The Friend of My Enemy is My Enemy

"[Russia is] an adversary for Israel -- it supports the radical axis that is fighting against us."

"[Moscow's role will grow in importance in the face the intensification of Israel's conflict with Iran and its proxy terrorist groups in the region."

Shay Har-Zvi, former acting director general, Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Israel

"Russia and Iran are closer than ever thanks to the war in Ukraine."

"The Russians could now supply them [Islamic Republic of Iran] with some very important technology that would represent a dramatic upgrade of Iranian capabilities."

Major General (Reserve) Amos Gilead, former top Israeli Defense Ministry official

Kremlin/AP

 

Prior to the October 7 atrocities committed in southern Israel by Gaza terrorist groups alongside Hamas and enthusiastically joined by ordinary Palestinian civilians that wreaked destructive havoc in Israeli border farming communities, leaving 1,200 Israelis butchered, women mass raped and mutilated, families burned to death in their homes, Israel and Russia enjoyed fairly amicable relations, if occasionally tension arose over nighttime aerial bombings of weapons depots in Syria.

That was when good personal relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin reigned, and Russia's muted approval of destroying Iranian weapons transferred through Syria to Lebanon for Hezbollah, one of Iran's acolyte death-cult militias allowed Israel to act without intervention by Russia protecting its relations with Syrian Present Bashar al-Assad, much less interfering with the presence of Russian warplanes busily aiding the Syrian regime in bombing Syrian Sunni dissidents.

 

Those close Israeli-Russian ties of convenience and good fellowship came to an abrupt halt with the Israel Defense Forces' invasion of Gaza to rout Hamas in a bid to destroy the Hamas infrastructure, the tunnel system, the weapons depots, the rocket launchers, all of which have been installed adjacent to or under hospitals, schools, mosques and civilian infrastructure. Israel no longer routinely alerts Moscow to its intentions to bomb areas of Syria, reflecting their frozen accord.

 

Iran's axis now includes Russia which of necessity precludes the continuation of relations with Israel. Russia is expanding its "mutually beneficial" military cooperation with Iran, a reality that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated when meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Reza Ashtiano in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana on Friday. 

 

The comfortable weapons exchanges between the two now reflects the distance that Moscow has placed between its interests and its interest in Israel. Where given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and altered allegiances, Israel's continued relations with Moscow were placed under great strain to begin with. Iran now produces a reliable source of deadly drones that Moscow uses in its attacks on Ukraine. The Moscow-Tehran defence accord comes at a time when Israel-Iran tensions have accelerated.

In exchange, Russia is providing sophisticated air defence systems and fighter jets to Iran. Courtesy of Moscow, Tehran is to be supplied with Sukhoi Su-35 fighter planes, set to bring Iran's decades-aged air force to a more technically advanced stage, as well as obtaining the S-400 sophisticated air defence system. Moscow is sharing its cyber warfare expertise and intelligence, as well as helping the Islamic Republic launch spy satellites.

Israel fired supersonic air-to-surface missiles damaging a Russian-made S-300 battery in an airbase near Isfahan, managing to defy Iran's air defences on April 19; a limited response to Tehran's massive missile and drone barrage that was meant to deluge Israeli airspace a week earlier. Following the Iranian April 13 missile strikes on Israel, its foreign ministry describing the attack as "self-defence", when after deadly airstrikes on Iran's Damascus diplomatic compound, Russia backed Tehran. 

The first delivery of Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft was received by Iran in September from Russia. Used to train pilots for the Su-35, the deputy Iranian defence minister revealed that arrangements for delivery of the fighter planes were finalized to replace Iran's outdated current warplanes fleet.

 

Maxim Shemetov/AP/File

Mr. Putin (right) greets Sara Netanyahu (left) as her husband, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looks on in the Kremlin, Jan. 30, 2020

"Relations with Israel have deteriorated, though both sides retain contact."

"[Ideally], Russia wants to maintain ties with Israel, while strengthening its strategic partnership with Tehran. A war between Israel and Iran would not be beneficial to Moscow."

"But Russia’s ability to influence events is quite limited. ... If it were to be drawn into such a conflict, it would divert significant resources from its operations in Ukraine."

Vladimir Sotnikov, IMEMO Center for International Security, Moscow

Enemy Archives -- Rewriting History the Ukrainian Nationalist Method

"It is very disappointing to see that some are willing to use this moment of great public support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression as an opportunity to rewrite Ukrainian history, and specifically to whitewash the involvement of Ukrainian nationals in the commission of genocide against Ukrainian Jewry."

"This book got a platform it never deserved given the outright misinformation it contains, and we are glad to see this problem being rectified as institutions take a closer look at the book and its dangerous and outrageous claims."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director, policy and advocacy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"The excerpt [published on February 9, 2023 from Enemy Archives] included a paragraph disputing the view that the Second World War era Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were Nazi collaborators."

"However, we recognize that this collaboration has been established by prior scholarship."

Rob Roberts, editor-in-chief, National Post 

"[Enemy Archives was rigorously examined before being released]. The path of Ukrainian nationalism and its intersections with Jewish history over the past century is often challenging and difficult to reconcile, with significant impacts on current political events in the region."

"There are inherent yet necessary risks in this area of study, and to participating in the contentious academic and public debates about how to tell these histories to advance understanding of both the past and present."

Lisa Quinn, executive director, McGill Queen's University Press

A monument to Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera, hailed as a national hero of Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine. Credit: Shutterstock.

 

The American Library Association, the largest library association in the world, in late January awarded a book, Enemy Archives, edited by Royal Military College professor Lubomyr Luciuk and Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, honours placing it on its list of the best historical materials for the years 2022 and 2023. It has now rescinded that award following criticism by Holocaust scholars who expressed grave concerns over the book's whitewashing of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during the Second World War.

"We apologize for the harm caused by the work's initial inclusion on the list. The committee will be reviewing the award manual and procedures", stated Jean Hodges, director of communications for the library association. For his part, Professor Luciuk responded to the pulling of the award by the library association as a "perplexing" decision; that the book should be read by those doubting its veracity to avoid "misrepresenting" its contents.

The book in question, Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement -- Selections from the Secret Police Archives, includes and discusses the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, along with addressing issues related to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army which many Ukrainians view with pride, believing those who were part of these organizations were heroes, fighting against the Soviets. 

 

Who were, at that period of history, part of the Allied Forces fighting Nazi Germany.

These are the same 'heroes' whom Holocaust scholars, Jewish groups and the government of Poland label Nazi collaborators, involved in the mass slaughter of up to 100,000 Poles and Jews during the Second World War. The Jewish News Syndicate news agency and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre took notice when an excerpt from Enemy Archives was published in the widely-read national newspaper, the National Post.

The book was published by McGill-Queen's University Press. "I am frankly surprised McGill Queen's Press [would] lend itself to this form of memory activism", commented Per Anders Rudling, professor at Sweden's Lund University in a statement he issued regarding the book. Professor Rudling has extensively studied the issue of Nazi collaborators.

Those who support the contents and assertions contained in the book focus attention and anger on  Lev Golinkin, a writer of Ukrainian Jewish heritage, blaming his intervention and influence for the decision the American Library Association reached to withdraw the award they honoured the book with. An April 10 article published in the U.S. publication, The Nation, saw Mr. Golinkin argue that the book whitewashed Nazi collaborators. 

 

Which led the Council of the Ukrainian Library Association to launch an appeal of the decision made by the American Library Association, claiming that Golinkin is simply backing pro-Russian propaganda. Golinkin, who has invested time and energy in anti-Russian protests.

A social media response to the situation where a Ukrainian commentator pointed out that Golinkin is a Jew and a parasite was re-posted by the book's co-author Volodymyr Viatrovych. Adolf Hitler was given to referring to Jews as parasites, justifying their annihilation by his state-inspired industrialization of genocide. 

 

Coincidentally that same social media account accused another Ukrainian Jew with a history of speaking out about the history of Nazi collaborators, of being a parasite as well. 

Get the picture?

Nazi Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler inspects the Ukrainian volunteer Galicia Division of the SS in May 1944. (Via the Polish National Digital Archives)

Final Show-Down Between Israel and Hezbollah?

"Hezbollah’s continued threats to target all of Israel with missiles show how egregiously the Iranian-backed terrorist group exploits Lebanon as a base for its illegal rocket arsenal."

"Hezbollah has stockpiled masses of rockets, armed drones, anti-tank missiles, and precision-guided munitions in recent years."

"Hezbollah has fired more than 2,000 rockets at Israel since it chose to back Hamas’s brutal attack in October."

"Hezbollah’s continued threats show that it is not deterred and is willing to risk catastrophic escalation in the region."

"The terrorist group must be deterred, and Israel should be supported in operations against Hezbollah."

Seth Franzman, ME Analyst, Journalist, Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies 

Screenshot of Hezbullah military exercise in southern Lebanon  (RT Arabic)

Cross border fire between Israeli forces and the Iranian proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon in almost daily exchanges dating from Israel's campaign against Hamas in October, have reached a pitch and plans are underway that this escalation of conflict will inevitably led to full-scale war between the two forces. Preparations on Israel's side include additional military exercises for ground, naval and aerial forces in the country's north, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

 

The IDF stated that area leaders with the IDF have been briefed "on the processes to accelerate readiness for continued fighting", while storage facilities are installed for the purpose of a quick and broad mobilization of IDF troops to the front lines.  About 40 targets linked to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon were struck by Israel this week, representing an escalation of hostilities following Hezbollah's deepest attack within Israel, the day before.

Active and frequent clashes have led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Lebanese border. Hezbollah is considered to be the most dangerous militia in the Middle East, in possession of 150,000 missiles and rockets, among them those with a long enough range to reach virtually anywhere in Israel. About 17,000 rockets, missiles and artillery shells have targeted Israel since October 7; that fateful day of the terrorist invasion of southern Israel with its savage outcome in the massive death count, mutilation, rape and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians.

 

Photo: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

 

Israel estimates a baseline scenario, should a fully fledged war erupt, of up to 5,000 missiles daily entering Israel from Lebanon, over and above several hundred fired by other Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The very volume of which could potentially test Israel's air defence systems to a breaking point, resulting in increased numbers of casualties. It is anticipated that Hezbollah would attempt to hit infrastructure facilities such as power plants and water pipes; sea ports airports and communication sites.

A situation that during wartime, would fully justify Israel striking deep enough into Lebanon to  hit major cities and their critical civil infrastructure; Beirut included. Israel developed a National Emergency Authority to coordinate its various agencies in government in preparation for a surprise attack; the blueprint known as "the compass", a classified document laying out Hezbollah's capabilities and the maximum harm that could result from an all-out war with Hezbollah.

 

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since 7 October [Getty]

American Universities Under Command of Palestinian Demands

"[Protesters over the weekend were] calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel [while some protesters shouting out antisemitic slurs were not students]."

"Jews are scared at Columbia. It's as simple as that."

"There's been so much vilification of Zionism, and it has spilled over into the vilification of Judaism."

Nicholas Baum, 19, Jewish freshman, Jewish Theological Seminary

"We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed", reported U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning who had visited Columbia along with three other Congressmen, as she spoke with reporters following her tour of the Morningside Heights campus. At Columbia University an email was forwarded to staff and students that many classes at its Morningside campus would be hybrid for the rest of the semester where possible.

Cal Poly Humboldt closes classes for rest of semester

 

"Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students' learning and all the required academic operations", the email explained. Facing intense scrutiny over whether they are seriously involved in protecting their students, faculty and staff against antisemitism since the deadly October 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel, college leaders also deal with criticism from others claiming students' right to speak is being denied, political protests being censored.

A New York University encampment was cleared by the NYPD as anti-Israel protesters continue their riotous protests and police across the United States are called in to deal with them. Students barricaded themselves within a building at California State Polytechnic University Humboldt, following dozens of arrests at Yale University, reflecting the surge in anti-Israel, 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrations getting out of hand and endangering Jewish students on campus with threats and isolation.

Students have set up encampments on university property, moving into tents as part of their dedication to protesting against Israel and for terrorism as a form of freedom and liberation from oppression. Students demonstrating that they can form opinions and mount protests without the least idea of what it is they are protesting. Called in by university administrators, police were busy clearing out the protesters only to have them return and once again set up their tents and encampments despite students and faculty members' arrests.

In desperation, universities locked down buildings so that "key cards will not work". People are urged to stay away from the "dangerous and volatile situation" at Siemens Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt, explaining they are "deeply concerned about the safety of the protesters", urging them to "listen to directives from law enforcement ... and to peacefully leave the building." Humboldt for Palestine posted that students had "taken" Siemens Hall, listing demands, including the university divesting from any associations with Israel.

"The barriers were breached by protesters, many of whom we believe were not affiliated with NYU [who exhibited] disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing behaviour [refusing to leave when told the protests would be disbanded. Assistance was then requested from the NYPD", explained NYU spokesman John Beckman adding that 'several antisemitic incidents' had been reported.

NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and his officers being chased and surrounded by protesters Monday night while trying to get inside the NYU Catholic Center after arresting one of them. Peter Hambrecht

Disrupting a Workplace Leads to Deserved Termination of Employment

"Google's aims are clear; the corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers and reassert its power over them."

"In its attempts to do so, Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over fifty of its own workers."

Jane Chung, spokeswoman, No Tech For Apartheid

"[We carefully confirmed that] every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings."

Google response 

A sign for Google Cloud offices is seen in Sunnyvale, California, U.S. on April 16, 2024.

Nathan Frandino/Reuters

 

The mystery here is that employees of Google and those purporting to represent their interests feel entitled to job security even while they engage in disruptive, company-harmful, and clearly political activities and although the company does not agree with their contentious demands and has repeatedly asked them to desist in their actions, also feel entitled to continue regardless. Imposing their views on the company despite their views running counter to Google's business interests and perhaps their sympathies. 

 

Private companies have every right to have on their workforce employees who value their jobs enough to respect the company they work for.

Chief executive Sundar Pichae informed Google employees through a company-wide memorandum that they should not use the company as a "personal platform" or "fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." In other words, a reasonable caution. Those who chose to ignore his instructions to employees made the choice between employment and job loss. And job loss is precisely what at least fifty people working for the giant company have experienced, deservedly.

At least twenty additional workers were fired by Google resulting from their protests over the technology being supplied to the Israeli government. That brings the total to date of terminated staff to over fifty. The latest episode of internal turmoil at the tech giant revolving around a $1.2-billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the government of Israel with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services for "Project Nimbus".

These were workers who felt justified by their personal moral compass to hold sit-in protests at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The response of the company when employees chose to ignore their requests to desist, was to call police who thereupon made appropriate arrests. Last week the company fired 30 workers and followed it up a day ago by firing "over 20" more staffers, "including non-participating bystanders during last week's protests", according to a spokesperson for No Tech For Apartheid.

Google's explanation was that additional workers were fired following its investigation that gathered details from co-workers who had been "physically disrupted", identifying employees who wore masks and failed to carry their staff badges, in an effort to shield their identities.

"This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." "[Google has a] duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally,"

"[Workers should put disruption aside and put the] mission first [at this critically important time]."

"When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that."

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai

A person rides past the Google sign outside the Google offices in Sunnyvale, Calif., on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Google has fired 28 employees who were involved in protests over the tech company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The workers held sit-ins at the company’s offices in California and New York over Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide custom tools for Israeli’s military. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Never Put Off Until Today What You Should have Said Yesterday

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

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

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

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Jews Under Violent Duress

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

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

Sandra Parker, chairwoman, Christians United for Israel

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

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

"We embrace Canadian values."

Ontario MPP Goldie Ghamari

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing to See Here, Folks

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

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

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

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

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

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

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

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

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

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

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee document

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

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

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

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

York University faculty committee, Department of Politics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Sending That Critical Message To Iran

"This is an opportunity to create a new American-led regional security alignment against Iran if we can take advantage of it."

"Who would ever have thought that we would be part of a coalition that included the United Kingdom and France and Jordan and maybe other Arab countries?"

Chuck Freilich, former deputy head, Israel National Security Council

 

"Our allies do not want us to go for an over-the-top response and we want to work with our allies, especially after the success we enjoyed with them."

"We don't have to have cause casualties, but it's important that we do respond, because it sends a message to all those who want to harm us."

Israeli official

 

"On different levels of intensity, Israel has been fighting Iran for years. It will not stop tomorrow or the next day. And it will not stop if Israel reacts right now."

"We cannot be confused here. Iran has escalated the war. But Israel needs to act smartly in order to strengthen the regional and global front against them."

Yair Golan, former deputy IDF chief of staff

Israel PM Netanyahu convenes war cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv

Israel's war cabinet has been deliberating to find a solution somewhere between its need to respond to Iran's blatant, potentially destructive act of war, and the urging to exercise restraint in its response, by its collegial supporters both in the West and in the Middle East. How to respond to the psychologically devastating aerial assault by the Islamic Republic and yet prevent distancing its international allies, thus squandering an opportunity for a much-needed strategic international alliance against Iran is the puzzler for wise minds to prevail.

 

The Israel Defense Forces has been tasked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide a schematic of target options in line with the government searching out options that would "send a message", yet not be the cause of mass casualties. Options such as a strike on a facility in Tehran, even a cyberattack of destructive importance. "Everyone agrees that Israel must respond. How to respond, when to respond, is the question", articulated an unnamed Israeli official, unauthorized to speak.

Limited material damage resulted from the five-hour aerial onslaught, repelled by an international alliance including the U.S., France and Britain, assisted by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; a model of coordination pitted against Iran, that analysts describe as an unprecedented strategic opportunity for Israel to be embraced by the international fold following frictions over its invasion of Gaza in its war against Hamas.

 

Israel's hugely successful air defences along with the allied response repelled the attack, enabling Israel to respond from a position of confidence while European leaders reiterated concerns relating to t he potential for a spiral in the regional security situation. "We are urging them as friends to think with head as well as heart, to be smart as well as tough, and to recognize that Iran suffered this defeat, because the attack was a failure", said British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. "The right thing to do is not to escalate."

 

Israel faces a multi-pronged challenge in that even if it struck Iran hard, it still must face Tehran's regional proxies, even aside from the looming reality of Iran's nuclear program. Israelis have experienced a shattering of their sense of security in the wake of the Hamas-led assault on October 7. The Israeli public breathed a sigh of relief after the intensity of Saturday/Sunday's extreme events, somewhat restored in their nation's success repelling the attack.  

"I think we did avoid something terrible Saturday night."

"It was like the world remembered that we are the ones under attack for a minute. I hope it changes something, I hope it ends the war."

"But I don't think anything can change until our hostages are back with their families."

Yosef Levy, student, Jerusalem

The Rise of Antisemitism in Canada

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Member of Parliament Kevin Vuong

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

Senate of Canada

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

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

Senator Leo Housakos