He Ran and He Hid, but He Couldn't Escape

IDF soldiers standing over Sinwar's body Ynet

 

"Pretty rich after a year of undermining Netanyahu, saying he MUST go to a ceasefire, MUST deescalate, trying to stop Israel from going into Rafah WHERE SINWAR WAS KILLED, and Kamala boycotting his joint address to Congress - now Biden & Harris have the nerve to congratulate him for setting the path to peace."

"I'm sure the phone call sounds something like 'You were right Bibi [Netanyahu], we apologize'." 

US Rep. Mike Waltz, X 

"Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run -- he didn't die as a commander, but as someone who only cared for himself."

"This is a clear message to all of our enemies."

Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant

 

"Those prisoners [Israeli hostages] will not return to you before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza."

Khalil al-Hayya, Qatar-based Hamas Sinwar deputy

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explains the importance of Rafah's Philadelphi corridor during a press conference in Jerusalem on September 4, 2024. (Photo by Abir Sultan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It took years to plan, a large, shocking event, an ambitious plan for a dedicated terrorist group to embark upon, knowing it would be entering the lair of a lion whose wrath, once provoked, would eclipse in numbers any death-dealing the terrorist group, even when tasking 6,000 of its operatives to enter Israel at the Gaza border with instructions to plunder, destroy, rape, mutilate and murder would achieve. The plan was explicit in its dedication to death-dealing for Israelis, another mini-Holocaust they could be proud of. A mission their leader sent them to fulfill and to document. Grisly scenarios they would be proud of and circulate as a demonstration of just how courageous men armed with total disregard for life, utterly devoid of compassion, using all the weapons of war on a civilian population.

And just as it took years in careful, precision planning by a man whose purpose for existence was a laser focus on destroying Israel, in the process terrorizing an entire population of Israelis never knowing when or where the next strike would come from, this man himself, steeped deep in his vision of 'liberation' and conquest became very familiar with the dread he had inspired in his potential victims. For a year since he dispatched those thousands of terrorists eager to do credit to Yahya Sinwar's shock and awe demonstration of Palestinian inhumanity, the architect of the October 7 slaughter became a desperate fugitive.

Sinwar, after 23 years in an Israeli prison for terrorism as a member of the Israel-destroying Hamas breakaway group from the Muslim Brotherhood, believed he knew the ethos and dearest-held emotional attachments of Jews; care and solicitation for the welfare of fellow Jews. And he meant to exploit that to its full potential. After all, hadn't he benefited from that Jewish reaction himself, when  in exchange for the return of one lone abducted Israeli soldier, over a thousand Palestinian prisoners were traded, himself included, and enabled to carry on with their pet project of threat, destabilization, violence and mayhem against Israel.

The pinnacle therefore, of that infamous October 7 day of sadistic savagery was to round up Israeli children, the elderly and infirm, women and soldiers to be held for their guaranteed ransom potential in freeing up more Palestinians who languish in Israeli prisons after having been arrested and placed on trial, found guilty of the crimes of threatening, attacking and murdering Jews. Maltreatment of the age-and-gender vulnerable abductees, their humiliation, punishing living arrangements, sexual predation and starvation would do nothing to diminish their value as exchange objects.

 

IDF soldiers evacuating Sinwar's body on a stretcher

 

Thursday was the turning point in the Israel Defense Forces' search for the whereabouts of the October 7 mastermind. He had spent the year since the slaughter in southern Israel, deep in the bowels of Gaza, with him six Israeli hostages as living shields. When those six were too weak and emaciated, suffering from torture and privation, their usefulness was ended and they too were murdered. Israeli intelligence was certain he had moved to the tunnels of Rafah, where several Hamas divisions remained intact after the bulk of the Hamas militias elsewhere within the Gaza Strip had been neutered. On that day, he and  his bodyguards were cornered following a gunfight with Israeli troops, who called in a tank to fire a shell on a building that Sinwar had taken shelter in.

A drone had verified the presence of a terrorist in the previously bombed building. He was found later, partially buried in the rubble that had resulted from tank-fire, dead. The building's collapse had sent a wooden stake, not through the heart of that death zombie; his brain was impaled by it, a fitting end for a human monster. Tal al-Sultan in Gaza's southern Rafah city, hard by the border with Egypt, through which arms and ammunition had been smuggled into Gaza for years, was the scene of his death. When the "dead man walking" was found, he had with him, a gun, a knife, a flak jacket and 40,000 Israeli shekels.

Odd Man Out -- Singing From a Different Hymnal

"When we talk about [Israel's] ability to defend [itself], certainly that would include missile launch sites, military installations, airfields from which these attacks are being launched."

"Israel has a right to defend itself against such attacks and diminish Iran's capabilities of attacking them."

"I think [retaliation] needs to be carefully considered because that isn't the purpose of military response from Israel, but rather to diminish Iran's ability to continue to attack them."

"Israel has a right] to knock those missiles down from the sky [and] target the source of those missiles."

Federal Defence Minister Bill Blair

Minister of National Defence Bill Blair   Canadian Press

"We absolutely need to make sure that this does not become a full-scale war, and that's why we need a ceasefire."

"We need this war to stop."

"[Escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could plunge the region into] all-out war."

"Canada's role right now, Canada's goal, is to make sure that there's no full-scale war in the Middle East, and so that's why we'll continue to engage diplomatically."

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly 

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada’s goal right now ‘is to make sure there is no full-scale war in the Middle East.’  Still from video/CBC

Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau the federal Cabinet is unusually heavy with Muslim ministers and Members of Parliament, all of whom make no secret of their hostility toward Israel and their support for Palestinians and that includes the terrorist groups who claim to represent the best interests of Palestinians. Among their Canadian supporters these are 'freedom fighters' against Israeli oppression and occupation, an 'occupation' necessitated by the Palestinian penchant for lethal violence against Israel and its population.

In the Liberal caucus and Cabinet there are a few who express a level of empathy for Israel facing an existential dilemma courtesy of Palestinian terrorism, made more acute in the public eye since the horrors of the October 7 massacre, mass rape and abduction of hundreds of Israelis into Gaza as  hostages. Anthony Housefather, Marco Mendicino and Bill Blair have on occasion, defied the Liberal insistence that a 'ceasefire' is called for, effectively giving Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad the opportunity to regroup, rearm and recruit to continue its promise to destroy Israel.

Both Justin Trudeau and Melanie Joly have made it clear that nothing is clear about their position regarding Israel's right to exist; on the one hand declaring Israel has every right to defend itself, on the other placing a moratorium on defensive weapons from Canada to Israel, (playing to the Canadian Muslim voting bloc, since Canada does not supply Israel with weapons to begin with) and constant declarations of 'proportionality' and 'ceasefire', going so far as to abandon Canada's traditional position at the UN in support of Israel, to vote against Israel.

The barbaric events of October 7, 2023 in their horrifyingly sadistic details were documented in videos by Hamas terrorists, demonstrating the exultation felt by the thousands of terrorists that flooded Israel's southern border with Gaza in the unfolding bloodbath of savage intensity. Despite the appalling details that have been revealed of sub-human actions against innocent civilians from infants to the elderly, Israel's support has been diminished in the rush to condemn it for its response to the pogrom; a response permitted any other country, but not Israel.

Even Bill Blair, Canada's Minister of Defense, delivers responses that are both supportive of Israel and negatively contradictory as he hews to the Liberal government's playlist. On the one hand he supports the right of the Jewish State to do whatever it considers is required to defend itself from attacks by Iran, including attacks on its oil and gas infrastructure as representing an "appropriate" response to the barrage of missiles unleashed by Tehran against Israel. Yet on other occasions he will withhold approval.

At times declarations of support issuing from Mr. Blair are in direct contradiction to those aired by both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. On the previous April occasion when Iran bombarded Israel, Joly urged the Jewish State to "take the win" without retaliating. Canada, obviously has never been besieged on its borders by groups of bloodthirsty terrorists determined to destroy the country and savage its population; 'advice' comes easy to those who have no intimate knowledge of terrorism's effects.

Still from video    CNN

Palestinian Terrorism That Knows No Bounds

"Hamas has actually started to kill people directly to raise the pressure on the [Israeli] government to enter a deal on its conditions."

"Hamas anticipated that instead of blaming the killers, the Israeli people would put the responsibility on the government, which actually wants to bring back the hostages."

Shimon Or, uncle Avinatan Or, member Tikva Forum

Mass Protest in Tel Aviv, September 1, Reuters

The Tikva Forum is an Israeli group that adheres to the belief that the best way to secure the freedom of the remainder of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip's interminable tunnel system as pawns for potential prisoner exchanges, is military pressure. Rationally, the Israeli military, tasked to completely eradicate the vast, intricate tunnel system, its storage capacity for rockets and other weaponry, its communications apparatus, and its terrorist operatives, while at the same time special forces are engaged in a desperate search for the whereabouts of the hostages, represents the most effective way of achieving both goals.

The families of the hostages that remain in Gaza, in the 'care' of committed death squads with no human compunction over visiting harm on helpless prisoners agitate repeatedly, and loudly, disrupting Israel's dual preoccupations; maintaining itself as a country at war as best it can while the conflict in Gaza proceeds in a strenuous effort to eradicate Hamas and its infrastructure, focusing both on supporting and sustaining its population, while tasking its military to succeed in both locating Israeli captives and decimating Hamas' fighting capabilities.

It is beyond logical that a country at war in a consequential campaign to secure its future by destroying those who would deny them that future, must have the compliance of its population to enable it to rise to the occasion. Instead, fractious albeit readily understood emotions surrounding the dismal fate of Israeli hostages, distract government authorities from the vital task of defending itself and destroying its enemies' bases and operatives who continue to threaten the lives of Israelis.

It is pure anguish for the families whose loved ones were captured and taken prisoner into the Gaza enclave, there to be subjected to ongoing violence of every description beyond being deprived of their freedom, their health, their futures. On the other hand, the campaign to force the government to give priority to the rescue of hostages by means of ceasefires, benefits Hamas, the very psychopathic force dedicated to the destruction of Israel, by allowing it time and opportunity to restructure, restock weaponry and continue recruiting among the greater Palestinian population.

This dilemma of great moral and personal dimensions is complex and wreaks havoc in the minds and hearts of all concerned; from the families themselves, to the broader Israeli population, and finally, to the government which is placed in a virtually impossible 'no win' situation should it adhere to the fervent wishes of the bereaved and abandon its relentless strategy to allow the terrorist Palestinian groups no opportunity to re-establish themselves for the  singular purpose of destroying more lives, including those of their compatriot ordinary Palestinian civilians.

 

The murdered hostages (clockwise from top left): Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Eden Yerushalmi. via REUTERS

 

The murderous heartlessness of Palestinians who have committed themselves to the eradication of the Jewish state, to enable themselves to gain the ancestral geography of Judaism's historical heritage, bears no opportunities to reason with unreconstructed haters, groomed to take their place in the death cult of absolute Jew-hate that views all Israelis, young, old and in vibrant adulthood as enemies that must be slaughtered without compunction. The Palestinian operatives who enjoy the mutilation of women, the rapes, the slaughter, heark to a time of medieval brutalism.

 

To savage hostages for eleven months of anguished misery, force them to deliver videoed messages meant to cause pain and humiliation, and then point-blank murder the six young people whose presence at the Nova Music Festival on October 7 was their ultimate death warrant, is the Palestinian way. Six hostages, shot to death at close range, concluding their months of inhumane captivity; Ori Danino, 25, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 277, Alexander Lobanov, 33, Carmel Gat, 40, and 23 year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, all pawns in a tortuous game that Palestinian terror knows best. 

Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Alexander Lobanov, whose body was among six recovered from the Gaza Strip | AFP

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)

Dismal Canadian Failure to Put Out the Fire of Antisemitism

"[The threats were made to] a number of institutions, including synagogues and hospitals, across Canada."

"Law enforcement is also engaging with faith-based leaders to ensure they have the information and support they need."

RCMP

 

"It is absolutely chilling to hear of more than 100 Jewish institutions across the country being threatened earlier this morning."

"For many, many months, Canada's Jewish community has raised alarm bells about the escalation of rampant Jew-hatred, as incitement and hateful rhetoric have become normalized online, on our city streets and on our university and college campuses."

"Repeated calls for violence against Jews and Jewish institutions are a stark reminder that extremism and radicalization are thriving in Canada and must be confronted before it's too late."

"The time of our leaders to step up is now." 

Michael Levitt, CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

"[There was no] imminent threat [the emails appear to be] nuisance emails designed to disrupt lives."

"Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated -- we will continue to take part in Canadian society and Jewish life."

"We will stay vigilant, but we will never be intimidated."

Eta Yudin, Quebec vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

A police vehicle sits outside Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal, a Jewish school that was hit by gunshots for the second time in three days, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Photo by Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press

Jews in Canada are indeed on alert; more than that, they are profoundly perplexed and disappointed that their prime minister, their provincial premiers, non-Jewish faith leaders, corporate heads, government departments, human rights groups and civil society at all levels, from school boards to municipal offices, have not made an effort to stand behind their Jewish neighbours. Canadian unions in particular, academia as well, have added fuel to the fire of condemning Israel for protecting its people in the wake of the October 7 Palestinian terrorist attack on Jewish civilians in southern Israel, leaving 1,200 dead and hundreds taken hostage by Hamas.

The constant 'pro-Palestinian' and growing pro-Hamas demonstrations taking place across Canada, at university campuses, in front of Jewish hospitals, Israeli legations, synagogues, Jewish neighbourhoods, shopping centers and municipal offices exude hatred for Jews in Canada, issuing threats well known to Jews but evidently beyond the threat-literacy of the federal government. The display of Hamas flags alongside those of the Palestinian Authority, while chants of 'from the river to the sea', the 'triangle-cum-swastika signalling death to Jews, 'final solution', and 'go back to Poland' blatant in their rancid hate.

In the absence of any vestige of a crackdown on the illegal marches, the harassment of Jews, the implied threats, public expressions of antisemitism have become increasingly and startlingly terrifying for Jews in a country they were born in and to which they have been proud of representing. The great yawning gap of disinterest by authorities in meeting this chaotic disorder threatening a minority population has served to satisfy the organizers of the rallies that they can continue to threaten and intimidate, slander and alarm, with no enforcement of the law forthcoming, enabling the organizers to become more blatantly antisemitic with each passing week.

 

Toronto firefighters are shown here at the scene of a fire at North York business. (CBC)

In the matter of a series of emails reaching synagogues, Jewish groups and medical personnel who are Jewish and considered fair game for Jew-haters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assured the Jewish public that they are collaborating with local law enforcement to make certain that Jewish establishments wherever they are located remain safe. The source of the threats is being investigated by the Federal Policing National Security Program which, if it did its analyzing well, would conclude that foreign financial support has been key in the organization of these hate rallies.

Threats of death and physical violence were included in the emails, which indicated the goal of the perpetrator was to cause 'terror'. Really? after months of promulgating hate fests after hate fests,that is the investigative conclusion? Our policing and intelligence agencies are really doing us proud! Since the October 7 Hamas attack last fall on Israeli civilians the lunacy of antisemitism has gone unchecked and has ballooned, threatening the well-being of the entire community. In Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, police have been responding to threats. Toronto police revealed they evacuated a building in the West End of the city to "investigate for a bomb threat".

"We are continuing to address the possible impact in Toronto", assured the Toronto Police Service media relations officer. One would hope so, considering the multiple incidents of violence targeting Jewish institutions in the last year. Where fire-bombings of synagogues and community centres in Montreal and Vancouver have taken place, even as the same in Toronto have occurred with businesses have been vandalized, and shots fired at Jewish schools, as ongoing investigations so far yield few clues as to those responsible, though Jews know very well who they are collectively.

The Adath Israel Poale Zedek Anshei Ozeroff Synagogue in Hampstead, Que., was one of more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canada to receive a bomb threat by email Wednesday morning. (François Sauvé/CBC)

Capital Pride's Hateful Slander

"Ottawa is a kind and welcoming city where everyone should feel included."

"I'm disappointed that despite conversations with the Jewish community, the board of Capital Pride has chosen to stand behind its original statement that caused significant hurt and distress for many members of the Jewish community."

"This decision by the board, days before the start of Pride, has unfortunately created an atmosphere where many now do not feel welcome to participate."

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe

 

"[Capital Pride condemned the atrocities of October 7 committed by Hamas and accused Israel of an] endless and brutal campaign in Gaza."

"Growing Islamophobic sentiment [was fuelled by the pink-washing of the war in Gaza and racist notions that all Palestinians are homophobic and transphobic."

"By portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East, Israel seeks to draw attention away from its abhorrent human rights abuses against Palestinians."

"We refuse to be complicit in this violence."

Capital Pride statement

People take part in the Capital Pride parade ... Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

Ottawa's mayor, fully representing all the people of the city has made it clear he will not, this year attend Pride week events in reaction to the statement organizers released that they are "in solidarity with Palestine". The festivities celebrating the 2SLGBTQ+ community of the city are meant to be events planned to draw people together; the organizers of Capital Pride have chosen to divide people over a political statement that reflects some interests and deflects that of others. The events from August 17 to August 25 have become controversial perhaps beyond the imagination of Pride organizers.

Having alienated the attendance of the city's mayor, who plans to attend other Pride activities but not that of Capital Pride events "unless there is a change in approach", it is surely becoming apparent to said organizers that they have opened a hornet's nest of divisiveness. There are groups, important to the functioning of a civil society, which will react in a manner similar to the mayor's stance. And in so doing they are making it clear that they condemn Capital Pride's allegations and the volatility of the mistaken beliefs behind them.

"Inclusivity and supporting all communities we serve is very important to us as a hospital, as is the safety of any TOH staff/physician, and patient."

"We feel it would not be responsible for us to send staff, physicians, their family and friends, as well as patients to this event."

"[The decision to withdraw from the parade was made after] detailed and thoughtful [discussions with TOH’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council and its Pride Community@TOH. Discussions will continue] to identify other ways we can continue to support and celebrate the 2SLGBTQIA+ community throughout the year." 

The Ottawa Hospital statement

 

"[There would be no] official [contingent from [our] health-care facility in this year’s parade because members of both the CHEO and broader communities] no longer feel safe or welcome to attend."

"[Instead of focusing on what brought people together in support of 2SLGBTQ+ people, or even what might bring people together in calling for peace in the Middle East, the Capital Pride Committee] chose to repurpose the Pride Parade to protest Israel. As a result, we are hearing from members of both the CHEO and broader communities that they no longer feel safe or welcome to attend."

"Having CHEO participate in this year’s Pride Parade under these circumstances would send a message of exclusion, which is the opposite of what we believe. Sadly therefore, there won’t be an official CHEO contingent in this year’s Pride Parade. This should not be construed as taking a stance on an international issue. This is about supporting inclusivity and safety for our colleagues, families and volunteers."

Alex Munter, CEO, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Tellingly, Alex Munter is himself gay, and a proud member of the city's gay community. He may know what Capital Pride does not, or chooses not to know, that in Palestinian culture and religious society any deviation from 'straight' is forbidden. Gay life is on the balance between life and death when it is revealed that someone from the community is gay. The choice made by Capital Pride is one of prejudiced ignorance. There are imams across Canada who preach dangerously against the LGBTQ+ element of society.

 

While emoting sensitivity toward Palestinians and gay Palestinians in particular, the Capital Pride organizers cannot be completely ignorant of the fact that in Palestinian society anyone foolhardy enough to 'come out' is gambling with their lives, whereas in Israel the LGBTQ+ community is protected by law, where it is not in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Those that choose to fulminate against Israel while presenting Palestinian society and culture as respectful of the gay community do so out of sheer, unadulterated antisemitism cloaked in concern for gay rights.

 

In Ottawa this year, although hate crimes have overall decreased in most categories, the Ottawa Police Service revealed that crimes against the Jewish community have seen a hundred-percent increase, with 74 incidents having been reported and investigated in the first seven months of 2004 alone, in comparison with 36 for all of 2023, according to a July report. 

As for the organizers of Capital Pride, were they really interested in supporting their claims they could make a trip to the Middle East to satisfy their allegations of pink-washing. In Gaza, they stand the chance of being thrown off a roof by revealing their gender/sex status/orientation. In the West Bank there is the risk of being beaten to a pulp. Should they travel to Iran to further their research, they may no longer be crucified or beheaded, in this more civil world, but garroted or sent to the gallows.

"In recent months there have been repeated reports in the press (including in New Republic, 19 August 2002, East Bay Voice, 19 September 2002, Ha’aretz, 6 March 2003 and 10 September 2001, Jerusalem Post, 5 June 2001) and by civil rights groups (e.g. Agudah, http://agudah.israel-live.de ) on serious violations of the human rights of gays, lesbians, transsexuals and trans-genders in the autonomous areas ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2000, it is claimed, four Palestinians were killed for being homosexual, and hundreds were forced to flee to Israel. It is alleged that 'harassment of gays' is 'practically official policy' in the PA. The victims are frequently called collaborators and accused as such. However, there have also been two cases in the last three years where people have been specifically accused of homosexuality. In the wake of the ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’, Sharia courts have also been set up where homosexuals are threatened with the death penalty by stoning, burning and hanging.  These courts also declare persons suspected of homosexuality to be ‘outlaws’, who can be murdered with impunity. It is also reported that the PA police regularly inflicts appalling torture on homosexuals."

 WRITTEN QUESTION E-1346/03
by Ilka Schröder (GUE/NGL)
to the Council (European Parliament

"By disregarding our concerns  and inviting this year's Pride event to become a protest against Israel, Capital Pride has chosen a divisive position that further marginalizes Jews, who are victimized  by more hate crimes than any other group in Canada."

"Although Capital Pride recognizes the horrors of the October 7th terrorist attack, their statement turns Pride into a protest against Israel, the only Jewish homeland in the world and the only country singled out by Capital Pride. It does nothing to achieve the peace everyone wants to see overseas. Instead, it creates conditions for more hateful antisemitic rhetoric targeting Ottawa’s Jewish community here at home."

"By making anti-Israel policy a centrepiece of Pride, Capital Pride creates a climate where Jews are targeted, unwelcome and unsafe, undermining the entire purpose of Pride. Pride is supposed to embrace the diverse backgrounds of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and should not ask anyone to leave part of their cultural or religious identity at the door to feel safe and included."

Jewish Federation of Ottawa

Emulating, Taking Inspiration From the Third Reich

"Jews have been hated because they were poor, because they were rich, because they were not integrating, because they were integrating, because of their religion and -- when that became unacceptable -- because of their race."

"When that in turn became unacceptable, they were hated because they were stateless; when they got a state, they were hated for having it."

Douglas Murray, Political Commentator

The words “Never Again Is Now” are projected onto the Brandenburg Gate, Germany, on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Paul Zinken—dpa/picture alliance/Getty Images

 

In the 1930s there arose a strangely charismatic figure born in Austria and destined to become Chancellor of Germany. A man with a vision for Germany, who dedicated himself to persuading the population that looked  up to him that clean living and expanding one's horizons led to a healthy mind which in turn would lead to a healthy, strong body. Travel, and get to know the world. Consume healthy foods and reject tobacco and alcohol. German men and women exemplified the ideal human being.

The country, however, was infested with lesser humans and their unacceptable delusion that they were German when they were really a despised, lowly race of Jews, corrupting the value of being German. The solution would be to rid Germany of their pestilential presence. And with the cooperation of all good, true German citizens it could be done, the Fuhrer would see to it. Trust me, he bellowed, I have only your best interests at heart; together we can accomplish what has never before been done!

 

WARSAW, 1943: SS troops bring a group of captured Jewish people, including women and young children, to a railway-station collection point for deportation to the Nazi death camps; in the background, police and soldiers can be seen watching the Warsaw Ghetto burn.  National Archives

That was then, and the benevolent dictator who espoused family values and the glory of the Aryan 'race'; the very ideal of physical perfection. Those in the Axis who gave their support to the Second World War led by Nazi Germany included Japan which Hitler declared to be 'honourary' Aryans. Nazi Germany is long gone. Another nation is taking its place. And irony of ironies, it is an Aryan race. Iranians are not Arabs; they are, however, Persian Aryans.

Ordinary Iranians have much in common with Jews and share an empathetic relationship. Their fundamentalist Islamist-fascist leaders, however do not. The theocracy that is Iran, as a result of their leadership has never been shy about publicly declaring their intention to annihilate the Jewish State. Over the decades they have assiduously gathered Shiite groups in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Qatar and Lebanon to form militias dedicated to furthering the fortunes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, of the minority Islamic Shiites, and their shared aspiration to kill Jews.

 Iran has taken up where Nazi Germany left off. They and their proxy militias represent the most heinously inhumane groups for whom mass murder is justified by religious decree. But they have their counterparts -- more 'moderate' in their declarations of Jew-hate, but equally willing to destroy the lives of Jews living among them -- in the West. Diaspora Jews have since time immemorial faced antisemitism; it is the very reason that the re-dedication of Israel as a homeland on ancestral Judaean land is of such vital importance to the world's Jews.

It is their historic heritage, their homeland, their haven, their hope for the future. Furious new waves of antisemitic vitriol have been roiling the streets of the world's capitals ever since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas dispatched thousands of Palestinian terrorists into southern Israel for the sole purpose of bloody slaughter of Jews. Interspersed with sadistic mass rapes complete with mutilation of the girls and women being raped, to increase their pain and anguish, defiling their dignity as human beings.

The plight of the young and the old, the ill and the large civilian population that Palestinian terrorists slaughtered during the course of a single day when 1,200 innocent people were horribly tortured and murdered, another 240 taken hostage into Gaza, had its shock-effect initially. The savagery that was documented by the terrorists themselves, and the reports of witnesses failed, however, to convince those in the West that view Palestinians as underdogs, lapping up their propaganda as reality. 

 

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel students and activists gather for an eighth day at an encampment on the campus of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, on May 4, 2024. (Alexis Aubin / AFP)

 

And from that propaganda emerged a rallying for the 'human rights' of Palestinians, that slid over into admiration for the butchery committed by Hamas, explained by sanctimonious, Jew-hating academics and unions as a legitimate struggle by the underdog against colonialist 'imperialist' Jews. Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, are roiled with the marching of 'pro-Palestinian' supporters hailing the courage of Hamas terrorists, cheering the October 7 atrocities. And chanting 'Intifada' and 'Final Solution'.

 

Synagogues and Jewish parochial schools, private Jewish-owned businesses are fire-bombed and vandalized. University campuses are taken hostage to persuade their administrators to succumb to the demands of students, faculty and outside agitators that they divest from Israeli military investments when no such thing even exists. In turn a handful of administrators, cowering before the raucous demands of the truth-illiterate hate-mongers agree to boycott Israeli academics and universities, review their investments, and give special privileges to Palestinian students.

Hitler would be so proud.

Data shows a hike in hate crimes reported in the cities with Canada's largest Jewish populations, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. (David Donnelly/CBC)

"The World Needs To Know"

"It's a big part of northern Israel that are living life like hell."

"I think everyone needs to know that this is what Hezbollah does. While we [the Israeli military] are aiming at military targets, they are ruining the everyday lives of Israelis."

"They target civilians on purpose; they know they are civilians. That's the difference. The world needs to know."

Ofri Eliyahu Rimoni, resident of Tel Aviv

Fires burn as a result of rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, next to the city of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanon border, on June 3, 2024 (Jalaa Marey / AFP)

The world has no wish 'to know'. The world's eyes are focused on Western legacy media that prefers to take its news stories from sources such as Al Jazeera, and any updates emanating from 'official' media sourced from Gaza straight from Hamas or Lebanon, speaking for Hezbollah. That tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes and towns in Northern Israel because of rockets and missiles fired from the Lebanon border into Israel by Hezbollah is of scant interest to the world at large. They simply don't care 'to know'. 

It makes more gripping, more intensely interesting copy to report that the Israel Defense Forces are bombing the Gaza Strip. The IDF takes extreme measures in the hope that it can, as much as humanly possible in a war, avoid civilian casualties. In the face of a reality where a terrorist combatant army takes great pains to infiltrate crowded civilian enclaves, where there is no concern over civilian vulnerability when rocket launchers are deliberately placed near schools, hospitals, mosques and densely-occupied apartment blocks.

Banking on the IDF being loathe to fire back at the launching sites or tunnels containing munitions, terrorist operatives or crowded enclaves, Hamas infamously directly places Palestinians in the line of fire, exulting at the deaths that result as collateral damage, using those deaths of 'women and children' as fodder for their claims of Israeli 'genocide'; the greater the number of civilian deaths, the more Western ire at Israel, not Hamas is raised, with demands that Israel cease firing, not that Hamas surrender its pledge of destroying the Jewish state.

 

Fire near Kiryat Shmona on the north (Hesder Yeshiva Union)

 

"It seems this is the new method of the enemy: they see and hear what's happening -- they understand burning the north [of Israel] is more effective."

"We're coming off a night of fires. And this morning another blaze started in the Yir'on Forest."

"Our biggest fear is the fire spreading to Mount Meron. If that mountain ignites, all the communities of Meron, Safsufa, and the Galilee panhandle will be in danger."

Guy Eyal, officer with the Golan Regional Council, northern Israel

Guy Eyal, the security officer (Merom Golan Regional Council)

 

Much of the northern stretches of the Galilee region is in danger, resulting from the Lebanese, Iran-proxy terrorist group Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel. Since October 8 when Hezbollah first began sending incendiary devices across the border to distract Israeli troops from its focus on the Gaza Strip following the October 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel, Israelis in the north have been forced to evacuate to safer areas in Israel, out of the line of Hezbollah fire.

Hezbollah's attacks have become more frequent and more numerous, necessitating that in the wake of a "swarm of drones" on Sunday from Hezbollah matters are heating up considerably. Dozens of rockets were fired at a number of northern Israeli communities; Katzrin, Margaliot and Kiryat Shemona among them. The ongoing missile strikes continued into Monday, sparking wildfires in the north. Close to 10,000 acres in Israel have been burned in the last week alone.

"This is Hezbollah's new strategy -- intentionally firing on open areas to ignite fires and burn the north" stated Ilan Shochat, former mayor of Tzfat, a town in northern Israel.

"It was definitely not an easy night, but the whole country is at war now, so it's not just our communities. Of course, it's not simple, but the only culprit is the Hezbollah organization. I tell the government that we're strong, we'll stay here, and we'll give them support to defeat Hezbollah in the south and north."

"True, there were massive fires last night, and it would have been better if the various authorities were better prepared. But this is what we have - we're at war, and we'll win it."

Shai Golani, manager of orchards, Malkia

June 2024, Wildfire in Kiryat Shimona area, Israel Fire Services Photo

 

From The River To The Sea

"We are getting more and more phone calls and conversations of concerned people — if it’s Israelis who invest in Ireland and are concerned about their investment, if it’s Israelis who have relocated to Ireland into different tech companies and either are requesting to be relocated somewhere else or asking to return to Israel."

"I think it sends the wrong message about the location and the centrality of Ireland as a tech hub when there are more and more people who are concerned about moving to Ireland. I don’t think that this is the message that Ireland wants to send to the world … And this is not what we want to see."

"[Many Irish sympathize with Israel] behind the scenes. I think there is a lot of potential in our bilateral relations, if it’s cybersecurity or health care, climate change. I hope to be given that opportunity to continue that."

Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich

Anti-Israel demonstrators stand outside the Israeli embassy after Ireland has announced it will recognize a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Molly Darlington

 A March poll by the Palestinian polling group elicited the data that seven in ten Palestinians approved of the October 7 sadistic barbarity that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist operatives inflicted on southern Israel's kibbutz residents. Poll results rendered the information that Palestinians in the West Bank outdid their Gaza counterparts with a greater number supporting Hamas as the duly constituted government in both territories.

Israelis, looking back in appalled anger at the carnage wrought by the Palestinian terrorist operation of October 7 are almost equal in numbers in rejecting a renewed Palestinian enclave in  Gaza. It seems that in the West, in European countries in particular, Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups are not held in any judgement. Israel, on the other hand, is held to a standard not expected of Palestinians. When Palestinians invoking their 'refugee' status as 'victims' everlasting as long as Israel exists, commit to the goal of destroying Israel, their ongoing violence against Israel and its population is considered irrelevant.

 

Israel's responses to deadly raids, however, are viewed through the magnified lens of international demands that restraint be the order of the day, not the wholesale intention of responding militarily to the rocket barrages, and suicide missions -- and above all the October 7 sadistic savagery with its death count, determined to prevent the promise of more October 7s, until Israel is destroyed -- by taking the initiative to destroy first those whose unremitting violence against Israeli existence must be final and complete.

 

Ireland has led the way in persuading Spain and and Norway -- all three countries known to be hostile to Israel -- to formally recognize the 'State of Palestine', rather than await a final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority government on mutual recognition and a corresponding decision on conditions both agree upon, setting standards and boundaries as well as pledges of non-hostile cooperation. Israel has been available for talks in the critical issues involved, the Palestinians have evaded them.

Choosing instead their slow and steady scheduling of the poisoning of Palestinian minds against their Jewish neighbours, inculcating in those minds the need for 'resistance' against the 'occupation'; an occupation necessitated by the urgent call to protect Israelis of all ages against lethal attacks that Palestinians are taught by their governments it is their duty to carry out to martyrdom in the greater interests of opposing Israel's presence and committing to killing Jews.

Sovereignty recognition must pass some elemental standards, not the least of which under international law a state must have fixed borders, a permanent population, uncontested government with control of its security and commitments to amiable foreign relations. In light of the most recent of the ongoing attacks against Israel and its people, to proceed at this unresolved juncture to recognize a Palestinian state that refuses to negotiate with the neighbour it threatens, to agree on boundaries and future relations is beyond premature.

Granting that status for the Palestinians is not only premature, it represents a reprehensible decision to reward savagery committed against a neighbour where 1,200 lives of Israeli citizens were extinguished on one fateful day of carnage dedicated to terrorizing, slaughtering and hostage taking. Neither Palestinians, nor now Israelis favour the two-state 'solution' the West is anxious to hasten to reality, seemingly to solve a brutal, unresolved issue of two peoples rivalling one another in a competition for territory.

 

Israelis settled for a state on a small portion of their historical ancestral land mass; Palestinians rejected outright the opportunity offered them through the Partition Plan of the United Nations in 1947. Consistently since then when war after war broke out as surrounding Arab states attempted to dislodge the Jewish State from the Middle East, Israel successfully clung to its territory, militarily defeating its enemies and frustrating Palestinian aspirations to achieve a state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea.

 

Which is to say, without a presence of an Israeli state, leaving the entire area to the Palestinian Arabs. That remains the goal of both Fatah (West Bank Palestinian Authority) and Hamas (Gaza Strip). Fatah and Hamas oppose one another with a hostility born of ideological differences and factional rivalry. Their only area of agreement is the destruction of the State of Israel. That part of the West that is amenable to granting State status to Palestinian aspiration is effectively agreeing that the use of violent sadism was justifiable and awaited reward.

 

Countries that would never tolerate violence against their claims to sovereignty and against their populations, appear to feel that having suffered the intolerable, Israel should merely shrug and count its losses to satisfy the demands of a global community fixated with the entitlements and inalienable rights of a Palestinian population that chooses its method of persuasion, trumping lethal violence over the negotiating table. In the process the pretense for consumption by the West, frequent appeals to victimhood. Appealing for help from the international community to bypass normal international standards to qualify for statehood.

 

Looking ahead to the eventual agreement on statehood for 'Palestine', the issue of who would govern is critical to relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians make no secret of the fact that the majority reject 88-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected to his position as President decades ago, with no election keeping him in office for the past 20 years. Their choice of governance has been stated time and again in their admiration for Hamas's agenda. 

 

Ireland, Spain and Norway would never agree to live alongside another state with destructive tendencies and an agenda that included ongoing violence against a neighbour. Yet they deem it acceptable for Israel and they prefer to force the matter by supporting a Palestinian State that is loathe to bargain in good faith with Israel, since to do so would be to forego their ambition to have free reign from "The River to the Sea" in perpetuity.

 

 

Hate Speech Defined, Condemned, and Defended

"There's an unprecedented rise in antisemitism in Canada."

"We need to do anything we possibly can to stem this tide, and we need to appeal to all levels of government including the federal government, to take the lead."

Talia Klein Leighton, petition organizer

 

"They [Canada's political leaders] hide behind ambiguity, ignorance and definitions to avoid taking action."

"This petition forces the issue and demands that those we trust to keep us safe stop hiding and do their jobs"

"It also calls for the Trudeau government, who have shown their cowardice, to follow our democratic allies in the U.S., Germany and Austria in recognizing the chant "from the river to the sea" for what it is in Hamas terms -- a call for genocide and the elimination of the State of Israel."

Kevin Vuong, Independent Member for Parliament for Toronto

 

"From the river to the sea [is unequivocally hateful and antisemitic]."

"It only has one interpretation -- what it effectively calls for is the destruction of the Jewish state."

"And then when  you take it into the context of the companion cry for a global intifada, then it extends not just to the Jewish state, but to the Jewish people, and is consistent with what Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Iran have been threatening that they intend to do." 

Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

The entrance to a Pro-Palestinian encampment in an area that was fenced off at the University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto on May 2, 2024. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Post

There are some who claim that the hate-and-extermination messages - chorused against Israel and global Jewry by protesters at organized public venues where a show of force and clear racism has been played in public since early October, with repeats on an ongoing basis -- are well within the law of free speech rights under the Canadian constitution. There are hate laws in Canada to protect the public and discrete groups from discrimination severe enough to be viewed as threats and intimidation. The speech in and of itself of a quality that speaks of endangering the well-being of others.

The regular protests targeting the social weal and Canadian Jews in particular are threatening in nature and are meant to send a number of messages; that Jews are unsafe in their home country, that Israel's reputation as a democratic nation for which human rights is ensured, is open to slander, statements of 'fact' outright hostile fabrications that do damage that reality and true facts struggle to correct among a force of antisemitism that has no use for truth.

The viral and ever-rising antisemitic events of intimidation and threats carried out in municipal offices, in front of and within shopping centres, hospitals, Jewish community centres, synagogues and Jewish parochial schools, have morphed more latterly into university campus occupations, leaving Jewish students, non-Jewish students, university staff and members of the faculty concerned for their security and safety, as well as for their inability to reach their classes. Authority figures, whether university administrators, provincial or federal governments have done nothing useful to uphold law and order and ensure public safety.

Now, a petition has been circulated to attempt to persuade those authorities -- city mayors, police chiefs, governments at all levels, including those of the universities involved -- to become more steadfast, reliable and active in putting an end to what amounts to racist hate-fests. The rallying cries of 'Palestine will be free', 'globalize the intefadeh', and 'long live Oct7' have no place in a civil society. What the petition asserts is that these expressions interpreted, contravene portions of Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada through the wilful promotion of hatred.

The phrases in question have been outlawed in recognition of their quality of hateful rhetoric that could lead to violence, in a number of other countries. The petition states that the popular slogans denigrating Israel's existence and Jews in general "implicitly raises reasonable suspicions of supporting the events of Oct. 7 and inciting hatred toward the Jewish people". It is generally agreed that the chant calling for the eradication of Israel and its citizens is meant to promote a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

True North

"While I hate these statements and while I happen to be of the view that 'from the river to the sea' is an antisemitic and probably genocidal chant, I don't think it's a clear cut case enough for Section 319."

"If you look at the text of Section 319, it says 'communicates a statement that is likely to lead to a breach of the peace' -- and somebody in Canada chanting 'from the river to the sea', I don't think reaches that very specific high threshold."

"[Other statements the petition mentions like "Long Live Oct 7" [are different]. It's very difficult to say that in a peaceful way."

"We take a strong free speech position because we think that if the mechanism for dealing with disagreements in society through speech breaks down, all we have left is violence."

Joanna Baron, executive director, Canadian Constitution Foundation