Never Put Off Until Today What You Should have Said Yesterday

"There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful intimidation."

"It is unconscionable to glorify the antisemitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th."

"This rhetoric has no place in Canada. This is not who were are."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa on April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

A message of condemnation. From the Prime Minister of Canada. After months of often more muted messages of hate, threats, viral antisemitism. At no time did this man who for too long has been the executive leader of Canada see fit to condemn antisemitism without linking it to his cautions against 'Islamophobia'. Puzzling, given that Muslims in Canada face very few obstacles to living an inclusive, normal life of acceptance and equality. While at the same time Palestinian agitators have sought every opportunity to slander Israel, deny that Hamas is a terrorist entity, and harass Jewish-Canadians.

And nor is he the sole politician in Canada to look the other way and murmur approval of Canada's laws justifying free speech, even though there are other laws that condemn and criminalize the deliberate spread of racism, hate expressed against an identifiable group as an indictable offence. The steady growth of a Muslim demographic in Canada make them an impressive voting bloc, one recognized all too readily by politicians more concerned over their re-election than representing basic security issues.

This past Saturday downtown Ottawa saw swarms of masked anti-Israel protesters marching, waving banners, and flags, chanting directly before Parliament Hill to support the terrorist attacks in southern Israel that took place on October 7, 2023, killing over a thousand innocent civilian Israelis, mass-raping girls and women, mutilating their tortured bodies and slaughtering them, then taking hundreds of children, women and the elderly as hostages back with them to Gaza where it became a celebratory event.

 

Ottawa police’s hate crime unit is investigating allegations of hate speech at a pro-Palestinian rally on Parliament Hill over the weekend, where some participants were heard chanting in support of the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

 

"Our resistance and attacks are proof that we are almost free. October 7 is proof that we're almost free. Long live October 7. Long live the intifada. Long live every form of resistance", shouted one of the speakers. So, after all, this is Canada. The Canada that we never realized existed. But it does. And Jews in Canada are being hounded, harassed, threatened while their places of worship are vandalized, Jewish children entering their parochial school are cursed and shouted at, Jewish university students ostracized.

There was a time, early on, long before that fateful October 7, when a strong leader would have expressed his condemnation of rising antisemitism and acknowledged its source, and taken steps to criminalize the burgeoning racism splitting Canadian society. Having done nothing of the kind, even when Palestinian 'students' in Canada began organizing 'pro-Palestinian' marches celebrating the savagery visited on Israelis by Palestinian terrorist groups starting the very day following the carnage in southern Israel, the haters took it as tacit approval.

The prime minister who cannot condemn the scourge of rising and rampant antisemitism emanating from within the Canadian-Muslim demographic, without also parenthetically mentioning 'Islamophobia' has, in very fact, supported the antisemitism he has done nothing to tame, to adequately censure, to reassure Canadian Jews that their place in Canada is assured, safe and secure because Canadians care and Canadian politicians are determined to ensure that Canada remains a nation where justice and equality are not just words but conditions applicable to all its citizens.

To them a badge of dishonour by their lack of concern, by their lack of remedial action, by their lack of assurances to Canadian Jewry that Canada is their home, a place of origin where they are appreciated, where they are safe and free from threats and violence.

Police are investigating allegations of hate speech used at a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown Ottawa on Saturday. (Radio-Canada/Maxim Saavedra-Ducharmes)

Jews Under Violent Duress

"There is widespread bipartisan support for aid to Israel in the House of Representatives, yet this legislative branch is being held hostage from within, undermining both American and Israeli national security."

"Our members are compelled by their faith to act on this issue, and at we shall."

Sandra Parker, chairwoman, Christians United for Israel

"I chose to speak from my heart and from my experience as an immigrant whose family escaped from the most brutal, radical Islamofascist regime in the world: the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran."

"We came to Canada because we wanted to live a better life."

"We embrace Canadian values."

Ontario MPP Goldie Ghamari

Palestinian supporters hold a rally in downtown Toronto on Oct. 9, 2023. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Canadians in general have seen their society upended in disagreements and they have witnessed the strange phenomenon of their government hesitating in its support for a Democratic state that has always had the support of democracies throughout the world, including Canada, in recognition of the legitimacy and the need for the existence of a Jewish State, to preserve and protect embattled Jews from the Middle East to North Africa, after the near-destruction of the world's Jewish population in Europe.

Worse, a government that no longer appears to feel there is any need to support its own Criminal Code laws against promoting hate and violence against an identifiable group, as week after week Muslim-Canadians who have immigrated to Canada, along with refugees and migrants fleeing Sectarian and tribal violence in their countries of origin march through the streets of Canadian cities celebrating the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group's incursion from Gaza into Israel to commit horrendous acts of savagery on Jews.

The explosion of antisemitism and the growing violence against Canada's Jewish community inexplicably has drawn no level of government to declare the hate-filled marches advocating for the destruction of Israel and a 'final solution' for Jews intolerable, prepared to instruct police to apprehend those involved and outlaw such displays of sheer, unadulterated celebration of vicious atrocities committed against southern Israel's farming communities where 1,200 Israeli civilians were slaughtered.

When Jewish lives were in peril during the Second World War, the Catholic Church among others did nothing to admonish the leaders of the Third Reich that their increasing acrimony, threats and final solution to rid the continent of the presence of Jews represented a wholesale atrocity of genocidal proportions. The Protestant Branch of the Church did no better. Now, it is the evangelical Christians that have committed to supporting the Jewish State, at a time once again when Jews are threatened.

If it is true as many would like to believe that not all Muslims subscribe to the hate manifested by those who mask themselves with keffiyehs, claiming Israel to be committing genocide against Palestinians by responding to the mass rapes, murders, mutilations and hostage taking by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization and ordinary civilian Palestinians on October 7, and that the majority are peace-supporting and hate no one, there is no evidence of it. That there is an absence of Muslim-Canadian voices protesting the violence on the streets, the criminal acts perpetrated against Jewish parochial schools, synagogues, social centres, and businesses is the reality.

We see and hear only those Muslim-Canadians who bear signage accusing Israel and Jews of genocide for fighting back against terrorism, advocating for the destruction of the Jewish homeland, persecuting Jews on the street, at universities and blocking access to areas where Jews tend to live in groups. Nowhere do we see protesting Muslim-Canadians who accept Jewish-Canadians as equals, entitled to live in peace and security among the steadily growing demographic of Muslims in Canada. Why is that?

Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario Goldie Ghamari and other expatriate Iranians who fled the Republic for a life of freedom, finding it in Canada, openly support their Jewish counterparts. Theirs is a rare commitment among the Muslims who have settled in Canada for a better life, yet are adamant in denying that life of security, social comfort and prosperity to their Jewish neighbours. Jews, under duress by fellow Canadians whose antisemitism is audible and terrifying to the Jewish-Canadian population never resort to vilifying Muslims for being Muslims, threaten them, bomb their mosques.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is prepared to invite Palestinian Gazans to find refuge in Canada, adding to the already large contingent of Palestinians living in the country who foment hate and violence against Jews. Justin Trudeau cannot find it in himself to condemn the rampant antisemitism and criminal acts committed against Jewish houses of worship without linking antisemitism as a proscribed and hateful symbol of discord, to 'Islamophobia'. The infinitely larger number of Muslims now living in Canada as opposed to a relatively small Jewish population mitigates against this man of authority's responsibility to protect Jews in the greater need to placate the larger voting bloc.

Holding US and Israeli flags, a crowd of largely Evangelical Christians pray during the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) 'Night to Honor Israel' during the CUFI Summit 2023, in Arlington, Virginia, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, July 17, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP

"Neither side is ready to jump over the brink."

"Probably we're going to go back to the proxy war. [But now it's a proxy war with the risk of] that sudden eruption of state-to-state war."

"Which we didn't have to worry about before."

Alex Vatanka, director, Iran program, Middle East Institute Research Centre, Washington

"The explosion this morning in the sky of Isfahan was related to the shooting of air defence systems at a suspicious object that did not cause any damage."

"[Air defence batteries fired over reports of airborne drones, crews targeting several flying objects]."

Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi

 

"[Israel appears to have carried out the attack to] check off a box [by sending a message to Iran without doing anything too provocative that might upset the U.S. urging restraint or to spark any further retaliation from Iran]." 

"It seems very limited, to send a message that 'we can strike you inside of Iran'."

Yoel Guzansky, senior researcher, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv

An anti-Israel parade in Tehran on Friday  The New York Times

 

Neither the sender of the message nor the message target appeared inclined to linger on what appeared to be a restrained Israeli rebuke referencing the 300 drones and Ballistic Missiles that Tehran sprinkled toward Israeli airspace a week earlier. Message delivered. Message received. A signal for Middle East political experts analyzing the interplay as both enemies preparing to prevent the latest violent eruption from ballooning into a full blown regional war.

"It appears we're closer than ever to a broad regional war, despite the fact that the international community will most likely make a great effort to de-escalate tensions", commented Amos Harel, military-affairs commentator at the daily Haaretz in Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has never made any secret of its willingness to one day destroy Israel. Its furtive but obvious nuclear program and focus on ballistic missile upgrades testament to that oft-stated ambition.

 

The speech notes of Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., during a Security Council meeting.  Charly Tribbaleau / AFP via Getty Images

Nor is it unknown that Iran is a major sponsor of proxy terrorist groups in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria all of whom have become involved in attacking Israel from its borders following the Israel Defense Forces' incursion into Gaza with the express and well-expressed purpose of destroying Hamas's operations and extinguishing as many of its operatives as possible, to defang one of the deadly serpents spawned from the Republic's IRGC al-Quds division.

Rising tensions in the wake of the October 7 flood of terrorists representing Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PLO backed by Iran that saw their operatives, along with ordinary Palestinian civilians attack Israeli border farming communities where their sadistic savagery gave vent to the hatred for Jews consuming their venom-patterned minds by committing unspeakable atrocities against Israeli civilians in an organized, well-rehearsed orgy of rape, mutilation and mass murder.

When Israel mounted its offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah saw it as an opportunity to strike Israeli targets opening a second front in the north of Israel, necessitating the evacuation of Israeli villages around the Golan Heights. Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen fired missiles and drones throughout the conflict in lethal, distracting moves obviously meant to exhaust Israel's military reserves.

For its part, Israel has, over time, conducted airborne raids by its fighter jets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to destroy arms shipments from Iran to its proxies, focusing mostly on Syria in an effort to dislodge Iran from a planned permanent presence on Israel's border. On April1st an airstrike killed two Iranian generals in the Syrian capital Damascus at an Iranian diplomatic compound for which Iran named Israel as being responsible -- vowing a response.

On the 13th of April Iran calculated a first-time direct attack and launched a rain of missiles and attack drones toward Israel, virtually all of which were intercepted by an international coalition of preventive partnership that included fighter planes and missile interception by the United States, France, United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, working in tandem with the IDF, resulting in one human casualty in Israel and a minimally affected Israeli airbase.

Israel's response to Iran's attack arrived a week later with Iranian authorities claiming their air defences fired at a major airbase near Isfahan, home to Iran's F-14 Tomcats, an ageing fleet of American jets predating the Islamic Revolution. Sites associated with Iran's nuclear program are also established in the Isfahan area, including the underground Natanz enrichment site, featuring in previous Israeli sabotage attacks. That response by the IDF coincided with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 85th birthday.

Both the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian State television declared all Iranian atomic sites in the areas in question to be "fully safe"; "no damage" resulted. On the other hand, it would seem that satellite imagery later revealed evidence of probable damage at the Iranian air base following the Israeli strike. BBC Verify analyzed two images that showed part of an air-defence system at an airfield in Isfahan had been damaged.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

"It's extremely politically sensitive, obviously, but procedurally I believe I made the right decision in the sense of past rulings of speakers and precedents and traditions."

"In my opinion, having done the research, it appeared to me that the keffiyeh is being worn to make a political statement."

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

"I think [Speaker Arnott's ruling] is the correct decision, in the same way we can't use other kinds of political clothing."

"We can't wear T-shirts that say 'Free the hostages', or wrap ourselves in a flag or whatever."

"We have to follow the rules of the legislature. Otherwise, we politicize the entire debate inside the legislature and that's not what it's about ... we use our words to persuade, not our items of clothing".

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

"It really comes down to uniting Ontarians and communities."

"We see the division right now that's going on. It's not healthy, and this will just divide the community even more."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Keffiyehs remain banned in the Ontario Legislature after a motion to overrule House Speaker Ted Arnott’s prohibition failed to pass at Queen’s Park on Thursday. CBC

One would think and hope that someone of the political stature and influence of the premier of Canada's most populous province would be more aware and sensitive to the implications of permitting an iconic symbol of Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupation' of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel would be recognized as throwing political weight in the Palestinian-occupied wing of slanderous propaganda. Worse, that seeing that symbol worn in the provincial parliament, the impression that the provincial government agrees that Palestinians and their terrorist hordes have the right to raid Israeli territory to threaten, to rape, to torture, and to murder Jews in Israel.

 

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature appears to be courageously standing on principle alongside the legislature's own rules when he defied the popular (unanimous) decision of the Members of Provincial Parliament when they opted to allow keffiyeh-clad individuals to display their obvious rancor against Israel, bringing the conflict that rages in the Middle East into Canada and its levels of government as an entitlement to slander the Jewish State and propagate for its destruction as a 'final solution' to their struggle to destroy the ancestral Jewish presence in the Middle East. 

The keffiyeh is emblematic of Palestinian rejection of sharing the geography that the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 partitioned, offering Jews one portion of their traditional geography upon which to declare a modern state, and the other to the Palestinians who claim the entire territory as uniquely and solely theirs, rejecting the reality of history that reflects a Judaean presence from antiquity to the present; in fact the original 'Palestinians' as named by the Roman occupiers of the Middle East during that era.

There is a long-standing rule in the legislature that members may not make use of props, signage or accessories with the intention of expressing a political statement, and it is that rule that the Speaker of the Legislature relied upon to refuse to permit that resonating political symbol to make its appearance in the Legislature of Ontario. Having established the facts through his own "extensive research", the Speaker was confident in the applicability of his ruling.

 

The unanimous consent of the legislature is sought by members of provincial parliament when they wish to express solidarity with a specific theme or event. Provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles had moved a unanimous consent motion days earlier claiming the keffiyeh to be a culturally significant item of clothing in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and as such should be given permission to be worn in Parliament. Some of those present in the Legislature demurred, the loudest "no" emanating from another Progressive Conservative MPP.

"Speaker Arnott is the longest serving MPP in the legislature and has spent three decades upholding the rules and procedures of the House."

"As the longest serving woman at Queen’s Park I support his ruling because it keeps with tradition and reminds members to keep our debates focused on words rather than on political props."

"Arnott chose parliamentary convention over political weather [vanes]."

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

Queen's Park, Toronto   Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press

"Anti-Palestinian Racism" at York University, Hotbed of Anti-Israel Racism

"[York University pledges to take] proactive steps to fight racial inequity [which cannot be done unless administrators actively commit to isolate and destroy the Zionist] settler colonial project."

"The struggle for Palestinian self-determination will support the liberation of all humans and non-humans [sic] from colonial oppression." 

"It is the systematic and structural denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination and national liberation, and the collective existence of the Palestinian people, while upholding Zionism."

"Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy."

"Academic freedom allows us to comment and critique on historically and philosophically relevant topics in context and allows for the pursuit of truth and fulfillment of university objectives."

"We propose that the department advocate for a more transparent and effective University process for handling complaints and violations of the code of conduct, including reparatory justice and/or grounds for suspension or removal for individuals who violate the code of conduct and community safety standards."

Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee document

Students at York University drop a banner calling for a walk out in solidarity with Gazans. Credit: Palestine Solidarity Collective/Instagram

"[York University is becoming a landscape of] surveillance, fear, intimidation and repression [for anyone advocating] Palestinian liberation. [Faculty members] should not be pressured to condemn Hamas."

"More students have expressed or reported feeling that the university has become an unsafe environment."

"[Any defence of Israel must be viewed as] anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab."

York University faculty committee, Department of Politics

York University in Toronto has devoted itself to the loving care of the sensibilities and sensitivities of their Palestinian students, amidst a larger concern at the university over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who have attempted mightily over the last 70 years and more to  uproot the presence of Jews and the State of Israel, labelling them as 'occupiers' on their own historical, well- documented ancestral land which the Arab migrants from Syria, Jordan and Egypt, purloining the ancient Roman-occupation-era designation of 'Palestine' -- as a province of Jews for administrative purposes -- for their very own, extend that 'ownership' to the land Israel sits on, as well.

These are the Palestinians who declare themselves descendant of history's Philistines and in the sense that the word is used today philosophically , they certainly are, in character if not in historical context. The fairly recent trend in immigration, refugee acceptance and illegal migration that has gifted Canada with a large Arab/Muslim population has resulted in the Palestinian propaganda machine working diligently to defame Israel and frame Canadian Jews as undesirables. And whereas Jews in Canada have never undertaken a campaign to discredit and isolate that Arab/Muslim population, the latter has been labouring overtime to succeed in doing just that to the much smaller Jewish-Canadian population.

Antisemitism and the pejoratives usually applied to Jews anywhere are not new, but the rigour with which this campaign of several years' standing -- accelerated after the Hamas terrorist incursion into Israel with its horrendous savagery imposed upon civilians and still-ongoing retention as hostages of Israeli children, women and the elderly -- speaks volumes of the group-characteristics of a violent people who cloak themselves in the guise of victims of Israeli/Jewish 'genocide'.

The large and growing presence of this discordant blight upon Canada's traditional intake of immigrants from around the world has drawn out the latent antisemitism in Canadian society to a formidable degree causing Canadian Jews to feel uprooted psychologically yet again by the preponderance of prejudice and racial/religious/ethnic/cultural winds of suspicion and hate they see being played out in street demonstrations, extolling the 'human rights' of Palestinian terrorists to 'resist' an 'occupation' that resulted from Palestinian violence against Jews.

Verbal contortions and the invention of 'truths' that re-write history and reality are grasped gratefully by those comfortable with their own brand of antisemitism, layered over with the sanctimony of a sudden love affair for Palestinians, felt to be justified by their aggressive historical and cultural inaccuracies from a hymnal not that different from the one conventional/traditional antisemites sing from. The convenience of citing Critical Race Theory, and the comfort of snuggling into Diversity, Equality and Inclusion gives additional impetus to the smug who declare themselves defenders of human rights while denying Israel's right of existence.

A "recommendations report" dated April 5 from the political committee devoted to the defense of Palestinians, within the Department of Politics at York University proposed Israel cannot be defended since its very existence is "anti-Palestinian", "Islamophobic" and "anti-Arab". Henceforth they declared, any acknowledgement of the very existence of Israel represents evidence of "anti-Palestinian racism". It is not, needless to say, racist to declare the existence of Israel forbidden.The Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee issued its 9-page document with great self-congratulation.

While it is the beleaguered Jewish students suffering isolation, threats and fear of violence, this committee engages in the kind of contorted hyperbole that conflates fear and  isolation not to the threatened Jewish students but to the Palestinian students who are the source of the threats against their Jewish student counterparts. The committee approved a faculty mandate a month following the Hamas assault on southern Israel to draft "a departmental definition of anti-Palestinian racism". 

As to the sacred principles of academic freedom and free speech, it is made abundantly clear that anyone supporting Israel, working with Israeli academics or having any connection however slight to Israel, is not similarly entitled to free speech. The purpose of the document is to advocate "severing ties with Zionist departments and institutions", and to impose a complete commercial boycott on anything that can be construed as having a link to Israel. Even recommending the boycott of Aroma and Starbucks coffee companies, both headquartered in the US, with no Israeli ownership or management.

The document makes it clear to the Department of Politics at York University that York's crisis of "anti-Palestinian racism" cannot be fought without the issuance of a departmental statement endorsing a boycott of Israel in support of "the struggle for Palestinian liberation".

 

The document by a York University Department of Politics committee makes it clear that the principles of “academic freedom” and “free speech” should not apply to anybody supportive of Israel or having any peripheral connection to Israel whatsoever. Photo by Tyler Anderson/National Post

And So, Canada, Were You Invaded?

"Yemen, Yemen, make us proud! turn another ship around!"

"Gaza called, Yemen answered. All Israeli ships are cancelled." 

Canadian anti-Israel rallies

"Why is it always the non-Iranians who support the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran?"

"As an Iranian-Canadian, it makes me sick to my stomach to see my fellow Canadians openly supporting a terrorist Islamofascist dictatorship that murders innocent Iranians."

"This is not the Canada my parents immigrated to in order to escape persecution by the terrorist Islamofascist Ayatollahs."

MPP Goldie Ghamari

Palestinians and supporters congregated at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square two days after the October 7 massacre by Hamas in southern Israel. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Cities in Canada saw wild scenes of open celebration even before news emerged of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Islamic Republican Guards Corp having launched a prolonged direct air attack on Israel. There is little doubt that many Iranians living in Tehran and detesting their ruling Ayatollahs viewed this event with sorrow. In Canada, the majority of the Iranian diaspora who arrived post-Iranian Revolution were anything but pleased. Which didn't stop the abundant presence of Palestinians, Syrians and other Middle East diaspora-Canadian-Arabs from jubilantly celebrating the event.

Keffiyeh-wearing demonstrators were seen in one circulated video cheering, banging drums, and sending up celebratory smoke bombs, while a speaker declared the wonderful news that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has just sent tens of drones toward Israel"; a 44-second video posted by Caryma Sa'd, Toronto lawyer who often documents such events taking place in Toronto. "Protesters react to breaking news of Iran launching drones at Israel in retaliatory attack for a strike which killed a top Iranian commander", he captioned.

 

 

This was April 14 when the IRGC air division launched over 300 drones and ballistic missiles into Israeli airspace. Israel and its regional and international supporters were prepared; forewarned of an imminent attack, they had their warjets on standby and reacted according to plan, knowing it would take up to seven hours for any of the missiles and 'suicide' drones to reach Israel. Israel, the United States, Britain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all had a hand in ensuring that none of the deadly projectiles reached their intended goal.

One can only imagine the dejection and disappointment of the celebrants of Iran's attack must have felt when it was announced by the Israel Defense Forces than the upshot of the Saturday/Sunday declaration of war turned out that 99 percent of the weapons were shot down. A 7-year-old Bedouin child in Israel was the sole unfortunate casualty when detritus from a destroyed missile fell on her family home, as was a lightly-impacted northern-Israel air base, which continued operations afterward.

 

People carry a Palestinian flag during a rally in front of City Hall in Toronto, October 9, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo)

 

The Canadian celebrabrants were not to be put off by reality, continuing into Sunday. On the Instagram account of Ottawa4Palestine a speaker in Ottawa sang an improvised ditty to the tune of Yankee Doodle with the phrase: "leave Palestine alone and Jews go back to Europe". Another video of a Montreal rally featured demonstrators changing "put the bullet in the house of fire ... we are your men, Sinwar", referring to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of October 7's bloodthirsty savagery in southern Israel.

An Iranian exile in Calgary -- Bahar Bahari, long a vocal critic of Iran's theocracy, and a frequent attendee at pro-Israel demonstrations had posted the Montreal video. The Jerusalem Post took note of the celebrations in Canada, publishing the headline "Toronto protesters cheer as Iran fires drones at Israel", even while Israeli counter-batteries just completed the last of the incoming missiles being shot down.

The burgeoning anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian movement has been defiantly open with their hate messages against Israel, their threats against Canadian Jews, and their masked presence, disrupting traffic, blocking bridges, issuing insults against Canadian police forces, harassing Jewish business owners and Synagogue congregants, although their actions and activities defy Canadian hate law. Issues of violence perpetrated on Jewish parochial schools, Jewish social centres and Synagogues remain unsolved.

Key organizers of the hate-fests against the Jewish state are well known for their activities, bordering on and often substantially illegal criminal acts; Toronto4Palestine, Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement who organized joyful rallies within hours of the ghastly October 7 mass rapes and massacres. Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have also been matters of organized celebrations thanks to these organizers, all of whom if the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau was the least bit interested in security and following their own laws against terrorism would join Canada's list of terror groups.

Two rallies were held in Halifax on Thanksgiving Monday — one in support of Israel, the other in support of the Palestinian territories. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)

The Rise of Antisemitism in Canada

"We think the situation [rampant antisemitism] now is more critical [currently than was the case in 2021 at Canada's first antisemitism summit], and we point to police statistics to make our case."

"We feel that our demand [to convene a second national antisemitism summit] will be well-received by elected officials."

"It's critical to get stakeholders all at the same table."

"The fight against antisemitism is everyone's fight."

Marvin Rotrand, interim director-general, United Against Hate Canada

 

"We know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us."

"If someone hates a person for being Jewish, they're going to hate me for being Chinese, someone else for being Filipino, and so on."

"The action summit must address the alleged confusion about what that chant ["From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"] means and remove the excuse for inaction, so that the people we trust to keep us safe and uphold our laws can do so with full clarity." 

Member of Parliament Kevin Vuong

Ottawa police officers keep watch as crews clean anti-Israel grafitti painted on the office tower housing the Israeli embassy on O'Connor Street in downtown Ottawa, Ont. on Monday, April 15, 2024. Photo by Bryan Passifiume /Postmedia Network

A call has arisen to convene a second Canadian national antisemitism summit in the wake of the wave of antisemitism that has swept through Canada following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel that left 1,200 Israeli children, women, men, and the elderly dead. A sinister paroxysm of sadistic savagery unlike anything witnessed before, as Palestinian terrorists gang-raped, mutilated and murdered girls and women in Israel, and burned families alive in their homes on that unforgettable day.

An open letter signed by 200 politicians, community and spiritual leaders called for another antisemitism summit. With it came a motion set to be tabled in the Senate of Canada. A call for Canada's antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lyons via an open letter, urged that a follow-up meeting to continue the work of the initial summit held by former envoy Irwin Cotler, Canada's long-time and premier human rights campaigner, to be slated as soon as possible.

After hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, along with PLO terrorists rampaged through kibbutzim located close to the border with Gaza, a campaign of hate, threats and intimidation erupted throughout Canada, with Palestinians and other Arabs living in Canada as citizens organized 'pro-Palestinian' protests in the immediate wake of the savagery committed by Palestinians. Following which such protests became frequent episodes of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate-fests.

Incidents of such hate expressed against Canadian Jews more than doubled in Toronto where antisemitism has become the most reported hate crime for years, compared to last year's statistics. Across Canada other cities report as well significant increases since October 7 of anti-Jewish hate-fests. In Ottawa, the office tower where the Israeli embassy is located saw vandals spray-paint anti-Israel graffiti on the building exterior.

Simultaneously a group of anti-Israel protesters once again shut down an intersection south of the embassy, evidently a coordinated effort to create 'economic blockades' against nations considered to be supportive of Israel. Sitting and retired politicians at all levels of government, mayors, school trustees, cultural and ethnic groups and faith leaders were among the 200 individuals who signed the open letter. 

 

Among them MP Kevin Vuong who emphasized that combating antisemitism requires commitment and action, not merely words and platitudes. The call for a summit saw a motion tabled in the Senate by Senator Leo Housakos.

 

Senate of Canada

"We cannot allow antisemitism to become normalized, and we cannot allow the haters to believe they can act with impunity."

"It is totally unacceptable that the Jewish community, whose history dates to the foundation of our country and who have contributed so much to Canada's well-being and success, should feel unsafe in their own communities."

Senator Leo Housakos

To Strike Back : When and Where

"We are looking ahead."

"We are considering our steps, and this launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles and UAVs into the territory of the State of Israel will be met with a response." 

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system is seen intercepting rockets launched from the Gaza Strip | Source: Reuters

 

"Iran is a nation that endorses terrorism, and the world should have curtailed it much earlier."

"[Saudi air defences automatically intercept] any suspicious entity [that enters its airspace, which could refer to attacks from Yemeni Houthis, another of Iran's terror proxies]."

"We confront every suspicious object that enters Saudi airspace. This is a matter of sovereignty."

"Two days before the attack, Iranian officials briefed counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries on the outlines and timing of their plan for the large-scale strikes on Israel so that those countries could safeguard airspace. Information that was passed along to the U.S. allowing Washington and Israel crucial advance warning."

Anonymous Saudi royal family source

Monday Israel's war cabinet discussed a few potential military responses to the Islamic Republic's Saturday/Sunday attack on Israel's airspace with over 300 drones and missiles, some 99% of which were reportedly shot down by the U.S., Israel, France, the U.K., Jordan and Saudi Arabia before they could enter Israel's airspace. Each of the possible responses under discussion were designed to inflict a meaningful response to the Iranian regime, while carefully avoiding expansion leading to a regional war.

The war cabinet was mindful of the pressure exerted by U.S. President Joe Biden and the diplomatic necessity of selecting an option that would not induce the Biden administration to block its performance. Prime Minister Netanyahu had been informed by President Biden on Saturday not to expect Washington to support a retaliatory attack by Israel. "You got a win. Take the win", said Biden. 

Yoav Gallant, a war cabinet member and Defence Minister, informed his American counterpart the following evening that there was no choice for the Jewish state but to respond to the unprecedented drone and missile strikes on Israel in response to an alleged airstrike by Israel that hit Damascus, killing an elite Quds Force commander. Gallant emphasized to U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin that the reality of ballistic missiles fired at Israel without repercussions was not acceptable.

 

Gilad Erdan, Israel's UN ambassador, showed a video of drones heading toward Israel to the United Nations Security Council on Sunday. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU via Getty Images

 

In the final analysis the war cabinet had no option but to endorse a strike back, remaining divided on the scope and timing of their response. Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz vowed to "exact the price from Iran in the fashion and timing that is right for us". Comprised of Netanyahu, Gallant and Gantz, as well as three observers, the war cabinet meant to reconvene Tuesday.

Following the call with Biden, it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu set aside the option of a swift strike on Iranian territory; a decision that resulted in the Iranian attacks having "caused relatively minor damage", which seems highly unlikely, since an aggressive act of war of this dimension could not and would not be set aside as immaterial by any other nation on Earth. 

Saudi Arabia accused Iran of responsibility for the Gaza conflict with the intention of undermining progress in a normalization agreement between Riyadh and Jerusalem. A royal family source revealed that Tehran's promotion of terrorism led Riyadh to play a role in thwarting the drone and missile attack that occurred on Saturday night. The Saudis shared intelligence with the United States and Israel that helped to counter the Iranian attack. 

Intelligence was also shared by the Emiratis who had forged diplomatic ties with Jerusalem as part of the Abraham Accords in 2020. Initially cautious around sharing information, Arab governments feared direct involvement in the conflict that would leave them vulnerable to Iranian reprisal. Despite which Riyadh and Abu Dhabi moved forward following discussions with the U.S.

As well, Amman agreed to permit the U.S. and other countries to fly warplanes through its airspace, intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, while the Jordanians themselves assisted in shooting them down.

Parts of a missile launched from a missile are landed in Marj Al-Hamam area, during Iran's airstrikes against Israel, in Amman, Jordan on April 14, 2024. Anadolu via Getty Images