There are fundamental [emphasis original] historical truths, unalterable as long as Zionism is not fully realized. These are:

1) The pressure of the Exile, which continues to push the Jews with propulsive force towards the country
2) Palestine is grossly under populated. It contains vast colonization potential which the Arabs neither need nor are qualified (because of their lack of need) to exploit. There is no Arab immigration problem. There is no Arab exile. Arabs are not persecuted. They have a homeland, and it is vast.
3) The innovative talents of the Jews (a consequence of point 1 above), their ability to make the desert bloom, to create industry, to build an economy, to develop culture, to conquer the sea and space with the help of science and pioneering endeavor.

These three fundamental truths will be reinforced by the existence of a Jewish state in a part of the country, just as Zionism will be reinforced by every conquest, large or small, every school, every factory, every Jewish ship, etc.

Our ability to penetrate the country will increase if we have a state. Our strength vis-à-vis the Arabs will likewise increase. The possibilities for construction and multiplication will speedily expand. The greater the Jewish strength in the country, the more the Arabs will realize that it is neither beneficial nor possible for them to withstand us. On the contrary, it will be possible for the Arabs to benefit enormously from the Jews, not only materially but politically as well.

I do not dream of war nor do I like it. But I still believe, more than I did before the emergence of the possibility of a Jewish state, that once we are numerous and powerful in the country the Arabs will realize that it is better for them to become our allies.

They will derive benefits from our assistance if they, of their own free will, give us the opportunity to settle in all parts of the country. The Arabs have many countries that are under-populated, underdeveloped, and vulnerable, incapable with their own strength to stand up to their external enemies. Without France, Syria could not last for one day against an onslaught from Turkey. The same applies to Iraq and to the new [Palestinian] state [under the Peel plan]. All of these stand in need of the protection of France or Britain. This need for protection means subjugation and dependence on the other. But the Jews could be equal allies, real friends, not occupiers or tyrants over them.

Let us assume that the Negev will not be allotted to the Jewish state. In such event, the Negev will remain barren because the Arabs have neither the competence nor the need to develop it or make it prosper. They already have an abundance of deserts but not of manpower, financial resources, or creative initiative. It is very probable that they will agree that we undertake the development of the Negev and make it prosper in return for our financial, military, organizational, and scientific assistance. It is also possible that they will not agree. People don’t always behave according to logic, common sense, or their own practical advantage. Just as you yourself are sometimes split conflicted between your mind and your emotions, it is possible that the Arabs will follow the dictates of sterile nationalist emotions and tell us: “We want neither your honey nor your sting. We’d rather that the Negev remain barren than that Jews should inhabit it.” If this occurs, we will have to talk to them in a different language—and we will have a different language—but such a language will not be ours without a state. This is so because we can no longer tolerate that vast territories capable of absorbing tens of thousands of Jews should remain vacant, and that Jews cannot return to their homeland because the Arabs prefer that the place [the Negev] remains neither ours nor theirs. We must expel Arabs and take their place. Up to now, all our aspirations have been based on an assumption – one that has been vindicated throughout our activities in the country.

David Ben Gurion, in a letter to his son, October 5, 1937

David Ben Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel © GPO/Hans Pin

When, in 1947, the United Nations' Partition Plan offered the opportunity to form a state both to the Jews and to the Arabs living in Palestine, it was the Jews who, while disappointed that their entire ancestral land was not included, accepted that offer and declared their state in 1948, and the Arabs outright rejected their portion of the offer, making no secret of their aspirations that there be only one declared state, for the Arabs who thenceforth named themselves the only authentic 'Palestinians'.  

 

As history documents, some 750,000 Arabs fled the area that Israel declared its nascent state, urged mostly by surrounding Arab leaders, many by fear of an impending war, many more awaiting the war's outcome when they were promised by those same Arab leaders they could return to an Israel-free Palestine after its defeat by the combined Arab armies. When the five Arab countries declared war on Israel, thousands of Arabs were evicted by force among the total who fled. 

 

When Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon attacked the new Israel, they fought against a newly-established military with raw recruits with barely basic military training who were in the battle of their lives and that of their fledgling state. Miraculously, Israel prevailed, and the five Arab armies in their failure to prevail and destroy the Jewish state suffered the humiliation of the true 'Nakba'. The Palestinians who had fled gathered in refugee camps in those countries, none of which with the exception of Jordan offered them the legitimacy of citizenship.

 

For Israel on the other hand, the 150,000 Arabs who remained and who were given full citizenship in the Jewish State, to become a significant portion of the population, growing over the years to over two million, absorption was no problem. For Jews living in Arab lands, on the other hand, where they had lived for millennia under Arab rule, the creation of the State of Israel left 950,000 Jews at the mercy of Arab governments who confiscated their goods and properties and expelled them.

 

Israeli military commander arrive in East Jerusalem, after Israeli forces seized East Jerusalem, during the Six Day War 1967. Left to Right: Major General Rehavam 'Gandhi' Ze'evi, major general Avraham tamir, Major General Uzi Narkis, General Moshe Dayan and Lt. General Yitzhak Rabin. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

 

Israel was grateful to welcome these Sephardic Jews to join the mostly Ashkenazic Europeanized diaspora Jews forming the new state. Displaced Arabs and expelled Jews almost equal in number, both considered refugees, were viewed differently by the United Nations; the Arabs consoled and empathized with, and a special arm of the United Nations dedicated to their  welfare (UNRWA), while no mention, much less notice was made of the somewhat greater number of Jews externally displaced, left to their own survival devices.

 

Israel gathered 3.3 million Jews from 150 diaspora countries, from European Holocaust survivors to Jews out of the Soviet Union as well as Jews from ancient communities in Ethiopia and elsewhere. All the while, fending off one Arab military attack after another until the final 1973 attack spearheaded by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Judaic spiritual calendar. 

 

The Arab-Palestinian attacks against Jews that began in the 1930s, steadily escalated after 1948, to become constant terrorism. There is no other country in the world whose neighbours constantly spur themselves to unending terrorist attacks against an adjacent neighbour with ferocious intensity geared to mass slaughter. The focus of Arabs calling themselves Palestinians has never been to develop the institutions required for a functioning state; their economic survival was never in question, thanks to the United Nations and sympathetic Western benefactors.

Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General of the United Nations, meets with Yasser Arafat, Chairman of Palestine Liberation Organization, in Geneva. 27 June 1988. UN Photo.

 

Arab Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip have been patterned decade after decade by their leaders to dedicate themselves to the destruction of the Jewish state, with claims that it has been established on Arab-Palestinian-entitled land, not the ancestral homeland of indigenous Jews. Inculcating in the Palestinian Arab population the belief that there is no aspiration more sacred than that of a martyr, from children taught through school curricula and media promptings to honour those who have murdered Jews to the adults they become, proud of being part of a death cult.

 

The United Nations must take responsibility for the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in this Middle East contest between Jews and Arabs, but it has consistently favoured claims by the latter over the reality framing those by the former.  

"This wasn't the only thing that was bizarre about this hearing. Before it began, I, a videographer and another reporter waited in the hallway near the elevators and close to the courtroom, where signage expressly permits filming, hoping for an image of Akodad, who has no pictures online."

"A man approached and tried to tell us who we could film. When asked who he was,  he replied, 'Don't worry about who I am'."

"Later, I learned the man was El Amine Serhani, director of the Listening and Assistance Centre for Maghrebi People in Quebec. The same organization lists Akodad's lawyer Saaty as a 'citizen mentor' and his father Fouad Akodad as a 'human pillar'."

"All three were present in court. The scene grew even more bizarre when the court constable shook Serhani's hand after the hearing." 

Terry Newman, The National Post

The accused, Mohamed Ilyess Akodad, said he accepted a $15,000 contract to set fire to Congregation Beth Tikvah on Dec. 18, 2024. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)

 

On Thursday in a Montreal courtroom, Mohamed Ilyes Akodad, 21, appeared in court for his sentencing after having pleaded guilty to firebombing a synagogue and Jewish community centre. He had, he said, no idea that the two buildings had Jewish occupancy. He and his layer, Nazar Saaty, earnestly addressed the judge with the difficult-to-believe claim that Akodad was merely carrying out a business agreement, a paid contract for 'three barbecues' arranged through Signal and FaceTime for unknown locations.

 

The court was informed that the job accepted by Akodad presented when he attended a party with a friend that took place somewhere his memory failed him to identify, as a result of undue stress experienced at the time along with the desensitization of time and place due to drug use. The job for which he was to be paid a princely $15,000 entailed fire-bombing three locations. Duly early morning of December 18, 2024, Akodad smashed the windows of the Federation CJA's West Island offices in Dollard-des-Ormeaux with a hammer.

 

He followed that  up by crossing the street to Beth Tikvah synagogue to set a fire, located next to a Jewish day school awaiting the arrival of children that morning. About four months later he was arrested. While he asked for release at his first bail hearing a month later, he was denied bail, and has been in custody since that time. Pleading guilty to three of the six arson-related charges, along with the intentional or reckless damage caused by fire or explosion to property, mischief respecting property with a value exceeding $5000, and arson by negligence, the maximum sentences reflecting such offences are 14, 10 and 15 years respectively.

 

A firefighter on the scene after a firebomb was thrown at Congregation Beth Tikvah, Montreal, Dec. 18, 2024. (Credit: Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs)

 

That aside, following the hearing of last week, reporters were informed by Crown prosecutor Christopher Hadjis-Chartrand that a two-year prison sentence is sought by the Crown even as Akodad's lawyer has recommended a sentence of nine to 12 months under condition that his client enter therapy, perform community work and apologize to the community. The actual sentencing decision will not be delivered until September 10 when court reconvenes. However, taking into account time already served Akodad could be released that very day.

 

The court heard of the difficult childhood experienced by Akodad leading to low self-esteem and problems with drug addiction. There was also a complaint about "difficult conditions" his pre-trial detention had exposed him to, with limited family visits, placement with gang members, a situation  so very difficult for a man like Akodad who has been convicted of car thefts. That is another story, that criminal gangs pay young men willing to steal vehicles that are then shipped abroad with the profits realized used to buy and smuggle guns from the U.S. into Canada.

 

During his testimony, Akodad's mother wept while his father testifying in support of his son berated him in a demonstration that it could not possibly have been the way he was raised that turned him to crime. He had agreed to the offer by a stranger to commit to three criminal acts which, when videoed as proof that he had carried out the mission as per contract would net him $15,000. The 'three barbecues' mission did not go off directly as ordered, and in the end he was given a mere $2,500 for an incomplete job. 

 

Now, with Akodad claiming he had no idea that his targets had anything to do with the Jewish community, his lawyer argues the arsons were strictly a business proposition, his client earning a fee, and there was no hate motivation involved, and in the absence of proof beyond reasonable doubt, that the miscreant had any knowledge it was Jewish institutions he was to target -- for that, he should be granted "benefit of the doubt".

 

For his part, Crown prosecutor Hajis-Chartrand questioned the claims that Akodad was  unable to recall details of the events that occurred as a result of stress and drugs, suggesting he had been able to plan, recall details, carry out the acts and then film them as proof. Pressed whether he hadn't realized these were Jewish institutions Akodad lashed back that he "wasn't stupid" and could recognize what the Star of David represented. 

 

Cantor Henry Topas, centre, and Rabbi Emeritus Dr. Mordecai Zeitz, right, at the firebombed entrance to Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard-des-Ormeaux on Dec. 18, 2024. (John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette files)

 

"Despite acute fiscal and operational constraints, the Palestinian Authority continues to advance elements of a reform agenda focused on social protection, education sector adjustments, and improvements to transparency and service delivery."

"The prime minister [Mark Carney] welcomed the measures taken by the Palestinian Authority including efforts to reform social welfare, developing new education materials, drafting an interim constitution, and its intent to hold general and presidential elections." 

Jason Kung, Global Affairs Canada 

 

"With effort and great, almost impossible difficulty, we continue to provide this 60 percent rate of [PA] public employee salaries."

"We have not abandoned any Palestinian resident, whether they are prisoners or families of martyrs and wounded."

"This is a clear fundamental issue."

PA Finance Minister Estephen Salameh 

Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

 

"Resistance [is a Palestinian right and weapons an inseparable part of that -- Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim --] resistance."

"Earlier the spokesman for Hamas' military wing claimed that the demand to disarm was 'a scandalous attempt by the occupation to achieve through negotiations what it could not achieve on the battlefield'."

Meir Ben Shabbat, former Israeli national security adviser 

 

"These cases involved [Hamas] executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings and were framed by the perpetrators as punishments for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offences or affiliations with internal [Hamas] rivals." 

United Nations report

Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, March 20, 2026. ABDEL KAREEM HANA/AP

 

When Canada's prime minister Mark Carney, along with France, Spain and Ireland declared within the United Nations almost a year ago, their nations' formal recognition of a 'Palestinian' state, Mr. Carney accompanied his recognition with an urging caution to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the recognition would be  contingent on greater steps toward democracy; calling an election for one thing, since the last one took place in 2005 and Mr. Abbas's presidency has never since been challenged at the ballot box.

 

That recognition by Mr. Carney came in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by thousands of Palestinian terrorists and ordinary civilians led by the governing order of Gaza, Hamas, followed by Fatah (PA), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All of these groups terror proxies for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since that time, following the Israeli invasion of Gaza to fumigate the territory of terrorists and the peace agreement that followed, Hamas has been busy regrouping, rearming, recruiting.

 

As for the Palestinian Authority which had solemnly pledged to put a halt to 'Pay for Slay' where Palestinians who committed themselves to 'resisting the occupation' by committing acts of martyrdom through the murder of Israelis were guaranteed handsome financial rewards, has instead initially sought to alter the payment protocol to make it more opaque. While in fact continuing the rewards given to terrorists. As for the education curricula in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority and in the Gaza Strip under discredited UNRWA, it still reeks of the lionization of martyrdom.

 

 

A 2026 report from the U.S. Sate Department points out that despite the PA's Mahmoud Abbas promising the end of pay-for-slay, those dedicated payments continue, where the PA paid out $156 million the year before to Palestinian terrorists and their families. Generously funded by the international community for the welfare of the Palestinian population. In the report, the PA's finance minister was quoted having stated that the martyrs' fund remained operative. What was altered was "the mechanism" where funds were funnelled out.

 

In other words those former prisoners in Israeli jails who were released in exchange for freeing the 7 October hostages in the usual 100-to-one exchange were in line for massive payouts. As an example, two murderers and a bombmaker each accumulated PA payments of $354,000 since 2023, on top of which they receive a monthly additional $2,541, according to the State Department report. 

 

The 'Teach Palestine' curriculum ... Political Indoctrination Disguised as Education  StandWithUs

 

As for the reformed educational textbooks which Abbas pledged "modernization of the education sector, including the development of a curriculum that is free from incitement according to the UNESCO standards" in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, on closer examination is far from having been undertaken. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an NGO monitoring educational materials globally for hate and incitement to violence reported:

"The review finds that the 2025-2026 Palestinian Authority curriculum continues to systematically violate UNESCO principles and educational standards."

"Published in September 2025, the curriculum incites antisemitism and violence, promotes jihad and martyrdom, glorifies terrorism, rejects peacemaking and the two-state solution, and erases Israel from maps."

"It has not been substantively modified since the 2020-21 school year, maintaining the same ideological framework first established in the 2016 reform cycle." 

As for Gaza demilitarization, part of the framework of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire, Hamas has responded time and again by stating it has no intention of surrendering its weapons, and the reality is, it is busily rearming. According to Nathan Brown, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, Hamas not only refuses to disarm, the ceasefire has emboldened it.

"It now appears more able to operate above ground than it did before the plan", he wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, in an analysis.

 

A United Nations report documented executions by Hamas in Gaza, as well as mass killings and severe beating punishments. As for organizing presidential and general elections, the world is still waiting for the 2005 election to be repeated. 

 

The PA has failed to implement curriculum revisions amid donor demands, including changes affecting national identity content. (Photos: Wikimedia Commons. Design: PC)

 

"[That Bradford is to be included was a] weight off my shoulders."

"Bradford has evaded inquiries for many, many years and it's time that the full truth about what happened comes out."

"We need accountability. There's one thing prosecuting the persecutors of these crimes - that should have been a given - but the people who chose to go into safeguarding roles that made these decisions - that weren't just turning a blind eye to the children's abuse, but added and facilitated it."

Abuse survivor Fiona Goddard

 

"[I hope the inquiry will mean] no further inquiries into grooming gangs will ever be needed."

"These hearings will help us to establish what national institutions and services should have been doing to implement these findings and to protect children from abuse and harm - and what, if any, progress has been made in areas where investigations have taken place."

Baroness Anne Longfield CBE to head the Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs 

A case study in institutional failure    Photograph: Reuters

 

"The question for this inquiry will be why so many [recommendations from the reviews, reports and inquiries since the late 1990s] have not been implemented. And most importantly what will be different this time?"

"The inquiry has promised to put the voices of those who were abused and exploited at is heart. Many survivors speak of their deep distrust of those in authority, not just because of what happened at the time of their abuse, but also because of the lack of action over the longer term."

"Past reviews have found in some organisations and in some parts of the country an attitude that the exploitation of children by grooming gangs does not happen here."

"The challenge for the inquiry will be to ensure everyone remains alert to the possibility that this sort of abuse can and does happen anywhere."

BBC Social Affairs editor Alison Holt 

Reports focusing on U.K. rape gang victims chronicled acts of debased gang violence transcending rape alone. Rape including torture and mutilation with broken bottles pushed into vaginas, dousings with gasoline, stabbings, threats to family members seeking help, forced abortions. Nightmare scenarios of horrible abuse, targeting mostly British white girls. The situation of gang rape and no repercussions has been known for years. Known, but nothing done to stop the atrocities; no government figure, no police interventions.

 

As though these were mere rumours, not witnessed reports and documented events of assaults insulting of the most basic human rights. Appeals to government went to deaf, disinterested ears. Victims left to their own devices. Abusers assured that there would be no societal reprisals, no cost associated with the dread actions taken by gangs impervious to social decency, for the abusers. The victims left to live amongst their attackers, and vulnerable to ongoing atrocities.

 

They were left by an uncaring government to remain hostage to groomers and their legions of hangers-on. There was no lack of descriptive horrors experienced by helpless girls. Accounts by rape gang survivors that they were abandoned by police, social services, teachers, politicians at every level, and media. No one wanted to risk being labelled a racist. That this fear of appearing racist would dominate the emotional reaction normally expected to come to the rescue of vulnerable girls manipulated, violated, beaten, and left to recover until the next hellish episode is beyond belief.  

 

AP Photo/Jon Super

 

Rupert Lower, U.K. Parliamentarian of the Restore Britain political party released a 219-page Rape Gang Inquiry Report June 16 -- for the most part detailing witness testimony of survivors from working-class Muslim-majority jurisdictions. The long-term sex victimization by organized criminals, mature male adults as well as those in their teen years for whom preying on vulnerable white girls whose families lived among them in the areas became easy pickings.

 

The Lowe report pointed out among other issues that courts themselves bypassed justice for the victims. Defence arguments like that of one Somali defendant attesting that forced sex represented his "culture and tradition" and therefore justified a "cultural sensitivity" discount in sentencing to avoid "empowering the far right" or damaging "community cohesion" seemed to find favour with some judges sitting on rape crime trials. 

 

Under the leadership of now-outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer the Crown Prosecution Service, despite a case against a rape gang with copious evidence, dropped the case, leading the Greater Manchester Police to drop a wider investigation into regional rape gangs, thus extending freedom for a continuation of their odious operations preying on girls with no defense. 

 

According to an article by Dominic Adler, 25-year veteran of the Met's anticorruption command tasked with "sensitive investigation into police wrongdoing", the Independent Office for Police Conduct "tiptoed  around the heritage and religion of offenders. Two root problems for police inaction were cited in Adler's 2025 article on "Operation Linden"; "austerity-ravaged services ill equipped to deal with large-scale disorder", and "the politicisation of policing and its role in supporting state-mandated policy of multiculturalism". The scandal, he stated, is "the quintessence of two-tier policing". 

"There is a systematic pattern of behaviour not even from just one country, but from sub-communities within those countries."

"People with a particular background, particular class background, work background ... very, very poor sort of peasant background, very very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in, they're not necessarily first generation."

"[What struck was the apparent sense of impunity with which they operated, as opposed to the punishments they would supposedly face in their home countries]."

"There are some places where, when people behave in that way, a mob turns up and burns their homes down, and then they know that they can’t do that sort of thing."

Conservative  opposition leader Kemi Badenoch

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Kin Cheung/The AP

 

"[The U.S.-Iran agreement] rehabilitates Tehran's regime as a regional power."

"[The financial benefits that it could confer] will make Iran a greater monster than it was before."

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, Saudi journalist 

 

"It's left a big wound. It's going to take a long, long time to recover."

"We are terrified that this is going to be an ongoing war."

"[It feels like the Trump administration is looking at the Gulf] as an A.T.M. [and that] bothers a lot of people." 

Khalid Al-Jaber, head, Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Qatar research institute

A smoke plume rises from an ongoing fire near Dubai International Airport in Dubai on March 16, 2026. (AFP)

 

Interesting that this commentator writing out of Qatar fields a singular perspective without considering that Qatar itself has invested millions upon millions upon millions in the United States, as though its treasury was unlimited, in indebting U.S. colleges and universities, to the Middle East country for its generosity. And to believe that this is done simply for a love of America by an oil-rich Gulf state is to be naive beyond redemption. Qatar, in seeking influence for its 'philanthropy' in America does in fact, resemble an A.T.M. 

"Why has a country of just 330,000 citizens that is half the size of New Jersey and a leading patron of the Muslim Brotherhood plowed $400 billion dollars into the United States? This amounts to approximately $1.2 million per Qatari citizen — an enormous sum."

"Some Americans may welcome the generosity of the Qatari regime. After all, one could argue that a great many of these investments — spanning energy, defense, biotech and other important sectors — serve to benefit the U.S. economy and U.S. citizens. One could also argue that Qatar, like Japan, Canada, or other countries that sink billions in the United States, simply seeks return on investment."

"But Qatar is different. There are more than a few reasons to question the largesse of the Qatari government. At the end of the day, Qatar is ruled by an Islamist, autocratic regime; Freedom House consistently ranks the country as “Not Free” in its annual Freedom in the World survey. And Doha’s failure to guarantee the rights of its citizens is not the biggest problem."

"Rather, it is the country’s tendency to support jihadi causes in the Middle East that raises significantly more concern. The country’s horrific track record in this regard distinguishes Qatar from other Gulf states that spread their wealth in America."

Jonathan Schantzer, Foundation for Defense of Democracies  

That little quibble dispensed with, one can indeed feel a level of sympathy for the newly-occurring plight of wealthy Gulf Arab nations, witnessing and experiencing a regional war too close to home for comfort.

Few countries in the Middle East view the Islamic Republic of Iran through a lens of tender brotherhood. Those that do stand out from say, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Qatar and Oman, on the other hand, have a pronounced soft spot for the truculent totalitarian Islamist government that the entire Middle East views as a threat to peace and stability. 

 

A building damaged in a reported Iranian drone strike, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Seef, Manama, Bahrain, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)

 

In the region most exposed to Iran's firepower, suddenly normality has been upended. The violence of Iran's chastising its near neighbours for accepting American bases on their soil, expressed by Iran's disruptive drone and missile attacks has disabused its neighbours of the attitude that this is Israel's and the United States' conflict with Iran, nothing to do with them, even  while they have been hoping that the Iranian regime would fall and relieve the regional tension and threats emanating from Iran with a changeover to a new, non-threatening regime.

 

And to further compound matters, the economic hits courtesy of Iran's closing of the Strait of Hormuz, the main international waterway for exporting oil, fertilizer, LNG and other products globally has been deliberately constrained creating an economic dilemma of no mean proportions. American bases on Kuwaiti soil, UAE and Saudi Arabian soil and elsewhere made them surprised sitting ducks for Iranian blowback. Suddenly the Gulf countries realize that despite their enormous oil wealth their defense capabilities are minimal, necessitating an upsurge on spending for military hardware and defense.

 

Iran has attacked Gulf states in retaliation for Israeli and US bombing on its country AFP via Getty Images

 

No other course of action is feasible with Dubai and Doha having suffered immense missile hits leaving their luxury towers smoldering. Incoming missile alerts have introduced a new, unwelcome reality to Iran's neighbours, suddenly vulnerable to unexpected attack. The Emirates were forced to close their schools for weeks, while foreign residents fled. Interception of most of the thousands of missiles and drones out of Iran succeeded in keeping damage and lives lost to a relative minimum, but no country and no population appreciates living with this level of uncertainty.

 

Each of the targeted countries went their own way, there was no unified reaction. Qatar as usual presented itself as a key mediator between the United States and Iran, alongside Pakistan for the same purpose...supporting Iran and convincing the U.S. that a ceasefire is infinitely preferential to ongoing kinetic hostilities, punishing to the Gulf States and placing U.S. servicemen in ongoing danger. 

 

Negotiations amidst the uncertainty and tension have led the Emirates to strengthen alliances with both the United Sates and Israel. A pre-conflict rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia has seen the Saudis keeping options open; maintaining channels with Iran, while attempting to influence American decision-making. Attesting to the medieval-era relational strains, Saudi Arabia and Iran are at loggerheads over Mecca, and the threat posed by Iran toward Saudi Arabia historically seems to have petered out for the present.

 

Gulf nations are now busy planning how best to proceed with uninterrupted passage of oil, food and other goods shipped out of the Middle East to global destinations. A new strategy of "zero Hormuz dependency" has persuaded the Emiratis to expand its ports outside the critical Strait susceptible to further closures by Iran, and to build oil pipelines and railways. Oman with its ports on the Arabian Sea far from the Strait is now seen as a crucial logistics hub trucking goods overland for its neighbours. 

 

Qatar has become one of the biggest exporters of natural gas  AFP via Getty Images

 

"Engagement is not endorsement. Having an embassy, having consular services in a country does not mean we endorse the policies of that country."

"There are a series of countries with whom we have not seen eye to eye, to put it mildly, where we do not have representation. Iran, Venezuela [are] two examples. There are others."

"That puts us at a disadvantage, first and foremost, to helping Canadians that are in these countries."

"[In some consular cases Ottawa has leaned on countries that] aren't our natural allies [to help Canadians leave Iran]."

Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[The government is looking at alternative options to improve consular services for Canadians in countries like Iran]."

"We've taken no decisions, but we are looking at how best to serve Canadians, not only within this country, but internationally and that will be a process that occurs over the next number of months."

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand 

 

"Nothing about the regime has changed."

"The problem that Canada has with this regime goes much deeper [than geopolitics]."

"This is a regime responsible for flagrant human rights violations, and this is a regime with which normalizing relations may not be possible."

Masoud Zamani, lecturer in international relations, University of British Columbia

 

"[Reopening an embassy in Tehran could be part of a broader restoration of diplomatic relations, which could allow Iran to re-establish an official diplomatic presence in Canada]."

"What they want is a political footprint here in Canada through an embassy. I don’t know if we gain anything by allowing them to do that.  I don’t think that there is a real intention to do that."

"This issue of inconsistency in the positions adopted by the prime minister is itself quite a serious matter."

Kaveh Shahrooz, senior fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Protests erupted in Iran on 28 December 2025. People across the country, outraged at decades of repression, were demanding fundamental change and a political system that respects human rights and dignity. Iranian authorities have responded with an unprecedented deadly crackdown. Security forces have used unlawful force, firearms and other prohibited weapons, against protesters, which resulted in mass killings and serious injuries. Amnesty International

 

 Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded to the Islamic Republic's well-known abuse of human rights in Iran, and the regime's role as the foremost sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East by shutting down the Iranian Embassy and Consulate in Toronto, and withdrawing Canadian diplomats from the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 2012. Then-Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird declared the Iranian legation persona-non-grata in no uncertain terms. "Canada is committed to fighting global terrorism and to holding perpetrators of terrorism — and those who provide them support — accountable for their actions. Iran is among the world's worst violators of human rights. It shelters and materially supports terrorist groups."

 

When Mr. Harper left office and PM Justin Trudeau became prime minister, he mused about re-opening relations with Iran, despite that nothing had changed in the Islamic Republic's favour; it remained the stridently repressive government in Tehran, suppressing its public and enforcing strict totalitarian Sharia government, while its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps kept order along with its Basij branch, and its al-Quds arm continued training, funding and arming terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

 

Fast forward to the courage displayed by mostly young Iranians who spontaneously began to mount protests against the regime in December of 2025, demanding that it step down from office. Before long the protests spread from the capital to other areas of the country, with greater participation from the regime-hating population. The initial crowd-control protocols soon gave way to violence in the IRGC and Basij and national police responses, when live firearms were increasingly used to 'restore order'. In the end, an estimated 30,000 Iranian protesters were killed and many thousands arrested and tortured for their insubordination. 

 

Protests were also reported in several other provinces, including Kermanshah - Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Image

 

More latterly, with current prime minister Mark Carney musing publicly that Canada should consider reopening an embassy in the Islamic Republic for the sake of 'engagement' seems a stretch too far, even for him; restoring relations with the largest state sponsor of terrorism in a Canada that has become progressively less wedded to its traditional values of democracy, rule of law, public security, equal support for all its ethnic groups within its great ongoing experiment of multiculturalism and prepared to jettison its respect and support for the Jewish-Canadian community while sanctioning the viral antisemitism, anti-Israel fulminations of the now-more-populous Muslim-Canadian community.

 

The speedy, sudden growth of the latter demographic itself a product of Liberal-progressive permissiveness that has led to societal division, cultural-religious antagonism and public displays of illegal threats by one group against another which politicians and government institutions appear not to notice is fraying the mantle of multiculturalism held so dear by government that groups living in silos opt out of the normal social contract in the belief that cultural-traditional mores of racist invective are perfectly normal in a democratic society

 

Men stand amid rows of corpses in a morgue in Tehran following mass killings of protestors by security forces in this undated image obtained by Iran International

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran stands alone in financing terrorist groups whose oft-stated raison d'etre is the destruction of the State of Israel. This doesn't trouble the Liberal government of Canada, but understandably it does the Jews of Canada. All the more so that they are made victims of this new lashback of anti-Zionism/antisemitism that appears not to trouble mainstream Canada, much less academia and unions in Canada, all complicit with Palestinian student groups inciting hate against other Canadians.

 

Among other minorities, Canada has a substantial number of Iranian-Canadians within the population, many of whom arrived as new immigrants to Canada shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution. To these Canadians of Iranian birth, Canada has become a haven, but it is also more latterly, a country which, although it has placed the IRGC on a terrorist list, permits members of the IRGC and their families to enter Canada at will, to live or vacation there, while supporting the Islamic Republic. Their presence in Canada threatens the well-being of anti-regime Iranian-Canadians. This government is not interested.

 

It has been revealed that more than 700 IRGC members ore operatives are in residence in Canada. How they were able to enter, and how they are entitled to be resident in Canada is the Liberal government's little mystery, not to be shared to the public.  Who might ever have imagined that Canada has anything in common with a country governed by human-rights-abusing, terrorism-enabling, peaceful population protesting slaughterers?  

 

 

"Prime Minister, there’s a fine line between engaging the Iranian regime to further our interests - which you already have the tools to do under Canada’s controlled engagement policy, versus opening a mission, conferring legitimacy on a regime that brutally murdered more than 30,000 people just months ago. And a regime Canada has rightly designated a supporter of terrorism."

"If the clerical military dictatorship wants more structured engagement, it should take demonstrable steps towards earning that. Like actually divesting the uranium it enriched for warheads it continues to produce, ending its terror network also operating in Canada, and ending the repression of its own people."

"Having any Iranian presence in Canada would be a national security threat. Period."

Shuv Majumdar, Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage  

 

"For the past several days, our reporters and several of Gaza’s most prominent anti-Hamas activists have been subjected to an intense campaign of surveillance and intimidation by Hamas." 

"And we’re hearing about many activists who have been effectively placed under house arrest by Hamas. They’ve made it clear their number one goal is to prevent any anti-Hamas demonstrations from taking place in Gaza."

"What the world doesn't really know, is that there is a strong opposition movement inside Gaza today that's developing against Hamas."

"A lot of people are fed up from the war, fed up from Hamas's wrong choices, and they want to protest [demanding that Hamas disarm, and leave the Strip] in order to stop the war, to stop the Israeli attacks, and to rebuild Gaza."

"[At least half of Gazans want Hamas out], so they  can get a better future, a better life. [The same number were in retrospect] unhappy with the October 7 attacks." 

Hadeel Oueiss, editor-in-chief, Jusoor News 

 

"Hamas was much better prepared than we were [they were tipped off]."

"[Hamas has] the weapons, the force and the means to intimidate people. They threatened families and reportedly paid money to influential clan leaders to publicly announce that they would disown any family member who participated in t he demonstration."

"[The opposition movement wants Hamas to disarm] so that reconstruction can begin ... [and] living conditions can improve."

Mohammad Hussein Lafi, protest organizer 

Members of Hamas cracking down on Gazans. Photo: Screenshot from X account of Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib

 

"The situation in Gaza is very difficult. They are kidnapping people and threatening people. The level of terror is high."

"There are fatwas calling for killing and fatwas declaring people infidels in the mosques, and calls saying the protest movement has been postponed."

"Things are very difficult. Since the morning, they’ve been arresting people and kidnapping people from the streets. Things are very bad."

Name withheld by request 

 

"[Hospitals across Gaza had been turned into] makeshift police stations, interrogation sites, and torture centers."

"Families are being threatened, people placed under house arrest, and Hamas’s al-Qassam brigades [the forces responsible for October 7] have been fully mobilized to reinforce police and intelligence units with explicit shoot-to-kill order."

"[The mainstream media has failed to report on the campaign] apparently because Israel is not involved – so no Jews, no news."

"This is what the abandonment of Palestinians in Gaza looks like. Shame on all who stay silent in the face of jihadi, ISIS-like violence against the very people they claim to champion."

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, humanitarian activist originally from Gaza, now living in the U.S.

 

"The fact that organizers announced the protest weeks in advance made it easier for Hamas to prepare, intimidate people, pressure families, and silence the movement before it reached the streets."

"In Gaza, protest movements have often been more successful when they were organized quietly and appeared suddenly."

"This time, the early announcement gave Hamas the time and pretext to suppress it."

Ahed al-Hendi, senior fellow, Center for Peace Communications  

To all Western media, including pro-Palestine outlets: right now, thousands of Palestinian civilians are taking part in massive anti-Hamas protests across the Gaza Strip. Stand with them. Carry their voices. Don't abandon them. Ihab Hassan 

 

Hadeel Oueis, a U.S.-Syrian-based journalist, editor of Arabic-language Jusoor News reporting on Middle East news, has been informed by many dissidents in Gaza through phone interviews that the mass protest dubbed "Day of Rage" scheduled to take place on June 26, with the demand that Hamas disarm and step down, had their plans crushed before they even took to the streets. Although smaller protests elsewhere proceeded in some areas, organizers were warned by the terror group that anyone among the would-be demonstrators attempting to join would be subject to violent reprisals. 

 

One of the protest group's organizers, Mohammad Hussein Lafi described his arrival at a designated gathering point in central Gaza: it was already filled with Hamas security forces openly displaying their weapons. He was informed that cellphones had been confiscated from anyone suspected of being part of the protest movement; some among them physically assaulted and detained. A year earlier Lafi, a graduate of the Faculty of Physical Education at Gaza's Aqsa University, was arrested by Hamas accused of speaking out against the October 7 attacks among his friends.

 

He was "severely beaten and tortured during detention", which convinced him that an end must come for Hamas's rule in Gaza. With the scheduled protest deferred due to threats, a more discreet 'soft protest' took place on Friday at 10:00 p.m. that saw Gazans banging pots and pans, and whistling for an hour from within displacement camps and tents in response to an online call by organizers. An ad hoc demonstration the following day independent of organized plans took place by others.  

 

A funeral procession nearby planned protest sites took place with mourners carrying signs reading "God willing, Hamas out", "We are not pawns", and chants of "enough with the destruction" also took place. Hamas, according to Mustafa Asfour, a Gaza activist living in the U.K. for four years and one of the June 26 demonstration organizers, "launched a media campaign to discredit the movement, accusing it of betrayal and targeting anyone" participating. 

 

In the days leading up to the planned protest, Hamas pressured prominent families "to hold press conferences denouncing the June 26 movement"'; pro Hamas media then circulated statements presuming to be the names of major clans with the claims they opposed the protests. "Many of these families later issued official statements saying they had never released such declarations and rejecting the statements attributed to them", explained Mustafa Asfour. Threatening phone calls were received by families with warnings not to allow their children to participate, and displaced people were informed anyone who joined the protests would b e expelled from the camps.

 

NGO silence, argued Asfour, has emboldened Hamas. He and others had reached out, he explained, to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, drawing their attention to the planned protests, warning against repression. Their efforts bore no fruit. Other than for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, no response was ever received, but the Center's response was four lines to say the "matter raised by you is under follow-up"; a stock, non-committal response. 

 

Ms. Oueis accuses Hamas of making everyday life for Gazans miserable through aid diversion, heavy taxation and a harsh crackdown on dissent. In "The worst days of hunger and lack of food in Gaza", she said, residents were interviewed who alleged that Hamas "Hijacked every truck that came with food to Gaza, stored it in its own storage, stole this aid that's coming from international organizations, and kept it." The aid was handed out selectively "only to their soldiers", and pro-Hamas communities; those lacking a fighter in the family "won't get aid".

 

Hamas "captured and arrested" close to 200 activists and dissidents since the start of the ceasefire last fall, many accused of collaborating with Israel; some tortured to death. One of Jusoor's reporters was arrested, beaten "very badly and left unable to walk. He's paralyzed because he made this coverage, anti-Hamas coverage from Gaza", emphasized Ms. Oueis. Her reporting team interviewed Gazans who were tortured for posting criticism of Hamas on Facebook.  

 

Palestinian Hamas stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 22, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

  

"Most of the Islamists of Gaza are pro-Hamas. Many deeply religious Muslims [are among those calling for change], a lot of the people who are going to protest and taking initiative in spreading the word against Hamas are religious Muslims [who reject Islamist politics."

"[Some Gazans openly argue that] It's time to stop the wars between Israel and Palestinians, and it's time to have peace with Israel." 

Hadeel Oueiss, Jusoor News

 

"[My motivation for helping with demonstrations is the] belief that civilians in Gaza have the right to express their voices peacefully, and to demand dignity, safety, and a better future."

"[The world should know that they demand] accountability, and the right of people to have a voice in decisions affecting their lives."

"I lost my home during the war, like many other families in Gaza. My experience, like many Palestinians here, has been shaped by years of difficult circumstances, but also by a strong sense of community and the desire to build a better future."

Kareem Joudeh, 30, formerly of northern Gaza, displaced to central Gaza, working with World Central Kitchen 

Hamas stand guard on the day of the release of Keith Siegel, a US-Israeli dual national hostage held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem