A Database of Jews

"The Canadian Jews on this list are quite possibly the most unflappable members of our Jewish community. I don’t think we’ll be intimidated by it, if that’s the intention. I don’t think it’s an acceptable thing to happen in Canada."

"I think there’s a pretty dark historical precedent for making lists of Jews. That’s what it immediately reminded me of. A database of Jews."

"[It was a] pretty clear expression of hatred for Jews."

Canadian-born Rebecca Garner, 34, former IDF volunteer 

 

"[Its purpose is to provide a database of] mini-profiles for as many Canadians that have fought in the Israeli military at any point as I could find [because] there is little existing research in Canada beyond one-off news articles about who these soldiers are and how they came to make the life choices that they did."

"[The type of Canadian who becomes an IDF soldier as, on average], a white Jewish man born and raised in Canada who immigrated to Israel in their late teens with the express purpose of joining its military."

"The soldier is most likely to have grown up in a Greater Toronto Area neighbourhood with a larger-than-average proportion of Jewish residents in what they’d describe as a Zionist household."

"[It was not a] doxxing website, as all of the information it contains was already in the public domain, primarily in articles published in other news outlets, including the National Post, the CBC and The Canadian Jewish News."

"There is nothing antisemitic about the website, as the individuals were included based on their service in the Israeli military, not their religious identity." 

Davide Mastracci, The Maple

The flags of Canada and Israel fly in Ottawa. Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/

 

Months ago it was revealed that someone had taken it upon themselves to compile a list of Canadian Jews who had left Canada to volunteer their combat services with the Israeli Defense Forces -- propelled by news of the atrocities that took place in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when thousands of terrorists led by Hamas streamed across the border from Gaza into Israel on a defined mission that had undergone months of practise to plan storming the separation barrier, honing in on IDF defence posts, targeting Israeli farming communities and a nearby music festival to rape, loot, torch villages, and slaughter 1,200 Israeli citizens, soldiers and foreign farm workers, which led to the Israeli military invading Gaza to root out the terrorists and destroy their command posts and weapons stocks. 

 

Graphic emblem from the “GTA to IDF” website

In media interviews with the man who proudly amassed these names complete with addresses, it was revealed that the list was an ongoing venture, the author appealing to the public to contact him if they had additional names to be placed on his database, as he considered it an ongoing project. Not that it had anything to do with antisemitism. His facile splitting of hairs in professing his innocence of racism couldn't possibly have convinced his interlocutors of his sincerity. 

 

A list of Jewish 'culprits' who had willingly offered themselves as Canadian conscripts in a foreign war. At a time when the streets and cities of Canada were rife with ongoing demonstrations of anti-Israel protestors championing Hamas terrorism, and charging Israel -- by inference and pointed declarations all Jews everywhere -- with the intent to slaughter Palestinians in a 'genocide'. The protests that echoed with chants of 'Palestine will be free from the river to the sea', with the destruction of Israel. Other chants like 'Final Solution' in allusion to the Holocaust on repeat, and 'Jews go back to Poland', unsubtle invitations to genocide of Jews. How to accomplish that? Why, by mounting a strategy to 'Globalize the Intifada'.

 

While Jewish groups in Canada shudder and shrink in horror at the implications, and the Holocaust Memorial was defaced, Jewish businesses vandalized by 'pro-Palestinian' mobs, Synagogues were firebombed, Jewish parochial schools shot at, marches comprised of masked, keffiyeh-clad Jew-haters tramped through Jewish neighbourhoods shouting invectives and police stood by to inform Jewish counter-protesters that their presence was provoking the haters, governments at all levels failed to act to enforce bylaws and offer equal protection to all citizens.

Protesters and counter protesters hold flags during a protest outside the screening of the documentary "The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue" about the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 10, 2025.

(photo credit: REUTERS/CARLOS OSORIO)

 

Now, a petition has emerged for investigations that could theoretically lead to charges against Canadians serving in Israel's military. Alberta NDP Member of Parliament running for election as leader of the federal opposition party whose numbers had shrivelled during the last election as members fled the party, sponsored that petition dated January 7, to the attention of the Minister of Justice, claiming "credible evidence of serious violations of international law by the IDF in the Middle East", which should ostensibly criminalize any Canadian citizens who fought with the IDF.  

 

The government, according to the petition should "direct the Canada Border Services Agency to screen Canadian citizens/residents returning from Israel for foreign military service" to issue "warnings that Canadians serving/volunteering with the IDF may face criminal liability under Canadian law". For a website to be created "to collect information from Gaza/West Bank war crime victims/witnesses". 

 

In response Simon Wolle, CEO of B'nai Brith Canada, addressed the issue with the information that the RCMP had launched an investigation into the Israel-Hamas conflict. A news release dated June of 2024 revealed that the RCMP had failed to identify anyone who committed "core international crimes", a finding that invalidated any further investigation into the activities of any Canadian. "Canadian IDF veterans are no different than any other foreign veterans who have made Canada their home", responded Wolle. 

 

This preoccupation by the candidate for the NDP leadership is not a one-off consideration. She released a statement in November stating her concern with IDF soldiers visiting Canadian universities, condemning them for 'platforming' the soldiers. Amir Epstein, CEO of Tafsik, the Jewish advocacy group, characterized the petition as a "transparent attempt to appease radical ideologues by targeting law-abiding Canadian citizens". 

"MP McPherson's motion amounts to an antisemitic witch hunt, unduly singles out Jewish and Zionist Canadians by making unfounded accusations against them, problematically insinuates that service in the IDF necessitates a degree of culpability."

"Malicious attempts to prosecute them contribute to an environment where Jewish and Zionist Canadians are increasingly persecuted for their beliefs."

"This petition should be denounced by MPs for what it is, a baseless attempt to incite against and ostracize Canadians who support the existence of a Jewish nation state."

Simon Wolle, CEO, B'nai Brith Canada 

Who Knew What, When and Who is Being Shielded?

Israeli officials said the Doha strike was carried out by 15 Israeli fighter jets, firing 10 precision munitions against a single target, the BBC reported, citing Israeli media. We don’t know at the moment what weapons were used.

Qatar and its U.S. guests have very advanced air defense systems and sensors that would provide prior alert to an impending attack, in most circumstances. With standoff munitions launched at distance the most likely means of attack, why there was no attempt to intercept these weapons if they were of unknown origin isn’t clear. The use of F-35s is possible here, as well, which may have been able to make closer proximity standoff attacks, but Israel has F-15 and F-16-launched weapons capable of reaching hundreds of miles and strike with pinpoint accuracy.

The U.S. military spotted Israeli jets flying east toward the Persian Gulf but had little time to react, according to Axios.

“The U.S. sought clarification, but by the time Israel provided it, missiles were already in the air,” the publication reported, citing three U.S. officials.

At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump “was informed of the impending strike by his military and alerted Qatar’s leadership,” White House spokesperson Karonline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

So exactly what the U.S. knew about the impending strike and when, and when Qatar was informed, remains disputed at this time.

Qatari officials complained that they only found out about the attack after it took place. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said notification from the U.S. only came after explosions were heard in Doha. He did not address why his nation’s air defense system did not pick up the Israeli jets.

The W*r Zone

The satellite image taken on Sept. 10 after the attack shows damage to five buildings. (PHOTO PLANET LABS INC.

"Today's action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation."

"Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility."

Statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu's office

 

"The prime minister and defence minister believe the operation was entirely justified given that this Hamas leadership initiated and organized the October 7 massacre and has continued to launch murderous actions against the State of Israel and its citizens since then, including claiming responsibility for the killing of our citizens in yesterday's attack in Jerusalem."

Defence Minister Israel Katz 

People take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, and the end of war in Gaza, in Tel Aviv in August. (Nir Elias/Elias)

 

True to its tradition and its reputation as the most humane military in history, the Israel Defense Forces intimately knows its targets and how to secure strikes with absolute minimum collateral damage in targeted strikes that occur in juxtaposition to civilian enclaves with the potential to produce more casualties than it sets out to accomplish, and this was true in the Doha strikes, when the Israel Air Force made use of precision munitions. They would have been assured of eliminating their targets had more forceful weaponry been utilized, but the decision was to attempt what they could and spare lives, reflecting the military's mission.

 

A mission which while daring in its impudent certainty might not have been carried to fruition lacking complicity from the most interested sources; Israel's powerful patron-nation and the nation whose territory would be invaded in the event of these strikes. Neither of which would appreciate being directly implicated, so although the U.S. knew of the plans in advance, those plans fell on deaf ears, yet not sufficiently deaf as to not forewarn the country where the strikes would take place, and nor did that country seek to evade the occurrence of the mission; it simply did not 'see' what it would not envision, and therefore could not react to.

 

Tuesday's airstrikes by the Israeli military carried out against senior Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar may not have entirely realized the success visualized in planning the episode, regardless of which it will be crystal clear now to those targets which may have survived, that their survival at a future date is contestable; they are marked and their lives will be extinguished. These targeted Hamas elites were responsible for the October 7, 2023 massacre and bear further responsibility for the ongoing war facing Israel from whatever is left of Hamas. 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on a red carpet towards Air Force One, as he departs Qatar in May. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

 

The Israeli prime minister and minister of defense were at pains to own the Doha attacks, in complete exoneration of any hint of planning partnership from any outside source. Why bother? Willingness to ensure that no other political-national entity would be blemished in aiding the Jewish state in its deadly onslaught against those whose intention is to destroy its presence in the Middle East. PM Benjamin Netanyahu carefully explained his instructions to all security agencies to prepare for a focus on assassination of Hamas elite leadership abroad.

 

Spurred anew by the latest Hamas atrocity in Jerusalem when two Hamas operatives shot up a bus stop, murdering six civilians and wounding many others, some grievously, before they were themselves killed by a nearby soldier and two armed Israeli civilians firing back at them. The bombing of an army tank that killed four IDF soldiers in northern Gaza cemented that determination to excise the Hamas command living in Qatar distant from the fray, but commanding its intransigent attacks on Israel while simultaneously engaging in 'peace' talks captained by Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators.

 

The tantalizing prospect of a truce and the surrender of the remaining Israeli hostages, alive and dead, by Hamas tied Israeli negotiators to the ongoing, frustrating and unsuccessful talks in Doha where each offer was 'studied' at length by the Hamas negotiators and ultimately turned down, as unreflective of Hamas demands. One solution after another found wanting, and back to the bargaining table, an exercise in stalling for time used by the terror group for recruitment, rearming, rescheduling.

 

A damaged building in Doha following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders Tuesday. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters

 

The strikes carried out by the Israeli Air Force targeted the residences of several Hamas 'political' elites among its senior leadership. Al-Arabiya reported that Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya was killed in the strike. Khaled Mashaal, Zaher Jabarin, Mohammad Ismail Darwish, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hussam Badran and Tahar Anunu made up the roster of the targeted elite of Hamas in Israel's crosshairs. It will be some time before their fate will be made known, since none have since appeared in public. 

 

According to a still-defiant Hamas, its top leaders survived while five lower-level members were killed, among them the son of Khalil al-Hayya and the head of al-Hayya's office. Hamas gave no proof of the survival of al-Hayya and the other senior figures. The strike took place in Doha's Diplomatic Quarter at a series of buildings housing the Hamas 'political' bureau. A meeting by Hamas officials had been scheduled. Their negotiating team was meeting to discuss the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal and return of hostages.

 

This frame grab taken from AFP TV footage shows a man looking at smoke billowing after explosions in Doha Tuesday that Israeli officials said were an attack on Hamas leadership based in the Qatari capital.. (Jacqueline Penney/AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images)

 

"[Israel's] long arm will act against its enemies anywhere."

"There is no place where they can hide. Everyone who took part in the 7 October massacre will be held fully accountable. "

"Anyone who carries out terror against Israel will be harmed."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz 

 

Israel's Right to Self-Defence

"Further action [risks triggering] a broader regional conflict with devastating consequences. De-escalation must be the priority."

"We urge all parties to refrain from actions that further destabilize the region. The protection of civilians must be paramount."

"Importantly, Canadians in the region are advised to exercise a very high degree of caution, monitor developments closely, and follow the advice of local authorities."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand

 

"Don't think that they hit and it's over. No."

"They started the work and started the War."

"We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed."

Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  

 

"[There will be] even more brutal [attacks if Tehran did not soon reach a nuclear deal]."

"Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire."

U.S. President Donald Trump 

 

"[Israel took] unilateral action against Iran [that did not involve the United States]." 

"Our top priority is protecting American forces in the region."

"Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence. President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with out regional partners."

"Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio  

Israel continued to strike Iran's capital Tehran on Sunday night   Getty Images

 

The Liberal government that has ruled Canada for the last decade has abandoned in all but veneer, the traditional relationship of alliance between two democracies -- Israel and Canada -- under its administration. Under previous, and most particularly Conservative-led governments -- the Liberal government's immediate Conservative administration led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in particular -- left no illusions that there was ever a gap in the friendship and support Canada gave to Israel. During the administration of former PM Justin Trudeau that relationship descended markedly into suspicion and grudging support.

 

Canadian demographics had undergone a marked change, for one thing. In Mr. Trudeau's sanctimonious overtures to economic migrants flooding North America streaming toward the United States, he welcomed those whom the U.S. refused, recognizing them as fomenters of Islamic entitlements. He offered haven to Muslims from war-torn Middle East and North African nations. Emigration from the Near East and North Africa picked up pace, and Canada now has a sizeable voting bloc emanating from that demographic that politicians cater to, inviting their ballots.

 

Censuring Israel, for what is interpreted, thanks to an Islamist/Palestinian public relations campaign, as 'occupation' of unceded Judaic ancestral territory partitioned by the United Nations in 1948 to offer a state to the Jewish occupants of the land, and a similar state to the Arab population who took on the designation of Palestinians meant to distinguish Jewish territory during the Roman occupation. An 'occupation' necessitated to maintain security and control over the actions of Palestinians dedicated to the  destruction of Israel and the death of Jews.

 

Decades of incitement, agitation, formation of Iranian proxy terror groups undertaken by the Quds division of the Islamic National Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran, had succeeded in forging an 'Axis of Resistance' of Shi'ite Islamists to Israel's presence in the Middle East. That same axis conducted a sectarian/tribal conflict with the majority Sunni-Muslim Middle East in an enterprise of long duration to replace the authority of the Sunni majority with the conquest to be achieved by the minority Shias in their traditional sectarian-tribal antipathies.

 

Israeli security forces inspect the site of homes destroyed by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel, on Saturday. The federal government is urging Canadians to 'avoid all travel' to Israel as the country exchanges missile and air strikes with Iran. (Ohad Zwigenberg/The Associated Press)

 

Iran has threatened repeatedly over the years to destroy the presence of Israel. And over those same years it has worked assiduously to produce nuclear-grade uranium to produce nuclear weapons, a program it disguises as fulfilling a domestic need for nuclear-powered civilian energy ... in a country with vast oil and gas energy resources. Iran has never fully cooperated with the UN's Atomic Energy Commission inspectors who have reported that Iran has flouted its rules and  hidden its true purpose in refining uranium to weapons-grade status.

 

Taken together with Iran's threats, its sponsorship and arming of acknowledged terrorist groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shia militias, Yemen's Houthis, and formerly Syria's Assad military, and finally its near approach of late to acquiring nuclear devices, Israel made its move. A move that Iran prompted when its Hamas-supported leaders decided to invade southern Israel in a concerted sadistically-savage orgy of mass rape, mutilation, murder and  hostage-taking.

 

That horrific event led to Israel's military invasion of Gaza and its determination to finally destroy the group that had continued to attack it with rockets and suicide bombers over the years, then to turn its military to address a year's worth of rocketry attacks from Hezbollah, and finally the Houthi rocket attacks. The Iranian regime as the source of the venom that had infested the Axis, was the final target to be addressed and destroyed, as a forced move of self-defense for Israel.

 

Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against the nuclear-facilities in Iran, targeting as well the top IRGC leaders. Iran retaliated, unleashing hundreds of ballistic missiles on Israel, targeting mostly civilian areas in response; explosions lighting up the sky over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The missiles sent to Israel by Iran have been intercepted by Israel and the United States, with assistance from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Israel's western allies like the U.K. and France are markedly less keen to render aid to Israel, more inclined to criticize the Jewish state, as Canada has done.

 

All three countries jointly censured Israel for its Gaza invasion, with the Israel Defense Forces engaged in eliminating the threat of Hamas terrorism:

"If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response."

"We will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority, regional partners, Israel and the United States to finalize consensus on arrangements for Gaza’s future, building on the Arab plan. We affirm the important role of the High-Level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim."

"And we are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end."

Britain, France, Canada  

 

The Israeli Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) 

 

"[Israel] disarming Iran's genocidal nuclear program [is within Israel's right to self-defence]."

"It cannot wait until the regime has capabilities for a nuclear strike."

Canadian Official Parliamentary Opposition, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

  

"The international community must not allow the Iranian regime to acquire the means to threaten millions of lives in the Middle East, Europe, and ultimately here in North America."

"Countries like Canada that value democracy and reject terrorism must stand firmly in support of Israel's right to defend itself, especially against the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran."

Noah Shack, interim president, Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

The Jihadist Theocracy of Iran ... Fading

 

"We're geared to do whatever is necessary to achieve our dual aim, to remove ... two existential threats - the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat."

"We did act - to save ourselves, but also, I think, to not only protect ourselves, but protect the world from this incendiary regime."

"We can't have the world's most dangerous regime have the world's most dangerous weapons."

"Iran will pay a very heavy price for the murder of civilians. We will also achieve our goal. We are here because we are in an existential battle, which today is understood by every citizen of Israel."

"Think about what would happen if Iran had 20,000 missiles like this [that hit the northern Israeli community of Bat Yam]. It would be an existential threat to Israel. That is why we launched a war of salvation against a dual annihilation threat, and we are doing so with strength." 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits homes hit by Iranian projectiles on Sunday, June 15, 2025.

(photo credit: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE)

How much more threatening provocations, bald statements of intent to annihilate its presence, inciting of deadly violence, complicity in training, arming and dispatching satellite terror groups would any country other than Israel reasonably tolerate before finally in the realization that there was no possibility of reaching detente with an avowed enemy and to prevent total existential calamity it must act to protect itself and its population to preempt the inevitable? After decades of incendiary threats, attacks by terror proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the potential of facing a nuclear strike, Israel, left with no other choice, moved to defend itself and extinguish that threat.

 

Friday, 13th of June long before dawn rose to illuminate the day, that pre-emptive military strike was undertaken, reaching deep within Iranian territory toward very specific targets -- the country's nuclear infrastructure, its military sites, and most particularly its organizational capacity in the targeting of its senior military officials, its nuclear scientists and those senior officials in control of state mechanisms geared toward the jihad intentions of the theocratic state.

 

People gather outside an area hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran on 13 June. Photograph: Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News/AFP/Getty Images

 

Israel is accused by many in the Western media, hinted at by the leaders of allied nations of overstepping its rights in planning and executing a full-scale attack on Iran. But none of these other countries have had to live for years with the Iranian Damoclean sword hanging over them, or responding to strike after strike by neghbouring terrorist groups or their administrations that incite the populace to violence against their population. Urging a ceasefire when Israel has only just launched an operation to nullify the Islamic Republic regime's focus on destroying the Jewish state, is an exercise in futility.

 

The threat against Israel represents a direct and imminent one, but the same surly threats, although not quite so freely expressed, are meant to create disequilibrium within Western democracies for the ultimate purpose of destroying their culture, laws, politics and ideology in favour of that of extreme political Islam as Muslim migration accelerates, creating large political, professional and activist blocs whose favour is sought by politicians with an eye fixed on votes, bypassing the longer stealth picture of overturned traditions and values.

 

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel on Sunday.

Leo Correa/AP

 

Israel's expected, but still shocking decision to launch a full-scale attack on Iran is fully legitimate in the international arena of legal permissibility. Every nation has the inherent right to defend itself under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Iran, as the only member of the UN that has openly threatened the annihilation of another UN member, it is understood that the threat goes well beyond rhetoric, but expresses full intention. 

 

According to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel is a "cancerous tumour" which "must be  eradicated". Iran has never been content to stop at verbal insults and threats of assault, but has moved to ensure that actual violent attacks take place as precursors to its final intent. In the IRGC's Quds Division's formation, training and arming of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthis in Yemen, Shia militias in Iraq, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, a pincer movement closing in on Israel was not only contemplated but put into motion.

 

These are groups whose focus on occasion strayed toward disturbed actions hitting Western interests through Tehran's global network, attacking American troops, disrupting global shipping, and hitting western allies in the Mediterranean, South America and Europe. Which led eventually to October 7, 2023, when Iranian proxy Hamas gave vent to its ambition of fomenting dread terror to a degree not to be outdone in its sadistic savagery, much less imagined that human nature could sustain such a degree of malevolence.

 

Rescue personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran, in Bat Yam, Israel, June 15, 2025 (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

 

But it was an event that galvanized a traumatized nation to launch its military in a response to destroy the capacity of the Palestinian terror group to ever imagine a repeat could occur, striking at its leaders, its headquarters, its rocket launching sites, its interminable tunnel system, its weapons depots. And when Hamas was left licking its wounds but still launching missiles, it was Hezbollah's turn after a year of lobbing missiles into Israel, when precision technology placed pagers in the hands and pockets of shocked terrorists for long-range efficiency in administering punishment.

 

Although the Houthis' direct fire into Israel placed an additional burden on Israel to respond to that third front, the fourth failed to fully surge when Syrian opposition groups moved to destroy the Assad regime's hold on Syria. And then it was Iran's turn, to feel the full vibrant, deadly strength of the enemy whose ire it had so carefully cultivated over the years. The International Atomic Energy Agency had declared Iran in violation of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations earlier in the week. In the realization that it had little time left before Iran reached the end stage of producing nuclear weapons, Israel took the initiative.

 

Vehicles jam a highway as a fire blazes nearby in the oil depots of Shahran, northwest of Tehran, on June 15, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

 

Necessity moved Israel to destroy the Islamic Republic's aspirations for nuclear achievement; to match nuclear warheads to the technologically advanced missiles it had devised for that purpose. With success, Israel may remove a regime that beggared its nation's culture and economy for the greater interests of forming a Shi'ite cabal capable of undermining and destabilizing the greater numbers of Sunni-led Arab regional governments. Removing the Ayatollahs and the IRGC from power in Iran to free the Iranian population from its stranglehold, relieving the region of the tensions inherent in Iran's bid for conquest, and freeing Israel from the prospect of a nuclear night, would also release the international community from the octopus-probing arms of Islamist state theocratic jihad. 

 

The Iranian regime’s security chain of command that has been eliminated by Israeli strikes, June 14, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

 

Scurrilous Antisemitic Doxxing

 

"The Canadian Jews on this list are quite possibly the most unflappable members of our Jewish community. I don't think we'll be intimidated by it, if that's the intention. I don't think it's an acceptable thing to happen in Canada."

"It's kind of sad that in this day and age, it's such a show of courage to stand up for the Canadian Jewish community. It shouldn't be hard for our leaders in Canada to denounce hatred of Jews."

"I'm not going to hide under a rock. It's who I am. I'm proud of my service and there's no way I'll hide it. But to put us out there, it feels like it is a bit targeted. What's the purpose of that?"

Rebecca Garner, Canadian citizen 

"The soldier is most likely to have grown up in a Greater Toronto Area neighbourhood with a larger-than-average proportion of Jewish residents in what they'd describe as a Zionist household."

"[On average the type of Canadian who becomes an IDF soldier is] a white Jewish man born and raised in Canada who immigrated to Israel in their late teens with the express purpose of joining its military."

"[Readers can send in tips] about other Canadians that have joined the Israeli military [for the ongoing  database project]."

"[This is] an entirely reader-funded publication that puts the working class first."

"There is nothing antisemitic about the website as the individuals were included based on their service in the Israeli military, not their religious identity."

"We did not take the website down, and are working to restore it. We expect it to be restored soon."

Davide Mastracci, author of online list --  Find IDF Soldiers -- published in The Maple 

"I stand in solidarity with [Canada's] Jewish community. When they target one of us, they are targeting all of us."

"The people being targeted are Canadians. It's a Canadian issue when Canadians are doxxed. Additionally, I know some of the people on the list. I have stood with them in Toronto, and I will continue to stand with them and Canada's Jewish community against this blatant campaign."

"I want the community to know that you are not alone and, together, we will fight to restore the city and country that we knew and love."

Member of Parliament Kevin Vuong

 

"I am a public figure. Last year, I was disinvited on March 8 [to an International Women's Day event in Ontario] because I served in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]."

"I got death threats ... just absolutely ridiculous."

"[I am] not at all [intimidated by the list]."

Leah Goldstein, public speaker

Leah Goldstein, now 56, lived in Israel from age 17 until 32. She was a world champion kickboxer, an experience that qualified her to become head of instruction for Krav Maga, the IDF fighting system for Israeli soldiers. She had been invited as a keynote speaker last March for an International Women's Day event. Her invitation was cancelled when a group cited her service in the Israeli military, claiming her to be tainted by her collaboration with a military that had entered Gaza to destroy the Hamas terrorist group responsible for an epic-magnitude invasion of Israel of sadist savagery leaving 1,200 civilians -- from infants to adults -- slaughtered, and 120 taken hostage.

 

In the atmosphere circulating within Canada sponsored in large part by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau whose embrace of Critical Race Theory and DEI set the stage for the domination of progressive-left activism, which paved the way for antisemitic rallies led by Palestinian student groups whose hostile actions against Canadian Jews won the support of a significant number of academics and university students, isolation of Jews in Canada along with threats against the Jewish community became normalized and tolerated. For her part, the targeting of Leah Goldstein resulted in the collapse of her once-numerous speaking engagements. 

When Rebecca Garner, 34 years of age, discovered her name placed on a list that formed part of a database titled "Find IDF Soldiers" she was fairly well taken-aback. An article titled "Meet 85 Canadians that have Fought for Israel" was featured in an online publication -- The Maple -- which was linked to the list. Having served from 2011 to 2014 in the IDF, Garner characterized the list and the article as a "pretty clear expression of hatred for Jews". Born and  raised in Canada, she was motivated to join the IDF in tribute to her Holocaust-survivor grandparents.

 

The article in question states its purpose is meant to provide a database, according to its author, of "mini-profiles for as many Canadians that have fought in the Israeli military at any point as I could find (because) there is little existing research in Canada beyond one-off news articles about who these soldiers are and how they came to make the life choices that they did".

"Throughout this time, the Israeli military has been credibly accused by and/or before major international bodies of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, apartheid, and now genocide. Israeli soldiers have also provided the physical force necessary to uphold practices the Canadian government has condemned, such as the occupation of the West Bank and the creation of new settlements. Despite this, the Canadian government has shown no interest in making it illegal for its citizens to join the Israeli military, preventing them from doing so or even keeping track of them."

Davide Mastracci

The author of these provocatively innocent pieces denies they are meant as doxxing articles; merely devices of keeping track of Canadian Jews who distinguish themselves as lending their efforts as Jews to the Jewish state, in its defence. Nothing malicious about that, is there? A running database for the convenience of any readers interested in perhaps making contact with those listed, out of curiosity, certainly nothing more. The Maple website is meant to serve the ordinary person, it states, and quite ordinarily many persons in Canada share an overriding conviction of Jews as 'the hated other'.

 

The list happens to include Israel's Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, design expert on The Morning Show Shai DeLuca, journalist and author Matti Friedman, and cyclist and public speaker Leah Goldstein. It also included Ben Mizrahi, who made use of his army medic training in an effort to save lives. He was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7. 

"[The publication of this list is a] shameful attempt at intimidation."

"There is a long history of Canadians, particularly those with dual citizenship, who have served in the militaries of democratic allies of Canada, whether in countries like Israel, the United States, or the United Kingdom."

"In fact, some of the people in this list served as far back at the 1940s. Others on the list have lived in Israel for decades and have written books about their military service."

Noah Shack, Interim President, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

One notable reader comment to the published article: "This article has nothing to do with freedom of speech; it is a clear accomplice and a precursor to something like Kristallnacht. One can try to camouflage the idea of this article and present themselves as an innocent investigator of an interesting issue. However, a wolf in sheep's clothing is betrayed by its large wolf's tail and a huge stack of yellow Jewish stars, ready to be sewn onto the Canadians who served in the IDF."

Preserving Children's Mental Health in a War Situation

"Mental health is a cornerstone of everything we do, and our programs are designed not only to teach tennis skills but also to nurture resilience, confidence and hope."

"Together, we are building a brighter future for these children."

Ilan Allal, Israel Tennis and Educational Center (ITEC), Beersheba branch

"Now, the situation in the north has worsened, and the tennis centres there [in Haifa] are closed. I told the ITEC management that we would be happy to have those kids over and do something special for them."

"Sure they still get air-raid alarms on their phones. You can't run from it. But when they are active, whether it's playing tennis or watching a movie, it clears their heads a bit."

"This is what we try to do -- give them a feeling of safety for three days."

Yaniv Sakira, manager, Beersheba tennis centre

 

"It's very challenging to keep them focused and in a relaxed mood for an extended period. Our sessions are about 45 minutes long. It's difficult for them to sit and concentrate throughout the course."

"The kids keep a lot of their feelings inside. You have to be very patient and compassionate. We can sometimes see a switch in their emotions within a split second."

"They can go from being calm to very upset."

"It's all about building confidence and believing in themselves. they are under a lot of stress and they don't show it."

"I think in a few years all the stress will start popping out and I don't know that we are ready for it."

Asaf Barel, mental health coach

Children at Israel Tennis and Education Center's "Home Away From Home" camp. Photo by ITEC/Facebook

Fifty children arrived at the Israel Tennis and Education Centre (ITEC) branch located in Beersheba to enjoy a three-day tennis camp. These were children from communities in northern Israel, vacated with their families from their homes as a result of Hezbollah bombing from Lebanon into Israel. Their dislocation has been of a long duration, almost a year. The Hezbollah terrorist group that has Lebanon in its talons began lobbing bombs into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas whose invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in a wholesale bloodbath of Israelis of all ages, mass rape of girls and women, and the abduction of 250 Israeli infants, the elderly, entire families, woman and soldiers.

 

While the Israel Defense Forces have been fully engaged in Gaza, rooting out Hamas terrorists to entirely negate their ability to continue murdering Israelis, their search for the terror operatives who conceal themselves in the vast tunnel network under Gaza, and among the civilian population, in tunnel shafts under hospitals and schools and UNRWA administrative buildings, it has been forced to deal with the attacks from Lebanon hitting its northern flank. Some 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from the north, living in temporary quarters in more secure areas of Israel.

 

The children bused to Beersheba for a three-day holiday to distract them from the trauma of constant sirens, the sound of bombs, the uncertainty and the fear, the total disruption of anything approximating their normal lives, the routine of attending school, taking part in games activities are all in abeyance while the Israeli military responds to the Hezbollah assaults which UNIFIL the UN body tasked with ensuring that Hezbollah not rearm itself or send missiles into Israel after a previous conflict decades earlier, has entirely failed to do; intimidated by the terror group they were dispatched to control.

 

Their attendance as a group saw children from Acre, Nahariya and the Druze town of Sajur; Jewish, Druze, Muslim and Christian children, interact with one another, participate in the opportunities to engage in sports, take lessons, communicate between them, and be exposed to sessions meant to alleviate, however temporarily, the tensions they are under ordinarily during this fraught time for Israelis. They are being taught methods by which they can better understand their emotions and how to deal with them.

 

Travelling by bus with selected coaches, the children were put up at a Beersheba Hotel. There, along with tennis sessions, activities such as attending a movie theatre, taking part in bowling and video games, the children were totally immersed in a child-centric atmosphere, altogether unlike what has become of their normal lives. One of the games they were introduced to functioned both as a game and a learning session. The children were instructed to pop balloons for a prize. Within each balloon were questions questioning their state of mind and feelings.

"They were eager to pop the balloons and answer questions to get the prize. They were very cooperative and shared their thoughts", explained mental health coach Barel. "Sometimes I ask them how many times they think they can jump on one leg. Most of the time, they underestimate themselves and we show them that the ceiling, if there is one, is  higher than they think. It's all about building confidence and believing in themselves."

The Druze manager, Alam Ibrahim, referenced the Druze town of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights that was hit by a Hezbollah missile when 12 children were killed in July when the missile struck a soccer field popular with the town's children. "Some of the children that were murdered played tennis with us. Twelve worlds ended because terrorists decided to shoot a missile. We re all in the same boat. We are in rough seas, we either gather together and bring the ship to safer waters or we lose hope", he said.

 

Israeli police officers and firefighters work at the site of a rocket attack in Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Eliyahu)

"We wanted to take these kids away from the alarms, the shelling and the atmosphere of war, enhance their resilience and share with them on the tennis field."

"While the cultures are different, we know how to unite the kids through sport, especially on the tennis field."

"Our vision does not differentiate between skin or hair colour. We are all together. It warms the heart to see a religious Jewish kid play with an Arab girl, there is hope in that."

Alam Ibrahim, Druze manager of ITEC's Sajur branch

Rescue of Dual Citizens From Conflict Zones

"The half-empty evacuation flights certainly underscores why the government is being so aggressive in communicating the need to leave now on available commercial flights."

"As for the poll, those results may come into play should commercial evacuation options cease to be variable and the government has to orchestrate a more deliberate evacuation at their own expense."

"Based on the results, there may be some pushback to this in the general public."

Andrew Enns, executive vice-president, Leger Polling 

Smoke rises at the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. Photo by Hussein Malla /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Through its foreign affairs department website [Global Affairs Canada] the government of Canada has given notice to Lebanese-Canadians -- which is to say citizens of Lebanon who also have achieved dual Canadian citizenship -- to evacuate from Lebanon, for the past year. Ever since the de facto government of Lebanon, Hezbollah, began lobbing rockets at northern Israel, compelling Israel to return the compliment, since October 8, 2023. A low-grade conflict ensued in the wake of the Hamas incursion of thousands of terrorists into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 taken hostage.

Since that dread day in Jewish history that saw Israeli girls and women raped, mutilated, children and entire families burned alive in their homes, infants, the elderly and women taken into Gaza by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists, aided and abetted by ordinary Gazans celebrating the mass murder and torture of Jews, Israel's military has been focused on its primary goal of eliminating the threat that Hamas poses to Israel and its citizenry. Hezbollah's intervention to distract from that goal faithfully followed the same pattern of threat, incitement, attack and defense.

Despite which those holding Canadian passports have been in no great rush to leave Lebanon, their preferred place of residence. With their dual citizenship status, Lebanese-Canadians seem content to sit out the conflict brought to them by Hezbollah, but the government of Canada has been exerting itself to influence them to return to Canada by available commercial flights, for months. Few have evinced interest, leading the government to reserve seats for them and urging they be used. In the circumstances these are not flights to Canada, but to area destinations like Turkey from which they must then make arrangements to travel on to Canada on their own. And repay the government for the commercial flights.

Which has left Canada in the position of airlifting hundreds out of Lebanon who hold Canadian citizenship. A situation that has over half of the Canadian population feeling the country owes no protection to citizens who determine of their own accord to remain in conflict zones, warnings aside. The survey identifies 34 percent of respondents feel the federal government has a responsibility to protect and evacuate its citizens. 

Roughly 900 airline seats were booked by Canada between Friday and Sunday, foreign affairs continuing to urge Lebanese-Canadians to advantage themselves to the available seats. Two decades ago there was a similar airlift during a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Over $85 million was spent by   Canada to evacuate 15,000 people. Most of whom speedily returned to Lebanon at the first opportunity, post-conflict.

Among Canadians there is a debate whether Canadians who choose to remain in high-risk conflict zones should expect to receive the federal government's protection. Among younger and older Canadians opinion varied widely; 49 percent of people between 18 to 25 years of age feeling the country has a responsibility to protect its citizens in conflict zones, as opposed to 70 percent of people 55 and older who feel the government has no such responsibility.

The sexes were close to evenly split against providing protection; 37 percent of men felt Canada ha a duty whereas 30 percent of  women felt the same. 

Fire and smoke rise over Beirut's southern suburbs after an airstrike amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on Oct. 3, 2024. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Return to Israel -- Alive or Dead

"The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages -- both alive and dead."

"[While acknowledging the praiseworthy recovery effort that brought six Hamas-captured Israels, killed while in captivity back to Israel] our hearts ache for the terrible loss."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The bodies of hostages Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry were recovered by the IDF from the Khan Yunis area in the Gaza Strip.

(photo credit: Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

"[The Israeli army hit] a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities [in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley]."

"Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck."

Israel Defense Forces

An Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons depot in northeastern Lebanon's Baalbek District, August 19, 2024. (Screenshot X)

 

There is the workmanship-like detachment of conflict brought on by the October 7 invasion of southern Israel that saw 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians slaughtered, women and girls gang-raped and tortured, children and the elderly, women and entire families taken hostage by Hamas terrorists that sees the Israel Defense Forces concentrate on their task of eliminating the terrorist hordes in the Gaza Strip, with the knowledge that in destroying terrorist infrastructure, they may inadvertently lead to the death of the hostages.

Hamas taunts Israel, claiming that Israeli hostages, confined in dank, dark corridors of underground tunnels have been killed by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas operatives known to be ensconced in the tunnels, along with weaponry stockpiled there. In the instance of the latest recovery of the bodies of six kidnapped Israeli men, five of whom were elderly, Hamas again asserted that they died in air attacks on the tunnels they were kept prisoner within. Despite that autopsies carried out in Israel revealed the cause having been shot to death while in captivity.

That knowledge doesn't make it any more gentle to ease a sense of helplessness in attempts to recover the remaining hostages still hoped to be alive; less than one hundred by now, but it does validate the belief that the hostages have been the victims of torture of every conceivable dimension at the dedicated hands of Palestinian terrorists. An overnight operation carried out in southern Gaza brought the six home. They had been captured alive, and over the months of their confinement had suffered torment.

Six fewer Israels, dead or alive, for Hamas to plan using as pawns for the exchange of Palestinian prisoners intended to accompany an agreement for a ceasefire that would demand an Israeli withdrawal. There is no easing of the pressure felt by the Israeli government and its population to do everything humanly possible to restore the hostages remaining alive to their families. There are still children unaccounted for, there are the girls and women who are repeatedly raped, and there are concerns over the women who may be pregnant or who have delivered a child.

The remains of Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35, have been brought home to burial and profound sorrow. Abducted from kibbutzim, farming communities which empathized with Palestinians across the border in Gaza, and who offered employment to Gazans as agricultural workers earning salaries far in excess of anything they might find in Gaza. 

 

That among those who had entered southern Israel on October 7, were some of these Palestinian workers who had complete familiarity with the lay-out of the farming villages, their families with whom they shared meals in communal dining rooms, and which buildings housed the kibbutz security personnel, valuable information shared with the terrorists underscored the capacity for betrayal of the trust of ordinary Israelis who paid dearly for that all-too-human judgemental failure. 

 

In the instance of 79-year-old Avraham Munder where some 80 residents of his kibbutz were taken hostage, the word was that he had died "after enduring months of physical and mental torture". The rescue of those tormented and murdered Israelis came about as the result of the tunnel network where they were secreted being raided by the IDF. Of the 110 hostages who still remain, captured in the October 7 invasion, authorities in Israel estimate that some third of the total are now dead.

While mourning their loss and imprisonment under dire existential conditions, Israel through its defense forces carries on its determination to wipe out Hamas infrastructure and its operatives, as well as its entire leadership. That has been complicated by the orders given by the Islamic Republic of Iran to its proxy militias in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has entered the conflict, opening a second front in essence, along with militias in Iraq and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen threatening and opposing Israel's response in Gaza.

(Photo credit: Israeli army)