of panacea, but it's necessary, in our judgment, and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now."

"So, we're doing what we can, but recognizing limitations".

"Recognizing the Sate of Palestine, led by the Palestinian Authority empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence and the end of Hamas." 

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a United Nations Summit on Palestinians at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 22, 2025. | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

 

"[Recognition is our reward for] years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice."

"This action is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing an independent state with Holy Quds as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

"[Recognition represents a] victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause."

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Mardawi 

The Hamas movement welcomed the move by Britain, Canada, and Australia to recognize the state of Palestine, and expressed its satisfaction with the announcement of the decision by a number of other countries to officially recognize it in the near future.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was called upon to "reconsider" his government's decision through an open letter from 25 Republican members of Congress and U.S. Senators. This, in response to the formal recognition that Carney's government gave for a Palestinian state prior to arriving in New York for the scheduled UN General Assembly. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macon were also directly addressed in the letter. 

"We compel the Government of Canada to reverse this decision and support a future agreement developed through direct negotiation and mutual recognition."

"The consequences of this foreign policy decision will undoubtedly unfold domestically."

Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Ottawa 

 

"Recognition under these circumstances does not bring us any closer to lasting peace, it only further compromises the prospect of a two-state solution." 

"Today, our government has chosen appeasement over principle."

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy, B’nai Brith Canada 

 

"[Carney’s decision is an attempt to distract Canadians from] rampant crime, costs, debt, immigration and job-loss [across the country]."

"Conservatives will always stand for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, living next to a future demilitarized, terror-free, democratic and peaceful Palestinian State."

"Conservatives will focus on what is good for Canada because it is time to put our country first for a change."

Parliamentary Opposition Conservative Party statement

A  pro-Palestine march gathers in a Toronto intersection on Sunday Oct. 29, 2023. Photo by Chris Young /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

When news of Carney's decision was first released, he was careful to condemn Hamas, and to ask for the return of the Israeli hostages from Gaza; that recognition would be contingent on a number of issues to be addressed; a democratic election to be held, Hamas to be removed from power in Gaza, that the Fatah-related Palestinian Authority prepare to govern both the West Bank and Gaza, and that Israel's right to exist be categorically supported. Fatah, as it happened, took part in the Hamas-instigated savagery of October 7.

 

None of the issues articulated by Mr. Carney as a prerequisite for Canada recognizing a Palestinian state have been addressed; the 'pay for slay' reward for Palestinian terrorists that gave handsome monetary gifts to Palestinians who attacked or murdered Israelis has been maintained in a covert form. Most Palestinians in the West Bank, according to a Palestinian poll, supported Hamas, not the governing body in the West Bank. So, none of the metrics that should accord with granting formal recognition of nationhood status have been fulfilled.

 

The U.S. Congress and Senate members letter went on to say that granting recognition is "especially troubling" in consideration of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 -- reminding world leaders that Canada, France and the United Kingdom, as well as may other countries saw some of their own citizens murdered that fateful day. Moreover Hamas continues to hold  hostages, using them as "bargaining chips"; those still alive being held in "deplorable conditions". 

 

 

Nonetheless, Carney in his wisdom insists that recognition of a Palestinian state does not legitimize terrorism, or compromise Canada's "steadfast support" for Israel. A support that Canadian Jews fail to recognize, particularly with this government that has never addressed the ongoing verbal and physical violence that Canadian Jews have been subjected to through the constant 'protests' taking place with pro-Palestinian mobs lionizing Hamas and slandering Israel while threatening Canadian Jews, promising a 'final solution', and inviting them to 'go back to Poland'. Hate crimes toward which Canadian laws should be addressed.   

"[Allied partners were warned this was] counterproductive [to peace talks]."

"We actually think it's undermined negotiations, because it emboldened Hamas, and we think it undermines future prospects of peace in the region."

"It's what we thought would  happen [Israel moving to annex part of the West Bank in response to Canada 'unilaterally' declaring Palestinian statehood]."

"We warned that this kind of action would happen among some in Israeli government if they did what they did."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

A Relationship Maintained on Distrust

"Fully abandoning the legacy of this agreement would be, from many perspectives, a mistaken and short-sighted step."

"To avoid provoking a strategic arms race ... Russia is preparing to continue adhering to the central quantitative limitations of the New START Treaty, for one year after February 5, 2026."

"We believe that this measure will only be  viable if the United States acts in a similar manner and does not take step that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potentials."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press

 

While this key treaty with the United States is set to expire in February, Russia has offered to extend the treaty for another year -- out of the goodness of  Mr. Putin's heart. He does not wish to 'provoke a  strategic arms race', but he is not averse to threatening use of the nuclear arsenal in Russia's possession whenever he feels particularly paranoid, fearing that things are not quite going his way. Just a little self-protective tic of his personality.

 

Signed by both parties in 2010, this treaty is the remaining nuclear arms reduction agreement shared by the globe's two atomic powers in possession of the greatest number of nuclear warheads, one that limits the number allowable by each side. Tensions over the Ukraine conflict have not been conducive to amicable relations sufficient to ensure the world's two top nuclear powers share a desire to lower the nuclear threat; leaving each with the impression that the other is preparing to breach the limits.

 

It was in fact, Russia that froze participation on its part in New START in 2023, while continuing to honour the treaty limits restricting both sides to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads each, representing a nearly 30 percent reduction from the previous 2002 limit. Together the two countries control over 80 percent of the world's nuclear warheads in an atmosphere now prevailing of mistrust and calculated risk.

 

Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev sign the New START treaty at Prague Castle, Czech Republic, in 2010. Getty Images

 

The two countries withdrew from the landmark Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 2019, which had been concluded by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. That agreement limited the use of medium-range missiles, conventional and nuclear.  A law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by Mr. Putin in 2023 even while Moscow claimed it would honour the moratorium on atomic testing.

 

Shortly following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an all-in military assault, Russia's nuclear forces were placed on high alert. A decree lowering the threshold for using its nuclear weapons was signed by the Russian leader in 2024. So the question lingering in knowledgeable minds is why this outreach by Putin, however temporary, at a time when Putin is playing cat-and-mouse games with his neighbours in his near-abroad, convinced that if his Ukraine adventure succeeds, they may be next in line.

 

The eventual replacement of single-warhead Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with RS-24 Yars ICBMs—seen here on display at the Victory Day Parade in May 2023 in Moscow—equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles could potentially add several hundred warheads to Russia's ICBM force. (Credit: President of the Russian Federation)

"[This is] an important and positive move."

"More nuclear weapons will not make anyone safer."

"By agreeing not to exceed the current strategic nuclear limits, they could reduce tensions, forestall a costly arms race that no one can win, create diplomatic leverage to curb the buildup of China’s arsenal, and buy time for talks on a broader, more durable, treaty."

Daryl G. Kimball, director, Arms Control Association, Washington 

Has anyone reminded Mr. Kimball that Russia and China have signed a new mutual engagement pact that ensures each has the other's back? Trust Russia? Putin enjoys putting his neighbours on tenterhooks of apprehension; last week warplanes and drones overflew the sovereign airspace of Estonia and Poland,  Russia violating their airspace in separate incidents. Romania also said Russian drones breached its airspace. And more recently Denmark and Norway were treated to mystery drones flying over their airports. 

"[Russian agencies are tasked to] closely monitor relevant American activities, particularly with regard to the strategic offensive arms arsenal [with a particular emphasis on plans to] expand the strategic components of the U.S. missile defense system, including preparations for the deployment of interceptors in space."

"The practical implementation of such destabilizing actions could undermine our efforts to maintain the status quo in the strategic offensive arms sphere."

Vladimir Putin 

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

 

Civil Life in Canada

"[The government's new bill to target use of hate and terror symbols is not a] blanket ban [on any particular imagery]." 

"We see it in our streets. We see it in our parks. We see it in our grocery stores."

"Frankly, we see it almost everywhere."

"This behaviour is not just morally culpable, the impact has reverberations through the entirety of the community. And, I would argue, tears at the seams of the social fabric of the nation." 

"[The bill includes specific language exempting peaceful protest from prosecution and would only apply to conduct where the] motivation [is to intimidate or prevent someone from practising their faith]."

"We have included specific provisions to exempt peaceful protest."

Justice Minister Sean Fraser 

Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled a bill Friday adding four new offences to the Criminal Code. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

"Merely displaying this symbol, in and of itself, is not the sole harm we're trying to target." 

"It does have to be tied with the wilful promotion of hatred. This is difficult, because it could take a thousand different forms, and it's going to be for police on the ground and Crown prosecutors to identify when that threshold has been crossed."

Justice Minister Sean Fraser

 

"It is still necessary to show that there is an intention ... an intention to promote hatred by displaying these symbols."

"It's not even clear to me that this law would do what they want it to do, given that you would have to prove, in a criminal context, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person displaying the flag intended to promote hatred on racial or religious grounds, obviously, in particular, hatred towards Jews." 

Richard Moon, professor, freedom of expression, University of Windsor 

A group of people hold signs at a pro-Palestinian rally. (Travis Golby/CBC)

 

Warning that the Canadian government's new bill that targets the use of hate and terror symbols is not to be considered a 'blanket ban' on any particular imagery, the Justice Minister explained that it would depend on a variety of factors to be evaluated by police and prosecutors in laying a charge, along with questions over implementation.  

 

The measure represents the first piece of legislation since Parliament's resumption this week, representing one of five changes Prime Minister Mark Carney has prioritized in changes to the Criminal Code for an effort to respond to the viral hate messages proliferating in Canada. Those messages have been amplified and become more pointedly vociferous and sinister in the past two years, when the Liberal government in an earlier iteration chose to do nothing.

 

And in doing nothing, merely mouthing the words that 'antisemitism has no place in Canada' -- those who used an inverted triangle, those who flew the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, championing the groups that Canada lists as terrorists, those who chanted and carried banners shouting 'final solution', symbolizing another Holocaust, who burned the effigy of Israel's prime minister, along with Israeli flags -- were lent tacit encouragement to the  raging mobs accusing Israel of 'Apartheid', and 'genocide'.

 

Immediately on news of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas leading a flood of thousands of terrorists trained and armed with instructions to rape, mutilate, murder at will on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel, it was well understood that the nation being  savagely attacked would respond. Which led Palestinian groups in Canada to quickly organize protests against the Jewish state mounting its response in Gaza in a determined effort to root out Hamas, its leaders, weapons depots, and deadly operatives. Taking to the streets of Canada along with supporters in the thousands, Jew-haters went on a  rampage of hate, threatening Canadian Jews.

 

Blocking traffic arteries, entrances to hospitals and universities, synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses, the protest organizers cited their constitutional rights to free speech. And they were permitted to freely speak libelous slanders, inciting to violence, accusing and indulging in vituperative threats against Canadian Jews, even targeting Jewish children attending parochial schools with taunts and accusations. Police presence meant a minimum of physical violence, but no action was taken against verbal violence.

 

The Hub

The new legislative proposal would include criminalizing "willfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in a public place"; a crime carrying a two-year penalty. Hate symbols defined for the bill's purposes as a Nazi swastika or SS lightning bolts. Defining as well a terror symbol linked to a currently listed  terrorist entity under Canada's designated terrorist lists, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Deliberate alteration of such symbols to be included.

 

The proposed change, according to Richard Moon, professor at the University of Windsor specializing in freedom of expression, raises the question  of assigning motivation to anyone who displays such a symbol. Response to the presence of flags representing Hamas and Hezbollah has Jewish community groups and leaders specifically calling for government action. All such appeals to government have gone unanswered despite the fact that Canada already has anti-hate law legislation.

 

Accordingly, Professor Moon questions whether the government proposal is simply 'performative', since the episodes and symbols new legislation is meant to address are already covered by existing criminal law. In response to the new bill, a spokesman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, sensitive to any issues that might be addressed to impede the Muslim narrative, insists greater clarity is required on the plan to criminalize the display of terror symbols, since white supremacist symbols "remain untouched". 

 

There are, needless to say, no marches, protests, rallies led by white supremacists interfering with civil life in Canada. 

 

People on both sides are taking issue with some of the signs and social media posts about recent events in the Middle East. (CBC)