Wildfires Sweep Across Canada From East to West

"Unless we get one heck of a boost, it's projected to take chunks out of our town and surrounding areas. It's looking very ugly right now."

"We're begging for air support [to  help douse the fire]. It's really crucial."

Mayor of Flin Flon, Manitoba, George Fontaine

 

"It's a very serious situation that we're faced with. We do need some rainfall."

"We need that sooner rather than later, and in light of that not being in the forecast, we most certainly are putting in place every measure possible to prepare the province." 

"Resources are stretched thin because of the severity of the situation that we're facing and the intensity and the proximity of the fires."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe 

 

"My husband was trapped on the other side of the barricade with no pills, no food, no nothing. They wouldn't let him come to me to evacuate," 

"[Reunited], we're trying to register with Saskatchewan Red Cross; I've tried numerous times."

"Worse happens, we're sleeping in the car. We'll just keep traveling from town to town to town to town till hopefully we find something."

Sandy Oosterlaken, evacuated from Denare Beach   

A wildfire in the Sherridon, Man. area is shown in a government handout photo on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Manitoba Government

 

Fierce, shifting winds threatened to propel a nearby raging wildfire into the city of Flin Flon, Manitoba where buildings, both homes and civil infrastructure would be vulnerable to the flames. The municipality 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg served notice to its 5,000 residents to begin emergency evacuation. A wildfire that had started over the boundary in neighbouring Saskatchewan had swiftly reached Flin Flon's northern perimeter.

 

Another thousand people are resident in cottages and homes surrounding Flin Flon. All remaining residents were directed by the city to leave before noon on Friday. Buses were driving those who don't have shelter, to Manitoba's capital city, Winnipeg. A total of 17,000 residents in Manitoba have been forced to leave their towns and homes in the last several days. 

 

Small communities and towns stretching from northern Ontario to British Columbia -- Canada's east-to-west geographic arc -- face an early fire season whipping through forests. From a blaze that started Monday near Creighton, Saskatchewan, after jumping the boundary into Manitoba and menacing Flin Flon, the wildfire has grown to 40 square kilometres, with firefighting crews struggling to contain it. As a result of heavy smoke and a drone incursion, water bombers were grounded intermittently.  

 

A wildfire that broke out across the North Saskatchewan River, in Parkland County, on May 8. (Noam Olsson photos) Photo by HO /THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

Residents of Creighton, 1,200 in number, have been ordered out of the range of the wildfire. Over 4,000 people have fled wildfires raging in Saskatchewan, under a province-wide state of emergency. Alberta, which in recent years has suffered immense wldfire damage, this year has fared comparatively better. Northwest of Edmonton, however, the 1,300 residents of Swan Hills have been ordered to evacuate, along with the 900 residents of Chateh in Alberta's northwestern corner.

 

In Chipewyan Lake, about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton, a crew of eight firefighters were temporarily trapped overnight but finally were able to drive their way out to safety. A wildfire in British Columbia that prompted an evacuation order Thursday, quadrupled in size overnight while firefighters prepared for "intensifying conditions" in the parched northeast of the province where the concentration of most fire activity is located. 

 

The blaze "displaying aggressive fire behaviour" in the Peace River Regional District near the community of Kelly Lake was about 46 square kilometres in size Friday, substantially larger from the 11 square kilometres it registered the day before, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.   

 

Military aircraft and helicopters are being used to evacuate residents in Manitoba from fast-moving wildfires    EPA

 

British Columbia has about 60 wildfires ongoing at the present time, 34 of which are classified as burning out of control. According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, 18 percent of the active fires were human caused, 77 percent started by lightning taking advantage of the drought situation and tinder-dry forests, and five percent of unknown causes.  

"It's been another challenging day here in Manitoba."

"[Firefighters were using] water bombers flying overhead [and] helicopters dropping buckets of water."

"But at the same time, all the smoke in the air is making the evacuation effort that much more difficult."

"Our provinces here in Canada are immense. By the time somebody makes it to Winnipeg, some of them have been on the road overnight. They've had to be on a flight for a few hours and then on a bus for several hours after that."

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) patrol vehicle is parked as a water bomber flies over the plume of smoke from a wildfire near The Pas, Manitoba, May 27, 2025. Manitoba RCMP/Handout via REUTERS

 

Infiltration of Malign Propagandists at Ontario School Boards : Changing the Dial on Public Education

"We have some boards that are working very well -- they're focused on the main mission, and there are boards where I have trustees who think that they're supposed to be writing curriculum, trustees who think that it is their job to mediate global conflicts."

"What I want trustees to do is to focus on putting the resources that we provide them ... into educating our kids. Teachers shouldn't have to be going to Dollarama to buy pencil cases or crayons for their classes, and, when boards take trips and waste money and do things that is not in their mandate, I think parents rightfully get upset."

"Teachers get even more upset, and it's time for the Ministry of Education to step up to the challenge and take its responsibility a bit more seriously."

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra

 

"This is not education reform, it's authoritarianism cloaked in the language of accountability, designed to deflect blame, suppress dissenting voices and tighten political control over a public education system this government has failed to adequately fund."

Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario

 

"The Toronto District School Board controversially embraced “anti-Palestinian racism” policies in 2024, a move that Jewish activists say puts the country’s largest school board on a collision course with its own antisemitism policy — and offers a case study of a broader, divisive discussion unfolding across Canada."

"'Jewish children are being victimized in our schools at unprecedented rates, and the TDSB response has been to actively work towards the exclusion of Jewish identity in schools', TDSB parent Aaron Kucharczuk told National Post. Kucharczuk is part of a growing coalition of community groups worried about the TDSB’s support for a term they say advocates removing guardrails protecting Jewish students."

"The most popular definition of anti-Palestinian racism (APR) — created by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) in 2022 — defines the term as “a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes or dehumanizes Palestinians.” Examples of such discrimination include failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous group to the region and “defaming” activists with accusations of antisemitism or being “a terrorist threat/sympathizer.”

"The neighbouring Peel District School Board has used the ACLA’s precise definition, as have the Thames Valley District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, according to documents shared with the Post."

"Claims that Jews are overreacting to or politicizing the anti-Jewish hatred could come from a lack of understanding of the definition of antisemitism itself,” Deborah Lyons, Canada's envoy on antisemitism told the Post in a written statement. “It is needed now, more than ever, given that Canadian Jews — who make up only one per cent of the population — are the target of 70 per cent of all reported religiously motivated hate crimes."

Ari David Blaff, National Post 

Rally outside of the TDSB headquarters on Yonge Street on Tuesday Sept. 24, 2024. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

 

The Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario is preparing to place school boards under supervision and require more boards to place police officers in schools in response to the mass issues of dysfunction in some school boards supervising and approving of sponsored events within schools that are clearly political and canted toward support of 'pro-Palestinian' groups who have infiltrated the school narrative and have been influential in persuading for the use of propaganda to 'inform' school children with respect to a conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, portraying the latter as freedom fighters and the former as 'oppressors' and genocidaires.

 

Social media video shows students on a field trip marching in a rally where the crowd’s chanting, “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” in Toronto on Sept. 18. Photo by @mayahoodblog /X

 

In the wake of warnings issued by the Education Ministry that boards are expected to focus on educating Ontario's children in the traditional hallmarks of civilized education revolving around literacy, science, nature, numeracy and history, the pushback by the boards and teachers' federations has impelled the Minister of Education to spell out in no uncertain terms that what currently prevails in Ontario schools is beyond the purview of the boards in their failure to promote learning, rather than propaganda.

 

In April it was announced that the province had appointed a supervisor over one school board with respect to financial "mismanagement", with an investigation launched of three others, actions that effectively served to place on boards "on notice". In one board four trustees spent $190,000 on an 'art buying' trip to Italy on the public dime. The reaction of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association was that appropriate processes must be in place to address inappropriate board activity, but that it was underfunding that was the culprit. 

"It would be helpful if these conversations included a discussion about the funding necessary to support students in Ontario in 2025-26. Let us be clear: the real issue here is that the system is under financial strain. We're always willing to engage in conversations about accountability." 

The proposed legislation would give the minister power to direct school boards to publicly post trustee, director of education and others' expenses publicly. The province would require school boards to implement a program for school resource officers if one was offered by local police services. Such programs are present on a voluntary basis at some school boards; others ended their programs when some students reported feelings of discomfort or intimidation, and some racialized communities raised their concerns.

 

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, police presence and surveillance within schools made a disproportionate impact on Indigenous, Black and other racialized students: "Police in schools may subject Black and other racialized children, and particularly Black boys, to a higher level of surveillance that could ultimately significantly impact their mental health and education". Or, conversely, their presence could convince those that 'act out' to modify their behaviour to more accurately reflect civilized manners.

 

Citing increasing interest among “community voices,” Toronto District School Board trustees voted in June to enshrine anti-Palestinian racism within its broader anti-discrimination strategy. Photo by Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press/File 

"We've seen specifically in the city of Toronto, in the Toronto District School Board, they have wasted thousands of dollars trying to ascertain whether they should change the name of three schools, whereas at the exact same time they're telling me that they have to maybe close school pools down or they have to fire teachers."

"I firmly believe that having school resource officers in the classroom is extraordinarily important."

"I disagree with those who suggest that it's not ... I think it builds not only safety and security in a school, but also mutual respect."

Ontario Minister of Education 

Issues With Hezbollah

"We have no issue with the Lebanese people. We have issues with Hezbollah. They are our enemy."

"[The IDF was taken unawares on October 7, 2023, and will not lack alertness]. this is the strongest we've ever been."

"They're [Hezbollah] not defeated, but they're crushed."

"Lebanon is a kidnapped country, it's like a beaten spouse."

Lt.-Col. Jordan Herzberg, Israel Defense Forces (reserves)

 

"[Israel will continue to] weaken [Hezbollah]."

"We will continue to act, remove threats and weaken Hezbollah to protect the northern communities and the State of Israel."

"The Northern Command changed the security reality in the area and strengthened the security on the border."

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir

YNet News

In the battle against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces discovered the presence of 'fake homes' in Lebanese border communities, with the realization that Hezbollah had displaced the residents of those towns and taken possession of them as command posts overlooking northern Israel, and from which hundreds of rockets were fired down on the Israeli communities below where Druze and Bedouin villages and Jewish farming kibbutzim were located. Because of these attacks, the Israeli communities in the north, vulnerable to Hezbollah rocket attacks had to be vacated and moved to central Israel.

 

Inside those 'fake homes' were missiles and soldiers' rations and uniforms -- their purpose and presence reflected in settlements along the Lebanese border including the Christian towns essentially occupied by Hezbollah. The IDF's crushing assault against Hezbollah last fall in southern Lebanon resulted from the terrorist group's ongoing rocket attacks lobbed into Israel, where much of  southern Lebanon was colonized by Hezbollah. 

Israel's lack of vigilance that made their southern farming communities vulnerable to a massive Hamas attack of thousands of terrorists on October 7, 2023, was a lesson learned with a horrendous toll of human lives; a national trauma that can never fade, one that not only destroyed the lives of the immediate victims in a toll of gruesome savagery and the killing of 1,200 Israelis, but the kidnapping of another 251 children, women and men and foreign farm workers to be incarcerated deep in Gaza's tunnels, tormented, beaten and starved.

 

The experience with Hamas's infamy and brutality taught Israel not to hesitate any longer, and committing to opposing Hezbollah head on, first with a degree of caution when the first rockets were being shot into Israel on October 8, then with increasing pay-back ferocity beginning with a technological shock delivered through the medium of pagers triggering explosives, followed by the pinpoint targeting of Hezbollah leaders, and finally the full invasion of Lebanon to rout out the Hezbollah quasi-military, lethally armed threat.

Troops of the 146th Division operate on the Lebanon border in an undated photo issued on May 28, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

Two hours following the southern Israel Hamas invasion the IDF dispatched troops to the north to prepare for threats from Hezbollah whose arms caches were far superior to those of Hamas, and its operatives better organized and trained. And much good did it do them; in the final analysis, Israel's military's professionalism and determination far outstripping that of Hezbollah's. At the present time with Hezbollah's strength reduced by 80 percent, pushed back to the other side of the Litani River, its capacity to mount threats has been neutered.

 

What is left of the terrorist group has been removed 27 kilometres from the Lebanese border with Israel. Some of the 60,000 Israelis evacuated from the north over a year earlier are returning. Moving freely now in southern Lebanon, Israel is mopping up. "This is an Israeli village, Pro-Israel", declared a Bedouin leader in Arab al-Aramshe where over a dozen people a year ago were injured by a Hezbollah attack that hit their community centre. There was an initial rocket that destroyed the center, another hit a car and 30 minutes later a drone timed to inflict maximum damage on first responders.

 

Metres from the Lebanese border, Kibbutz Hanita established in the late 1930s, grows bananas and avocados. The kibbutz was targeted three times by Hezbollah in efforts to infiltrate Hanita last fall, aside from the continual rocket attacks. That threat has been well extinguished by the Israel Defense Forces. Abandoned for months, 60 percent of the population has now returned to Hanita. The Jewish, Druze and Bedouin towns still stand, damaged, but they will be reconstructed. "We are here. [Hezbollah] are not here. So I guess they made a mistake", said Yaki Shalom, head of community security. 

Lebanese army forces in Nabatieh; Israel helped locate and destroy dozens of Hezbollah weapons caches and positions     (Photo: Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Putin Could End This War Today, If He Wanted To"

"You will have heard a debate in Germany -- and that's one of the issues the next government will address -- of reintroducing conscription. And all of that is because we see what's happening on the Russian side, how the Russians are re-arming, doubling their military forces and clearly preparing for a possible confrontation beyond Ukraine." 

"European leaders and German leaders take [this] very seriously. And this is why, if we want to underpin the defence plans we have with capability -- and that's really what it's all about -- and you make the calculation of what that will cost you will end up significantly higher than two percent [NATO goal] and this is what the discussion should be about."

"The German government has said time and again that any settlement regarding Ukraine, first and foremost, has to be in the hands of the Ukrainians."

"We will never accept any dictated arrangement. European leaders and the Ukrainian president have been very clear that we need a settlement that really ends this war and not something that is just a prelude to the next aggression." 

German Ambassador to Canada Tjorven Bellmann 

Russia may be using bots on the Telegram messaging app to enhance the lethality of Geran-2 drones, which have been attacking Ukraine in increasing numbers, according to a report by The Economist.

In the midst of desperately attempting to successfully counter Moscow's 'Special Military Operation', and pursuing the diplomatic circuit in Europe and North America, Ukraine also faces increasing concern over how it can secure badly neeeded U.S.-produced Patriot air defence systems. Stockpiles provided to Ukraine during the previous U.S. Biden administration are shrinking badly. That the new Trump government is disinterested in providing Ukraine with fresh arms has become increasingly obvious, with U.S. President Donald Trump's belligerence toward Ukraine, and friendly relations with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

 

Bombarding Ukraine with drones and cruise missiles, Ukraine fears the ballistic missiles Russia has been sending across the border. Patriot missiles are the sole formula for countering Russian ballistic missiles which travel several miles each second. In power plant strikes by Moscow in 2023 and 2024, ballistic missiles obliterated fifty percent of Ukraine's power capacity. Speed and size and difficulty in inerception make ballistic missiles extremely effective weapons in Russia's arsenal, aiming at pulverizing infrastructure.

 

Over the Memorial Day weekend Ukraine's air defence forces were unable to intercept any of the nine ballistic missiles Russia launched from Saturday night to early Sunday. According to Ukraine's air defence forces, two of the Russian missiles were directed at Kyiv, where two Patriot units are stationed. The launch sites are in place, but the Patriot missiles are missing in action. Along with the ballistic missiles, Russia fired over 900 drones and 65 cruise missiles, representing some of the largest strikes of the war as Russia ramps up its attacks.

 

Despite the fact that Russian ballistic missiles can now deviate from their trajectory, Patriot systems are successfully intercepting them. One of the latest indicators is 6 out of 9 missiles intercepted   Espreso

Withholding any promises of additional military aid to Ukraine, U.S. President Trump condemned Russia for the attacks launched aganst Ukraine on Sunday. When President Trump wrote that Russian President Putin "has gone absolutely CRAZY!", Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, spoke of the comment as "connected to an emotional overload of everyone involved". If Ukraine desperately wants anything from the United States at this juncture, it is more Patriot missiles and launchers.

 

"Which, frankly, we don't have", responded Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Instead, according to Mr. Rubio, the United States is "encouraging" its allies in NATO to donate Patriot missiles and systems from their own stockpiles, adding that "not one of these countries want to give up their Patriot systems, either." The U.S. needs to keep a certain amount for its own defence, "in case of an attack from Iran or another adversary", confided an unidentified diplomat.

 

In strictly practical terms  under the new U.S. administration it is well understood by Ukrainian officials that the Trump administration would be prepared to sell them more Patriots, not as aid, but representing military sales. Washington, acording to a senior Ukrainian official is not expected to block the sale of future air defence systems, but the White House "will not give it away for free. They think like business people. If I give you something, you have to give me something in return. We have to adapt to this."

 

Russia, on the other hand, is not lacking support from its own allies, with North Korea supplying the Kremlin with some 250 ballistic missiles since last fall, acording to Ukraine's military intelligence. Russia used North Korean KN-23 missiles in six of nine ballistic attacks in May, including the massive Sunday attack on Ukraine. Germany was given permission by the Trump administration to re-export Patriot materials to Kyiv following the signing by Ukraine of a minerals deal with Washington.

 

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius informed reporters recently that his country would give Patriot missiles to Ukraine along with four IRIS-T systems, short-to-medium-range weapons, effective against cruise, but not ballistic missiles. Additionally, Berlin plans to send Ukraine its older PAC-2 Pariot missiles, not as effective as intercepting ballistic missiles, but useful, withal. Russian Iskander missiles were involved in dozens of civilians having beeen killed in attacks.

Ukraine cannot replace the Patriots for defending civilians against Russian ballistic attacks. Getty Images

"And this concerns questions like territorial integrity, security guarantees, the size and might of future armed forces in Ukraine, political sovereignty and choice of alliances."

"Putin could end this war today, if he wanted to, but we don't see any serious readiness on the Russian side to even engage in serious talks."

"All of what we see and the answers that the Russian president has given these past days and weeks is only more aggression and bloodshed and continuing the war."

"All of us want this war to end -- nobody more than the Ukrainians -- but it has to end in a way that brings true peace and not the next aggression."

German Ambassador to Canada Tjorven Bellmann

Predictive But Unheeded Canadian Labour Woes

"Not only has Canada experienced an unprecedented surge in immigration, but the composition of recent newcomers has been markedly different than in the past."

"[Since 2015 -- when the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau took office], the average nominal wage gap between temporary and Canadian-born workers has more than doubled."

"[By mid-2024, non-permanent residents were representing] almost two-thirds of population growth [in a] sharp divergence [from the norm]."

"[Dropping wages among] non-permanent workers [could be a sign that] the productive capacity of the Canadian economy grew less than it would have if recent newcomers had the same socioeconomic characteristics as in the past."

The Shift in Canadian Immigration Composition and its Effect on Wages .. Bank of Canada report

Canada has been experiencing ongoing labor shortages, particularly in unskilled labor roles. In response, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has developed several immigration visa pathways to help unskilled migrants obtain work visas and fill these vital positions. This comprehensive guide explores how unskilled workers can immigrate to Canada, the visa pathways available, and the advantages of building a career in Canada.  CanaMigrate

 

As younger, lower-skilled immigrants enter Canada to shore up its lagging workforce, the share in the labour force of native-born Canadian workers has dropped almost by ten percent since 2006, according to a report issued by the Bank of Canada documenting the country's economy becoming increasingly reliant on migrant workers on low-wages. The bank's Economic Analysis Department published a discussion paper on May 9.

 

The analysis discovered that the average Canadian immigrant has become younger, lower-skilled and likelier to emanate from poor regions of the world: India, sub-Saharan Africa or the Middle East, comprising a situation driven largely by a temporary migration surge. Among Canada's surging ranks of temporary migrant workers wages have been "reduced significantly relative to Canadian-born workers" the paper states. 

 

Things to Consider When Choosing a Tech Bootcamp as a New Immigrant in Canada  CanaMigrate

 

According to the authors' calculations, the average migrant worker in Canada is paid over one-fifth less than a Canadian-born worker in comparable working positions. Prior to 2014, the wage gap was 9.5 percent, rising to 22.6 percent by 2023. The paper, titled The Shift in Canadian Immigration Composition and its Effect on Wages, is regarded as one of the most definitive official documents yet produced with respect to the massive surge of migrant workers brought to Canada immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada began to accept over a million newcomers annually, beginning in 2022, for the most part in "non-permanent" categories of immigrants in a spectrum from international students, among those admitted under the international mobility program, to temporary foreign workers. This massive intake of workers was not matched anywhere else in the world of advanced economies.

 

Population growth in Canada between 2019 and 2023 amounted to over six percent, triple the rate in the United States, and double that in Switzerland, the two developed economy countries analyzed for the paper with a demographic shift coming a distant close to Canada's. The situation is hardly reflective of the norm for Canada traditionally where immigration flows are "generally stable and predictable over history."

 

Canadian population growth until 2015 was almost entirely unaffected by "non-permanent residents". Immigration came through permanent channels; the "NPR" cohort vanishingly small to the extent that new temporary immigrants entering the country were generally negated by those leaving.  As well, temporary migrants were sourced from different regions. The region between 2006 and 2014 where the highest level of non-permanent immigration to Canada arrived from was Northern and Western Europe. Now, since 2024 India has replaced that traditional source.

 

The Bootcamp Advantage for New Immigrants

A career in tech in Canada generally offers competitive salaries, opportunities for growth, and often, supportive work environments. CanaMigrate

"An increasing number of NPRs have been migrating from lower-income regions" the report states. Canadian "net births" have been sharply reduced, even while an massive influx of migrant workers increased. Until the early 1990s, net births remained the primary driver of population growth. They became "negligible" by 2024, the paper notes. Canadian babies born in 2024 were equivalent to the number of Canadians who died. As well, the paper documents a marked decrease in the labour force of Canadian-born workers.

 

Alarmingly the post-pandemic surge in migrant workers matched a massive increase in youth unemployment, particularly among retail and food services -- sectors that relied traditionally on part-time entry-level workers, now relying on temporary work visas. Service jobs of a temporary nature were, in the past, employment opportunities for high-school and university students as a means to pay their tuition fees. Less attractive to Canadian-born students looking for summer employment was agricultural work, where migrant workers took up the slack.

 

While many assume that only skilled workers are eligible for a Canadian work visa, there are numerous pathways available for unskilled workers. CanaMigrate

 

King's Trust Canada found in a November report that between 2015 and 2023 the rate of temporary foreign workers in Canadian restaurants had increased by a whopping 634 percent. The Bank of Canada report authors surmise that the  trend they analyzed could have an effect on the country's overall productivity -- how much the average Canadian worker is capable of producing. 

In recent years they note, Canadian productivity has gone into sharp decline with each passing year yielding a progressively lower rate of per-capita GDP than the year before. This trend is likely exacerbated, according to analysts, by Canada's surge in cheap, low-skilled temporary labour. Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge in 2023 warned that a "large and rising inflow of workers with lower skills" was impacting in depressing wages and propping up "uncompetitive" businesses.

 

Provinces in Canada with High Demand for Unskilled Workers ... CanaMigrate

Israel Alone

"[Some of Israel's closest allies want Israel to] stand down and accept that Hamas's army of mass murderers will survive."

"I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice."

"You're on the wrong side of humanity, and you're on the wrong side of history."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel's PM has accused the leaders of the UK, France and Canada of being on "the wrong side of history"  Reuters

No other nation on Earth, constantly threatened, attacked and forced to defend itself on an ongoing basis from forces intent on destroying it, faces the unrelenting 'advice' by other nations considered allies, on how it should comport itself as does Israel. In a region of the world where might is right, and inflamed tensions build inexorably to violence and where well funded, trained and armed militias that most countries designate as terrorist entities, attack, the only response that works when attacks take place is to respond in kind.

 

Israel, in responding to a mass barbaric attack led by Hamas and joined by other Palestinian terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah, as well as Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis, knows that it has an obligation to itself and its people, long targeted by death squads of the death-cult movement of Palestinian terrorism to finally vanquish and destroy the ability of these death-dealing groups to continue threatening and attacking the Jewish state. 

 

There is no country on the face of this Earth that would hesitate to counter-attack when thousands of terrorist operatives trained in terrorism tactics bring sadistic savagery to play in hunting down women for mass rape and mutilation, fire automatic weapons to kill any civilian child, woman or man, elderly or in uniform identified as an Israeli target, that would not invade the territory that had desecrated its state of security by mass bloodletting. 

 

Israeli soldier patrols near the Supernova music festival attack in Be'eri, Israel, on Oct. 12.   Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images

This is a conflict that terrorism initiated with a stated goal -- to annihilate Jewish lives and in the process destroy the state that protects and secures those lives. Israel's military responded in kind, but a measured kind as a civilized nation, seeking to avoid causing as many casualties among the civilian population ruled by the terrorists as can be possible when Hamas and its sister groups deploy a strategy of shielding themselves among the civilian population, within hospitals, schools and mosques for maximum shelter from the consequences of their actions.

 

During war, civilian populations inevitably suffer. They disproportionately pay the  cost of their governing representatives' decision to wage war on others. In the case of Palestinian terrorist groups there is another role within the conflict scenario; to encourage the civilian population to willingly become decoys, to offer their lives in protection of the lives of those who brought war to them. Collateral damage can be kept to a minimum relatively speaking, when a humane military warns civilians beforehand.

 

There is, however, no way during an active war situation, that civilian lives can be spared during the drive to destroy and eliminate the warring element of the population. Even so, Israel's Defense Forces have been the cause of fewer civilian deaths than in any other active war situation. And the situation is that Hamas holds Israeli  citizens as hostages when to return them could bring an end to the conflict. Even while the IDF in fighting mode seeks out Hamas leaders and their operatives, and Israel's 'allies' urge a ceasefire, Hamas and its terrorist colleagues continue to send rockets into Israel.

 

 

 

What country would unilaterally lay down its arms and allow terrorists to continue their agenda of destruction and death unimpeded because its critics are allied in offering advice that they themselves in similar conditions would never consider as a reaction to a war imposed upon them? Yet the allies do not desist, and Western legacy media, infused with a sense of national moral righteousness from afar, portray Israel as a human rights-abusing nation, never hesitating to use the public relations agenda of Hamas to portray Israel as actively pursuing a 'genocidal' course in its response to an actual genocidal intent.

 

The world has accustomed itself to denying Jews the right to self-defense because they prefer Jews as victims. As victims during the Holocaust when Nazi Germany with the aid and assistance of occupied Europe, just as content to be rid of their Jews as was Germany, and lending themselves to the enterprise with gusto, it was seen as revelatory and shocking when the death toll was counted and those still alive presented in their pathetic state of survival. Empathy to their plight was a natural human reaction.

 

Now it appears that another natural human reaction is taking place, when Jews  refuse to be perpetual victims, and inconveniently have a military and a nation whose purpose of existence is to ensure that Jews themselves endure and exist despite the best laid plans of Jew-haters intent on destroying their lives. The very idea of a competent and still humanitarian military with the capacity to lay low belligerents whose thirst for Jewish blood is unappeasable, fails to sit well with critics whose Jew-hate creeps through their civilizational facade. 

 

People in Tel Aviv light candles on Oct. 12 for those who were taken hostage and in memory of people killed.  Amir Levy / Getty Images file