German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

"We Germans know that a world in which only power is taken into account is a dark place. Our country took this path in the twentieth century all the way to its bitter and evil end."

"We Germans are adhering to our legal obligations. We consider this strictly within the context of our nuclear sharing in NATO -- and we will not allow zones of differing security to emerge in Europe." 

"These talks are in their very early stages. We know that we have to make some strategic and military-political decisions here, but again, the time is not yet ripe for that."

"We are holding strategic talks on this issue with the countries involved." 

"In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It is also the United States’ competitive advantage."

"So let’s repair and revive transatlantic trust together."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

 

"This is the right time for audacity. This is the right time for a strong Europe."

"Europe has to learn to become a geopolitical power. It was not part of our DNA."

"We have to reshuffle and reorganize our architecture of security in Europe. Because the past architecture of security was totally designed and framed during Cold War times. So it’s no longer adapted."

French President Emmanuel Macron 

 

"I think it’s at a defining moment … the world is changing very fast right in front of us."

"[The U.S. is] deeply tied to Europe, and our futures have always been linked and will continue to be." "So we’ve just got to talk about what that future looks like."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

 

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks with President of the European Council Antonio Costa at a meeting during the Munich Security Council. The U.K. and France are NATO's European nuclear-armed states. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool/Reuters)

 

"Nobody [was considering fully replacing the American nuclear umbrella, which has shielded Europe's NATO countries for decades]." 

"I think every discussion in Europe making sure that collectively the nuclear deterrence is even stronger, is fine."

"But nobody is arguing in Europe to do this as a sort of replacement of the nuclear umbrella of the United States."

"Everybody realizes that is the ultimate guarantor -- and all these other discussions are in addition."

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte  

Making a call to reorder the transatlantic relationship in light of the turmoil that has resulted from U.S. President Trump's declarations about NATO, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been in serious discussions with France relating to potential European nuclear defence, warning at the Munich Security Conference against a new era of great power politics. Germany and Europe, he stressed, are required to increase their security and independence in tandem with one another while seeking out partners in other regions. The ultimate message: the world has changed.

 

"This order, as incomplete as it's been even at the est of times, no longer exists as it did", an audience of leaders and security experts were informed in the Bavarian capital on Friday. And although he reiterated his 'confidential talks' with French President Emmanuel Macron are ongoing on nuclear deterrence, he also warned his audience not to "reflexively write off" the United States. There remains great potential that can be realized still by engaging with Washington, he cautioned.

 

A year ago U.S. Vice-President JD Vance delivered a shocking message to Europe on the Munich stage over migration and freedom of speech and ever since European leaders have been on a search for directions that might help in restoring the post-Second World War alliance. Alternatively, there is the recognition of reality, that Europe may require their own path to proceed with security in an increasingly dangerous world.

 

In citing Europe's "enormous" military economic and technological potential, Chancellor Merz stated that his country had no choice but to move forward by building alliances and in so doing, foregoing the restrictions and protectionism bullying deployed by the Trump administration. While in the process of discussing nuclear deterrence in a reality where Germany itself has no nuclear weapons and following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Germany phased out atomic power, but recognizes the region's vulnerability.

 

European leaders, including Chancellor Merz, French President Macron, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were present at the conference, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Over 50 members of US. Congress were delegated to be present at Munich. The conference report explored transatlantic ties at their bleakest time in eight decades, making reference to the "wrecking ball politics" stirring the globe with President Trump appearing determined to dismantle pillars of a post-war system the U.S. itself led. 

 

European policymakers are engaging in growing discussions about nuclear deterrence, concerned over Russia's aggression amidst uncertainty about America's ongoing security pledges.  Getty Images  

"[There was] no low-cost or risk-free way out of Europe's nuclear predicament [bearing in mind Russia's territorial threats in Europe]."

"The era in which Europe could afford strategic complacency has ended."

"[European policymakers must work together] to confront the role of nuclear weapons in the defence of the continent directly and without delay -- and to invest the resources needed to do so competently."

Munich Security Conference report 

"Police have attended that residence in the past, approximately a couple of years ago, where firearms were seized."

"I can say that at a later point in time the lawful owner of those firearms petitions for those firearms to be returned and they were."

"I can say with confidence that from the moment the suspect encountered police, there were no further injuries to any other students in the school."  

"In speaking with investigators, there was no specific targeting of any individuals [at the school],"

"This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting. They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with."

"We're trying to determine how our suspect got that firearm, and that investigation is continuing." 

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald 

 

"Identifying individuals who are no longer eligible for a firearms licence as quickly as possible and ensuring they can no longer access firearms is an important public safety objective."

Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee 

A vigil in Tumbler Ridge. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Canada remains in mourning yet incredulous that a young man of 18 living in a remote British Columbia town of some 2,300 residents where everyone is reputed to know everyone else, chose to enter the Tumbler Ridge Secondary school with two lethal weapons to begin firing at random, killing six students from ages 12 to 13, and a 39-year-old teacher before his rampage came to an end with the intervention of two members of the local RCMP detachment. 

 

That stunning attack with its consequent victims occurred just a short time after 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar had killed his 36-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at the family home, located a short distance from the school.

 

The Tuesday killing represented one of Canada's worst mass murder events in recent history. A biological male who six years ago transitioned to female, the attacker had long brown hair and wore a dress as he rampaged through the school killing three 12-year-old girls, a 12 and a 13 year-old boy, and the teacher. Most of the deaths occurred in the school library. One of the boys was found dead in a stairwell. 

 

It took a mere two minutes for two RCMP officers to respond and arrive at the scene when they were alerted at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday. They drew fire from the killer; failing to respond, they bought time by distracting the killer from hunting down any more victims; instead he turned his weapon on himself, committing suicide. A short while later, a young neighbour who had gone to the family home of the killer, discovered the mother and brother dead and she contacted the RCMP.

 

Getty Images

 

The mother, as it happened, was a gun aficionado. Who presumably taught her son to appreciate weapons for target practice and hunting...and, as the mother noted on a social media posting for 'self-reliance'. She had a gun licence and owned a number of long guns herself and took pride in using them. Her son had mental issues, well known to the RCMP who had responded on a number of occasions at the family home to issues related to the boy's mental health.

 

In Canadian gun law firearms are to be removed from any home that houses an individual with mental illness. Police, according to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald had gone to the home a number of times. There was more than one time when the killer, under the terms of the Mental Health Act was taken into custody. Jennifer Strang, the killer's mother (now deceased) in an August 2024 Facebook post, showed an image of a safe with six long guns, with the caption: "think it's time to take them out for some target practice".

 

An earlier post in 2021 had Jennifer Strang promoting a YouTube channel by her son, stating it was where "He posts about hunting, self-reliance, guns and stuff he likes to do". Canadian law enforcement can legally seize legal firearms without a warrant should an officer believe that to do so is in the "interests of the safety of the person or any other person". The Possession and Acquisition Licence of legal gun owners can also be unilaterally suspended.

 

The federal government mere weeks ago kicked off its Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program, a 'buy back' program for firearms covered by the 2020 ban under the government bans through a 'freeze' on the sale or transfer of legal handguns. The SKS, a Russian-produced semi-automatic rifle had been overlooked in the banned list even though it has the same function as banned rifles like the Ruger Mini-14.

 

As it happened, an SKS was among one of the long guns in the possession of the Tumbler Ridge killer's mother. It was shown among those demonstrated in her Facebook post of 2014. This was the same rifle that appeared with an avatar of the YouTube channel her son started. In the annals of preventable homicides, all details pulled together, this horrible event rates a number one. 

 

Tumbler Ridge, B.C., victims identified by police

 

"We need urgent action by our government to protect all Canadians now. Designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization now."

"[The Muslim Brotherhood is a] real and immediate threat [to Canada's democracy]."

"Canada will undoubtedly fall [if the government does not act against] Canadian Islamist organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood."

Amir Epstein, Tafsik executive director

 

"Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organizations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas."

U.S. Treasury Department  

The White House

"The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond.  Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests. "

"For example, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the military wing of the Lebanese chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions to launch multiple rocket attacks against both civilian and military targets within Israel."

"A senior leader of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 7, 2023, called for violent attacks against United States partners and interests, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to the militant wing of Hamas.  Such activities threaten the security of American civilians in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the safety and stability of our regional partners."

The White House  

B'nai Brith and other Jewish groups have called on the government of Canada for years, to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a  terrorist organization. Those calls have increased since the terrorist attack in southern Israel of October 7, 2023, when six thousand Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah streamed across the border from Gaza in an orgy of sadistic mass rape, torture and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, along with the  hostage-taking of 250 children, women, the elderly civilians, soldiers and foreign farm workers.  

"Unlike Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has evolved and learned the hard way that the use of violence will be met with superior violence by state actors. The clever thing to do, it now turns out, was to be patient and invest in a bottom-up movement rather than a commando structure that risked being wiped out by stronger forces."

" Besides, the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran was to preach the merits of a society based on Islamic law. He did not engage in terrorism. Yet he and his followers took over Iran – a feat far greater than bin Laden ever achieved. In Iran the violence came later."

Ayyan Hirsi Ali, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington 

Policy Alert: New Report Sheds Light on Muslim Brotherhood Terror Ties  Foundation for Defense of Democracies

 

More latterly, members of the Jewish advocacy group Tafsik called on Canada's Liberal government to finally follow the lead of the United States in designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. While the MB does not itself act as a terrorist group, it is the founding enterprise that has launched countless terrorist groups whose violence on display with the hard power of jihad complements the MB's jihadist soft power. Hamas itself is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

 

By stealth and presenting as a reasonable alternative to democracy's secular rule, the Muslim Brotherhood portrays Islam as a gentle, peace-loving religion, omitting its instructions to the faithful to dedicate themselves to jihad, Islam's deep drive to convert the world to the worship of Islam through a type of proselytism unique to its founder, the Prophet Mohammad who launched countless wars of conquest, a heritage that encompassed the Middle East, stretched into North Africa, India, Spain, France and the Balkans.

 

Originating in the 1920s in Egypt, the century-old movement employs gentle 'suasion, establishing mosques, hospitals and social centres in the non-Muslim-majority countries it enters to extend its goodwill and influence as far as its  tentacles can reach. And they reach the very heart of governments, social welfare, elite society and the news media through operative contacts made by its adherents with key sympathizers.  

 

The U.S. took the step last month of designating the Lebanese, Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, giving them the status of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. A report prepared last year by two French civil servants for the government of France issued a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood movement represented a "threat to national cohesion within the country". France is a country overrun with Muslims, and among them are ample numbers of groups hostile to French values, laws and culture. 

 

Groups linked with and originating from the Muslim Brotherhood, recognized as terrorist organizations, have been listed as such in Canada, including Hamas which, according to the listing identifies Hamas as having "emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987". According to Middle East researcher Thomas Juneau, the Muslim Brotherhood is a complex movement with individual chapters in multiple countries worldwide. Its very complexity in relation to its offshoots makes it difficult to list the MB. 

"[Some of those offshoots are] undeniably [terrorist organizations, but others are not]." 

"Even individual chapters are often more loose movements than unified groups."

"Some Muslim Brotherhood groups are clearly not violent, they are clearly not terrorists."

"They adhere to a fairly conservative and pious version of political Islam, but they are not terrorists."

Prof.Thomas Juneau, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa  

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi/Imam of Peace, while acknowledging the complexity of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist entity, nevertheless pressed Canada to make the move to identify it formally as a terrorist group as a reflection of its stealth influence, its undeniable links to violent groups that reflect its totalitarian quest for dominance using the hard power of jihadist terror, while behind the scenes as an innocent, well-meaning interlocutor for Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood does its part on the 'diplomatic' front. 

 

 

"Just because they are difficult to put a finger on, and it's somewhat technically challenging to designate the entire organization ... it does not mean that we do nothing about it at all."

"Ultimately, the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated. The question is, when will the courageous people, the lawmakers, take this stand?"

Mohammad Tawhidi, Imam of Peace 

"These kids should be playing hockey or just being kids but life has just been completely turned upside down."

"We know every single person that lost a child, it's a tragedy that has hit our quiet town ... and I just don't really have the words to describe what happened."

"We stayed for those families whose children were not accounted for, it's what we do."

"The number of family members who are dealing with this ... the moms and dads, the sisters and brothers and grandparents ... suddenly people from our congregation are gone."

"It's overwhelming." 

Reverend Gerald Krauss, New Life Assembly 

 

"As we come together in grief and solidarity, it is clear that those impacted will need our support-- not only emotionally but also financially -- as they navigate the challenges ahead."

"Our community has always stood strong in times of adversity, and this is an opportunity for us to extend a helping hand to those who need it most."

Tumbler Ridge Parent Advisory Council

Students walk out of the school building with their hands up after an assailant opened fire in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Tuesday. Photograph: Western Standard/Jordon Kosik/Reuters

 

It's a modest goal ... to raise $30,000  in support of the families impacted by the dreadful mass shooting that took place in the small remote community of Tumbler Ridge on Tuesday, when a former pupil at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School armed with deadly weapons rampaged through the school on a killing mission. The killer, named by the RCMP as an 18-year-old who had never completed school but left four years earlier and who, around that same time began to transform himself from a male to a female, showed up at the school dressed identifiably as a woman.

 

He/she shot to death a 36-year-old teacher, three 12-year-old girls, a 12 and two 12 and 13-year old boys. There were 26 students who suffered gunshot wounds, a number of them in critical condition. Two children were in critical condition, one 12-year-old girl was airlifted by medical helicopter to Vancouver. She had been shot in the head and the neck and it was uncertain whether she would survive. Police also went to a house about a five-minute drive from the school, where they found the killer's mother and his 11-year-old stepbrother, both shot dead.  

"This community only has 2,400 people ... That community will have almost every single person affected directly."

"Who do you lean on, when everybody is affected?"

Stephen Fuhr, Member of Parliament for Kelowna, B.C. 

Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, transgender, will live on in infamy as having perpetrated one of the worst mass shootings in the  history of Canada. Both a long gun and a modified handgun were taken into evidence by police. The town in northwestern British Columbia will never be the same again. Tumbler Ridge RCMP had been alerted to an active shooting at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. It took little time for them to find six people dead; five in the school library and the sixth in a stairwell. Dead also was the killer who had committed suicide.

 

  

 

Most of the young people who had been injured in the shooting melee were treated at the site. The emergency alert received by police  described the suspect as "a female in a dress with brown hair". Police did not just spontaneously appear at the private home; they were contacted, the home identified as one where a dread scenario had played out prior to the killer's appearance at the school.  Students whom police had led out of the school for safety were released to their parents' care at the nearby town community centre once the lockdown was lifted.

 

School District 59 officials circulated a decision to suspend normal school activities for both the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and Tumbler Ridge Elementary for the remainder of the week. Trauma counselling and other supports were in the process of meeting the needs of students, teachers and school staff.

Photo by PAIGE TAYLOR WHITE /AFP via Getty Images   Vancouver Sun

 

"This was a rapidly evolving and dynamic situation, and the swift cooperation from the school, first responders, and the community played a critical role in our response."

"Our thoughts are with the families, loved ones, and all those impacted by this tragic incident."

"This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation."

Superintendent Ken Floyd, North District Commander, B.C. RCMP

 

Canada/China Agreement :The Winning Score Zip for Canada

"It is very, very upsetting to me and to our organization."

"This is all about expanding the Communist party's influence and expanding their capabilities in Canada, in all those agreements, for transnational repression, political interference and disinformation."

Edmund Leung, chair, Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement

 

"The two sides consented to provide mutual support and convenience for media to work in each other's countries, and provide greater convenience for two-way travel."

Shen Haixiong, director/editor-in-chief China Media Group 

 

"Censorship [including self-censorship] is pervasive and alternative media voices are few or marginalized ... this includes traditional media such as newspapers, and in new media provided by online platforms and applications such as WeChat."

Canadian Security Intelligence Service assessment 

Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with President of China Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick 

"That was my major concern of the whole trip, this deal between the RCMP and China's public security."

"All we can do is push for clarity, push for transparency and push for safeguards."

"We're not in a position to change what has been agreed on between China and Canada."

"All we can do is push for our own red lines and guardrails." 

Edmund Leung, Vancouver Society in Defence of Democratic Movement 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's 'strategic partnership' agreement he entered into with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing includes a number of provisions that transcend the expansion of Chinese electric car imports at a preferential tariff rate in exchange for eased tariff barriers on Canadian canola, in Canada's 'reset' with China. According to Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy, speaking for the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China, "These are all Trojan horses."

 

Suddenly gone, the awareness and caution occasioned by Beijing's political interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. At face value, the proposed collaboration reflect "people-to-people ties and cultural exchanges", investment in museums, support for "digital content creators" and "visual artists", heritage, education, "travel exchanges and cultural ties", not to mention cooperation in the "creative industries" at the "sub-national level". In other words the very soft-power that Beijing already utilizes to extend its global reach. Now legitimized rather than remaining furtive.

 

As for Beijing's cooperation in a mission to "combat corruption", cyber fraud and traffic in illegal synthetic drugs, the absurdity of the proposal lies in the obvious reality of China being the very icon of corruption, cyber fraud and illegal synthetic drug traffic. Fentanyl has made its mark throughout Canada for years, in deaths by overdose and the increase of opioid addiction with this most dangerous of chemical compounds. 

 

Overwhelmingly harmful fentanyl   Photograph: Getty Images

 

As for the memorandum of understanding between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and China's Ministry of Public Security (dreaded by the Chinese citizenry), a series of scandals involving tortured witnesses and trumped-up corruption charges served to sever a similar, previous such collaboration of 25 years back. That, apart from the fact that a number of Public Security divisions from China were operating clandestine police stations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to harass and threaten Chinese Canadians.

 

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree commented he was unable to provide any assurance that the pact would interfere with Beijing's persistent deployment of agents in Canada who spy on, intimidate, coerce individuals and organizations within diaspora communities in Canada, to target Chinese-Canadians.

 

In another area of troubling potential, Carney's agreement with Beijing would formalize Canadian operations of divisions of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese communist Party's central committee. These are arrangements with the full potential to enhance opportunities for a Propaganda Department deputy minister among others to expand control over media manipulation in Canada, as per the MOU signed by Canadian ambassador to China Jennifer May.

 

There are no independent journalists in the powerful China Media Group, they are, rather, professionally skilled propagandists working for the state. Reporters Without Borders cites China as the primary jailer of journalists among member states of the UN. In the past several decades Beijing's Canadian proxies have directed Chinese-language media in Canada or bully them into submission.   

"If the Chinese police have the ability to request information from Canada in their ongoing investigations, it's very bad news."

"If we feel compelled to share information -- names and addresses or whatever -- we would simply be enabling China's transnational repression."

Charles Burton, former diplomat, China expert

China is the world's largest producer of EVs, accounting for over 70% of global production  Getty Images

"Prime Minister Carney can be pleased with the results of his first official visit to China. Through a temporary trade truce, and a list of political, economic and cultural MOUs, the federal government has effectively reset relations with China to where they were in 2016, before the arrest of Meng Wanzhou at the request of the first Trump administration."

"The headline announcement is a reduction of Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seed (from 85 to about 15 per cent) in exchange for a limited number of electric vehicle imports to Canada (49,000) per year at a 6.1 per cent tariff (Canada’s most-favoured nation rate). This outcome, and a one-year tariff reprieve on Canadian lobster and canola meal, will ease some farmer concerns in Western Canada." 

"Autoworkers, on the other hand, are expressing serious concerns about opening the door to Chinese EVs given the impact this has had on auto-producing European countries. “Lifting the surtax risks turning Canada into a dumping ground for China-owned companies at the expense of our domestic auto industry and the Canadian workers who rely on it,” said Unifor, the union which represents most Canadian auto workers, in a statement today."

"The EV tariffs were imposed in 2024 to harmonize with the Biden administration’s cold war–like position with respect to China’s industrial dominance in automotive, renewables and, increasingly, high tech production. The tariffs and Biden-era subsidies, including EV consumer rebates, prompted an inflow of investment into electric battery and vehicle manufacturing in North America. Many of these auto sector plans were reversed when Trump dismantled Biden’s attempt at a green industrial strategy."

"Removing the Canadian EV tariffs looks reasonable from the perspective of improving China relations, but it is a highly risky move absent a more elaborated industrial strategy for the automotive and other struggling manufacturing sectors."

"An official statement from the PMO says that Chinese investment in Canadian EV supply chains and renewable energy is part of the arrangement. But as Unifor points out, this investment is not guaranteed. The anticipated five-year timeframe for the importation of affordable (under $35,000) EVs from China, within the annual vehicle limits, coincides with the introduction of similar and similarly priced models by North American producers including Ford and General Motors but may still undermine the market share (and therefore jobs) of union-made vehicles."

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 

Protesters on a street in Tehran on 9 January  Getty Images

 

"[We witnessed] young people whose brains were smashed with live bullets, and a mom who was shot in the neck,her two small children were crying in the car, a child whose bladder, hip and rectum was crushed with a bullet."

"What I witnessed will forever haunt me. I feel guilty that I'm alive."

Isfahan MD

 

"Our statistics are based on the documentation standards of human rights organizations. They must either be confirmed by two independent sources, or our organization must have direct access to a very reliable source."

"Some of these statistics [Iran Human Rights estimates that there have been more than 25,000 deaths] include direct reports from victims as well as information from the medical field and reliable sources known to us." 

Norway-based Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam 

 

"[Around 7,000 serious eye injuries had been recorded in a specialized eye hospital in Tehran alone by January 16]."

"There are medical protocols in Iranian hospitals, and medical staff generally refrain from reporting cases that could later be used for criminal prosecution."

"We already observed this during the Mahsa movement. Fortunately, medical staff are siding with the protesters." 

Amir Mobarez Parasta, Iranian-German eye surgeon, head, Munich eye center

Tehran protests   Yalda Moaiery, Le Monde

 

Security forces in Tehran were known to have opened fire from the roof of a police station at protesters, firing live rounds into a crowded protest march, one person shot in the head. The protests, small in number at first when they began in late December, by early January the revolt by ordinary Iranians had become bloated with people, and then security forces began their deadly force. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by January 9 ordered the Supreme National Security Council to crush the protests using any means at their disposal. 

 

Videos that were slipped out to Western news sources despite the regime shutting down the internet and phone service show security forces firing on protesters in cities across the country in early January. Photos went into circulation of hundreds of victims of the violence taken to hospitals or to morgues. The official death toll is in the low thousands. Iran Human Rights, a group based in Norway monitoring the situation in Iran confirmed 3,400 have been killed, while the Human Rights Activists News Agency out of Washington identifies the death toll at 5,200. Both these groups warn the number could eventually rise two or three times higher. 

 

According to Iran's own National Security Council, 3,117 people have died, listing among them 427 of its security forces. Ayatollah Khamenei and other officials of his government place the blame on terrorist cells allied with Israel and the United States, both as vectors of the uprising and the violence that ensued. Gunmen and security forces are shown on videos riding in pairs on motorbikes, using firearms, batons and tear gas. This would be the feared and hated Basij, a volunteer militia linked to the Islamic Republican Guard Corps.

 

 

 

One video filmed in Tehran shows protesters sheltering from gunfire, and a voice is heard to say: "Put your phone down, they'll shoot your hand off. There's a sniper among them." One video filmed in Haft Howz Square, Tehran shows people running, and the sound of gunfire. Some of the protesters have leg wounds, leaving trails of blood as they flee, limping off. A video filming security forces firing from a rooftop in the Tehran Pars neighbourhood shows rifle muzzle blasts and the sound of hundreds of gunshots and automatic fire.

 

Hospitals across the country, swamped by thousands of injured people in Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Zanjan, led doctors and nurses to share what they witnessed, describing chaos, medical staff attempting frantically to save lives while their hospital whites became drenched in blood. Patients on benches and chairs and bare floors in the emergency rooms. Hospitals short of blood, searching for trauma and vascular surgeons. Their hospitals resembling a war zone. At the sprawling government medical facility of Shohada Tajrish Hospital, medical staff saw about 70 gunshot-wounded protesters every hour on January 9 and 10, the two days of peak violence. 

 

In scenes he described as 'terrifying' one doctor in Mashhad spoke of security forces appearing, and demanding access to patients so they could arrest them. Doctors resorted to setting up an ad hoc triage unit outside of the city for patients fearful of going to a hospital with their wounds. Most victims were shot in the upper torso, head and neck, and hundreds arrived dead or so terribly injured they succumbed to their wounds. 

 

Morgues were overwhelmed with bodies in black plastic bags. Corpses stacked in refrigerators, placed on floors with scattered row-on-row of bodies in parking lots and courtyards where family members searching for their loved ones would unzip bags hoping to recognize the familiar features of a son, a father, a daughter known to have been killed, so they could be buried with honour. "It's a line. A line of people, so they can pick up their deceased. The young people. Their apple of their eyes", one man said.

 

By January 12 the protests dwindled, people stayed in their homes as security forces prowled the streets.  

 

The killings that swept Iran last month revived memories of 1988, when the Islamic Republic erased thousands of political prisoners in silence   Lawdan Bazargan, Iran Insight

 

"Who chose Hamas? The majority chose Hamas."

"I said to myself, 'how can it be? On one side he [his grandfather] invites them [Jewish neighbours] for food and drink, and on the other he says to kill them'. From a young age I understood something is wrong."

"But I knew the [IDF] soldiers, and they'd given me candy sometimes. They don't have one eye in the forehead -- they aren't like that. The Jews who came to the market in Khan Younis to give us food aid didn't have one eye in the forehead. The Jews who came to the weddings of our neighbours didn't have three legs or one eye in the forehead."

Ayman Abu Soobuch, Arab Muslim from Khan Younis/Dor Shacher, Israeli Jewish convert

“I wanted to be a Jew because I chose life, I chose love and not hatred,” says Dor Shachar, who was born Ayman Abu Soobuch, a Muslim in Gaza. Photo by Dave Gordon

 

 Ayman Abu Soobuch was born in 1977 in Khan Younis, Gaza. As a boy an episode that he found incomprehensibly puzzling led him to question the prevailing attitudes he was exposed to with respect to the neighbours of the Palestinians in the adjoining state of Israel. His grandfather after cordially inviting Jews to his home to share his Palestinian hospitality, would then turn around and urge his grandson to eventually "free the land" by killing Jews. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is known to expose Palestinian children to school curricula, children's  television programs and social media to the glories of martyrdom, to aspire to jihad. 

 

Among the young boy's neighbours in Khan Younis were those who were to go on to distinguish themselves as fearsome terrorists dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish state and the murder of Jews, instilling the fear of  terrorism among a population they despised and as a death cult, conspired to murder. These were now-well-recognizable names like Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Ayyash the bombmaker. "I knew them well (as) community faces" as well as others comprising Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the PLO. 

 

He was aware that among his neighbours were those who killed; among them his own brothers taking the call to jihad seriously.  There was one occasion in the open market when he witnessed Sinwar decapitating a Palestinian man whom he had accused of collaborating with Israel, as a crowd looked on and cheered. On one occasion when he was with his mother at the market they came across a head lying in the street. "They said he was suspected of co-operating with Israel". Bystanders took no note of the grotesque scene, walking by unperturbed. 

 

In reminiscing about his early growing years in Khan Younis he recalled television programs for children urging them to "go and kill the Jews". Sheikhs in mosques shouting that the killing of Jews represented "the greatest commandment" as "Allah's will". UNRWA (the UN's United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) schools had very similar curricula informing students that Jews were "pigs dogs and infidels", undeserving of life, as monstrosities with three legs and a single eye in their forehead.  

"Every child learned how to throw stones at Jews because they teach it. The teacher would tell us to go out and throw stones, then come back and open books as though we were studying. When the soldiers came, they saw little children studying. After the soldiers left, the teachers laughed -- 'these pigs, these dogs, these betrayers, these Jews, we will slaughter theme like Hitler did."  

As for children's plays -- dressed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, young students would act out killing of Jews. In his teens he left Khan Younis and Gaza to live in Israel, serving as a security informant for Israel, warning when terrorist events were to take place. Still Israeli Jews suspected his motives and distrusted him, despite that one Jewish Israeli decided to mentor him. Suspicions led to arbitrary arrests and the bureaucracy's unwillingness to allow him to convert to Judaism.  

"Yes, it would have been easier not to be Jewish."

"Sometimes you feel hungry and you want to eat or you are thirsty and you feel thirsty and you want to drink -- it's what yo feel. That I am different: I am connected to the Jewish people."

"I wanted to be a Jew because I chose life. I chose love and not hatred. I chose love, not darkness." 

In making the decision to leave Islam and embrace Judaism knowing the cost -- that he would be viewed as a traitor and worse by his family from whom he had distanced himself; from his community, which he had rejected; from the culture in which he had been raised, which he found inhumane and rejected; he was alone, an apostate. He was also living illegally in Israel and in dire poverty. When authorities in Israel discovered his presence, he was returned to Gaza.

 

There he spent months in a Gaza prison, beaten, electric-shocked, psychologically abused, and starved. He eventually escaped Gaza through Egypt, went on to Turkey and finally re-entered Israel on a Palestinian Authority passport. At the time of the Oslo Accords -- now Dor Shachar, an Israeli Jewish convert taking on an Israeli name -- he expressed his belief that Oslo constituted "Israel's greatest mistake", convinced that the compromise evinced by the Palestinians had metastasized to Jihad. And indeed, one Intifada followed another and with them terror attacks.

 

When Israel took the unilateral step of leaving Gaza, uprooting thousands of Israelis, to leave the Strip in Palestinian hands, he was dismayed, forecasting what would occur, and what in fact, did happen, with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip from the PA in a wave of murderous assaults. His warnings to senior Israeli officials were ignored. When in 2006 Hamas was elected in a victory campaign and took up governance of Gaza he watched as cement  and iron meant for construction were waved through the border by Israeli guards, enabling an extensive tunnel network for weapons storage and terrorist-operatives haven. 

"Between Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Qassam Brigades, and any other terror group, and most Palestinians in Gaza, they share the same ideas about Jews."

"And they say, Hamas will raise our head, and they will rebuild Gaza again'."

"I will tell you what will happen in the West: the worst. Look what's happening in Europe. It will happen in Canada and America. You'll see chaos."

"In Canada, you can cry out in the streets -- and say to the prime minister, 'they go, or you go!"

"I walked in my truth in order to raise our children in shalom -- in peace -- to live."

Dor Shachar, Israeli-Arab Jew  

After the October 7, 2023 atrocities, as he saw Palestinian civilians joining the rampage of 6,000 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah overrun the kibbutzim in southern Israel, his misgivings went even deeper. His message too the West is that 'Allahu akbar' honours Islam. "The West doesn't want to believe it's a war of faith. People in the West are afraid, and they're nice about it, because they are afraid, or they don't want to accept reality. The Israeli army must control Gaza [to prevent additional October 7s.]"