Justin Trudeau's Truce With Hamas

"In addition to the other calls worldwide demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip -- the last of which was a statement by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand backing [a] sustainable ceasefire in Gaza -- we welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally and ending the longest ever occupation in our modern time."

"Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished."

"We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again."

Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas leader

Leaflets are dropped by the Israeli army over Gaza City telling people to evacuate the area on Nov. 16, 2023.  Jack Guez—AFP/Getty Images

The aspiration may be to 'do this again and again' but there are clear signs that there will no longer be a Hamas presence to fulfill that goal, even though there are no guarantees that the gap in their presence will not be filled by yet another terrorist group to commit themselves to the total annihilation of Israel on its ancestral soil. The nature of humanity deplores a vacuum in its eternal commitment to chaos and disaster. What does seem inevitable from the never-ending assaults that have taken place over several generations is the emergence of such groups for whom the presence of the Jewish state is an abomination.

These Islamofascists with rare exception, are viewed as a threat by Arab, Muslim leaders, for their volatility, their love of violence and murder and determination to Islamic literalism in jihad and conquest that views Arab/Muslim states that accommodate themselves to amicable relations with non-Muslim countries and specifically the West, as traitors to Islam, and target them accordingly. Yet though the terror groups are feared, deplored and outlawed in most of the Middle East, the West, despite attacks on Western soil, finds them less alarming, almost manageable.

There seems to be a degree of tolerance among Western leaders for the nuisance of Islamofascism that they deal with themselves, once a core group of numbers has been established following years of threat-oblivious immigration and refugee intake. Western nations have nurtured the generous view that the presence of Muslims in large numbers can be tolerated, and presumably that exposure to Western values will turn them away from tribalism, sectarianism and violence. However, since Islam as a way of life and politics, not just religion, inspires the faithful to reject non-Muslim laws, justice and values Muslims have demonstrated themselves to be largely immune to democratization, tolerance for others and integration. 

Canada has traditionally in the past honoured a policy of support for Israel at the United Nations, where the Jewish state, unlike any other member of that global institution, comes under criticism from its member bodies to a degree unseen for other nations, and where human-rights-abusing nations have the freedom to charge Israel with the abuses that they themselves carry out, which Israel does not. There are more resolutions shaming Israel in the United Nations than any other nation, and the entire body is complicit with few exceptions.

New Zealand, Australia and Canada had issued a joint statement in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, which plays right into the hands of Hamas. And Hamas was accordingly grateful. Now that's a feather in the cap of three democratic nations whose liberalism the terrorist group applauds for having bought, hook, line and sinker, the anti-Israel propaganda propagated for that very purpose; portraying Israel bent on Palestinian genocide while Hamas pursues its goal of actual genocide against Israel and Jews.

Coincidentally on the very day that Hamas issued its appreciation via a social media video to proclaim Canada complicit in the Hamas goal of exterminating Israel, Canada voted for a resolution calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire" at the UN General Assembly. Which is called in Arabic military circles a 'hudna', where a 'breathing space' to enable a rest, a restocking of arms, a reevaluation of goals and means of achieving victory can take place, a restorative for resuming the conflict. Interrupting, in other words, the Israeli military's momentum in its goal of destroying Hamas's capability.

Appeasing terrorism appears to reflect prime minister Justin Trudeau's view of the appropriate response to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, which Hamas deliberately precipitated by breaking a truce on October 7 and inflicting on Israeli civilians a bleak nightmare of mass murder, rape, mutilation, pillage, destruction and hostage taking in a complete abandonment of human conscience. The Trudeau government, thanks to its open immigration and refugee-intake policy, has an over-representation of Muslims in its Liberal caucus. And Trudeau has his eye on the vote from among Canadian Muslims.

Aerial view of the complex housing the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City in the blast aftermath. AFP/Getty Images

 

Mr. Trudeau is ultra cognizant of the voting bloc represented by the considerable number of Muslims now in Canada, as opposed to the much smaller Jewish vote which tended historically to vote Liberal. Canada has never been anti-Israel, but under this administration a clear anti-Israel bias has been revealed. Earlier in the conflict when Hamas claimed Israel had bombed the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City killing 500, Trudeau responded with "The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable. International humanitarian and international law needs to be respected in this, and in all cases".

When Canada's own head of the Canadian military soon afterward confirmed that Israel had nothing to do with bombing the hospital and that in fact it was the hospital parking lot not the hospital which had sustained a hit from a rocket launched nearby meant to hit Israel which had misfired, neither Trudeau nor his foreign minister acknowledged that. Foreign minister Melanie Joly had herself stated: "Bombing a hospital is an unthinkable act, and there is no doubt that doing so is absolutely illegal"; despite that Israel had denied any culpability, both chose to accept the word of a terrorist group.

Human Rights Watch added that of the reported 500 deaths, the body count "appears out of proportion with the damage visible on site". A reporter recently enquired of Joly whether Canada's position on a ceasefire had changed "because you're losing Muslim support and donors in Canada?" She chose to prevaricate, avoiding a response. What is clear is that Canada has no wish to clearly and unequivocally support Israel's right under international, much less moral law to respond to protect its citizens from a flagrant violation of human rights.

The situation for Jews in Canada has grown alarmingly fraught. A steep rise in antisemitism has been accelerated and exacerbated by the outcome of the October 7 invasion by Hamas into southern Israel. The war in Gaza has seen huge crowds of pro-Palestinian supporters march in defense of Gaza, celebrating Hamas's atrocities as a wholly acceptable response to the 'occupation' of an embattled people, when the 'occupation' has been necessitated by Israelis being embattled by continual deadly assaults by Palestinians.

It seems clear now that the Trudeau administration has made their choice, to abandon Canada's traditional role alongside that of civilized countries, and to instead support the actions of a terrorist group that Canada itself has placed on its terror list. Instead, this government has led Canada to approve of the Hamas statement that: "We will only discuss the [Israeli] captives and conclude prisoner exchange agreements after a complete cessation of Israeli aggression and a ceasefire". And that is where Canada stands, complicitly appeasing of terrorism.

Israeli soldiers show the media an underground tunnel found underneath Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023.  Victor R. Caivano—AP