The Inhumane Cost of Conflict

"Humanitarian aid to Gaza?"

"No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter  until the Israeli abductees are returned home."

Israel Katz, Israeli Defense Minister 

Many Gaza residents are suffering from long-term respiratory and eye issues due to using wood for cooking instead of scarce gas and electricity.   Photo: Fadi Thabet, Nuseirat

 

War is an unkind enemy of humanity. In Gaza, Palestinians suffer the impact of a war that the governing Hamas terrorists provoked. The savagery of the invasion of southern Israel by thousands of terrorists linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, lead by Hamas operatives was an exercise in unspeakable sadistic atrocities in the mass rape of girls and women, the  anguish they suffered through torture, the massacre of children, parents, the elderly,  and the abduction of infants, ailing men and women, held in Gaza to be used as trade pawns for Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons.

Proof exists that civilian Palestinians followed the terrorists in their invasion to prey on civilians living in kibbutzim that had employed Palestinians from Gaza in farm labour. Trusted Palestinians who broke bread with their Israeli employers, and who in turn revealed to Hamas commanders planning the invasion, valuable details of the farming villages and their security protocols. Israeli hostages were held not only by Hamas terrorists, but by Palestinian civilians as well; mistreatment of the hostages was universal; humiliation, rape, deprivation of fresh air, of food and water.

Israeli children, women and men who were forced to live in tunnels, deprived of sunlight, of hygiene, of medicine for chronic health conditions, whom even the International Red Cross made no effort to make contact with. The threatened, abused and starved Israeli hostages served a purpose that the terrorists exploited; held in part by civilians working with Hamas, a significant number perished. Despite the Israel Defense Forces search for members of Hamas with the firm intention of permanently destroying the group's capacity to ever again prey on Israelis and Jews, missiles continue to rain down from Gaza to Israel.

 

Palestinians crowd around a bakery in Gaza. Photograph: Fatima Shbair/AP

 

How likely is it that any nation whose military is on the offensive would constrain their military targeting to protect civilians as Israel does? The civilian casualty rate in Gaza has been steep, as it has been in any conflict anywhere in the world. Hamas commanding elites made it clear in public fora that they have no intention of relenting in their goal of destroying Israel and murdering Jews; pledging to repeat the October 7, 2023 butchery over and over again until no Jews would be left. 

Gazans are now and have been for a year, living with major life inconveniences. Apart from the need to constantly move from one area in the Gaza Strip to another in advance of IDF planned attacks on Hamas infrastructure, their impermanence has necessitated that they live rough amongst destroyed and crumbling infrastructure  in many areas. There is a lack of potable running water, and no electricity. The lethal designs of Hamas created complete destruction, insecurity and the potential for death in the Gaza population, given the terrorist group's propensity to situate themselves and their weaponry in the midst of heavily populated areas.

 

Israel launched retaliatory strikes on Gaza after the attacks by Hamas  Reuters

 

"Every night is a struggle for us", 36-year-old Abu Amra says, living in Deir al Balah, central Gaza where she now cooks over a fire and laundry is done by hand. Israel, pre-Oct 7 attack supplied Gaza with electricity. In the immediate aftermath of the atrocities, the electricity to Gaza via Israel was shut down. The Palestinian population of Gaza which, in the vast majority favours Hamas rule and approves of the attack, whose result is the reason they now suffer may or may not now regret that choice. More likely they credit Israel alone with their suffering.

The electricity infrastructure of Gaza suffered over the years as a result of previous conflicts that Hamas had been responsible for initiating. The funding that Hamas has received from humanitarian groups, the European Union, the United Nations and Western democracies in general  has not gone into upgrading the civil infrastructure of the Strip, much less its electricity and water grids. It was used instead to create the massive, sometimes-sophisticated tunnel system that runs under the territory.

And while there are many civilians in Gaza for whom life has become a misery of scarcity of everything one depends upon in life in the modern era, there are those among them who view the current situation as a splendid opportunity to become wealthy over those scarcities and the misery of their fellow citizens. Like 23-year-old Mohammed Samra who bought solar panels for a new family business in central Gaza where he charges one shekel to charge a cellphone.

Police officers keep guard at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

High Alert for Canadian Jews in a Country Newly Steeped in Viral Antisemitism

"Within hours of the butchery that killed 1,200 people in Israel last year, protesters in Canada were taking to the streets in pro-Palestinian rallies that openly celebrated the slaughter."

"Soon it was thought acceptable in Canada to tear down posters showing Israeli hostages."

"Large-scale protests erupted on streets and university campuses and Jewish businesses, synagogues and daycare centres were attacked."

"Meanwhile the Liberals added to this fetid atmosphere with a foreign policy that was as inept as it was foul."

Michael Higgins, columnist, National Post

Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova festival on 7 October and murdered hundreds BBC/Nik Millard

 

Canada's Liberal-led government of prime minister Justin Trudeau has led the way in assuring Canadians of Middle Eastern descent and their surprising number of supporters from among the always simmering-beneath-the-surface sentiments of antisemitism in society that it would be perfectly within the new social contract to criticize the state of Israel for provoking Palestinians and their supporters to the point of their government in Gaza, recognized by previous Canadian governments as terrorists, enacting a modern-day pogrom of rape, torture and mass murder, compelling the Jewish state to conduct protective counter-measures during a state of existential threat.

Within the period of a year that followed the October 7, 2023 atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, the Trudeau government and its cabinet ministers have made it clear, both by implication and by overt statements and measures that in their considered opinion Israel is over-reacting to a mere 'incident' of victim-rage enacted by a captive population feeling itself oppressed, exploited and deprived of their sovereign rights by an occupying apartheid imperialist colonialism. Canada is not alone in this peculiar interpretation of a fellow democracy violently assailed by Medieval brutality, but Canada's level of complicity in finding fault with Israel, not the surrounding threats to its existence is outstanding in its mendacity and complicity with that violence.

Never has this government extended itself beyond boilerplate antisemitic condemnation. And never does Justin Trudeau mention antisemitism without adding Islamophobia as an equal evil, despite that it is Muslims in the majority with assistance from their non-Jewish left-leaning woke Canadian demographic who are engrossed in the vile displays of Israel-delegitimization while threatening the Canadian Jewish community and committing violent acts of criminal action against that community.

 

Large pools of blood stain a child's bunk bed inside a safe room in a home in Nir Oz, Israel, which was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

In the year that followed that mass atrocity of rape, mutilation, human butchery, hostage-taking and the portrayals of terrorists as liberators driven to express their frustration by committing unspeakable acts of depravity, no sincere condemnation has assured Canadian Jews that their government has their best interests in mind. Well demonstrated by the lack of interest, much less any effort at controlling the hundreds of anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-Hamas rallies and demonstrations that have choked major intersections in Canadian cities in sympathy with the Palestinian drive to wrench Israel from the Middle East, its historical homeland.

 

But this Liberal government saw fit to support a UN General Assembly motion for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, overturning Canada's traditional balanced view of the historical details of the issue of Israel standing its ground on its ancestral land, which the Palestinians claim as their own, unwilling to recognize the authenticity and legitimacy of the Jewish state, arguing that the land -- all of it, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, is theirs and theirs alone, in a total re-write of history. 

 

A large crowd gathered at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg Saturday as the one-year mark of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas draws near.  Still from video

New export permits for military equipment destined for Israel from Canadian manufacturers were no longer to be issued, according to the Trudeau Liberals, who disapprove of the Israel Defense Forces' response to the Hamas atrocities in Gaza. Much less the need for Israel to put a halt to a year's-worth of daily rocketry from Lebanon aimed by Hezbollah at farming communities in northern Israel. And despite proof that UNRWA employees in Gaza represented members of Hamas, some of whom have been charged with taking part in the pogrom of October 7, Canada resumed its funding of UNRWA.

One of Hamas's top commanders was also an employee of UNRWA as a teacher,  using the UNRWA curricula that distinguishes them as anti-Israel propaganda posing as school texts. This is the same United Nations special refugee group for Gaza that keeps the Palestinians in refugee-mode, along with the descendants of the original 700,000 who fled or were forced out of Israel in 1948. Canada's minister of foreign affairs  reaffirmed "our support for UNRWA" at a meeting at the United Nations when she met with the Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Mustafa.

 

Pro-Palestinian students at an anti-Israel encampment on the campus of McGill University in Montreal. (Photo by Alexis Aubin / AFP)

 

It is under the Trudeau Liberals with its generosity of cabinet and caucus positions of Canadian Muslims that a decision to advance a Parliamentary committee motion on the issue of Palestinian statehood will be considered -- a motion that supports "the recognition of a viable and independent State of Palestine". Rewarding Palestinian lethal violence, earning Hamas's gratitude. When the reality is that the PA itself has no intention of recognizing the State of Israel, and no intention of settling for a portion of the geography that the United Nations in 1947 offered through their Partition Plan, accepted by Israel, rejected by the Palestinian leadership.

And nor is this Liberal government the least bit interested in curtailing the ongoing Palestinian protests throughout Canada that disrupts society at every level, and continues to harass and threaten the Jewish population in Canada's cities. There are criminal laws against inciting to hatred, none of which have been put into action to stop the Palestinian Youth Movement planning a one-year anniversary of October 7 -- honouring Hamas terrorists as 'martyrs' -- in Montreal at the Israeli consulate.

In Canada, the pro-Palestinian protests deny the realities of Palestinian terrorists committing mass rape and sadistic torture of Israeli girls and women. An investigation published in the New York Times described breasts cut off, nails driven into thighs, women raped and knifed simultaneously, severed heads of women used as trophies and footballs, and the videos taken live by the terrorists themselves "talking, giggling and shouting", raping women before "literally butchering them". Women were found dead by medics and rescue personnel; naked, with hands and feet tied.

The Nova festival was one of the sites of alleged sexual violence on 7 October   EPA

Malicious Advice by Antisemitism-Embracing Progressives

"[Israel must] ensure accountability for ongoing acts of violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers, reverse the record expansion of settlements in the West Bank which are illegal under international law, and work towards a two-state solution." 

"Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community."

"The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas. It must end."

"We call on parties to the conflict to agree to the [proposed Biden] deal. Any delay will only see more lives lost."

Joint statement from Canada, Australia, New Zealand

"The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land -- not in our eternal capital Jerusalem and not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria."

"No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Protesters holding a banner "From the river to the sea" at European March organized by a coalition of organizations including the ABP to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Brussels, Belgium, May 19, 2024. (Photo: Sophie HUGON / Hans Lucas)

The more often and more horrendously Israel is attacked by those whom the international community view as entitled, despite their inhumane, sadistic and savage atrocities, to 'share' geographic space with the very state those attacks target the more isolated Israel becomes. Needless to say, those in the forefront of encouraging Israel to restrain its response to barbaric onslaughts on its civilian population, have never themselves been forced by circumstances beyond their control to confront the reality of a savage neighbour for whom slaughter of innocents is viewed as a right by 'oppressed' people.

 

Oppressed simply as a result of the neighbour endlessly targeted for bloodshed, forced by those circumstances to maintain a military vigil to apprehend terrorist attacks in a never-ending effort to protect its population. A neighbour whose leaders have never missed an opportunity to spurn opportunities to have a state of their own which would call upon them to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state and an obligation to put a halt to assaulting it in efforts to pry the state loose from its geography.

 

For four thousand years evidence links Judaean life with the ancestral lands that have become a controversial international concern. The plan for Partition allotted both Jews and Arabs their own particular portions on what was traditionally Jewish geographic territory. Jewish leaders were willing to surrender their quest for the greater proportion of the land that represented their heritage, while the Arabs who took on the mantle of 'Palestinians' (nomenclature dating from the Roman Era to identify land dedicated to ancestral Jewish land) spurned the opportunity to accept their portion.

 

They have spurned it ever since. The West speaks of the solution inherent in the 'two-state' condition of Partition, as a fair division of land enabling two states to live side-by-side. Palestinians speaking to the West agree, while conspiring among themselves, adhere to a 'one-state' solution; envisioning Israel absent the land that would revert in its totality to their sponsorship as 'Palestine' engulfing both areas, with a Jewish state no longer a reality.

 

Yet the prime minister of Canada and his Australian and New Zealand counterparts feel justified in pressing Israel to agree to a 'compromise' reflecting their idea of a solution. In reality what they impress upon Israel is their agenda that the Jewish State set aside the horrors of October 7 in favour of supporting an official, internationally approved Palestinian State to be established as a neighbour, one which will inevitably return to its 'resistance' mode against the presence of Israel to fulfill its larger scheme of the one-state solution.

 

The International Court of Justice non-binding opinion representing condemnation of Israel's supervision of lands captured 57 years ago, handily neglects to consider that this was accomplished in defending the state from a series of  neighbourly military attacks to unseat it from the region, and all failed. In no other part of the world, by no other country, would it be seen as 'illegal' internationally when a country in defending itself from military aggression takes possession of disputed land; borders historically have seen alterations and have never been internationally challenged.

All three Western countries are adamant in their renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. So in that event, Hamas can reconstitute itself, rearm, recruit, and repeat -- as it promised was its intention -- the Satanic acts of unrestrained inhumanity that it demonstrated on October 7, 2023 it was so capable of, and revelling in, an extent of bloodletting that was never sufficiently repugnant to satiate the terrorists' appetite for torture, mutilation, excruciating pain and ghoulish acts of sexual depravity before murdering their victims.

These three lily-livered leaders of once-credible countries outperform themselves in the depths of their concern for humanity expressed toward a nation whose dedication to human rights far exceeds their own, whose system of justice is more than fully capable of punishing miscreants of its own in the event of their civilly-unapproved actions, and whose military has done more to protect civilian lives than any other nation's military in history. 

"Israel will continue to defend itself against hostile attacks on seven fronts, all directed by Iran through its proxies in the region."

"We call upon Canada, as a nation that values international law and institutions that uphold it, to do all it can to prevent those who try to disrupt global order from achieving their goals."

Israeli Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed

Anti-Hamas Protestations by Palestinian Gazans?

"[Many in Gaza remain feeling] abandoned [by Fatah after its disengagement in 2007 from Gaza when Fatah was defeated in bloody conflict with Hamas]."

"Fatah is the party of retirees [who have no interest in the massive youth unemployment in Gaza]."

"Masked militants [regularly loot trucks with humanitarian supplies leaving many Gaza civilians at the breaking point]."

"My message [to the international community] is to exert pressure on the government of Israel to set up Hamas-free zones in Gaza". 

Anonymous Palestinian with the "We Want to Live" Gaza protests

Photo: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images

 

Polls published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research following the Hamas massacre in southern Israel of over a thousand Israeli children, women and men, many of whom were raped and tortured, their homes incinerated with entire families within, and hundreds of Israeli civilians captured and paraded in Gaza to loud acclaim by ordinary Palestinians, showed an enormous population percentage both in the Strip and the West Bank in support of the Hamas terrorist group, and their Medieval-era tactics in violation of humanity.

Now, eight months following the atrocities in Israel and the Israel Defense Forces incursion into the Gaza Strip with the intention of completely destroying Hamas, its operatives, commanders and their tunnel systems along with their massive weaponry depots, the very same polling firm conducted another poll; this time support for Hamas appears to have diminished, from the previous 80% support to a significantly lesser 40%, explicable given the number of deaths of Palestinians as collateral damage in a conflict deliberately provoked by Hamas.

But the 'struggle through armed conflict', still has a substantial majority of Palestinians at 54% in full support of the methodology of Hamas in its attacks against Israel and Jews. Although a reduction of support is evident there too, possibly a reflection of Palestinian recognition of the less than noble actions of Hamas against Palestinians themselves; from continuing to launch rockets against Israel from within vulnerable civilian areas crowded with internal refugees, including from designated 'safe zones', to the spectacle of Hamas operatives openly hijacking aid transports for their own use.

So when a Palestinian in Gaza contacts someone in the news media in the West to stealthily report a significant drop in support for Hamas and its Gaza operations, explaining why and how, that those sentiments can be viewed with skepticism is understandable. Someone who claims that legacy media in the West reporting that Hamas has lost none of its popularity from among the civilian population in the Palestinian Territories, despite the conflict it has brought on their heads, has got it all wrong and the reverse is true -- requires deep second thought.

In reality, transmits the individual, speaking in Arabic with translation supplied by the Center for Peace Communications based in New York, a mere five percent of Palestinians in Gaza remain supportive of Gaza-governing Hamas. Foreign media, he charges, perpetuate incorrect information respecting Hamas support among Gazans. In particular Qatari state broadcaster Al Jazeera, cited as the source of such misinformation, inviting the Western media to pick it up from, as it were, 'the horse's mouth'.

Doha, he claims, plays a "cancerous role", giving legitimacy to Hamas and through this process, prolonging Gazan suffering. Pointing out that the 2019 "We Want to Live" protests, led by Gaza's youth was neglected by international media. The Hamas response to the movement led to "torture and degrading treatment, including severe beating, breaking limbs, stripping clothing, and waterboarding", according to the U.S. State Department.

Above all, emphasized the young Gazan, who conveyed this information, it is the youth of Gaza increasingly becoming discouraged and distanced from both Hamas and Fatah of the Palestinian Authority. Four in ten Palestinians under age 25 are unemployed, there are no jobs available. Israel, he contends, could establish a "Hamas-free" enclave in Gaza where local community leaders would govern. Needless to say, Israel would have to be constantly on the alert that another Hamas might arise, bringing with it all the pain and heartache of the Hamas Israel is currently in the process of extinguishing.

Yet, claims this Gazan, a critical mass of Palestinians in Gaza is prepared to defend an Israel-backed safe zone from Hamas  terrorists. Israel trusted at one time, under then-President Ariel Sharon, that Palestinians would commit themselves to their aspirations to achieve statehood by focusing on building state infrastructure to benefit themselves and propel them into a secure future. Instead, when Israel vacated Gaza, in moved a supreme Islamist group dedicated to the extermination of Israel and the death of Zionism, integral to Jewish life everywhere....

Displaced Palestinians gather in a damaged building used as a temporary shelter in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 12, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

From One Indigenous Peoples To Another...

"As Anishinaabe, we are troubled by the expressions of hatred against Jews and Zionists, and the disappointing ignorance, fuelled by misinformation coming from universities."

"Ignorance about the indigeneity of the Jewish people in the region that is Israel. Ignorance about the values that Israel, as a democracy, stands for -- as imperfect as it is. Ignorance about the rights and responsibilities Israel has as a nation state and member of the United Nations. Ignorance about Zionism -- its compatibility with Palestinian self-determination, a two-state solution, and the fact that the vast majority of Jewish people identify with Israel. Ignorance about the current reconciliation efforts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Ignorance about our shared  history and the intentions of our original relationship."

"And how quickly the sadistic savagery of Hamas's invasion of Israel and its promises to repeat October 7 again and again and again are forgotten."

Harry Laforme, Karen Restoule, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation; Dokis First Nation

Anti Israel protesters rally at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall as the university’s deadline to remove the encampment has passed, Monday May 27, 2024. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /National Post

Karen Restoule specializes in public affairs, and with her law degree she is a vice-president with Crestview Strategy, honourary witness to Hamas's October 7 attack suffered by Israel. Harry Laforme is a retired appellate court judge, and practising lawyer. They submitted their impressions of the recent takeover of Canadian university grounds by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters, on unceded First Nations territory and their outrage at the protestors' bald assertions that First Nations are in support of their slanders against Israel and intimidation campaign against Canadian Jews.

 

For them the land in question has a spiritual essence that calls out to Canada's Indigenous population as the original inhabitants of the great land mass called Canada: "All relations with Indigenous peoples need to be based on the recognition and implementation of their right to self-determination", which universities claim to recognize, respecting rights and Treaties governing authentic First Nations lands. "The Land has spiritual essence and we are its custodians", a reality of "duty to consult" when Treaty Lands are used. 

Their written submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights Study of Antisemitism notes the fact that on the Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation six universities are positioned and that universities recognize the Indigenous peoples whose territory it is they occupy. Universities display fidelity to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, express awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights but often fail to respect the Treaties that govern the lands, as they have latterly been doing in permitting, without consultation of their Indigenous partners, the occupation of areas falling within the lands, for a purpose insulting to and opposed by them.

Of the six universities on Treaty Lands, five host encampments without having consulted the MCFN, where encampment occupiers along with pro-Palestinian protesters have taken control in illegal actions, excluding Jewish and Zionist students and faculty, limited their access to Treaty Lands and threatening them. The evident hatefulness of exclusion, bigotry, harassment, antisemitism, lawlessness and unadulterated antipathy are offensive to the values of the Treaty Land owners on their sacred land who are affronted by the level of lawlessness on full display.

The narratives of false history, rampant slander, and fiction posing as fact to delegitimize Israel and its historical claims of ancestry vastly predating by millennia any slender claims made by former Egyptian migrants to Palestine, as the original 'Palestinians' are offensive both to reason, and truthful history. Their goal of isolating and spreading hate against Jews offend the concept of equal human rights. To the Indigenous peoples of Canada the proponents of hate's use of sacred ceremonies like lighting of a Sacred Fire, smudging, drumming by activists in encampments on university campuses are beyond the pale in misappropriation of another culture.

The accusations of "colonizer", "settler", and "decolonize" as part of the slanderous public relations machinery of those who celebrate the Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians to justify terror, kidnapping, rape and massacres are anathema to humanity's most core values of civilization. "These words are used to assert revolutionary violence 'by any means necessary' and that 'all forms of resistance', are justified. ... We unequivocally reject these assertions and any allyship with those who hold such views", the authors of the submission wrote in justifiable outrage.

 

Supporters walk past a sign at the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on UQAM University campus, in Montreal, on May 27. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

"We, as Anishinaabe Zionists, are made to feel unwelcome on our Treaty Lands by treaty scofflaws and encampment occupiers, who self describe as part of the current colonial regime that marginalizes and oppresses Indigenous peoples -- us. Perhaps, they should begin an examination of the illogic of their own activities on our ancestral Treaty Lands."

"Our Treaty partners must enforce the law and codes of conduct on campuses and communities across the country Codes of conduct consistent with the Treaties and The Seven Sacred Teachings should be developed."

"The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism must be applied by all who fall within areas of federal oversight, influence, and authority. Indigenous people should be consulted with, about how Treaty Lands will be used. Universities must stop the false narratives. Facts, reality, truth -- not fiction, feelings and ideology -- should be taught."

Harry Laforme,  Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations

Karen Restoule, Dokis First Nation

The Wandering Jew No More

"Only in [a] bizarro world and America would Islamism be considered Progressive."

"In reality, Islamism is the most regressive, misogynist, racist, exclusivist, supremacist of ideologies."

"Read Fida and Qutb, or keep on getting your Ivy League education through TikTok."

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, research fellow, Foundation for the Defence of Democracies

 

"In 2022, there was one resolution each to criticize Iran, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar and the United States for its embargo on Cuba."

"There were six resolutions last year on Russia because of its war in Ukraine. The total of all these is 13. Yet on Israel alone, the [General Assembly] passed 15 condemnatory resolutions."

"Not a single [General Assembly] resolution was introduced on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Turkey, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Qatar, Vietnam, Algeria or 175 other countries."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

 

"One doesn't see the instant outpouring of emotions, the pain and anger, when Muslim populations across various conflict zones and under various dictatorial regimes suffer far more atrocities than the Palestinians."

Raheel Raza, Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism

Israel Defense Forces via AP

Accusations against evil-doing Jews are legendary throughout the ages; once held responsible for the Black Plague in the Medieval era, closer to our collective memory the Coronavirus Pandemic for which Jews were once again singled out as the cause of another catalyst of global collective death. Following the Roman Empire's putting down of a rebellion by Jews against centuries of domination/occupation by the Romans, when the Second Temple of Solomon was destroyed in the conflict and Jews were expelled from their ancestral homeland, a great diaspora took place when Jews were scattered all over the world.

Wherever they went on the globe, east, west, south, north, they were viewed with suspicion and frequently outright hostility. Their presence succeeded in benefiting the countries where they were allowed to settle, in technical innovations, scientific enquiry, medical progress and economic enterprise, but eventually they were hounded and expelled as they were in Spain and Portugal by the Inquisition. Expelled in Austria and Britain, eventually to return. In Eastern Europe land ownership was denied them, and pogroms resulted whenever area authorities wanted to divert the public's attention from their own administrative incompetence.

In Germany, where Jews were well established, proud of their assimilation into German culture, social and professional life, the final iteration of a carefully calibrated campaign of oppression, intimidation, threats and pogroms burst into a state-sponsored-and-designed elimination of the right to consider themselves human, as the machinery of annihilation of a people went into full gear. The world heard rumours of death camps but preferred to remain oblivious of state-organized slaughter on a scale never before imagined.

Genocide is a wound that can never heal, its perpetrators can never rehabilitate their nationhood, destroyed along with the uncountable human souls they destroyed. Jews realized throughout their endless mourning that the curse that followed them through an eternity of existence had lifted but it was a temporary reprieve. Now, Islam, a religious devotion sacred to an immense global population has offspring infected with a religious fervour to complete what European fascism aimed for.

A number of fanatical Islamist sources within the greater Islamic population treasure a covenant to destroy Jewish life and with it the reborn geographic heritage that led to the final chapter in the legend of the wandering Jew. Terrorist groups incited, armed, trained and loyal to genocidal regimes dedicated to the obliteration of the State of Israel. Their oil wealth and their interpretation of Islam's sacred scriptures lead them to the belief that it is their version of god that instructs them to commit genocide anew.

 

Palestinians taking Israeli hostage to Gaza ... AP

 

They have become skilled in the social-human art of propaganda and social conditioning inherent in 'public relations' where they portray themselves as avenging saviours of the world's longest-reigning 'victims' whom Jewish cunning and evil-mindedness has deprived of their freedom, their land, their hopes for the future. The ancestral homecoming of the Jewish diaspora enraged the Arab League and the UN's Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Arab armies combined to launch wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973 in the fledgling rebirth of Israel. They were repelled, defeated by the infinitely smaller, poorly equipped defence forces of the Jewish State.

"No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no recognition of Israel", was the guiding light of response from the Arab League following the 1967 war, when Israel's defence won territory in Egypt and Syria which it was willing to surrender for peace. The most recent war now takes place in Gaza, which Israel unilaterally surrendered to the Palestinians hoping the gesture would result in peace. The terrorist group Hamas had other ideas. Its covenant is clear; its goal is Israel's destruction.

There are many ways to destroy a people; one begins with slander that holds them to be less than human, accusing them of planning the wholesale death of others, of perpetrating the worst horrors imaginable upon helpless civilians, when in fact, they have engaged in conflict to inflict a penalty upon a conscienceless group of Islamist terrorists whose savagery mutilated and murdered Israeli civilians setting Israel on a course of destroying those that would destroy it and its people.

 

Elderly hostage from Kfar Azza kibbutz ... AP

"There is NOTHING anyone could do that would lead me to kill a child in cold blood, dismember a woman, slice her genitals, blow up parents in front of their children, laugh, sit and eat at their table." 

Shoshana Keats Jaskoll, Jewish activist and writer

The High Price of Terrorism

"The criminal enemy is driven by the spirit of revenge and murder and does not value any standards of laws."

"The enemy believes that by targeting the families of the leaders, it will push them to give up the demands of our people."

"Anyone who believes that targeting my sons will push Hamas to change its position is delusional."

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh 

An Israeli raid claimed the lives of three sons and three grandchildren of Hamas' political bureau leader, Ismail Haniyeh. (Photo: video grab)

 

Delusional, as in the incapacity to recognize reality, leading one to believe irrationally that one's criminal activity directed against a perceived enemy is totally within reason and represents an honourable action. That slaughtering innocent people represents a qualified success in persuading that enemy that they will never succeed in arguing it is better for all involved to live in peace by demonstrating that instead of peace enabling two different cultures, religions, ethnicities to abide one another's presence without resorting to conflict, it is far more effective to launch deadly attacks to deliver the message of absolute rejection.

Delusion is the attitude that surfaces of disbelief and fury leading to the sanctimonious censure of the 'enemy' that strikes back in a message that declares no one is untouchable who is involved in the murder of our citizens, particularly if they are themselves 'sensitive' subjects of familial concern, in the wake of a remorseless barbarism of savagery unleashed on helpless civilian children, women and the elderly. One that remains unresolved with the condition of hostages still held as bargaining chips unknown, although some are held to have been murdered while in captivity.

 

People gathered for vigils in Jerusalem and around the world to remember those killed or taken hostage on Oct. 7. CBC still from video

Three sons of Hamas leader Haniyeh, themselves part of the Hamas terrorist operation, given their father's leading role in the deaths of thousands of Israelis over the years were assassinated as just dues of the October 7 mass murder of Israelis, eliciting condemnation from Haniyeh at the 'criminal' actions of a nation's military tasked to protect and perserve the lives of their own population. Whereas Haniyeh is fond and proud of declaring at every opportunity how proud he is that Palestinians willingly offer their lives as 'martyrs' for the cause of destroying Israel.

 

What is unfortunate is that Palestinian terrorists never quite believe they will one day have their lives extinguished in attacks countering their own. Which leads to the death of innocents, both Israeli and Palestinian. Three of Haniyeh's grandchildren were killed in the Israeli strike that dispatched their fathers, Hazem, Ameer and Mohammed Haniyeh, when the vehicle they were all travelling in was struck by a drone within the Gaza Strip's al-Shati camp. Children anywhere deserve to live and to flourish and to become decent human beings.

"From a military point of view, Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding [and its capabilities [crippled]."

"Fighting against Hamas will take time. Boys who are now in middle school will still fight in the 
Gaza Strip."

"Wherever there are terrorist targets, the Israel Defense Forces will be there."

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz

Ismail Haniyeh said the car containing members of his family was targeted as they were visiting the Shati refugee camp for Eid. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Palestinian Protests for Hamas -- The Time Has Come

"Whether it's on the street. Whether it's at work. Or whether it's in your place of worship. It could be at a synagogue."

"Everyone will be held accountable."

Leader, Pro-Palestinian march 

"During protests themselves, police can play a variety of roles, including traffic manager, negotiator, and public relations professional, as well as security guard for protesters, their targets, and member of the public alike."

"Even when arrests or tactical operations are legally justified, police will frequently choose to employ different strategies, including the use of police liaison teams [PLTs] to negotiate with protesters."

Justice Paul Rouleau, commissioner, report on Emergencies Act

"I know hate when I see it, and most of these so-called demonstrations are NOT Charter-protected."

"It is time for order to be restored in Toronto so all of  us can enjoy life without harassment and hate from angry mobs."

Toronto councillor James Pasternak

 

"If they’re going to break the law, if they’re going to assault our police officers or assault our police horses, there will be consequences and people will be arrested."

"[Police were aware of a number of] agitators [who were present at multiple demonstrations in Toronto and who were stirring up violence]."

"Toronto police attend these gatherings to maintain public order, facilitate crowd control and above all to ensure the safety of everyone present, be they demonstrators, officers or the general public."

"We respect the right to assembly and to expression, but it’s crucial to understand that these rights are not limitless. Our officers are well versed in their authority during demonstrations, and when they take actions, it is unacceptable to obstruct them or become aggressive towards them."

"We have engaged in ongoing discussions with protest organizers for many months. We have been clear on what lawful demonstrations include and do not include. Despite our repeated warnings and cautions, some protesters on Saturday refused to cooperate or follow police directives. This culminated in physical aggression towards out officers, a serious departure from the principles of lawful demonstration."

"These actions are anything but peaceful. They jeopardize the safety of everyone involved, including those who get caught in the fray and have no intentions of engaging in altercations with police."

"There are individuals consistently involved in the protests who act as agitators, and who are becoming increasingly confrontational and violent."

Lauren Pogue, deputy chief of Community Safety Command, Toronto Police Service

A screenshot shows Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue of Community Safety Command at Toronto Police Headquarters on Friday. Photo by Toronto Police Service /YouTube

It is not a question of whether the aggravated and pestilential series of 'pro-Palestinian' protests and marches are getting out of hand. From the very inception of this odious phenomenon, when the first of these Palestinian-organized rallies supporting the Canada-terror-listed Hamas governing Gaza began, even before the slaughtered Israeli victims' bodies turned cold, their sentiments congratulating Hamas for a job well done were disgustingly displayed on the streets and byways of Canadian cities.

Months after the October 7 bloodbath when Hamas terrorists flooded across the Gaza border with Israel, PLFP and PIJ terror groups following closely behind, as did Palestinian civilians anxious to loot and to rape and kill, the organized celebratory events praising Hamas and condemning Israel as the aggressor-occupier continue to riot throughout Canada. Calls for Israel's annihilation through the ubiquitous chant "From the river to the sea", "Intefada", and "Final Solution!" deliver the message of hate, a crime under Canadian law.

 

The reason these public riots are becoming increasingly violent is obvious; they've been tolerated by authorities for far too long, under the banner of 'free expression', despite their onerous effect on the targets of their hateful spite and threats; the Canadian Jewish community. Now, finally, six people have been arrested on the past weekend. One of them a woman for flinging horse manure at officers, along with another woman who used a flagpole as a 'spear'. The crowds of supporters of Hamas terrorism, in fact have been emboldened because their vicious antics have been tolerated.

 

"Toronto Police tried to kill Palestinians in broad daylight!", one protester claimed hysterically; an overblown charge reflective of the usual hyperbole employed by these people who feel they are entitled to obstruct life for others sharing public spaces, while threatening Jewish residents and citizens of Canada. Police, finally, have either been given orders from municipal councils, or have themselves decided that there has been more than enough slack in handling these incessant, disturbing riots. 

The rallies have brought with them, an uptick in public antisemitism that no longer tries to hide itself but engages in blatant expressions of hatred of Jews. Jewish-owned businesses have been targeted. Jewish parochial schools, Jewish institutions, social centres and synagogues have all become fair game to the supporters of Palestinian terrorism. Notably in a Toronto area heavily populated by Jews, protesters set themselves up for days on a bridge leading to the community, a stone's throw from a synagogue and a Jewish school.

Jews living in the area were forced to take alternate routes to arrive at their homes, an inconvenience that, had any other group been involved, would have resulted in arrests for blocking public thoroughfares. Counter-protests finally led to police clearing the area. Police have demonstrated a type of tolerance  up to the present that the protesters took for granted. On a Toronto weekend just past, one of the protests videos showed a female police officer being intimidated by a group of men while the crowd howled "F****** bitch", and "F****** pigs".

And so, finally, it appears that their violent tactics, their illegal wearing of masks during protests, their threats against the Jewish community, their calls for the destruction of Israel, their promulgating of vicious antisemitism has come to an end -- at least in Toronto, dare we hope, and with a return to sanity, elsewhere throughout the country.

 

 

 

Hamas Psychopathy on Ego-Steroids

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Prime Minister’s Office)

"Contrary to what is [being] said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas."

"On the other hand, there is our initiative, which I will not detail."

"If we agree to this [the Hamas demand that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from Gaza and end its war with Hamas] we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens."

"We will not be able to return the evacuees safely to their homes, and the next October 7 will only be a matter of time."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Demonstrators hold up portraits of hostages held by the Hamas terror group during a rally to demand their release, near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on January 22, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Israel has been attempting to negotiate through third parties with Hamas for the release of the remaining 136 Israeli hostages being held by the terrorists in Gaza. Public pressure and the desperate pleas of the hostages' families, along with the state's own fervent intention to have all Israelis rescued from the plight of further traumatic treatment at the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza have exerted pressure on the government which cannot function solely on its pledge to destroy any future capability of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to mount further attacks on Israel and its citizens. 

The Israeli Prime Minister speaking to representatives of the hostage families in a meeting, apprised them of that simple fact; no offers that could be seriously contemplated have been received from Hamas whose suggestions for the release of the remaining hostages come from a source that believes it has the upper hand in the certainty of how dearly Israelis take the well-being of their citizens to enable it to put forward the kind of offers that no sane government could ever contemplate; certainly not one tasked with the security of its nation.

Benjamin Netanyahu did on the other hand, confirm that during negotiations Hamas demanded the retreat from Gaza of the Israel Defense Forces, and that Israel commit to ending its war with the terrorist group -- a unilateral demand in that whatever Israel might commit to in withdrawing its troops and its commitment to destroy the terrorist group, Hamas would have no intention of stopping its intermittent violent attacks against Israel. Hamas's arrogance demands "the release of all the Nukhba (terrorist commando) murderers and rapists, and leaving Hamas intact."

Troops operating in the Gaza Strip in an undated photo released on January 23, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

 

A committee session at the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem (Knesset) saw several dozen relatives of Israelis held hostage disrupt the event with demands that the lawmakers make a greater effort to free their family members. Many of the protesters carried photographs of their family members taken to Gaza. 

 

"Is it reasonable that 260 trucks of flour are entering Gaza now while my brother is eating nothing", Adi Angrest shouted. His brother Sgt. Matan Angrest remains a  hostage in Gaza. "It doesn't make any sense that my brother isn't eating anything when they bring them [Palestinians] 260 trucks of flour!"

 

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu was in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Issues being discussed included the Paris-brokered agreement where medicines were to be delivered to Israeli hostages suffering from chronic illnesses that were destined to be provided to them entered the Gaza Strip last week and which the International Committee of the Red Cross stated they had no intention of delivering to the hostages. Instead, they said, the deliveries would be entrusted to Hamas. 

Mr. Lecornu was informed by Netanyahu that he is awaiting evidence that any of the medicines had actually reached the Israeli hostages, emphasizing that the implementation of the agreement must be monitored. Official Israeli figures state that 136 hostages remain in Gaza out of the total of 240 taken there on October 7. An unknown number are believed to have been killed there. 100 of the hostages had been released in November through a deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar.

Israeli authorities have no reason to believe that the hostages received any of the life-saving medications prescribed for their medical conditions. Instead, there is a common belief that just as Hamas operatives had commandeered much of the fuel, food, water and medicines sent by the international community into Gaza through border crossings to alleviate Palestinian shortages, so too did the Hamas terrorists advantage themselves with the delivery into their hands of medications meant for ailing Israeli hostages.

Friends and family members mourn during the funeral of IDF soldier Hadar Kapeluk in the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on January 23, 2024, a day after he was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Western Champions of Hamas Death-Cult

"We, the undersigned, residing in so-called Canada, urge Canadian leaders..."

"[The expulsion of Ontario's NDP MPP Sarah Jama] exposes the bankrupt situational morality of Canadian politics in a settler colonial country that can only but support white settler politics elsewhere as the condition of its own existence."

Partial contents of letter 

 

"What kind of organization would carry out such hideous violence against such obviously innocent people, and do it in the most cruel and odious manner and then willingly publicize it for all the world to see?"

"This is evil in its purest form, and that evil must be defeated."

Canadian Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

Hamas shared a photo of a terrorist kidnapping a bloodied victim near the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Canadian academics and organizations signed a letter that denies Israeli women were 'sexually violated' by Hamas terrorists on that fateful day of October 7. Samantha Person, director of the University of Alberta's sexual-assault centre signed that letter among others, and was duly fired. The denial of video evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas is a message so twisted it cannot be countenanced. Decency forbids it, even as committed antisemites celebrate it as just desserts.

"I unequivocally agree with the University of Alberta's decision to dismiss the director. All spaces, including university campuses, need to be safe for all."

"Antisemitism of any kind must not be tolerated."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Yet that letter was endorsed by 41 organizations and 18 individuals from the "research community", and 30 from "civil society". Four from University of Alberta; a full professor in education; two assistant lecturers, one of whom is in women's and gender studies; and a post-doctoral researcher. According to the body of the letter, all Canadian political parties "dehumanize Palestinians, facilitating Israeli-led genocide against them".

 

Politicians who fail to demand an immediate ceasefire, must resign, according to the document. Israel released a one-minute, 28-second video of two  young women desperately attempting to escape from an armed man in black, wearing the green Hamas headband. Edited together from security camera footage at Kibbutz Alumim, a collective farm of some 120 families located about a kilometre from the border with Gaza. 

 

Attendees scatter as violence breaks out at the festival.

 

The kibbutz is almost adjacent to the site of the Re'im music festival where Hamas operatives, some arriving by paraglider, slaughtered at least 364 young people from dawn onward. It was at this kibbutz that a gathering point had been conceived to receive festival survivors -- before it, too, was stormed shortly after 7:00 a.m. by Hamas terrorists. In the video shocked escapees gather at the compound's front gate. One woman sits on a curb, another comforts her.

Eight minutes later they all scramble at the sight of Hamas terrorists running to the gate with raised weapons. One of the terrorists breaks into a run toward two women, slower than the others as the group scatters in panic. Ten seconds on, the terrorist grabs a woman dressed in a flowing black skirt, grabbing her by her hair; a puff is seen, and she drops, dead. The second woman a few metres from the terrorist drops to the ground begging for her life. 

The terrorist turns his attention briefly to aim several shots at others running away, then shoots the pleading women crouching before him in the head. Dozens who escaped the first massacres at the music festival were murdered along the roads or in neighbouring communities where they fled to find shelter. Dashcam videos from Oz Davidian, a farmer living nearby, circulated last week, informing the world that he rescued over a hundred survivors from the festival grounds, speeding through Hamas-held areas, picking up people in over a dozen trips back and forth at risk of his own life.

 

At one point, Davidian drove by a group of people he thought were Israeli paramedics and soldiers but were actually terrorists.

That day of October 7, the Hamas terrorists had virtually unchallenged control of Route 232, large sections of Israel's southwestern highway. A lengthy stretch of roadway strewn with abandoned and burnt vehicles and dead bodies are seen from the footage from Davidian's truck. "You see piles of corpses on top of each other, as if they were together and had just been slaughtered" explained Davidian in translated narration. 

 

One of the people he rescued thought he was a member of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet because of his remarkable actions amid the carnage.

Kibbutz Alumim's fate was not as dreadful as Kibbutz Be'eri, almost destroyed. Its small security force co-ordinated an impromptu defence of the compound until the Israeli Defense Forces arrived just after midnight. Hamas massacred nine Thai workers and ten Nepali student labourers at Kibbutz Alumim. It is now evacuated, with a skeleton crew left to maintain the dairy herd. 

A week following the invasion, barns were still smouldering from Hamas-set fires. Yet despite the carnage, and the evidence of sadistic violence in the rape and murder of 1,200 innocent civilians, the hostage-taking of 240 children, elderly, infirm, and soldiers, the world of academia and unions in Canada turns its back and revels in their version of events; the victory of 'resistance'.

The massacres were praised as "Palestinian anticolonial resistance" by University of Toronto professor and 'decolonization' expert Uahikea Maile. As for Kibbutz Alumim, its ownership of the land on which it sits predates the 1948 State of Israel. The land was bought from Arab landowners by the Jewish National Fund during the British era of control. It sits geographically in land designated Jewish in the UN original Partition plan.

Israeli farmer Oz Davidian (right) rescued about 120 survivors of the Hamas massacre at a music festival by driving back and forth to pick up as many people as he could while being shot at by the terrorists.