"One could argue that we've lost that unifying sense of right and wrong."

"The very sense of [the] liberal, permissive, non-judgmentally embracing society that our countries were fundamentally founded on is now being openly exploited for the purpose  of reshifting the balance." 

Former Vice-Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, Mark Norman

 

"Symbolic politics has never been sufficient, it is a sign of weak leadership. Condemnations without enforcement, statements without consequences and gestures without policy are not leadership."

"Canadians do not need additional legislation layered over existing statutes. We need the consistent application of the laws already in force.e"

"Canada is lost and no longer immune. A nation cannot remain open if it forgets how to be a nation. The choice is not between tolerance and cohesion. It is between a confident pluralism anchored in shared civic norms, and a politics of endless accommodation that dissolves the very framework that makes diversity possible."

Larry Maher, CEO, Exigent Foundation

Anti-Israel protesters block a downtown Toronto street to pray as police watch. Photo by Caryma Sa’d/X

 

It took no more than a  decade to fundamentally alter Canada, reverse many of its values, not the least the outstanding human right assurance of equality and rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. With that assurance came the expected responsibility of each member of society to respect the social contract that ensured equal opportunities (if not equal outcomes) to succeed and prosper for Canadian citizens who obeyed Canadian laws and whose experience in the general education system helped them to understand their citizen obligations to the country. 

 

In an earlier era those rights and obligations were unevenly applied and issues of discrimination against minority groups reflected a European heritage of entitlement and belittlement of the exotic 'others' who had made their way into North America, many as refugees fleeing persecution and conflict. Under moderately good governance evinced by leaders who at best understood their own guiding obligations to the people they served, laws were passed that ushered Canada into an era of fair justice and social cohesion.

 

Migrants from abroad who entered Canada in the first half of the 20th century as immigrants from impoverished backgrounds to make a home for themselves in a new country where opportunities abounded worked hard, obeyed laws, and accommodated themselves to a new culture with values that suited their own notions of being and belonging. Canadian authorities refined immigration rules to eventually reflect Canada's needs in a point system that rewarded education, professional qualifications, age suitability and an assessed philosophical fit.

 

A succession of Liberal governments in more recent times gradually morphed toward the kind of liberal progressivism that loosened qualifications and requirements of suitability to join the Canadian population. Sympathy for people searching for haven from authoritarian governments, from endemic poverty, from societal crime rates, from conflict zones opened the gates of entry to Canada wide, including the refugee class and illegal migrants who bypassed normal entrance procedures to declare themselves refugees. 

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, is greeted by Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, centre, as he arrives in Doha on Jan. 18. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

The intake swelled, fulfilling what government and business leaders professed to be a need to replace an aging, low-child-bearing population with new recruits to build Canada's working population. Entry to the country no longer relied on screening for adaptability and suitability for integration into the prevailing culture, its values and its laws. To the point where landed immigrants and new citizens openly declared their defiance of those values and accompanying laws, bringing havoc and division and open discrimination to the very streets of the cities throughout the country where they settled in influential numbers.

 

Newcomers to the country felt no loyalty to the country that had adopted them and there were no expectations from government that they should integrate and accept the prevailing social order as it was. Instead religious and ideological divisions erupted and with no amending reaction from government and institutions at any level, those divisions deepened, becoming more publicly expressed, including through deliberate acts of law-breaking.   

 

Canadians of long standing were treated to displays of overt challenges to the  public order in universities and cultural institutions where mass protests took to the streets, bringing foreign campaigns, conflicts, ideological convictions averse to Canada's own, to the fore, with no government intervention at any level. All the while Canada congratulated itself as a bastion of liberal democracy. Politicians rather than applying themselves to Canada's and its populations' defense, eyeing the numbers of voluble protests and the votes they represented, chose appeasement of activist groups.

 

Canadian PM Mark Carney : China's President Xi Jinping AP

 

And from the outside world, lax attention to the actions of foreign powers that invaded Canada's sovereignty through the infiltration of foreign agents acting on their behalf on the social, academic and political levels exercised the 'soft power' of authoritarian regimes and of extremist movements, effectively interfering in Canada's politics as well as the social contract unique to Canada. Russia, China, Iran, 
Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood all have made an indelible impact within Canada with their malign presence. 

 

The moral, institutional foundations of Canada's principles of equality and human rights have been assailed by Islamist, Marxist, socialist and other radical engagements in destabilizing Canada, as well as other Western nations they have entered both legally and under the radar. What all these Western nations appear to have in common is an attitude of oblivious disinterest in the interference and subtle changes being wrought in normalizing abnormal social behaviour and its effect on their institutions.

 

The exploitation of liberal societies, priding themselves on their Democratic principles of inclusion appear willing to accept the slow erosion of their adherence to the public weal rather than risk being labelled racist, exclusionary or 'Islamophobic'. Identity politics, moral relativism, and DEI guide governments content to do nothing in response to the unravelling of their nations' stability and social coherence. If there is a solution to Western democracies' inaction in the face of this dilemma, it has not yet shown its face. 

 

Canadian universities have seen a surge of pro-Palestinian protests following similar demonstrations across North America.  University Affairs

 

Canada, Infiltrated by Foreign Agents

"Unlike some of its allies, Canada lacks a transparent mechanism to ensure the public is informed about attempts by foreign entities to influence Canadian political and governmental processes. As a result, foreign principals and their proxies can secretly seek to shape Canadian decisions and public opinion."

"Some activities by foreign entities are carried out secretly or in a non-transparent manner, often using proxies and tactics such as spreading misinformation."

"Non-transparent foreign influence activities that aim to affect political and governmental processes for the undisclosed benefit of a foreign power undermines Canada's sovereignty and democracy."

Federal government document on a Foreign Agent Registry

 

"If that's accurate, it means a scale of influence that's already significant."

"A registry of that size only matters if it leads to enforcement, and it raises real capacity concerns." 

"I worry about managed compliance rather than deterrence of a counter-intelligence threat."

Dennis Molinaro, intelligence analyst, author: Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China's Secret War Against Canada 

The Peace Tower is seen on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

According to the federal government's own estimates close to 2,500 businesses or people are in Canada surreptitiously acting on behalf of foreign states for the purpose of directly influencing local politics and governments. They would all be required to register publicly under regulations linked to a long-awaited foreign agent registry. A tool that was expected to be fully operational a year ago, still awaiting the appointment of a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner who would be tasked with overseeing the registry.

 

Business and individuals would have to provide data describing the work they perform on behalf of and at the behest of a foreign government, meant to influence Canadian politics and governments. Penalties have been proposed ranging from $50 to $1 million imposed on foreign agents failing to respect registration rules. The document itself estimates that 1,550 businesses and 872 individuals will be required to declare foreign influence activities targeting Canada. 

 

Democratic allies such as the U.S., U.K., France and Australia set the standard in public registries for foreign agents; Canada has not yet recognized the absolute necessity to follow suit, the Liberal government taking its time to join them in this critical exercise. It is well known and has been proven that foreign agents abound in Canada representing the interests of China, Iran, Russia, and India. Members of Iran's IRGC are known to be resident in Canada, harassing Iranian-Canadians. Mainland Chinese agents in Canada track and threaten Chinese-Canadians hostile to the CCP. Russian agents are known to spread false and misleading new stories, among other issues.

 

Canada's Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree  

 

Canada is also known as a conduit for money-laundering benefiting countries and groups hostile to Canada and its democratic values. In sum total, countries from everywhere on the globe, many falling under a non-hostile category, conduct foreign influence sorties in Canada. It is those countries who secretly seek influence among Canadians and the country's democratic institutions with the use of illegitimate means such as disinformation and misinformation that the registry will track. 

 

A year and a half ago Parliament passed a bill that promised the creation of a public registry of agents working for a foreign government. It is only in this new year that a 30-day consultation period will proceed to finalize a registry. And even then until a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner has been appointed, the registry cannot be implemented. An appointed commissioner would be responsible for hiring staff and implementing a secure IT protocol for the public registry. 

 

The truth of the matter is that Canada under the Liberal government fails to take the matter of foreign influence in the country seriously. The most challenging and threatening foreign predator in Canada is the Chinese Communist Party. Its influence within the Chinese community, manipulating the voting patterns of those loyal to Beijing is a direct interference in the sovereignty of the country. Yet the Liberal government itself is well infiltrated by Chinese influencers at every level. 

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to travel to Beijing next week, accompanied by Liberal Member of Parliament Michael Ma, to meet with China's President Xi Jinping on outstanding trade issues. The issue of interference in Canadian affairs will certainly not be raised, nor would the harassment of Chinese-Canadians become an issue between the two premiers.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney embraces Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

 

Historical Wrecking Balls

"We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make."

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

U.S. President George W. Bush, post 9/11

 

"Canada condemns Israel's strikes in Qatar -- an intolerable expansion of violence and an affront to Qatar's sovereignty."

"Regardless of their objectives, such attacks pose a grave risk of escalating conflict throughout the region, and directly imperil efforts to advance peace and security, secure the release of all hostages, and achieve a lasting ceasefire -- efforts in which Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani plays a highly constructive role."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after Tuesday's explosions in Qatar's capital Doha  Getty Images

 

In 2001, Canada, all the Western world, NATO and the United Nations were 'with' the United States. The international community, those most tied to the United States as democratic allies sent their military forces, their diplomats and NGOs arrived to provide humanitarian services in 2001 when Afghanistan was invaded after its Taliban leaders refused to surrender al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, responsible for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon and the overpowered terrorists that led to another plane crash in Pennsylvania. 

 

Britain, Spain and France all experienced their own Islamist terror attacks, when the world became familiar with the rise of  'political', 'radicalized' Islam. But no country has ever experienced the level and number of attacks that Israel  has been exposed to -- by its neighbour-states and by terrorist groups fostered, armed, trained and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Shia theocracy has its laser focus on Israel's destruction, and has never been modest in airing that ambition even in the hallowed chambers of the United Nations whose function is to promote peace among nations.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, is accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump, center, at a dinner in the Blue Room of the White House  Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

 

Iran is supported in its aspiration of genocidal obliteration of Jews by Qatar, which acts as a covert bland buffer between the Republic and its Sunni majority neighbours, while presenting itself as a trusted intermediary to the West. Qatar's vast oil-resourced treasury serves as a silver salver to entree in the United States, funding universities and supporting the infiltration of a fellow Islamist generator of antisemitic assaults among the large and growing Muslim diaspora settling in the West, the Muslim Brotherhood. 

 

Qatar has dedicated itself to the stealth promotion of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, in tandem with the Islamic Republic of Iran. More latterly, Turkey, a risible member of NATO, has joined them in their nefarious schemes against Israel. Both Turkey and Qatar have shielded Islamist terrorism, given them haven, described them as loyal servants of Islam, upholding its most sacred precepts. The Palestinian Authority has done likewise, but it is in sharp competition with Hamas for leadership of the Palestinians.

 

This handout picture released by Qatar’s Amiri Diwan shows Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (right), meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan in Doha, on September 10, 2025. (Qatar Amiri Diwan / AFP)

 

Israel, on the other hand, has since its re-emergence as a Jewish state on the geographic terrain of its ancestral heritage, has been forced repeatedly to emphasize its right of existence by defending itself militarily and in the process defeating its regional enemies. The attacks, once conducted by states now reconciled to Israel's indomitable presence, have been dominated by death-cult groups whose focus is trained solely on Israel's dismemberment while the Muslim Brotherhood and indeed Iran/Qatar have longer-range missions; world domination in the name of Islam, the 'religion of peace'. 

 

And it is the Islamist powers that Canada, France, Spain, Ireland, Britain, Norway, Australia and others cater to. Not only because they fail to look behind and beyond the facade spoonfed them by skilled propagandists, but as a result of having been flooded by emigrants, migrants and refugees from the Islamic world who now constitute in numbers a powerful incentive to cater to them as a voting bloc. They take seriously Qatar's presentation as a skilled mediator in talks between embattled Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas whose leaders reside in palatial comfort far from the fray while dictating to the Palestinian population to remain defiant (as does certainly the Palestinian Authority/Fatah/Mahmoud Abbas) and accept their sublime fate as martyrs for Islam.

 

This handout picture provided by the Palestinian Authority's press office shows Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) received by Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani upon arrival in Doha on September 14, 2025, ahead of an Arab-Islamic emergency summit. (Thaer GHANAIM / PPO / AFP)

 

It is these sanctimonious actors presenting themselves as innocent of any sinister, underhanded plans to disrupt the West, to replace democracy and rule of law with Islamist Sharia law, while in practise inciting hate and suspicion and infecting a wide segment of the West with the viral affliction of violent antisemitism that have gained the support of those who -- as defenders of Judeo-Christian values should be alert to the danger posed -- cite Israel and its presence in the Middle East as the problem, and have abandoned Israel and their own national Jewish populations to a fate they cannot contemplate, soon to arrive on their own shores.

 

Qatar's Emir is furious that Israel attacked Doha for the purpose of using stealth bombers to pinpoint the presence of elite leaders of Hamas and eliminate them. Invoking the sanctity of the state against attacks on its sovereignty, he is adamant that the international community must sanction and punish Israel for this violation of international law. In fact, international law fully supports such an attack on any country that harbors and shields terrorists threatening another nation. Even so, Qatar's Emir has the ear of those like Canada's Prime Minister Carney, eager to support Qatar and condemn Israel.

 

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thanii chairs a preparatory meeting in Doha on September 14, 2025 [Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AFP]

China Welcoming Friends Old and New

"This parade showcases the ascendancy of China propelled by Trump's inept diplomacy and President Xi's astute statecraft."

"The Washington consensus has unravelled, and Xi is rallying support for an alternative."

Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian studies, Temple University, Japan 

 

"Though the Russia-North Korea tie has resumed to a military alliance, China refuses to return to the year of 1950 [when Beijing sent soldiers to support North Korea's invasion of the South and the USSR provided critical military aid]."

"It is wrong to believe that China, Russia and North Korea are reinforcing bloc-building."

Zhu Feng, dean, School of International Relations, Nanjing University 

 

"I want to say that no one has been plotting anything, no one was weaving any conspiracies."

"None of the three leaders had even thought about such a thing."

Yuri Ushakov, Putin foreign affairs adviser

 

"Kim can also claim a diplomatic victory as North Korea has gone from unanimously sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for its illegal nuclear and missile programs to being embraced by the UNSC permanent members Russia and China."

Leif-Eric Easley, professor of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul

China put its military might on display Wednesday with a large parade. Also on display was China’s Xi Jinping flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a group of leaders united in a desire to challenge the dominance of the United States.  Still from video/CBC

 

Standing shoulder to shoulder, leaders of China, North Korea and Russia watched high-tech military hardware moving impressively along with thousands of soldiers marching the streets of Beijing in an massive show of strength and power. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with private confidence, smiling, clasping hands at a meeting several days before the military parade, at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

 

The meetings represented living proof of a message being sent to the United States of America and its allies through a shift from the U.S.-dominated world order led by the West with American President Donald Trump withdrawing from his nation's historic alliances, while imposing trade tariffs on friend and foe alike, shaking the world economy, puzzling allies and placing them on the defensive, looking elsewhere for validation of their right to aspire to economic and political stability, left adrift by the one guiding-light nation that has turned inward.

 

"Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Jun, as you conspire against The United States of America" was President Trump's message to his Chinese counterpart, while congratulating China on its celebration of emergence from the Second World War, free from Japanese occupation. A freedom from occupation not due to China's own defences, but owing to the offensive offered by the United States in humbling and defeating Japan through the persuasive power of its then-emerging nuclear capabilities.

The latest drones, missiles and other weapons were on display during a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on Wednesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping invited dozens of leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his nation's largest-ever military parade. (Liu Xu/Xinhua/The Associated Press)

 

The 80th anniversary in Beijing commemorating the end of the Second World War was the annual showcasing of Beijing's dedication to its own burgeoning nuclear arsenals on land, in the air and at sea. China's assertiveness, its expansionist imperatives and economic/manufacturing/infrastructure/trade and foreign investment through its ambitious Belt and Road initiative signal it as the emerging counterpart of the powerful United States of America.

 

The leaders invited to share China's celebratory commemoration, from Russia to North Korea, India to Turkey, Iran and to Cuba, share one issue in common between them, isolation and sanctions from the United States and its Western bloc of allies. Beyond that shared connection is the fact that each of those nations is fully focused on their own aspirational futures, some in direct contradiction to China's. Even while isolation drives their friendship, it is a facade, since they all aspire to achieve their goals, while gravitating around China's lead.

 

YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025.   Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

 

China remains concerned with North Korea's nuclear power which has softened its support for Kim. Making common cause with Putin, both deeply isolated from the West, belies the reality that though both have signed a military pact strengthening their overt ties, they still and will always have territorial disagreements in a silent infiltration of Chinese in Russia's far east, scantly populated by Russians and increasingly taken possession of by Chinese settlers.

 

The free trade agreement that India and Washington were negotiating fell apart when Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff across the board as punishment for the Russian oil New Delhi has signed on to; with combined tariffs at 50 percent taking Modi aback at a time when relations with the U.S. were on rocky ground of late, forcing India to look elsewhere for support and for the time being, moving closer to China and Russia.  

"India is carefully walking this tightrope between the West and the rest, especially when it comes to the U.S., Russia and China."

"[Modi did not participate in Beijing's military parade since] distrust with China still exists."

"Because India does not believe in formal alliances, its approach has been to strengthen its relationship with the United States, maintain it with Russia, and manage it with China."

Praveen Donthi, senior analyst, International Crisis Group 

Military personnel take part in a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Canada's Liberal Government, True to Form

"[It was] irresponsible and unacceptable [that Heritage Canada] conducted no research or background checks before they distributed this money]."

"If the government cannot conduct a simple background check on the institutions they distribute money to, they need to reconsider their use of grants and contributions."

"According to Heritage Canada’s own Departmental Reports, in 2020-21 they employed 194 full-time employees and spent $134,607,209 to promote diversity and inclusion. How is it possible with those resources that they did not see fit to evaluate an organization before deciding to grant it $133,000?"

Shadow Minister for Canadian Heritage, MP John Nater

 

"Regardless of the hate and propaganda he promotes, for years [Marouf] was able to sell himself to the government as a legitimate enterprise, regardless of how absolutely offensive his communications were. This is problematic."

"It is profoundly troubling that this individual was supported and enabled in his hate speech, and the government needs to overhaul whatever problem is in these programs."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies 

Laith Marouf   Photo by Peter McCabe/The Gazette

The man at the centre of this controversy in 2022, Laith Marouf, is a flaming antisemite and all-'round racist. He was the top consultant for the Community Media Advocacy Center (CMAC); in fact its founder and only 'employee'. He was given to referring to Jews as 'bags of human feces' deserving of a 'bullet to the head'. He posted regularly on social media sites such as X, and the quality and quantity of those posts were readily available for viewing in a strictly cursory, casual search. Yet, even though a Liberal MP had flagged the content of these posts to then-Minister of Canadian Heritage Ahmed Hussen, they were dismissed. 

The Community Media Advocacy Center in the six years prior to and including the 2022 revelations, received contracts from the federal government valued at $500 million representing cost support, research and advocacy (for equity and diversity programs) from the Canadian federal broadcasting agency. When the scandal of the absurdity and outrage of the federal government having hired a racist consultant to operate training sessions in anti-racism for government employees led to the contract's withdrawal and attempts to recover the funding given the CMAC, little was heard of this man and his agency again.

Now it has been revealed that he was recently arrested, then released by Lebanon's Military Intelligence Directorate, in an area adjacent to the border with Israel. The restricted area that this took place in was a border town in Lebanon, called Mais al-Jabal. Marouf had evidently failed to present the required media credentials. Held incommunicado under "extensive interrogation" at Lebanon's Defense Ministry's headquarters just outside Beirut, he was released on Tuesday, evidently without charges or conditions. 

 

This man, who was known to refer to Quebecers as 'frogs', Black people as slaves, and characterizing Israelis as 'loud-mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists' who would one day be forced to 'go back to where they came from' had been suspended from X for hateful commentary and advocating violence. He had regularly appeared as a pundit for Iran's Press TV and the Kremlin's Sputnik propaganda platform as a supporter of the Assad regime in Syria. He began his career, in violent 'anti-Zionist' protests at Concordia University decades earlier as the son of a Syrian diplomat in Montreal. 

 

After Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, Marouf's Community Media Advocacy Centre collected some $517,480 in Broadcast Participation Fund grants. Once the uproar over his having been hired as an expert anti-racist, prepared to school federal civil servants in equity and diversity had subsided from the public eye and ear, Heritage Canada which had hired him, saw their officials undergoing workshops on identifying antisemitism, with instructions on identifying racists and antisemites among grant applicants.

 

Marouf had busied himself with pro-Hezbollah 'Free Palestine Television' in Beirut, insisting his FPTV is "unaffiliated with any political party or groups", while relying heavily on interviews with fellow 'anti-Zionists', leading to sympathetic coverage of the problems facing Hezbollah after it decided to join Hamas in its conflict with the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, post-7 October 2023. Combat videos featuring Hamas, the Mujahideen Brigades and the Al-Qassam (IRGC) Brigades figured large in Marouf's FPTV series.

 

Mais al-Jabal, the border town where Marouf was picked up on Sunday, was a Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF last October destroyed lookout posts and weapons caches and tunnels in the town, mere metres from the Israeli border. On Marouf's arrival in Mais al-Jabal, he was detained at a checkpoint, and informed he lacked authorization to be in the area. Taken to a detention centre, his driver, Hadi Hoteit, a FPTV producer and correspondent for Tehran's Press TV, was released. 

 

View overlooking the Hula Valley and the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.  Alexey Protasov/stock.adobe.com

 

About 20 kilometres from Israel's northernmost city Kiryat Shmona, Mais al-Jabal is in a strategic location, one that Hezbollah used to rain rockets down over the Golan Heights to Jewish communities below. About 22,000 Israelis lived in Kiryat Shmonia before Hezbollah joined Hamas's war on Israel in October 2023. At least fifty percent of the city's buildings had been destroyed by Hezbollah rockets, its population evacuated to temporary safety in central Israel. 

 

Israeli reserve soldiers take part in a military drill in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, May 8, 2024

(photo credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

 

"[FPTV launched] with the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Flood — the name Hamas and other Palestinian groups have given to the Oct. 7 massacre. The online station is based out of Lebanon, staffed primarily by students, professors and community members."

"FPTV’s goal is to support the resistance from a media standpoint and to incite free peoples to move and fight Zionism and imperialism wherever they exist."

"Knowing that there is a huge gap left in news programming in English that is supportive of resistance and the right to liberation … we decided to bring together our communities here to start a project, a community television station."

FPTV Website 

 

"The Middle East Forum, an American conservative think tank, published a report that FPTV had links to the Lebanon-based group Al-Tajammu. According to Michael Barak, a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Israel’s Reichmann University, Al-Tajammu is “an international pro-Iranian platform to leverage the resistance axis against the U.S., Israel and their allies”."

"Marouf described the attacks on Al-Tajammu as “frivolous” and accused the Middle East Forum of being a “racist organization”."

National Post 

 

The Islamic Republican Guard Corps Amateur Handling of Explosives

"Two conservative [Iranian] newspapers have suggested a possible link between the port explosion and the nuclear talks."

"Jomhuri-ye Eslami daily on April 28, 2025, wrote, “The coincidence of the explosion at Shahid Rajaei Port with one of the most sensitive periods of negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman cannot be unrelated to the positive developments that have emerged in our country’s foreign policy”."

"Established and supported by the office of Supreme Leader, the paper accused Israel of seeking to derail the negotiations but also questioned who would take responsibility for the incident, warning that blame likely would be evaded, as usual."

"In an editorial, the Sobh-e No daily also noted that although the cause of the blast remains officially undetermined, its timing—alongside nuclear talks and heightened Israeli threats—raises the possibility of targeted sabotage."

Mardo Soghom, Middle East Forum

The explosion at the Bandar Abbas port happened during U.S.-Iran nuclear talks. Shutterstock

"The fire was reportedly the result of improper handing of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles."

"[The port took in a shipment of] sodium perchlorate rocket fuel."

Private security firm Ambrey 

"Our security forces are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response."

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

Heavy smoke rises at the scene of an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock, southwest of Bandar Abbas.  Meysam Mirsadeh/Tasnim News/AFP via Getty Images

The massive explosion and fire Saturday in southern Iran that has destroyed a major part of Iranian shipping has been linked to a shipment of a chemical that is used in in the manufacture of missile propellant. The blast killed 70 people, while more than ten times that number were injured. The Shahid Rajaci port will be out of business for a very long time. While reaction to the blast and fire has been restrained in the sense that there have been no official statements suggesting this was the result of an attack, the thought is there, albeit for the present, submerged.

 

The expression of the country's foreign minister was as close a warning in its reminder of previous Israeli attacks on Iranian weapons facilities and the assassinations of some of the country's top nuclear scientists  as it's likely to be, at this stage. Few details have emerged on what caused the blaze close to Bandar Abbas, a conflagration that burned into Saturday night, when other containers began exploding, adding fuel to the fire.

 

The fuel in question formed part of a shipment from China shipped in two vessels to Iran back in January. The chemicals were meant to be used to replenish Iran's missile stocks, depleted through its direct attacks on Israel during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. One of the vessels is believed to have carried the chemical in the area back in March, according to ship-tracking data. Iran has held back from acknowledging taking possession of the shipment. 

What is puzzling, given the obvious danger of storing and stocking such flammable explosives is why the chemicals would not have been moved out of the port. The situation resembles the Beirut port blast that took place in 2020 when that explosion, the result of  the ignition of hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, killed over 200 people, injuring more than 6,000. Suspicion would, of course, naturally fall on Israel which has targeted Iranian missile sites where industrial mixers to create solid fuel are used by Tehran.

 

Thick black smoke was still towering above the port on Sunday   Getty Images

"Get back, get back! Tell the gas [truck] to go!"

"Tell him to go, it's going to blow up!"

"Oh God, this is blowing up!"

Everybody evacuate!

"Get back! Get back!" 

Reddish-black smoke was seen rising at Shahid Rajaei on social media footage Saturday from the fire, immediately prior to the explosion. The state-run IRNA news agency stated that the Customs Administration of Iran cast blame on a "stockpile of hazardous goods and chemical material stored in the port area", which caused the blast. A surveillance video distributed by the Fars news agency is that of a small fire appearing among containers, and alerted workers moving away from the area in a panic, before a huge explosion erupted. 

"[Prior to the blast there had been a] failure to observe safety principles [according to state-affiliated outlet Mehr News]."

"Determining the definitive cause of this incident requires a complete and comprehensive investigation of its various aspects, which, due to expert requirements, requires technical and laboratory processes."

"[There were] discrepancies [in a statement given to the committee which did not elaborate on what these might be or their source]."

Iranian Investigating Committee

Charred merchandise and containers lie at the site of the deadly port explosion.

Meysam Mirsadeh/Tasnim News/AFP via Getty Images

Syrian Surprise Assault --Turkish Game of Regime Change

"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, part of an alliance of terrorist groups active in Syria and with links to the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, was formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, and served as Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. The organization is a jihadist group that upholds Sharia law, occupies Syria's Idlib area and cooperates with the Turkish military and Turkish-backed groups in Syria. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was also involved in HTS's formation."

"Turkey is unleashing another gruesome jihad in Syria. The city of Aleppo is now effectively under the control of Turkish-backed jihadist groups. Tens of thousands of Christians, Kurds and other minorities are in danger of extermination. Videos of jihadists abducting Kurdish women have also surfaced on social media."

Uzay Bulut, Gatestone

"MISSING FROM MEDIA REPORTS ON ALEPPO: 'Rebels' taking city are NOT Freedom Fighters but Turkish-backed Islamists with same ideology as ISIS that target Yazidis, Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities.

"The USCIRF reports they 'target religious minorities, especially Yazidis, for rape, assassination, kidnapping for ransom, confiscation of property, and desecration of cemeteries and places of worship.'

USCIRF Factsheet says Hay's Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) 'remains a potent source of a Salafi-jihadism that restricts the religious freedom of non-conforming Sunni Muslims and threatens the property, safety, and existence of religious minority groups such as Alawites, Christians, and Druze.' They also report 'torture, forced disappearance, rape and other sexual violence, and killing in detention.'

"Expect the same horrific crimes from these Turkish-backed Islamist militias (including HTS) that we have seen from them in other parts of Syria. They learned from the international response to ISIS to not make an immediate public display of this violence.

".... [A]reas under government control are also horrible as they endure 'egregious human rights abuses such as arbitrary detention and torture, enforced disappearance.'                Nadine Maenza, the Former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

 Pictured: Turkish-backed jihadists patrol in central Aleppo on November 30, 2024. (Photo by Muhammad Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Syria's 13-year-old uncivil war that witnessed an estimated half-million deaths assigned to the country's regime under President Bashar al-Assad spurred by Sunni Syrians demanding equal treatment to the minority Alawite Shiites represented by Assad, ignited a destructive response from the Syrian military that turned a protest into a civil war. It did not take long for the country to be flooded with the presence of Sunni terrorist groups eager to contest the Syrian military in an exchange of tribal/secular conflict.

Now, a complex patchwork of terrorist fighters whose focus is on opposing a number of various enemies have converged to challenge the regime once again. A lightning assault last week against government forces in the northwest of the country is in the process of altering the front lines in the conflict. The Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist salafist group poses a formidable challenge to the Assad regime. It is predicted by Middle East experts that this current and growing conflict has the potential to go beyond the country itself.

 

Syrian opposition fighters ride on a truck in Khan Sheikhoun, south-west of Aleppo. Photograph: Ghaith Alsayed/AP

The United States has distanced itself from the offensive, while Russia and Iran, both involved in giving dedicated support over the years of conflict to Syria, both distracted at present by their own disparate conflicts -- as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon -- may yet be drawn more into the Syria defensive. The HTS group, over a period of a decade was involved in disabling the Syrian government in its bid to establish Islamic rule in Syria as the successor to al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, now on the  ascendancy.

It has in the last few years, attempted to soften its harsh image of Islamist intolerance, claiming recently it will protect Aleppo's cultural and religious sites, including churches. Troops loyal to Assad have to this point managed to fend off efforts to topple his regime, since 2011. Assad's forces back then with its violent crackdowns on protests moved the situation from protest to full volume rebellion. Opposition rebels had until recently been contained within part of north-western Syria with the help of Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.

Suddenly, government forces seem to have abandoned their upper hand in the face of growing resistance from opposition rebels, wresting control of Aleppo, although the military claimed it was redeploying troops from areas controlled in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, aided by joint Syrian-Russian air force bombardments. Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security adviser, spoke of the rebels' advance in connection with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, weakened through conflicts elsewhere.

According to Turkey's state-operated Anadolu Agency, the Syrian National Army -- a loose coalition of Turkish-backed forces -- took part in the recent rebel offensive. The SNA in joining the latest fighting did so primarily against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria who have in the past fought Assad's government, as well as HTS and Islamic State Islamists. Turkey's goal is its fight against Syrian Kurdish fighters considered by Turkey to be terrorists for their links to the  Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which launches attacks against Turkey for Kurdish independence.

Aleppo, Economist Intelligence

Mass Murder, The Vile Unspeakable

Map of Palestinian Arab attacks on Israeli sites

Something about this day. Was it a foreboding when we woke to a dark, heavily raining morning? And then we heard the news. Last night before I shut down my computer after posting my last blog of the night, I had a look at my Twitter feed. There was an announcement that heavy conflict had broken out after Hamas had launched hundreds of rockets into Israel. This has been a tough year for Israel, having to cope with countless terror assaults. Not only incited by the Palestinian Authority through its school curricula teaching children to hate Jews and Israel as 'occupiers' but through the emergence of new terror groups in Jenin launching attacks. As though Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad weren't enough to cope with.

Israel has been forced to balance the safety and security of its presence in the Middle East after reclaiming its ancestral territories and human rights in its re-establishment as a Jewish state, an authentic indigenous place of haven for Jews the world over as citizens while at the same time absorbing the presence of others, non-Jews ranging from Christians to Arabs, Druze, Kurds, Bedouins, Circassians, Baha'i and Africans who have migrated to the country from their war-ravaged countries. Arab Palestinians represent over 20% of the population, with equal citizenship rights enabling them to elect members of their own to the Knesset. 

 

But the very fact of Israel's existence -- on land that Palestinian Arabs who migrated from Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East into Israel to live amongst Jews who never left to become a part of the great Jewish diaspora when Jews were forcefully dispersed during the Roman occupation thousands of years ago -- continues to see Palestinians resentful, raging against Israel's presence, declaring the land rightfully theirs, not that of Jews historically indigenous to the land. Peace has never really settled over Israel. From its legal and United Nations-supported declaration of statehood returned in 1948, it has suffered a succession of military challenges by neighbouring Arab countries, all rebuffed.

In the last several years, a number of Arab countries; the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan; have joined Egypt and Jordan in signing peace agreements with Israel, under the Abraham Accords. It appears that Saudi Arabia is seriously considering joining them; in essence agreeing that Israel has a right to exist in its native geography. The Shi'ite Islamic Republic of Iran, the region's hot spot for aggression and violence, a major sponsor of terrorism, plans to destroy Israel, sponsoring and enlisting violently destructive actions of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Inciting violence against the state of Israel with a long-range plan of its destruction, Iran views the potential of Saudi Arabia signing a formal peace agreement with Israel as a legitimization of its presence, by the most influential of the Sunni-majority Arab states in the Middle East, an agreement that could pave the way of all further resistance to Israel's presence vanishing in an accord of like minds looking toward future security and mutual prosperity. What better way to shock Arab nations away from accepting Israel's presence than to incite a war where Jews are forced to defend themselves by killing those Arabs attacking them?

This morning came the news that Hamas had lobbed thousands of rockets yet again into Israel from Gaza. That Hamas terrorist operatives had infiltrated Israeli army bases by stealth overnight, as well as Israeli border towns, to attack and kill Jewish soldiers and civilians alike, some 50 Israelis from soldiers to women, elderly and children being taken as 'prisoners' into Gaza, to be used as collateral for prisoner exchanges. Terrorists entered homes in border towns to kill the inhabitants, people in the streets and in cars were summarily shot to death. Women were caught, raped and murdered. 

Hamas' own publicity arm took countless self-congratulatory videos of shocking assaults of civilians, of people being slaughtered, of Jewish women and girls abducted after being raped, of Palestinian terrorists wielding submachine guns stalking through the streets and houses of Israeli towns, shooting wildly, dead bodies lying everywhere on the streets. Documenting, in essence, their depraved atrocities, every one of which represents a crime against humanity, genuinely shocking war crimes.

Crimes that should being shame to any community whose members might be involved in such malevolently horrible actions, but which within the Palestinian community becomes a reason for joy and jubilation, a resounding success by those who portray themselves to the world community at large as hapless victims of Jewish imperialism, who deserve compassion and support against the existence of a Jewish state. An attack on human decency, on the very concept of people of different origins, tribal affiliations and religions being able to live in decent peace among one another.

A condition of which Israel is a shining example, and of which the Palestinian enclaves of the West Bank and Gaza Strip remain a narrative of human depravity as they celebrate the deaths of those they have been inculcated with hatred toward by their leaders. For a Jew to appear in a West Bank city is to invite violence and death. Yet in Israel, over two million Arabs live in  peace and security among Jews in a Jewish state. 

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