Israel's Right of Response Raises Negative Global Public Opinion

"I believe the negotiations will continue, and right now we are applying significant pressure on all fronts in order to relay a very clear message about our intentions."

"It could be that this pressure, both in Gaza and elsewhere in the world, will ultimately bring about a breakthrough in the negotiations."

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to United Nations

 

"There's a difference between having a policy of [destroying Hamas] and then breaking international law as a country to carry it out."

"And that seems to be what Israel has decided to do and which puts it on the wrong side of the international community."

Nicholas Hopton, former British ambassador to Qatar, Libya and Iran

 

Current U.S. sanctions have not significantly impacted Iran’s relationships with its proxies. The State Department estimated that Iran spent more than $16 billion on support for the Assad regime and its proxies between 2012 and 2020. And in 2020 alone, the State Department estimated that Iran funneled more than $700 million to Hezbollah.

The October 7 massacre by the Iranian-backed Hamas terror group in southern Israel that killed over 1,200 Israelis and other foreign nationals and took over 250 hostage, has further demonstrated the threat to global stability that Iran and its terror proxies pose. Since that attack, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria, have led attacks against Israel.

American Jewish Committee, June 2025

 

 

In the late 1960s Palestinian secular movements such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the immediate arena of conflict. Following Israel's 1967 defeat of Arab forces, Palestinian leaders realized that the Arab world was unable to militarily confront Israel. At the same time, lessons drawn from revolutionary movements in Latin America, North Africa, Southeast Asia as well as during the Jewish struggle against Britain in Palestine, saw the Palestinians move away from classic guerrilla, typically rural-based, warfare toward urban terrorism. Radical Palestinians took advantage of modern communication and transportation systems to internationalize their struggle. They launched a series of hijackings, kidnappings, bombings, and shootings, culminating in the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic games.

These Palestinian groups became a model for numerous secular militants, and offered lessons for subsequent ethnic and religious movements. Palestinians created an extensive transnational extremist network -- tied into which were various state sponsors such as the Soviet Union, certain Arab states, as well as traditional criminal organizations. By the end of the 1970s, the Palestinian secular network was a major channel for the spread of terrorist techniques worldwide.

Frontline, The Evolution of Islamic Terrorism: an overview, John Moore, PBS

A year to October 7: Marking one year of pain, resilience, and remembrance, October 7, 2024

(photo credit: FLASH90/CANVA)

 

Israel's military incursion into Gaza following the Palestinian terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 when thousands of Hamas, PLFP, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian citizens flooded across the border into southern Israel with the intention of slaughtering Israelis, lit a firestorm of condemnation as the IDF pursued its mission to destroy Palestinian operatives indulging in their passion for murdering Jews. There was no option but to bomb the enclave in an effort to annihilate Hamas embedding itself within the civilian population, which promised to launch endless October 7s on Israel, over and above its countless strikes to that point.

 

As Israel seeks the completion of its stated mission to eradicate the source of terrorism from Gaza, it gave additional attention to its northern border where from Lebanon, Iran-sponsored Hezbollah sent missiles into Israeli territory of the Golan Heights, and from Yemen, the Houthi terrorist faction attacked marine trade in the Red Sea with any Israeli links. Iran-supplied missiles from Yemen reached Israel, while Hamas, under siege, continued to bomb Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran was inspired to send missiles into Israel after Hezbollah leaders were targeted in Iran.

 

Assailed from all these sources, there is no nation on the face of this Earth that would not return fire and spare no efforts to destroy its enemies before it would itself be destroyed. Yet this simple reality has not interfered with a global campaign to demonize Israel for responding to its existential threat; those world leaders and the leaders of international bodies criticize, slander, threaten consequences and do their utmost to isolate the Jewish state, calling Israel a 'rogue attack machine', destabilizing the region always on the cusp of ignition. In international law a country that is attacked has the inalienable right to respond. And any country that gives haven to the attackers sees a justified attack, also defended by international law.

 

Adina Moshe and her daughter Maya Shoshani Moshe mourn at the grave of Adina’s husband David.

Ivana Kottasova/CNN

 

Logically, Israel knew it had to cast a wide net to neutralize Hamas political leaders who preferred to live abroad rather than in Gaza or the West Bank. Posing as 'political' leaders, as opposed to the Hamas 'militant wing', haven was offered in Turkey and Qatar where the Hamas leaders who set the death-cult agenda lived in opulence and security from the consequences of their orders; they nonetheless became targets for retribution by Israel, earning the condemnation of both those from the Middle East and the West.

 

"We'll eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey", former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar stated several months following the 2023 savagery where Israeli girls and women were raped, mutilated and murdered. "It'll take a few years but we'll get there", he said, in memory of the 1,200 Israelis, foreign farm workers and Israeli non-Jews who were slaughtered that infamous day. The entire nation of Israel has been suffering the trauma of loss, in addition to the fearful, mourning families of the 250 children, men and women who were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists, held as bargaining chips, in inhumane conditions. 

 

 Avenging military targets in Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, all countries hostile to and demonstrably contriving to destroy Israel, became fair game to Israel's mission to protect itself from ongoing deadly attacks. The fierce response of the Israeli military under the direction of the Israeli government demonstrated once again to the world that there is a Jewish state dedicated to the security of Jewish life, one that prefers peace but will settle for the persuasive power of conflict to hammer home the message of Jewish endurance.

 

Daniel Lifshitz lights a candle on the grave of his best friend Dolev Yehud, who was a volunteer medic at kibbutz Nir Oz and was killed while trying to provide help to others in his community.

Ivana Kottasova/CNN

 

"Israel believes the best strategy is to escalate in order to deescalate", stated Brandon Friedman, a senior fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University, whose specialty is the Arab Gulf. In a first thing first scenario, the decision was made to set aside relaxed relations with the Gulf until Hamas is defeated. Almost two years have passed since the devastation of October 7 and hostages continue to be held by Hamas for whom loyalty among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank remains strong.  

"I speak with the leaders of Arab countries."

"Some of them issued very angry statements about Israel. But in informed conversations they say, 'Kudos' -- both because they dislike Qatar and because they dislike Hamas and radical Islam."

"I think we should keep taking the lead in this campaign. The entire world is talking about a future without Hamas -- including even those who are today fighting us here in the UN, like France and Britain."

Danny Danon

People pray for the victims of the October 7 terror attack at the site of the Nova Music Festival.

Ivana Kottasova/CNN

 

Poll Results Amidst an Anti-Israel Propaganda War

"The reality is that it's a very complex issue and of course complex opinions will emerge about these issues. The conclusion I came to was that most Canadians still have shared values when it comes to compassion and empathy."

"Canadians do have compassion for both sides and are aware of the complexity of the conflict."

There's some political danger in taking any stand on this issue right now for most politicians, and any world leaders, quite frankly."

"I think it's a very difficult political question to answer [calling for a ceasefire]."

Quito Maggi, president, CEO, Mainstreet Research

A ZAKA volunteer collects human remains in a house at Kibbutz Holit near the Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023. (YURI CORTEZ / AFP)

For the past month news media have regaled their readers with descriptions and photographs of the many 'pro-Palestinian' rallies and protests and marches that have broken out all over Canadian cities. They're described as 'peaceful', but it took no more than a day to launch the first protest, following the merciless rampage of Hamas terrorists through towns and villages of southern Israel, launching a widespread bloodbath of families, gang-rapes of girls and women and the abduction of over 240 civilians. Over 1,400 innocent infants, children, women and men, the elderly and infirm were slaughtered along with Israeli soldiers.

 

Despite the deadly carnage and the horrific videos taken of the atrocities that the terrorists were so proud of committing that they were eager to document them for posterity, crowds of Canadian Muslims and Palestinians joined by other Jew-haters professing to be concerned over the plight of Gazan Palestinians, celebrated the 'victory' by Hamas over Israel. In some of these demonstrations "gas the Jews" was chanted, and in almost all of them "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea" rang out, a proxy for the destruction of Israel.

 

The impression was that the protests reflected the opinion of mainstreet Canada, given the numbers that came out to join them. Students for Justice in Palestine, a virulently antisemitic activist group has been working overtime organizing the protests. Some Canadian Imams, known for their hate-filled sermons on Fridays, extolling the virtues of martyrdom in the interests of jihad, have gone out of their way to promote the protests and calling for the end of the state of Israel. 

So how does the average Canadian feel about the fact that antisemitism has risen  higher, faster and become more violent in the past month as a result of these slanderous and dangerous fulminations against Israel and by extension Canadian Jews who have been threatened on campuses of Canadian colleges and universities, where some of their professors have markedly joined the anti-Israel fray?

Polling conducted by Mainstreet Research for the National Council of Canadian Muslims has delved into the matter and come up with some interesting statistics. Basically, that a majority of Canadians are in favour of the support that Canada is giving to Israel, responding to the terrorist group Hamas' ongoing lethal attacks against Israeli citizens. Most respondents to the poll classified Hamas as a terrorist group.

 

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by Israeli airstrikes on the border between Egypt and Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Hatem Ali)

 

A strong majority of Canadians hold the belief that the Canadian government should call for a ceasefire to protect Palestinian civilians, even while 75 percent of Canadians conceive of Hamas (33 percent) or Iran (42 percent) being responsible for the October 7 attack in Israel, for a total of 75 percent. 76 percent of Canadians classify Hamas as a terrorist organization while 9 percent see it as an Iran proxy; and 8 percent consider Hamas to be 'freedom fighters'.

Generally, 71 percent support Canada calling for a ceasefire, but 81 percent say a ceasefire must begin with the return of the hostages taken by Hamas, and 18 percent oppose any calls for a ceasefire. Given a choice, 68 percent feel the conflict priority should be the protection of Palestinian Gazan civilians, ensuring humanitarian aid reaches them.  32 percent feel that retaliation against Hamas should remain the priority, and 59 percent approve of Canada's support for Israel (18 percent disapproving).

Canada's official position from the prime minister's office, is that Israel has the "right to defend itself in accordance with international law"; Canada agreeing that Hamas must immediately release all hostages.

 

Healthcare workers stand at University Avenue and Gerrard Street in Toronto asking the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide healthcare to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas terrorists to Gaza as the Israel Palestine war continues, Thursday November 9, 2023. Photo by Photo Peter J. Thompson/National Post /jpg

Among the Highlights:

• The survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of Canadians are aware of the conflict (93%) with the majority following it very or somewhat closely (60%). About one third are not following it closely.
• As to who is responsible for the current conflict 41% blame Hamas while 12% blame Israel according to the survey results.
• Of note is that nearly two thirds (62%) of Canadians have not changed their opinion of Israel, while only less than a third (26%) had a worsened opinion of Israel, and 12% say their view of Israel improved. As a result of the Hamas attack 46% of Canadians say their view of Hamas and the leadership of the Palestinians in Gaza has become less supportive.
• Most Canadians (60%) agree that Israel should invade Gaza and remove the Hamas leadership.
• Three quarters (75%) of Canadians do not believe that Hamas was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian State.
• More than two thirds of Canadians (71%) believe Iran should be held accountable for the actions of Hamas against Israel.
• Canadians (57%) are expressing their concern over the pro-Hamas protest taking place in Canada.
• Almost half of Canadians (46%) feel that antisemitism is on the rise in Canada