Remembering the Unforgettable...Healing the Unspeakably Agonizing Pain

"Sexual trauma always raises the question: 'Did it happen? Show me the evidence'."

"People ask for video clips or photographs.The survivors do not owe anybody anything. They only owe themselves the chance to recover. There was a clash between the well-being and mental health of survivors and the demand -- from foreign governments, journalists and others -- for stories and evidence."

"The stories belong to the survivors. Some survivors of sexual violence from Nova [Music Festival] do not want to speak publicly. They do not want the stigma. That should be accepted and respected."

"The public does not understand the scale [of the atrocities], because it is not only direct victims, it's survivors from captivity, Nova, the kibbutzim and the military."

"It is also first responders and people who handled bodies."

Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director, Association of Rape Crisis Centers, Israel 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu places a wreath at a memorial ceremony for the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, at Mount Herzl Cemetery, Jerusalem, on Monday, October 5, 2026.   Debbie Hill/Pool/Reuters

 

Videos? There were videos galore, taken with body cams worn by some among the thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas into southern Israel on October 7, 2023 for the very purpose of chronicling the sadistic bestiality they planned to carry out among Israeli girls and women. Videos that were proudly shown on social media so they could elicit praise from the admirers of terrorism. Many of whom would later deny that this was terrorism, merely a long-overdue reckoning of an oppressed people; oppressed because the Jewish state would not turn over its ancestral heritage to Arab colonizers.

 

The Israelis who lived near the border of Gaza in collective farming communities -- kibbutzim, were firm in their belief that kindness and helpful understanding of the plight of Palestinians living in poverty in Gaza would result in mutual friendship. Hiring Palestinians for agricultural work, giving them the opportunity to earn fair wages, to enable them to raise their families with a guaranteed income providing the necessities of life, and more. And to demonstrate just how accepting the kibbutz residents were, eating their meals alongside the invited Palestinians in the collective dining rooms.

 

Friendships were indeed made, and trust went with it. Among the kibbutznik help offered to Palestinians requiring medical attention whereby they would be driven to Israeli hospitals to receive needed medical care, for hospitals in Israel treat everyone in medical need. There appeared to be no cautionary approach but one of open wholesale acceptance. That there are no real differences between the Israelis living on the opposite side of the border to Gaza, and Gazans themselves. All are human, and worthy of care and consideration.

People attend a memorial service in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, where many community members were killed and abducted on Oct. 7, 2023. (Ariel Schalit/The Associated Press)

 

And then came that early morning rocket barrage; not too unusual at any time, but a diversion on this occasion, to mask a more direct threat, that of thousands of dedicated terrorists from Islamic Jihad, the PLFP, Fatah and Hamas who flooded across the border after bulldozing down the protective barriers and dispatching the Israeli border guards who fought superior numbers and died or were taken captive as hostages. 

 

From there to the kibbutzim where unaware Israelis became targets for instant death. Among the terrorist horde were ordinary Palestinians, some of whom knew the layouts of the kibbutzim quite intimately, some of whom had drawn maps to instruct the invaders where each kibbutz's security center could be found, the security members neutralized before the intruders fanned out and shot at people waiting for buses, barged into homes to torture and kill children in front of their parents, parents in front of their children.

 

Where homes with their residents locked into safe rooms were torched and everyone inside burned to death. The site of the Nova Music Festival nearby, swarmed with terror operatives opening fire on those attempting to flee, firing through the walls of small huts where young men and women gathered to huddle together in the faint hope of not being discovered and survival. Where women caught fleeing were gang-raped, their bodies mutilated, limb from limb.

 

A newly completed study from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel expected to be released in the new year was geared to studying possible recovery of survivors of sexual violence of that fateful day when savagely depraved men with no conscience shoved metal rods into women's vaginas, even grenades. And nor did the captured men escape sexual violence before their gruesome tortured deaths. The ARCCI's  2024 report -- Silent Cry: Sexual Violence Crimes on October 7, assembled an account of sexual and gender-based violence during and after October 7. The awaited report examines long-term impacts of the sexual trauma.

 

"The health system -- like therapists, hospitals, security personnel -- did sensitive work. They initially met and questioned released hostages. They were generally trauma-informed: they understood not to ask what did not need to be asked. But three years later, what is hugely missing is a national initiative to help people navigate mental health, rehabilitation, employment and bureaucracy. If people do not have someone helping them through the system, they can hardly survive. This will take a decade", explained Orit Sulitzeanu.  

 

The scale and scope of the widespread suffering of those who directly experienced and survived the atrocities, including those who were witness to them, represents a national tragedy as well as a national responsibility to care and to nurture wounded psyches back to health, if at all possible. The horrors of the acts of inhumanity that took place on October 7 are well enough known internationally. Skepticism yet abounds, and what's perhaps worse, disinterest.

 

Commuters in Tel Aviv conduct a moment of silence on the highway as part of a memorial ceremony on Wednesday. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

 

A severely wounded country reacted as would any other nation following the broad and unforgivable human rights violations that beggar the imagination and brought pain and suffering throughout the country and traumatized the wider Jewish community throughout the diaspora. And yet despite the shock and pain, Jews once again found themselves abandoned by the larger, broader community in countries where they have lived for generations upon generations. 

 

Israel which had suffered such a devastatingly grim wound found itself facing hostile condemnation by its putative allies who aligned themselves with the Palestinian propaganda machinery painting Israel as the aggressor and Palestinians the long-suffering victims who had merely acted out their frustration of a people denied their future state. Terrorists shielding themselves behind and among a civilian population with the direct purpose of saving themselves while submitting civilians to risks of fallout from the response to an unspeakable act of terrorist atrocities used the deaths of those they had manipulated into occurring, as proof of their victimization. 

 

Polls taken by Palestinian polling agents clarify certain realities; in the wake of October 7, with all the details freely available, Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza are in the greater majority in agreeing that the October 7 atrocities had their support, as would reiterations of that vile event. When hostages were being taken into Gaza, both live and dead Israeli men and women, Palestinians were overjoyed and celebratory. Some took to beating the dead bodies of men and women, used as objects for trade in freeing Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. 

 

The family of Hilly Solomon visits her memorial photo and plaque at the Nova festival memorial site early Wednesday in Reim, as Israel marks the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

 

"This story has become connected to bigger political arguments about Israel and Zionism. But atrocities are atrocities, whatever one's politics. They should be examined first as human acts."

"Sexual violence does not necessarily leave something a survivor can show the world."

"That makes it easier for people to place everything in apolitical context and say, 'You are lying'. I think that is horribly sad."

Orit Sulitzeanu, Association of Rape Crisis Centers, Israel 

The Beset-by-Racist-Hate Belleville Jewish Community

"Two weeks after the near massacre at Belleville Synagogue, residents of the city and nearby communities, including members of the Jewish community, say they’re feeling targeted again after hateful antisemitic flyers were discovered at the synagogue building itself as well as distributed at neighboring homes. Belleville police are investigating. They haven’t released many details. B’nai Brith Canada says these Belleville flyers are believed to be influenced by or even linked to a US-based neo-Nazi group called the Goyim Defense League."

"It distributes these antisemitic materials and blames Jews for everything from COVID to abortion and other white supremacist theories. Several Jewish advocacy groups say the GDL has made inroads into Canada in recent years. The Belleville synagogue shooter apparently blamed Jews for being responsible for COVID, and his refusal to take a vaccine while serving in the Canadian Armed Forces led in part to his being kicked out in 2022. Jewish groups warn that online libels and conspiracies about Jews and Israelis are fueling hate and violence against Canadians."

Ellin Bessner, The Canadian Jewish News   

Antisemitic flyer left at Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario on October 1, 2026.

(photo credit: X/SCREENSHOT/@Ryan_r_Williams)

 In Belleville, Ontario, residents suddenly found themselves the recipients of vile antisemitic flyers distributed in the east end of the city. A follow-up to the terrorist attack by a former member of the Canadian Military who had gone on a psychotic tear, armed and prepared to enter the Sons of Jacob Synagogue during the evening Yom Kippur service with assembled congregants whom he intended to become victims of a mass slaughter. Stopped by the presence of a Belleville police officer in an unmarked vehicle who became the assassin's first victim. Now recovering from his serious injuries, Constable Jeff Smith and a colleague who soon arrived as backup, managed between them to disable the attacker who later died in hospital from his injuries.

 

"It was so soon after the shooting. What's going on here?" asked the synagogue president Norman Weddum. The September 20 apprehended terror attack left the small congregation of the southern Ontario city in a state of shocked recovery, certainly in no condition to face unrelenting antisemitic attacks on an ongoing basis in their longtime community. The outrageously hateful propaganda of unremitting conspiracy theories, outright lies that no one in their right mind could even consider as reflective of reality serves to dent the community's sense of security.  

"Just over a week ago, I was there that night of the shooting, and like many in our community, I had only begun the process of trying to heal and regain a sense of safety."

"Seeing these flyers posted around the east side of Belleville near the synagogue yesterday has brought that night and all those emotions rushing back."

"Yesterday was a very difficult day."

Doug Lobel, synagogue congregant, Belleville resident 

According to Mr. Weddum, there were "a lot" of flyers distributed, that messaged and promoted conspiracy theories that blame Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion, gun control and mass immigration. Whether a single individual was responsible for the distribution, or a group that had fanned out to cover as much ground as possible before their presence was detected, was unknown. 

 

 

 

Discharged from the Canadian Armed Forces as a  result of refusing to be vaccinated against COVID, the synagogue attacker weeks before had theorized that Jews were to blame for COVID. A video where he could be heard shouting "You are going to die for the Jews", before he attempted to murder Corporal Jeff Smith en route to entry to the Synagogue and its congregants, was shared by police. The shooting, they said, had deliberately targeted the Jewish community; the attacker having the "means, the motive and the mechanisms" to carry out a larger attack. 

 

Since the distribution of the flyers by a group calling themselves the "Goyim Defence League", obviously named in mockery after the now-defunct, decades old Jewish Defence League led by ordained U.S. rabbi Meier Kahane, Belleville Police have assured Jewish residents that the "flyers being distributed in the east end of Belleville containing antisemitic messaging" have alerted police to "taking proactive steps to support the safety and well-being of residents". 

 

Measures such as increased patrols at places of worship include other community gathering areas. The GoFundMe account that was set up to rebuild the synagogue along with one to support Constable Jeff Smith has raised close to $1 million on the part of the Canadian Jewish community. Constable Mike McCurdy escaped injury when the two police officers shot back at the would-be assassin, but another fundraiser was initiated on his behalf as "the emotional toll of this experience is significant, and mental recovery is just as vital as physical healing". 

 

Residents of Belleville, Ont., including Jewish ones, found antisemitic flyers distributed at some homes and around residential areas. Flyers were also found plastered on the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, less than two weeks after the shooting attack and exchange of gunfire outside its doors on Yom Kippur that left the gunman dead and a police officer hospitalized with multiple injuries. (Credit: Submitted photo/The CJN)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell Us, Mark Carney, What Jews Already Know

"Safety is not theoretical; it is reflected in whether a child can wear a kippah to school without fear, openly express their Jewish identify, whether families feel comfortable attending synagogue, and whether community institutions can operate openly and securely."

"Antisemitic incidents continue to occur in schools, workplaces, places of worship, community institutions, public spaces, and online environments. Communities have reported harassment, intimidation, threats, vandalism, discrimination, hate speech, and violence. Many have expressed concern not only about the frequency of these incidents, but also about whether institutions consistently recognize and respond to antisemitism when it occurs." 

National Commitments to Combat Antisemitism report 

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks about the rise of antisemitism to community leaders and community members at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto on June 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

 

Canadian Jews have been living an ongoing nightmare for the past three years. Since the carnage of October 7, 2023 when Palestinian terrorists in their thousands flooded across the border from Gaza into Southern Israel -- to rape, loot, slaughter and kidnap children, the elderly, girls and women for barter, leaving 1,200 dead Israelis and the nation to mourn its dead to an onslaught of pure unadulterated psychotic sadism where terrorists with body cams videoed the mutilation, mass rape and murder of Israeli women and girls, the fires set in family-occupied homes to burn residents to death -- Jew-hate has surged in Canada.

 

In the immediate wake of the atrocities, throngs of Jew-hating, keffiyeh-clad, masked 'protesters' marched in the streets, led by Palestinian student groups and foreign interlopers whose goal it was to radicalize the Canadian left to their cause. At university campuses across the country those same student groups set up 'Palestinian' encampments to harass and threaten Jewish faculty and students alike. The Hamas supporters insisted that university administrations relinquish all investments and associations with Israeli academia.

 

Memorial at Nova Music Festival massacre

 

Canada's Liberal government responded by condemning the unrest, and taking verbal umbrage at the antisemitism roiling Canadian society ... but never without also condemning 'Islamophobia', concerned with the hurt feelings of Canadian Muslims from among whose ranks the perpetrators of Jew-hate-mania erupted...condemnation of antisemitism becoming an add-on of lesser gravity. And nor did the federal government take any action to put a stop to the incessant viral calls to violence against Jews through the marchers' calls to 'globalize the Intifada', and for a 'Final Solution' alongside 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'.

 

Two successive Liberal governments, under Trudeau, then Carney, placed Israel under a spotlight of suspicion, while elevating the status of two Palestinian enclaves in the Middle East -- both of which have in the past 80 years committed violently murderous attacks against Israel and its Jews -- to a declared state status, minus the need to recognize the legitimate sovereignty of Israel, to stop its propaganda war against the Jewish state, to legitimize itself as a fledgling state through the democratic process, to replace its school curricula demonizing Jews and Israel, and to put an end to its infamous lavish payouts to 'martyrs' dedicated to killing Jews in Israel.

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment at the University of Toronto. A spokesperson for the group says they will not leave until the school meets a list of their demands. Photo: (Paul Smith/CBC)

 

Taking their cue from the federal government, provincial governments and municipalities followed suit, as did their police departments. Where police in Montreal and Toronto in particular dedicated themselves to 'protecting' anti-Israel, pro-Hamas marchers, in their right to 'free speech', while giving short shrift to Canadian Jews who came out to counter those threatening their position as centuries-long position of Jews of Canada, by informing the Jews their presence presented a danger of escalation and they must disperse or be charged. 

"The Government of Canada recognizes that antisemitism can be a matter of national security. Beyond the very real and immediate threat to Jewish individuals and communities, antisemitism is a core component of many violent extremist ideologies. Antisemitism is both an indicator and an accelerator of radicalization and its spread -- as history shows -- and it is not just a threat to public safety but to social cohesion and democratic values."

"The normalization of hate directed at Jewish-Canadians and violence directed at Jewish community institutions, undermines Canadian security and resilience, creating an environment where no vulnerable minority is safe." 

NCCA report 

 Toronto police are seen outside Shaarei Shomayim on Glencairn Avenue after the building was struck by gunfire in the early morning hours of March 7, 2026. CITYNEWS

 

It is, in point of fact, the Liberal Government of Canada and its Cabinet, its Prime Minister, that have succeeded in normalizing Jew-hate in the country. They did this through their default complicity, by doing nothing to uphold the laws against promulgating hate against an identifiable group that threatens their security. When Jewish businesses are vandalized, synagogues and schools shot at, Jewish neighbourhoods inundated with antisemitic literature, by groups of anti-Israel, Palestinian-celebrating vandals, the government deplores the situation but no remedial action is ever taken.

 

The declarations attributable to the investigations and conclusions reached by government-appointed committees ostensibly meant to reach a consensus leading to recommendations for government remedial action, could be artificial-intelligence-composed for all the authenticity and resolve they contain. Any grade-school Jewish child could compose something similar from the experience gained at an all-too early age in the growing menace of Jew-hate at every level, not excluding public schools and public museums.

 

This Liberal government now led by Mark Carney has been a complete failure on many levels for many reasons, none as abrasively averse to the Jewish-Canadian community's comfort level in equality and security in a grievously altered Canadian culture where the social compact all have relied upon and respected has all so suddenly been corrupted and threatening. It is the Liberal government that opened Canada's borders to refugees, migrants and immigrants from countries in North Africa and the Middle East whose cultures are radically averse to Canada's, whose values and system of justice and equality do not match Canada's.

 

No, Mr. Carney, your statement that "Muslim values are Canadian values" is quite incorrect... 

 

Above all, that which the government, traditional news media and corporate interests stand infused now with the taint of Critical Race Theory, DEI and the essence of 'woke' dedicate themselves to, offering praise for that which has not earned praise, accepting a low standard from those incapable of anything better, but satisfying the expectations of 'progressive' liberalism which has decided that Jews in Canada can look after themselves, because its government has no interest whatever in their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

 

The Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

 

"No Rules Now" Putin's Latest Assaults on Human Rights

"The capital is in a very dramatic situation."

"It's no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we lived in peacetime."

"The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko 

 

"The Russians couldn't occupy us. So now they are doing massive attacks and massive killings."

"They are increasing the number of people they recruit through various methods. It is important that the governments of countries from which Russia recruits people for its army take action against this." 

"New interceptors are being actively tested. Some combat groups are using them, but, of course, some details still need to be refined to achieve enough effectiveness and scale. "

"We are speeding up the developers." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

Flames are seen at Kyiv's Dobrobut Hospital on Monday in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)

 

What is left of the 8,000 North Korea soldiers sent over to fight with Russia against Ukraine, is being fortified with the arrival of another 10,000 North Korean military operatives, as Russia ramps up its recruitment efforts for its ongoing offensive. The plan is to strike civilian infrastructure as the Russian military has always done, but now the focus has turned to Kyiv, which up until a short while ago managed to escape most of the missiles and drones targeting other parts of Ukraine.

 

Residents of Kyiv, while becoming accustomed to energy infrastructure hits, particularly in the winter months -- meant to demoralize them, suffering from unheated interiors and difficulties with food preparation in freezing weather -- were mostly able to go about their business as usual, as soon as energy was restored. During aerial attacks, people flooded into shelters, where the subway system tunnels proved a great asset. More latterly, however, transportation systems have been targeted to fully interrupt illusions of normalcy.

 

More recent aerial strikes have brought a standstill to traffic with a bridge linking Kyiv's east and west put out of commission. A fuming Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again ripped Vladimir Putin for his savage attacks on civilian areas in Ukrainian cities. The grinding conflict reaching into its fifth year with Moscow ordering massive nighttime raids whose effects are the destruction of municipal infrastructure, apartment buildings, government offices have reached a new low in violations of international rules of war. President Zelenskyy revealed Putin having declared "no rules now", gained through intelligence.

 

The ground combat in the east has morphed into a focus on massive aerial attacks, which until latterly Ukraine managed to mostly intercept, with most damage on the ground caused by pieces of shrapnel, from exploded missiles and drones. Russia's production of a new type of drone based on the Iranian Shahed, have been proven all too difficult to intercept. Their speed and deadly impacts allow them to evade interception and strike their targets with efficient violence.

 

In Kyiv the closure of its main bridges and restricted movements follow yet another wave of deadly strikes by fast-moving, jet-powered drones. Main roads are gridlocked while commuters seek out alternative routes or simply abandon their vehicles and attempt to walk to their destinations. Of eight bridges connecting Kyiv east and west over the Dnipro River, because of those damaged, vehicles going in both directions can move neither backward nor forward.  

 

A man escapes from an administrative building in Kyiv which caught fire after being hit by a Russian jet-powered drone. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

The aerial bombardments of recent months have placed Ukraine's capital city on constant alert, daily life completely disrupted. Approaching aerial threats cause air raid sirens to sound close to constantly throughout the course of a day, allowing an estimated three minutes for residents to seek shelter. Trains and gas stations have suffered repeated strikes. Rail and road networks have been hit, and attacks on energy facilities constantly threaten power and heating outages with the approach of a Ukrainian winter.

 

Some city residents, given the continual raids, have been forced to spend overnight in subway stations. People face air raid obstacles to reaching their work sites during the day, the loss of earnings added to the trauma faced now on a daily basis. "You just spend the whole day feeling completely beaten down", remarked one woman who spent fruitless hours attempting to reach her place of employment. This, as a 24-storey residential building was hit in southeast Kyiv, killing several and injuring many.

 

Intercepted jet drone, Kyiv.

President Zelenskyy calls for urgent measure to be taken for tougher sanctions to prevent Russia from its manufacture of the jet-powered drones, so difficult for Ukraine to intercept. Just days ago, the Ukraine military was able to use its own FP-7 tactical ballistic missile for the first time in combat. A small hint of future manufacturing success to come, but in the meanwhile, pleading with  Ukraine's western allies for greater military support, in particular for U.S.-manufactured Patriot missile interceptors.

 

Even as Ukraine buckles, but does not collapse under the newer and more powerful Russian attacks, Ukraine's military struck an oil refinery in Volgograd, and another in Samar, in southwest Russia. Disabling their capacity to supply fuel to Russian forces.   

"[Russia's production of jet-powered drones are] critically dependent [on foreign components."

"Every Russian drone can actually be stopped right at the production line. What is needed is the political will of these countries." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  

Ukraine's National Academy of Science building burns in Kyiv after a Russian drone strike. (Dan Bashakov/The Associated Press)

 

 

The People of Israel Live - Am Yisrael Chai!

"I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold and pulled him out. I called the Israelis who were with us, jumped back in and pulled the controls."

"I started pulling them back."

"He [wounded captain] was very close to the door and that made it difficult for us to open it. My conclusion is that he managed to open it for us before he collapsed." 

"The plane began to level out, and then [one of the other pilots aboard the plane] told me he was taking control."

Yaniv Hayun, Passenger on FlyDubai Flight 1073 

 

"[It was like] we were having very big turbulence, but there was no turbulence."

"My wife was standing near the cockpit because my daughter was in the bathroom. Suddenly, she heard shouting coming from the cockpit."

"She shouted to a replacement pilot from Fiji who was sitting there: 'Get in quickly, see what's happening'."

"He called for help, and two others and I entered the cockpit and subdued the attacker."

"I'm covered in blood. It was insane."

Almog Italie, Passenger on FlyDubai Flight 1073 

 

"[The aircraft was] pretty much out of control. It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply he resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him."

"There was also a doctor who gave first aid, and people who treated both of them. Other than the pilot, there were no injuries, but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he [the attacker] was trying to do."

Miryam Shira Ohayon, Passenger on Fly Dubai Flight 1073

 

"Despite being stabbed and seriously injured [Machchhar] fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker -- preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster."

"...He is a true hero."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

The United Arab Emirates prosecutor general has ordered an investigation into the ‌stabbing aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which was diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia after a struggle in the cockpit.  Still from video

 

According to Israeli dentist Musaev Shota, after hearing shouting he ran toward the cabin, helped to bind the attacker and then proceeded to treat the badly injured captain of the almost-doomed flight from the UAE to Israel. He and the others tied the hands and legs of the suspect as he continued to struggle against confinement, while insisting that they kill him, and thus give him the martyrdom he sought, despite the failure of his suicide mission. 

 

How could a man harbouring such a mission and carrying a fair-sized knife be aboard a plane with 174 passengers, plotting to bring it down and destroy all those lives, including his own? Israeli authorities immediately following the event, spoke of 'radicalization'. The attacker, a man with Omani citizenship, was known to Omani authorities, it is now revealed. His radicalization and toxic beliefs were known, and steps were taken to deny him the opportunity to fly Omani aircraft.

 

When he was hired by the United Arab Emirates' FlyDubai, Oman appears to have made no effort to warn of the man's untrustworthiness. And as he on that flight as the co-pilot, attacked the unsuspecting pilot, the plane dropped 17,000 feet in under two minutes. Some two hours and 20 minutes into its flight as it flew over the desert close to the Saudi-Jordanian order, the Omani co-pilot decided it was time to act on his plot to cause the untimely death of all those aboard Flight 1073. His plan was to kill the pilot and knock out the plane's controls.

 

The two onboard pilots who stepped in to take the controls managed to rescue the situation even as the aircraft "sent distress signals". They managed an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Videos of terrified passengers screaming and crying appeared on social media, with children calling for their mothers and weeping in fear at the panic of the adults aboard. A woman on the flight said she saw a man holding a knife had forced the pilot to the floor, with blood everywhere. Seventeen strikes with a knife, head wounds and an almost-severing of an arm would do that.

 

Flydubai pilot tells Indian prime minister Modi that he couldn’t ‘let anyone die’ – video

 

The pilot, Smit Machchhar, an experienced aviator from India, had heroically while close to expiring, thought of the lives in his care as the pilot of the plane, and willed himself to make the effort to alert those aboard, likely in the knowledge that other pilots were aboard, in the hope that among those in the aircraft some might be inspired through their own will to survive, to enter the cabin, disable his attacker and enable the plane's plummet to be controlled.

 

And fortune decreed on that day in the sky in that geographic area, disaster was averted. When the plane was safely landed, the Israeli passengers sang "The People of Israel Live", Am Yisrael Chai! 

 

A FlyDubai flight bound for Tel Aviv plummeted more than 17,000 feet through the air after the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain in the plane's cockpit. (Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty Images)

 

"[Initial assessments] indicate a foiled error attack intended to crash the aircraft with all passengers on board."

"While a catastrophic tragedy was  averted, this severe incident must be understood and treated as if the attack succeeded."

"It serves as an urgent reminder of the ongoing threats faced by innocent civilians across the globe, who remain deliberate targets simply for being Israeli."

"This was not only an attempt on innocent lives, but a direct attempt by extremist forces to sabotage the vision of peace, stability, and regional normalization fostered by the historic Abraham Accords."

Israeli diplomatic Mission in Canada 

Putin's Costly 'Special Military Operation'

"[The rise in spending] comes as no surprise."

"It's not just about 'retaliatory strikes'. Simply put, more munitions are needed if the goals of the Special Military Operation are to be achieved."

Evgeny Suvorov, chief economist, CentroCredit Bank, Moscow

 

"[The ministry revealed last week that the budget plan would] ensure the provision of necessary weaponry and military hardware to the armed forces, the payment of allowances to military personnel and support for their families, and the modernization of defence industry enterprises."

Finance Ministry press service

A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet flies in the international airspace over the Gulf of Finland, September 24, 2026. Swedish Air Force/Finnish Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/

 

"Russia continues its reckless campaign of hostile actions against NATO allies. It is trying to weaken our resolve and stop our support for Ukraine."

"But Russia is failing. It is failing on the battlefield in Ukraine and it is failing to undermine our unity and support for Ukraine."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte  

On the sidelines of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been teasing and testing NATO member countries, particularly its close East European neighbours in the Baltic region. Estonia has concluded an investigation into an arson attack on August 15 against Milrem Robotics, an Estonian defence manufacturer producing ground drones used by Ukraine. "We can conclude with certainty" stated Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, "that the arson attack ... was an act of sabotage ordered by the special services of the Russian Federation".

 

Milrem Robotics located in the Estonian capital Tallinn, had a fire break out in a building for which it has concluded Moscow's responsibility. "Baseless, absolutely no relation to reality. We cannot and will not take such statements seriously", responded Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response. Russia has been repeatedly accused of hybrid provocations since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have increased their defence investment as a result. "Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine. This will not happen", stated Christian Wigand, European Commission spokesman. 

(DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/Getty Images)

 

War is a costly business on all sides. Vladimir Putin is so engrossed in saving Ukrainians from the grip of their 'neo-Nazi' government that despite Ukraine's courageous and effective counteroffensive to the conflict reaching into its fifth year -- discounting Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and much of the Donbas, and the loss on both sides of tens of thousands of military personnel -- he grinds on with his goal. It is Ukraine's vast territory, its agricultural land and natural resources that Putin slavers over.

 

A scarcity of fighting manpower, the cost attendant on firing countless missiles and drones to defeat Ukraine's resolve to meet the challenge its neighbour poses and exit the war intact, has cost Russia dearly. Nothing deters Putin's territorial ambitions. He is prepared to continue pouring more resources -- both manpower and financial -- into the war he has inflicted on Ukraine. Plans are underway at the Kremlin to boost military spending by over 25 percent, even as Ukraine has succeeded in penetrating deeper into Russian territory.

 

Military spending reflecting Putin's new draft budget now stands at 17.1 trillion rubles (some $288 billion) for the coming year. War spending will sit at roughly 35 percent of the country's 48.8 trillion rubles in total expenditures. Moscow has been forced to spend greater sums just on protecting itself even as it relentlessly continues to attack Ukraine's cities, aiming for its electrical grids as winter approaches to once again demoralize Ukrainian citizens left without heat and cooking facilities during its long cold winter.

 

For its part, Kyiv continues its winning strategy of sending missiles and drones further within Russia, targeting oil refineries, logistics hubs and warehouses. Russia must respond to increase costly air defences, and stepped up its attacks on crucial Black Sea ports for Ukraine, and hitting urban centres which it claims are really military depots. Ukraine's targets of Russian oil facilities have caused pain in a gasoline shortage across the country.

 

Russia's air defences, the advanced systems protecting Moscow included, have been tested by large scale drone attacks, courtesy of Ukraine. The massive military casualties that Russia has suffered have failed to translate to progress on the battlefield. Russians now spend sleepless nights in worrying over a new mobilization, with the new parliament back in session, when an overwhelming 'democratic process' voted Vladimir Putin back in power. 

 

Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion rubles ($202.58 billion) on defense in 2027, around 27% more than the 13.5 trillion rubles originally budgeted and the highest figure since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, government documents seen by Reuters showed on Monday.  Reuters

 

Canada's Liberal Government Transformed Canada In Its Image

"Canada and UNRWA share concerns about the threat of terrorism, including within the context of the United Nations' firm commitment to counter terrorism."

"[UNRWA is] taking all possible measures [to ensure Canadian government charitable/humanitarian funding  would not be used to] provide assistance to or otherwise support, terrorists or terrorist organizations."

"Canada's humanitarian assistance funding is largely flexible and un-earmarked."

Global Affairs Canada

Of all the millions Ottawa has earmarked for Palestinians, it’s the outlays for UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – that have received the most scrutiny. Photo by Mohammad Nazal/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

 

When Stephen Harper was the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, he was coherent and principled and well-informed. So much so that he quite reasonably understood where funding for the Palestinian 'cause' of aiding the 'victims' of Israel's statehood, that left Arab Palestinians' aspiration to have all land they claimed as their own -- Judean ancestral land -- that the United Nations in its wisdom in 1947 split between Jews and Arabs, to be gifted only to the Arab demographic that termed themselves 'Palestinian' despite that designation dating back to the Roman Empire which renamed Judea to spite unruly Jews.

 

The Conservative government took the step of cutting off all Canadian aid to UNRWA, knowing it for what it really is; a United Nations-mandated entity to support the world's only permanent 'refugee' population, one so fully in accord with Palestinian resentment of the presence of the Jewish state that it never stopped plotting to destroy it. UNRWA schools employed Palestinian terrorists to operate them, using the school textbooks characterizing Jews as deadly enemies.

 

The curricula taught Palestinian children to abhor Israel, encouraging children to dream of becoming honoured martyrs in the cause of 'opposing' the Israeli 'occupation', whose purpose it was to defend Jews against lethal violence children were taught to regard as their highest calling, for which they would ascend to Paradise. Palestinian children's school plays had them enacting fatal encounters with Jews. 'Summer camps' set up for Palestinian children taught them the vital elements of guerrilla warfare.

 

Summer Camps/Palestinian Youth AP

And the United Nations Relief and Works Agency worked right alongside Fatah and Hamas in patterning Palestinian children to desire death in the carrying out of the sacred task of murdering Jews for the crime of being Jews and inhabiting their heritage territory. The honoured calling of terrorism against one's mortal enemy who refused to surrender to Palestinian Arab demands of sole ownership of the territory. 

 

None of this is unknown, but it goes unrecognized as dreadfully inconvenient to acknowledge and act upon in the West, which has chosen the sanctimonious route of paying homage to terror by empathizing with the 'underdog' that engages in the kind of acceptable propaganda portraying themselves as the world's eternal victims, oppressed by the world's most persecuted minority which clings to its sliver of land as a political, moral, military bulwark against the ethnic/religious/cultural detestation of ancient derivation that will not die.

 

The Liberal government of Canada has no intention of opening the cover of a book whose frontal illustration is that of starving children in Gaza and the West Bank; governed by Palestinian leaders who have received billions of charitable funds from the United Nations, Europe, North America and elsewhere to relieve the conditions of enduring poverty, but which end up in private bank accounts, and in financial support for the 'martyrs' who engage in deadly attacks against Jews and Israel. The pages within document a history too complex to digest, and so why bother?

 

Horrifying images show victims of Hamas attack at rave, where Israeli cops acted as human shields and hostages had legs blown off, survivors say https://trib.al/ctXLbrp

 

When the October 7 Palestinian terrorists sprinted by their thousands from Gaza into southern Israel, the  government of Canada was sending  hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the poor, needy Palestinians, through UNRWA. That same UN agency from among whose staff Hamas operatives were raiding Israeli homes, raping girls and women, setting homes on fire with their residents within, slaughtering the inhabitants of farming communities and young Israelis enjoying social relaxation at  the Nova Music Festival nearby.

 

Eventually, when enough proof was provided of the participation in October 7 of an astonishing number of Hamas operatives who also were employed by UNRWA, the UN body fired many of them while claiming that "the dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them".

 

And although Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed to have put a stop to the Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund that guaranteed lavish financial support for anyone imprisoned or martyred while committing an act of 'resistance', the U.S.-based Modern War Institute analysis quoted the PA's "Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19" which identifies a pension account for any Palestinian deemed to have taken part "in the struggle against the occupation". And 'Pay for Slay' carries on.  

"We understand that a recent payment has been made to the families of prisoners, based on a previous scheme."

"We profoundly regret this decision, as this seems to go against prior announcements."

EU Commission November 2025 public statement  

In all a total of $600 million has been transferred by Canada to Gaza. The millions that Ottawa earmarked for Palestinians have seen UNRWA receiving scrutiny. Nonetheless despite clear evidence of complicity between the agency and Hamas as well as with other Palestinian terrorist groups, and UNRWA's responsibility in corrupting young Palestinian minds, Canada continues to fund them. The latest $100 million gesture of trust a mere several weeks past, $20 million of which was for "peace and stabilization initiatives" that includes training and equipping a Palestinian military component.

 

Canada's Prime Minister Carney is so  convinced of the worthiness of Palestinian claims to statehood despite its ongoing refusal to recognize Israeli right of existence and sovereignty, that on behalf of Canada, he 'recognized' Palestinian statehood with the proviso that greater evidence of dedication to democracy be attained and demonstrated. The upshot is that Canada, along with Spain, Ireland, the U.K. and France have 'recognized' Palestinian statehood. The qualifiers have not and will never become reality.

 

As for the 'two-state solution' they espouse as a 'solution' to the 'unrest', it has been rejected time and again by the Palestinians, who finally put it to rest on October 7. 

"Canada is deeply alarmed by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the terrible situation for the civilian population, exacerbated by severely restricted access for humanitarian partners seeking to provide assistance. Canada continues to call for a UN-led humanitarian response with safe and unimpeded access into and within Gaza. The ceasefire is a welcome development and Canada urges the parties to fully adhere to it."

"The ongoing conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. Heightened tensions in the region could pose further security risks."

"The security and economic situation in the West Bank is also of concern. Frequent Israeli military operations throughout the West Bank, as well as rising extremist settler violence against Palestinians, have led to thousands of casualties and resulted in clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians."

"Canada’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is guided by its historic and unwavering commitment to a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in peace and security. Prospects for a two-state solution have been steadily eroding, as a result of the pervasive threat of Hamas’ terrorism, continued Israeli settlement expansion and extremist settler violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s ongoing military operation in Gaza, and failure to alleviate the resulting humanitarian crisis."

Government of Canada