Israel Mopping Up the Middle East
"What
the Jewish state has done in the past year --- for its own defence, but
in the process and not coincidentally for the security of all of us ---
will rank among the most important contributions to the defence of
Western civilization in the past three-quarters of a century."
Gerard Baker, Wall Street Journal opinion piece
"A
little more than a year after the Hamas massacre, Israel is shifting
the balance of power in the Middle East with a stunning display of
strategic, tactical, intelligence and technological genius."
- Hamas is in retreat;
- Hezbollah's leadership has been decimated;
- Iran's ballistic missile attack was intercepted;
- Calls for de-escalation and ceasefire ignored;
- Israel is striking hard and selectively;
- Israel's intelligence and precision bombing unparalleled;
- Booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies detonated;
- Israeli airstrikes on Beirut demolished Hezbollah's Redwan Force.
"While for some, 'peace through strength' is a political statement, for Israel, it is essential for survival.""Success in war does not guarantee permanent peace but, for Israel it is the necessary option."
Derek H. Burney, former Cdn. Ambassador to the United States
 |
| Israeli soldier gestures to Iranian ballistic missile components that
were fired at Israel, during a government-organized media tour on a base
in southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP/Maya Alleruzzo |
A
bunker in Lebanon was hit by an Israeli precision bomb on September 27
that killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, and with him several of
his top lieutenants along with an Iranian general. The Islamic Republic
of Iran was displeased, and more than that, alarmed. All the more so
when earlier, in July, Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, was
assassinated in Tehran. The alarm deepened with the surprise detonations
of thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploding on
signal, putting an undisclosed number of terrorists out of commission,
leading to Iran banning use of these devices.
Air
strikes by the Israel Air Defence have taken care of much of the
Hezbollah leadership in the elite Redwan Force along with a number of
brigade and battalion commanders. Ibrahim Aqil, a U.S.-designated
terrorist on whose head a $70-million bounty was laid, was taken out by
an Israeli strike. Favouring the United States with an overdue revenge
for the mastermind of the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy and American
Marines barracks in Beirut, a suicide truck event that killed hundreds
of U.S. diplomatic and military personnel.
Ibrahim
Qubaisi, commander of missile and rocket force for Hezbollah was taken
out of commission by a late September Israeli airstrike amidst Israel's
campaign to punish Hezbollah with air attacks and rockets alongside
limited ground incursions into Lebanon for the specific purpose of
destroying Hezbollah's munitions facilities. Israel responded to a Tel
Aviv long-range missile lobbed by Hezbollah, by striking the missile's
launch site in southern Lebanon.
Israel's
immediate goal for Lebanon is the destruction of Hezbollah and in the
process creating a buffer between Israel and southern Lebanon to enable
60,000 evacuated Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel,
to resume normal life; their livelihoods, and children returning to
school. While the Biden/Harris presidential duo continue to assure
Israel that its support is 'ironclad', it remains openly critical of
Israeli focus on Gaza, going so far as to restrict some munition
exports: "a false equivalence that says more about the moral disorder in our own politics than about Israel's motives and actions", noted Gerard Baker.
Moving
Donald Trump, on the presidential election campaign trail, to observe
that Kamala Harris's election as U.S. president would "lead to the annihilation of Israel".
The very thought of Iran succeeding in moving up to acquiring nuclear
weapons adds a truly sinister note to Middle East events and future
prospects. Sending a chill down the spine of those who inhabit the area,
much as Western allies of Ukraine jerk to attention when Vladimir Putin
casually reminds them that Russia has the world's largest cache of
nuclear weapons.
Iran's
nuclear capabilities and funding of munitions to arm its regional
proxies was enormously boosted through the circumvention of oil
sanctions and the billion-dollar cash payments it realized in exchange
for the release of hostages. Meanwhile, President Biden 'advised' Israel
not to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. Conversely, Ohio Senator J.D.
Vance, Republican vice-presidential candidate, offered during the
vice-presidential debate that: "It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe." Bingo.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile is carefully taking time to
discuss among his chief advisers, cabinet ministers, and IDF command,
how best to strike Iran for the greatest impact toward the goal of
freeing the country from its tyrannical mullahs and the Islamic
Republican Guard Corps stranglehold on the nation, many of whose
population chafe under the restrictive, violent grasp of Shi'ite
extremism and penchant for murderous violence in their creation of,
support and arming of proxy terrorist militias.
 |
| Handout photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant (C) and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi meeting at
the 'Bahad 1' military base in southern Israel, March 7, 2024. (Ariel
Hermoni/Defense Ministry) |
Labels: Hamas/Gaza, Hezbollah/Lebanon, Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel's Response to Multitude of Attacks, October 7 2023 Atrocities
Finally Placing Samidoun on the U.S./Canada Terror List
"His
[Khaled Barakat, Samidoun founder] fundraising and recruitment efforts
support the PFLP's terrorist activity against Israel."
"[The
United States is designating Samidoun a] sham charity that serves as an
international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine [PFLP] terrorist organization."
"The
PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a
Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State in
October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, uses Samidoun to maintain
fundraising operations in both Europe and North America."
U.S. State Department press release
"Organizations
like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide
humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for
much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups."
Acting Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith
 |
Charlotte Kates, in Tehran two weeks ago, accepts the Iranian human right award Iran International
|
The
Vancouver-based anti-Israel organization has finally been listed by
Canada, after much campaigning by Canadian Jewish groups, some
pro-Israel-supporting Members of Parliament and editorials in a number
of Canadian newspapers. What finally forced the Trudeau Liberal
government to act was not the terrorist charity's organization of
hundreds of rallies and protests decrying Israel's very existence while
making life dangerous for Jews in Canada through its incitements of
hate, but the over-reach by Samidoun revealing the scope of its program.
When
the hate group encouraged and guided its followers to declare
themselves fully in support of Hamas and Hezbollah, declaring fealty to
the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah and other
non-government terrorist militias from Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and
Gaza, insisting that 'imperial-colonialist' Canada must be defeated, and
burning a Canadian flag to emphasize their point, prime minister Justin
Trudeau no longer had any excuse to hide behind failing to recognize
them for what they are.
"The
listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends
a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity,
and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to
Canada's national security and all people in Canada",
announced Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc. It remains to be seen
just how strenuously committed this government will be to 'do everything
in its power' to destroy the malevolent effect this terror group has
succeeded in producing in Canada, in its goal of destabilization and
conquest.
Unbelievably,
the group has enjoyed charitable status in Canada for years, long after
it was repeatedly brought to the attention of the government that their
activities created stark and dangerous divisions within Canadian
society with no end in sight to their ambitious agenda of making Canada
terror-central to the Palestinian networks of demonizing Israel, calling
for its destruction, and hounding Jewish Canadians in public, while
inciting to violence against Jewish institutions in Canada.
The
US. government went a step further than Canada, in designating
Barakat's wife Charlotte Kates, a director of Samidoun, a terrorist,
while Khaled Barakat himself has been identified as a ranking
leadership member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
These Palestinian terrorist stalwarts last week organized a rally on the
one-year anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks where attendees
chanted "death to Canada", to which Samidoun later announced "we at Samidoun stand by this phrase as the call to action that it is".
Masked protesters set a Canadian flag on fire at the event, while a woman led chants of "We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas";
identifying with Lebanon and Gaza. The PFLP has been listed by Canada
as a terrorist organization since 2003. Groups with a terrorist
designation are prohibited from receiving financial services, donations
of money, or property.
Kates,
who directly following the October 7 southern Israel atrocities
perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, praised the Hamas
and Islamic Jihad savages at a rally: "We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7",
she crowed. The Vancouver Police Department launched a hate-speech
investigation as a follow-up to that event. It has been over year that
the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs lobbied government for Samidoun
to be declared a terrorist organization, launching a petition with
B'nai Brith Canada to have Kates and Barakat deported.
 |
| Screenshot showing the Facebook page of Samidoun Deutschland. November 03, 2023. (credit: SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES |
"This
process has not been tested in Canadian courts. A lot of the reason for
that is because we are designating, for the most part, foreign
entities. This is one of the only cases where I've seen a direct
Canadian tie and a direct Canadian leader ... who will be directly
affected by a terrorist listing."
"In
the case of an organization like Samidoun, or really any listed
terrorist entity, the question comes down to what the people are doing
to support the organization."
"Just
being a member of an organization is not a criminal offence in Canada.
However, as soon as you cross the line into conducting any kind of
support or sort of advancement activities that are fairly concrete,
then you come very close to facilitation [of a terrorist activity] and
some of those activities."
Jessica Davis, counterterrorism expert, Carleton University
Labels: Agitating for Violence, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Pro-Hamas Street Rallies, Samidoun, Terrorist List US/Canada, Trudeau Gov't Inaction
Samidoun/aka/Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
"We acknowledge that the community was shocked by the phrase ['Death to Canada'], and the burning of the Canadian flag that came after the march was concluded."
"Yet, we at Samidoun stand by this phrase as the call to action, that it is."
"We are not just fighting against the Zionist state, we are fighting against imperialism."
"We see it as our duty to escalate the resistance [Hamas's 'Al-Aqsa Flood when the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, mass raping and mutilating Israeli girls and women, abducting 240 civilians into Gaza], here."
Samidoun statement
 |
| Videos circulated online, the unidentified masked
woman led a crowd of hundreds at the Vancouver Art Gallery Monday night
in chants of “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to
Israel,” while some in the group burned Canadian flags. Photo by Jarryd Jäger/x.com |
Samidoun has acted with impunity from its headquarters in Vancouver, from where it sends out statements to its regional groups abroad. While in Canada it has been busy organizing protests and violent demonstrations against Israel and threatening Canadian Jews, inciting its supporters to decry the existence of the Jewish State, and to chant 'Intifada', 'Long Live the Resistance'! and 'From the River to the Sea', as well as its involvement in the protest camps set up on university campuses throughout the country.
To all of these violent provocations there has been no response from the federal government, setting the tone for governments and police services throughout the country at every level. While the Jewish community suffered hordes of 'protesters' organizing to march through Jewish areas of the country to harass and threaten them, and Jewish community centres, parochial schools, synagogues and private Jewish-owned businesses have been threatened, graffitied, shot at, firebombed, authorities appear incapable of responding to the unlawful activities.
The Jewish community in Canada has been left to huddle for safety and security through their own devices, finding comfort in the company of others within the community suffering the same insecurity and trepidation over how far they will continue to be isolated, threatened and savaged by antisemitism that has found a comfortable niche in an otherwise-tolerant society. The Liberal government of prime minister Justin Trudeau expresses empathy and commits to no practical response to end the nightmare.
 |
| A video of
Vancouver protesters burning a Canadian flag added to tensions on
Parliament Hill as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blamed the
government for a rise in antisemitism and was silenced in the House for
accusing Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly of pandering to Hamas
supporters. CBC |
Samidoun had organized a mass rally in Vancouver on the anniversary of the October 7 bloody slaughter in southern Israel, The purpose, to commemorate the "Al-Aqsa Flood", the operation by thousands of terrorists to pillage, destroy, rape, mutilate and murder Israelis. "We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas", one speaker stated to the cheering crowd following which a chant of "death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel", sounded as a collective profanity, in echo of such declarations commonly heard in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Samidoun representatives handed out pamphlets at the rally that detailed the risks and benefits of "complex co-ordinated terrorist attacks" in pursuit of political gains. Following the rally Samidoun issued an official statement laying claim to the chant of 'death to Canada' as a reflection of its goal to destroy the "colonial, capitalist state of Canada". Images of a Vancouver SkyTrain station graffitied with "GLORY 2 AL-AQSA FLOOD" were posted on the Samdoun Hawra Vancouver Instagram account.
A caption honoured the "brave resistance fighters" who committed the October 7 pogrom, with the tribute stating: "autonomous activists in so-called 'Vancouver' took to the streets early this morning, graffitiing on skytrain stations, targeting complicit businesses, to remind residents that despite the lies of the Occupation and its Western allies", their opposition would prevail.
Calls to list Samidoun as a terrorist entity came from various sources, including Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, citing the "death to Canada" chant while calling for the federal government to act. On October 10, the Dutch parliament voted to designate Samidoun a terrorist organization. Samidoun's activities organizing extremist anti-Israel events in Europe is performed through its Vancouver headquarters. Germany banned Samidoun last yer after a series of rallies celebrating the October 7 attacks that "showed an absolute lack of regard for human life in an especially abhorrent way".
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pointed out that Samidoun serves as a front for a listed Canadian terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Khaled Barakat, a top PFLP member founded Samidoun; its social media feeds circulate PFLP propaganda and organizes North American speaking opportunities for members of the PFLP. Samidoun's role since October 7 of last year has been to organize and coordinate hundreds of blockades, boycotts and demonstrations across Canada.
 |
| Samidoun banner with the slogan ”Long live October 7th." (Source: Telegram) |
Now, finally, the federal government issued a statement on Tuesday designating Samidoun as the newest organization to be listed on Canada's terrorist file. Following hard on the heels of the United States making a similar statement of terrorist designation. Since Samidoun also has recognition by Revenue Canada as a legitimate charitable group, it can be assumed that status too will change. The group's headquarters in Vancouver, presumably will be disbanded, its principals exiled, its assets seized, and an investigation launched into the legitimacy status of its followers, quick to take up the chant "death to Canada".
That it was the "death to Canada" sentiments and the outrage of burning a Canadian flag after the torching of an Israeli flag that moved the government to action in the wake of newspaper editorials calling for the group's terror listing, along with that of the leader of the Parliamentary opposition; a one-time occasion revealing Samidoun's total democracy-destabilizing goal, and not its years of agitating against and threatening Jews in Canada, is in and of itself revelatory.
 |
| Dozens of protesters from
the Samidoun organization are gathering in front of the Muelheim train
station in Cologne, Germany, on April 15, 2023, to commemorate
Palestinian Prisoners' Day (Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Images) |
"The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code
sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of
activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing
threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada."
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc
"In Canada, any bank accounts that Samidoun has, or that organizers
have, are almost certainly being frozen, probably closed, reported to
FINTRAC, our financial intelligence unit, and there’s probably a flurry
of suspicious transaction reports and mandatory reporting going in on
anyone associated with this organization."
"This process has not been tested in Canadian courts. A
lot of the reason for that is because we are designating, for the most
part, foreign entities. This is one of the only cases where I’ve seen a
direct Canadian tie and a direct Canadian leader … who will be directly
affected by a terrorist listing."
"[No charges have been announced against anyone involved in Samidoun]. In
the case of an organization like Samidoun, or really any listed
terrorist entity, the question comes down to what the people are doing
to support the organization."
"Just being a member of an
organization is not a criminal offence in Canada. However, as soon as
you cross the line into conducting any kind of support or sort of
advancement activities that are fairly concrete, then you come very
close to facilitation [of a terrorist activity] and some of those
activities."
Jessica Davis, counterterrorism expert, Carleton University
Labels: Anti-Israel Protests, Canadian Flag Burning, Designated Terrorist Entity, Samidoun Vancouver Headquarters, Terrorism Central, Threatening Canadian Jews
The Search for New Recruits In a Large Body-Count Conflict
"The body is turning into a public good [in Russia]."
A woman's body is a producer of children, and a man's body is the ability to pull the trigger."
Andrew Makarychev, professor University of Tartu, Estonia
 |
| Russian soldiers during a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade . Photo: Valya Egorshin/AFP |
In
Russia recently the government doubled sign-up bonuses for contract
military personnel. Social media and city streets are covered with
recruitment advertisements. A new law makes official what Moscow had
already countenanced; allowing criminal suspects to avoid trial should
they enlist. They can join those already in prison who had been promised
commuting of sentences if they agree to join the military in Ukraine.
 |
| A child crawls as she plays on the paving stones of Red Square in central
Moscow, in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images) |
Russia's
Vladimir Putin decreed that a national priority is the increase of
births among the population. A new bill was introduced to outlaw
advocacy for a lifestyle unencumbered by offspring. These campaigns form
part of the Kremlin's efforts to enlist Russians in the country's
campaign to prevail over the West. In the short term, the army requires
more soldiers, in reflection of the 1,000 daily casualties in its
Ukraine war of attrition.
Russia
needs more people to give support to an increasingly isolated economy,
to reduce reliance on immigration, and provide the recruitment pool for
future wars. Russia's military was mandated by Mr. Putin to a 180,000
increase in service members to 1.5 million serving in the military. An
ambition which would give Russia the second-largest military in the
world after China's.
"It
is necessary to take care of the population, to increase the fertility
rate. To make it fashionable to have many children, as it used to be in
Russia in the past -- seven, nine, ten people in families",
said Mr. Putin, waxing nostalgic. Of course he is also nostalgic about
Russia's past glories and revels in the thought of a return to the USSR,
with himself as the new Stalin.
To
boost the population of a nation where the fertility rate has
diminished over the years, and continues to be far lower than
replacement deems ideal at a time when childbirth is at its lowest in a
quarter century, declining by 1.8 million since 2020, women giving birth
to their first child can expect a gift of $6,700. Lawmakers a month ago
introduced a bill to "prohibit the propaganda of the conscious refusal to have children" bolstered by fines up to $50,000.
Ukraine
does it differently. Military recruitment officers now raid
restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv to check military
registration documents, detaining men not in compliance. Kyiv's Palace
of Sports following a concert spawned video footage aired on media
outlets showing officers stationed outside the concert hall doors to
intercept men as they exit. The video shows that some men were forcibly
detained by officers.
 |
Moment Ukrainian men yell 'get away from me' as they are dragged out
of nightclubs and restaurants by army recruiters during targeted raids |
Upscale
shopping centre Goodwine, and Avalon, a popular restaurant received
similar attention. These raids reflect Ukraine's desperate requirement
for fresh recruits in a nation where all men 25 to 60 are eligible for
conscription and men between 18 and 60 are not permitted to flee the
country. Laws in April lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to
25, with some draft exemptions done away with. Across other Ukrainian
cities raids were conducted in clubs and restaurants; Kharkiv and Dnipro
included.
Men
eligible for military service since spring must input information into
an online system; failure to do so has consequences in penalties. In the
meantime, a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partly-occupied
Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia's war machinery was struck
by the Ukraine military. According to Russia's Defence Ministry, 47
Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed by its air defence
systems Saturday. The Ukrainian air force for its part, announced air
defences shot down 24 of 28 drones launched against Ukraine overnight.
 |
| A woman walks next to a house heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Reuters) |
Labels: Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Russian Low Birthrate, Russian Military Recruitment, Ukrainian Counteroffensive, Ukrainian Military Recruitment
Canada's Immoral/Political/Social Distancing from Israel
"The Canadian government made some important and timely statements but the actions it has taken have not been supportive."
"Doing
that [putting in place an arms embargo on Israel] in the midst of a
just war that Israel is prosecuting as it exerts its right to
self-defence means rewarding Hamas. While it is not the intention, it
ends up being the effect."
"I
am under constant security protection. After October 7, my wife and I
attended the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. When we flew back to
Montreal, security asked us not to leave the airport. Security personnel
spoke to me and informed me of what has been characterized as imminent
and lethal threats."
Irwin Cotler, Montreal Liberal, former Attorney General of Canada
 |
| In a still of a video posted online, protesters at a pro-Palestinian rally
are seen burning a Canadian flag as some chant 'death to Canada, death
to the United States and death to Israel.' (Jarryd Jäger/Western Standard) |
"We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas!"
was chanted in Vancouver on the first anniversary of the horrendous
October 7, 2023 organized Palestinian terrorist attack in southern
Israel that saw thousands of terrorists along with ordinary Palestinian
citizens flood across the border from Gaza into Israel with the
intention of mass slaughter. And mass slaughter is what occurred that
day, with the savage killing of 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis, from
infants to the elderly, alongside mass rape and mutilation of Israeli
girls and women.
While
normal people are aghast at the devastating human loss and anxious to
have the Israeli girls, women, elderly men and others still in captivity
as hostages in Gaza -- tormented, tortured and threatened with rape and
death -- returned to Israel, in Canada, Palestinians, other
Muslim-Canadians and their leftist 'progressive' champions are satisfied
that these barbaric acts of vicious sadism merely represent the
entirely forgivable acts of defiance of an oppressed people, shaking the
bars of occupation.
 |
| People write in chalk outside of a building
during a pro-Palestine rally marking the anniversary of a Hamas attack
on Israel in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN
PRESS/Ethan Cairns |
Mass
'protests' against Israel's very existence continue in the streets of
Canadian cities. Harassment of Jewish neighbourhoods and persecution of
Canadian Jews have become so normalized that it leads to the real
potential of unstoppable violence. Unstoppable because no authorities
appear to be the least bit concerned that by not taking action against
violent speech those that engage in it are encouraged to go further in
their unlawful pursuits of delegitimizing an entire people and the
country representing their interests.
At
the federal level -- which is where the crackdown on illegal marches
closing off thoroughfares, taking over public arenas, creating totally
hostile atmospheres and indulging in slanderous statements against
Jewish Canadians, using the word 'Zionist' as a vile pejorative,
inviting Jews to return to Europe where they purportedly belong, and not
in their ancestral geography where their presence is an irritant to
peace in the opinion of religious/social/ethnic bigots -- nothing is
done to dissuade antisemitic hordes from their zealotry of Jew-hate.
 |
Foreign
Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada’s goal right now ‘is to make
sure there is no full-scale war in the Middle East.’ CBC
|
When
the Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre judges Canada's
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the House of Commons of being a tool of
Palestinian terrorism in her attitudinal declarations, he is accused by
Melanie Joly of being a Nazi. His charges of "pandering to Hamas supporters" by the Trudeau government are deemed out of line in Parliament, when he is merely pointing out the obvious.
The
lack of reaction of the Liberal government to acts of social
dysfunction on the part of pro-Hamas crowds has led to actual violence,
as when for the second time a Jewish parochial school for girls was
shot up in Toronto several days ago.
From
being a firm advocate for and supporter of the State of Israel under
the Conservative leadership of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
Canada has undergone a sea change of allegiances where the current
Trudeau-led government of Canada now votes against Israel's interests at
the United Nations, where the government at home fails to protect a
loyal ethnic minority against the verbal predations of a much larger
ethnic/religious group whose numbers have multiplied in the last few
years, leading to division and hostility.
Following
the October 7, 2023 savage pogrom in southern Israel when farming
communities were reduced to ashes after being pillaged, residents
killed, wounded or taken hostage, survivors forced to flee for their
lives, world leaders and those in the G7 of developed nations, travelled
to Israel as a demonstration of their solidarity with a fellow
democracy severely wounded. Heads of government of the United States,
Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, the
United Kingdom, along with the head of the European Union and Japan
travelled to Israel to commiserate with its misfortune. Canada's leader
did not.
Israel
now knows whom, on the world stage, of its fellow democracies can be
relied upon. Canada is not alone in its distancing from Israel for there
are others whose original support has slowly dissipated, but Canada
stands alone in its loud and disturbing official position that has
decided Canadian Jews can look after their own affairs in security and
safety from the disequilibrium brought to them by a demographic of vile
Jew-haters, among whom the majority of the Trudeau cabinet appear to fit
comfortably within.
 |
Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, who spoke Wednesday to G7 leaders about the situation in
the Middle East: 'As an
international community we have to continue to do everything we can to
call for peace and stability.' CBC
|
"We are engaged in a battle between democracies and tyrannies."
"Democracies should stand together. In that sense, Canada has not been sufficiently supportive [of Israel]."
Irwin Cotler
"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed concern about
Israel’s policies, saying that he has no immediate plans to invite his
Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to the country."
"Speaking
to reporters on Thursday, Trudeau reiterated Canada’s opposition to
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under
international law."
“We recognize the violence going on right now. It is difficult for
people across the region — both Israelis and Palestinians,” the Canadian
prime minister said."
“We’re calling for de-escalation and peace and working through some
of the flashpoints that are happening. Canada has a longstanding
position that settlements and the settlement process is illegal. And we
need to stand against that.”
"Trudeau added that, while Canada is a “steadfast” friend of Israel, the two countries have points of disagreement."
“We’re also very concerned about the judicial reforms that the Israeli
government is determined to move forward with,” Trudeau said, adding
that he will encourage Netanyahu to seek “greater consensus” for the
plan."
Al Jazeera
Labels: Canadian Pro-Hamas Support, Jewish Canadians Under Threat, Liberal Trudeau Government, Muslim-Canadian Hostility
Terrorist Pro-Hamas Supporting Groups in Canada
"[T]he
plaintiffs plead that the Samidoun Defendants have committed offences
including, but not limited to, providing or collecting property for
terrorist activity, providing or collecting property for the benefit of
persons facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity, participating
in the activity of a terrorist group, leaving Canada to participate in
the activity of a terrorist group, and facilitating terrorist activity."
Statement of Claim in Ontario Superior Court of Justice
"[Criteria
enabling the federal government to list a terrorist entity is if the
person or group in question has] knowingly acted on behalf of, at the
direction of or in association with an entity that has knowingly carried
out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist
activity."
Canada's Criminal Code
"Samidoun
is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of or in association
with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist
group under the Criminal Code."
"This qualifies Samidoun for a terrorist listing."
"Why hasn't this happened?"
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong
"These are resistance fighters."
"These are our heroes. These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight."
"These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world."
Charlotte Kates, international coordinator for Samidoun
"The
expiration of her conditions of release will allow her to continue to
initiate hate and division against the local Jewish community."
"If
we value respect, inclusion, and diversity the Crown must approve and
lay the charges recommended by the Vancouver Police Department."
Ezra Shanken, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver
Samidoun,
a clearly terrorist-supporting group that has established itself in
Vancouver with branches elsewhere across Canada, has declared itself a
solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners. Its founder, Khaled
Barakat, married to Charlotte Kates, Samidoun leader, also happens to be
identified as a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, itself a listed terrorist organization in Canada, the
U.S., Israel, the U.K. and the European Union. Yet this group that has
been at the forefront of organizing countless pro-Hamas demonstrations
across Canada, enjoys charitable status in Canada.
And
irrespective of its representation of a proscribed terrorist group
listed as such in Canada, the federal Liberal government refuses to
address the issue of allowing such a group to operate in Canada, despite
the social upheaval it has been part of, in demonizing Israel and
harassing Jewish Canadians. There are, in fact, Muslim Members of
Parliament at the ministerial level that had signed a contract with
Khaled Barakat to conduct instructive human rights sessions for various
government departments, until it was revealed that the man had a
background linked to terrorism.
The
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has an established record
of having pioneered the carrying out of assassinations, suicide
bombings, hijackings and murders. Shortly following Germany expelling
Kates and Barakat, they established Samidoun in Vancouver as the
headquarters of its global operation. A number of Members of Parliament
have called upon the federal government to designate Samidoun for what
it is, a terrorist organization. Muslim MPs will resist that, and the
Trudeau Liberals will not go out of their way to alienate the large and
growing Muslim-Canadian demographic, since it's a poor vote-garnering
technique.
At
a Samidoun-organized commemoration of the glories of the October 7,
2023 slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, the savage mass rape of Israeli girls
and women, their pitiless mutilation and torture, and the abduction of
250 Israeli children, elderly, women and girls on its one-year
anniversary when protesters burned the Canadian flag while chanting
'death to Canada', 'death to the United States', and "we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas", declaring 'Death to Israel'.
Samidoun was 'mourning' the death of Hamas's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowing its intention to continue its "...jihadist path [and] follow [Nasrallah's] methodology".
While Justin Trudeau's government has failed to advance remedial action
against the rancid antisemitism that Samidoun and other pro-Hamas
groups in Canada relish exhibiting in the public arena, Canada's
Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre vows that when he
becomes prime minister he will quickly intervene to declare Samidoun an
outlawed terrorist group.
|
| In a still of a video posted online, protesters at a pro-Palestinian
rally are seen burning a Canadian flag as some chant 'death to Canada,
death to the United States and death to Israel.' (Jarryd Jäger/Western Standard) |
"So,
if burning a Canadian flag, if calling for the death of Canadians, if
fomenting hate in this country and most of all being a front for an
already-listed terrorist organization is not enough to put them on the
[federal government's terrorist] list, then what the hell is it going to
take for them to ban them?"
Labels: Anti-Israel Antisemitism, Canada's Terrorist Listing Public Avowals of Support for Palestinian Terrorism, Samidoun
Liberal-Led Government of Canada Policy on Israel-Hamas Conflict: Clear as Mud
"Canadians will honour their memories. We stand with Jewish people. We will not relent until the last hostage returns home."
"We all in this House, I hope, are against any form of antisemitism or any form of discrimination."
"I hope, even more negotiations at a negotiating table where there are Israelis, Hamas and Qatar, which is present ... as a moderator."
"Our policy is clear: We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza. Period."
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly
 |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly speaks in
the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby |
In her own words, discretion thrown to the winds, Melanie Joly admitted that her anti-Israel policy revealed through the aftermath reactions of the October 7 atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists in southern Israel, Canada's minister of foreign affairs' actions and reactions have been motivated by her anxiety for re-election and her longer-range ambition to lead Canada as prime minister. With an eye to her constituents, and a critical mass of Muslim demographics in her riding of Montreal. Quebec is regarded as one of the two Canadian cities most populated by Muslim-Canadians.
The inclusion, respect for, safety and security of the much smaller Jewish-Canadian population not quite as urgent as the need for Melanie Joly to secure her place in Canada's political history, in her regard and actions. "Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?" was the reaction to former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair's questions interviewing the minister for a CTV column when he spoke related to her Israel-Hamas conflict position.
"I was astonished to hear such a candid admission that very local politics were playing such a role in shaping Canada's foreign policy on this highly complex and sensitive issue", Mr. Mulcair wrote afterward. His question was geared toward eliciting an explanation from Canada's minister of foreign affairs relative to her government's lack of attention and action in not responding to the pro-Hamas rallies that have been roiling Canadian cities and the threats they comprise to the safety and security of the Canadian Jewish community.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in the House of Commons that Joly "continues to pander to Hamas supporters", for which he was barred by the Speaker for the rest of the day, from speaking. A question period exchange was the impetus when Mr. Poilievre made note of the celebratory rallies in Canadian cities marking the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre in Israel.
"Will the government clearly and unequivocally condemn these genocidal chants from hateful mobs on our streets?", he pressed. In turn, Joly accused Poilievre of playing politics. This, from a foreign minister who has gone out of her way to spearhead conspicuously anti-Israel foreign policy during the year following those attacks in southern Israel. Although she is on record that Israel has a right to defend itself, she has taken pains to condemn the Israeli response against the Hamas pogrom; effectively supporting a terrorist group whose covenant is the destruction of the Jewish state.
Before a full month had elapsed after the slaughter of Israelis and hostage taking, Joly called for negotiations between Israel and the commanders of Hamas. Her soft reaction to Hamas places her in direct opposition to Canada's Minister of Defence Bill Blair, who fully supports the Israeli goal to destroy Hamas and its genocidal plans to murder Jews: "Quite frankly, Hamas has to be eliminated as a threat not just to Israel but to the world. They are a terrorist organization." Ceasefire calls, he understands, will accomplish nothing, since Hamas has no intention of laying down its arms.
Hamas, on the other hand, is mindful of Canada's generosity and empathy with its position on Israel, as evidenced by Canada's newly adopted hostility to Israel's need to defend itself from a Medieval death cult. Hamas expressed its appreciation when Canada supported a UN vote that called for a unilateral Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad cited Canada's vote: "We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally."
Joly's full approval of a Canadian embargo on military exports to Israel followed, despite that Canada never has provided military aid to Israel. Israel has signed purchase contracts of military goods from Canadian suppliers such as parts for their F-35 fighter jets; one of 60 countries that signed similar contracts. Until March when Joly exercised her authority to negate and nullify such contracts with Israel for gear as innocuous as night-vision goggles.
A proportionally large Arab and Muslim population dignifies the Montreal riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville which Joly represents. The riding of 114,410 people in the 2016 census had 7,130 residents for whom Arabic is their first language; the vast majority were native French speakers. Recently, mass Islamic prayers were conducted in public in Parc des Hirondelles, leading the borough mayor to announce she would consider enacting a blanket ban on public religious events.
 |
While Monreal's Jewish community held several memorials honouring those who
were killed and taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, pro-Palestinian
protests took to the streets over Israel's retaliatory military
campaign. CBC
|
Labels: Antisemitic Protests on Canadian Streets, Canada's Liberal Government's Hamas Sympathies, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly
In Canada : The Glorification of Terrorism
"The terror apologists' celebration of the solemn occasion of October 7 as 'resistance' and an opportunity to target Canadian Jews is a testament to the Trudeau government's laissez-faire approach to crime, national security, immigration and integration."
"By failing to give law enforcement greater powers to crack down on protesters' intimidation and harassment of Jews and others, the government has enabled repugnant behaviour to escalate."
"Moreover, with Canada battling a teen terrorism problem, these protests are fertile grounds for radicalization."
Joe Adam George, national security analyst, Middle East affairs, contributing writer, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
 |
| Montreal Imam Adil Charkaoui's speech has drawn broad condemnation for inciting an anti-Israel mob from the Centre for Israel and
Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X) |
Suddenly the Canada that celebrates itself for its peaceful, tolerant multiculturalism has become a country no longer recognizable. Cradling to its bosom a large contingent of the population to the tune of 1.8 million Muslims whose presence totally eclipses the much smaller demographic of Canadian Jews numbering 300,000 nation-wide. Jews in Canada also vastly pre-dated the entry of Muslims as Canadian citizens and landed immigrants; in a sense mirroring the situation in the Middle East in the contested geography popularly known as 'Palestine', an area of traditionally Judean ancestral heritage that local Muslims originally from Syria and Egypt claim as theirs.
Jews first arrived in Canada in 1760. It took another 120 years before the first Arabs arrived, pre-dating a Muslim influx to join the Arab Christians that had come before, roughly following the end of the First World War, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. World Jewry now stands at about 16 million, in contrast to the Muslim empire with well over a billion people. Islam is considered to be the fastest-expanding religion in the world, at the present time. Militant, political Islam has pinpointed Jews as their universal enemy, picking up where German fascism left off.
And in Canada the results have over the years simmered covertly in Muslim suspicion and distrust of Jews. It has taken a combined Palestinian terrorist pogrom, an organized mass murder and rape of Israeli Jews in a horror of marauding psychopaths in their thousands who hunted down, raped, mutilated and slaughtered Jews on October 7, 2023, to reveal the deep hatred, contempt and violence in the minds of majority Muslims and Arabs worldwide on a rampage of antisemitic rage that has taken over the streets of world capitals. In some of the countries of Europe, governments have acted to protect their Jewish populations from harassment, threats and violence.
Such has not been the case in Canada, as day by day since that horrendous atrocity in southern Israel across the border from Gaza, marches, protests and viral gatherings have assembled to indulge in clearly criminal activity to chant inventive against Jews in Canada as Israel has become a target of diabolical slander meant to isolate it while raising doubts in the minds of onlookers, many of whom are prepared to give credence to such slanders as 'apartheid' and 'genocide' being committed by the Jewish State that is a model of accommodation to other faiths and ethnic groups.
Israel has been attacked by proxy militias loyal to the Islamic Republic of Iran in its Shiite Axis of evil intentions whose focus is the elimination of Israel and the death of Jews everywhere. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Quds division, has formed, trained and armed terrorist groups from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Yemen, Syria and Iraq in a web of antisemitism and the aspiration to destroy the Jewish State, attacking Jews internationally through terrorist plots of lethal violence.
Roving crowds of 'pro-Palestinian' sympathizers who align themselves with the Hamas supporting diehard Jew haters demand a ceasefire, while also shouting 'Intifada', and 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free', chanting that Jews should leave Canada and go back to Europe, the charnel-house of the Holocaust, denying Jewish indigeneity to the Middle East, where Israel sits upon its ancestral patrimony. And so Jews are verbally assault, violently threatened, synagogues and Jewish parochial schools fire-bombed and shot at, Jewish businesses defaced.
 |
| Protest encampment at McGill University’s campus in Montreal. (Peter McCabe/Reuters) |
And Canadian governments at all levels appear to be blind to the situation, while some among them go out of their way to be helpful and accommodating to the hordes of antisemites, whose focus on Jews strums a familiar chord in some of those authorities' own inner feelings of racist rage. "We don't want two states! Bring us back to '48!", shout many of the anti-Israel protestors, since the fact is just that; Palestinians do not, and never did, envision themselves in a parallel state with that of Israel. Only the elimination of Israel and the freeing up of the land for sole Palestinian possession suits them; both the West Bank and Gaza.
A bit of an awakening has resulted with the anti-Zionist mob ever emboldened by the lack of consequences to their group psychopathology, when there is no action from government authorities or officers of the law, persuading the haters that there are no penalties for their criminal actions and as such enticing them to be more open over the extent of their pathology. Palestinian youth collectives, at the direction of foreign agents paid by Qatar and Iran, continue their raving and organizing of anti-Israel, anti-Jew marches without interference.
 |
| Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in downtown Montreal in October
2023. In November, Montreal police received a complaint about speeches
made during those demonstrations. (Danielle Kadjo/Radio-Canada) |
Honouring Hamas and Hezbollah leaders who have died as 'martyrs' as 'great men and 'heroes'. In 2011 the Macdonald-Laurier Institute study of Muslim public opinion in Canada discovered a small minority only of Canadian Muslims unequivocally rejected Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. Among them 35 percent would not reject al-Qaeda. Recent immigrants, migrants and refugees who have arrived in Canada under the Liberal government's generous invitation to find haven in Canada from their own governments' depredations, now support the terror they fled, because it targets Jews.
Half of the current 1.8 million Muslim demographic in Canada immigrated from 2011 onward to the present. These newcomer protesters from Lebanon, Syria and Iran came to Canada to escape the terrorist groups that targeted them, the very same terrorists they celebrate, while living in Canada. A mosque in Windsor, among many others in Canada glorified the "resistance" and "martyrs fighting Israel". Muslim youth radicalization in Canada is becoming a problem that uncontrolled immigration is not helping.
 |
| Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the fenced in area of an encampment on the
University of Toronto campus on May 2, 2024, in Canada. Photo by Cole
Burston/AFP via Getty Images. |
"A year on from the October 7 attacks, the results of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 'post-national' Canada experiment do not bode well for the country's future."
"Canadian values and national security are under attack, and our leaders are doing nothing about it. The Trudeau government's appeasement of terror apologists has failed Canadian Jews."
"Canada now has parallel societies and mainstreamed violent extremism -- both of which have become the new normal."
Joe Adam George
"Cross-national surveys conducted in the years before the current
Israel-Hamas war show that Canada was among the world’s least
antisemitic countries, in the same league as Sweden and the Netherlands.
To see whether this remained true during the Israel-Hamas war, I
conducted a survey
in February 2024 involving four independent samples of Canadians: 1,121
non-Jewish adults, 1,010 non-Jewish university students, 414 Jewish
adults, and 312 Muslim adults. For non-Jews, I provided a battery of
statements about Jews, half positively worded, half negatively worded,
calculated an average score, and found little change in attitudes toward
Jews since the period before the war. Some 87 per cent of non-Jewish
Canadians have positive attitudes toward Jews".
"Yet police-recorded hate crimes against Jews have skyrocketed in
Canada since the war began. For example, in Toronto, the number of hate
crimes against Jews jumped 75 per cent between 2022 and 2023, with the
post-Oct. 7 period responsible for most of the increase. In Toronto in
2023, Jews were the victims of 78 per cent of all police-reported hate
crimes based on religion. Muslims took second place at 17 per cent."
ROBERT BRYM | OCT 07 2024, University Affairs
Labels: Anti-Israel/Anti-Jew Palestinian Mobs, Antisemitism, Government of Canada Inaction, Immigration, Justin Trudeau's 'post-national' Canada
