October 7th... It has been four months since Hamas terrorists descended upon a peaceful farming area in southern Israel and slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis. They were taken by surprise in an early morning raid and butchered.You would think, given the horrors these people inflicted upon innocent men and women, that Israel would have the moral advantage.And let there be no doubt, it does. The written accounts of what happened that day, the women gang-raped, then cut up alive, their breasts tossed back and forth like baseballs, young couples at a rave incinerated in their cars or the old people blown up with hand grenades… all of these are hard enough to read about. Those with an appetite for it anyway, can find it here.But, the videos harvested by the Israeli Defence Force from the body cams of dead terrorists are an order of magnitude worse. Some reporters who agreed to review this material when the Israelis screened it at their consulates in New York and Toronto, write — with regret — that some things are hard to unsee.But notwithstanding all this recorded horror, Canadians are increasingly looking past it. Now, instead of supporting Israel and condemning the depraved brutality of Hamas, they are appeasing it.Thus earlier this week, BC’s NDP Premier David Eby fired Advanced Education Minister Selina Robinson, a Jew, for saying during a Zoom discussion that Israel was founded on “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it.”For what it’s worth, my father — in Palestine at the end of the war not long before Israel was established — held much the same view. It is also in accord with my personal observations of West Bank ten years ago. More usefully perhaps, there is ample formal testimony compiled for official purposes, some cited here by columnist Hymie Rubenstein.Bottom line: Robinson was right. It pains the other side to admit it, but that whole area had very little going for it until Israel was established and did indeed ‘make the desert bloom.’However, the truth doesn't matter. Premier Eby said it was ‘important to recognize the harm and hurt in communities.’That would not be the blood-soaked communities of southern Israel of course, but the BC communities in which Eby’s struggling NDP hopes to pick up votes when the province goes to the polls in October this year.For, Eby’s initially restrained reaction to Robinson’s words changed drastically, once a dozen mosques threatened to ban the NDP from their premises. Apparently, their vote is worth more than BC’s Jewish vote. So, it wasn’t hard.But it was cowardice, pure and simple.There’s a bitter irony here. Many of the people protesting against Israel and demanding from Canadian politicians the kind of surrender that David Eby is now offering, look like they may have some connection with the Middle East.So, it’s important to note that much as they profess to love and care about Palestine, they’ve chosen Canada to actually live in. Not there in West Bank, or Gaza.Maybe that’s because they know what they’d be dealing with, if they did.When required as such, they’d be used as human shields. Hamas is famous for hiding its command centres under hospitals and schools.Their children would be raised to be ‘martyrs,’ believing the worthiest thing they could do in life was to get killed, killing Jews.So, they actually know they would be governed by monsters. And got out.Smart.Canadians are famously fair-minded and our customary sympathy for the underdog is one of this country’s praiseworthy attributes.But Canadians should be careful what they wish for. And above all, they should not jump to conclusions about who are the good guys in this story.Writing in the National Post about her experience of the videos shown by the Israelis, Sabrina Maddeaux says, “I watched Hamas hack innocents to death. The worst part was their glee.”Glee.What sane person anywhere would want to live in a country with people in charge who take gleeful delight in cutting up women and beheading babies?And what sane person in Canada would want their political leaders supporting people who do that?Looking at the violent anti-Israel rhetoric in Canada during the last four months, I have to say there is something seriously amiss in our politics.Canadians should be careful what they say 'yes' to.
October 7th... It has been four months since Hamas terrorists descended upon a peaceful farming area in southern Israel and slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis. They were taken by surprise in an early morning raid and butchered.You would think, given the horrors these people inflicted upon innocent men and women, that Israel would have the moral advantage.And let there be no doubt, it does. The written accounts of what happened that day, the women gang-raped, then cut up alive, their breasts tossed back and forth like baseballs, young couples at a rave incinerated in their cars or the old people blown up with hand grenades… all of these are hard enough to read about. Those with an appetite for it anyway, can find it here.But, the videos harvested by the Israeli Defence Force from the body cams of dead terrorists are an order of magnitude worse. Some reporters who agreed to review this material when the Israelis screened it at their consulates in New York and Toronto, write — with regret — that some things are hard to unsee.But notwithstanding all this recorded horror, Canadians are increasingly looking past it. Now, instead of supporting Israel and condemning the depraved brutality of Hamas, they are appeasing it.Thus earlier this week, BC’s NDP Premier David Eby fired Advanced Education Minister Selina Robinson, a Jew, for saying during a Zoom discussion that Israel was founded on “a crappy piece of land with nothing on it.”For what it’s worth, my father — in Palestine at the end of the war not long before Israel was established — held much the same view. It is also in accord with my personal observations of West Bank ten years ago. More usefully perhaps, there is ample formal testimony compiled for official purposes, some cited here by columnist Hymie Rubenstein.Bottom line: Robinson was right. It pains the other side to admit it, but that whole area had very little going for it until Israel was established and did indeed ‘make the desert bloom.’However, the truth doesn't matter. Premier Eby said it was ‘important to recognize the harm and hurt in communities.’That would not be the blood-soaked communities of southern Israel of course, but the BC communities in which Eby’s struggling NDP hopes to pick up votes when the province goes to the polls in October this year.For, Eby’s initially restrained reaction to Robinson’s words changed drastically, once a dozen mosques threatened to ban the NDP from their premises. Apparently, their vote is worth more than BC’s Jewish vote. So, it wasn’t hard.But it was cowardice, pure and simple.There’s a bitter irony here. Many of the people protesting against Israel and demanding from Canadian politicians the kind of surrender that David Eby is now offering, look like they may have some connection with the Middle East.So, it’s important to note that much as they profess to love and care about Palestine, they’ve chosen Canada to actually live in. Not there in West Bank, or Gaza.Maybe that’s because they know what they’d be dealing with, if they did.When required as such, they’d be used as human shields. Hamas is famous for hiding its command centres under hospitals and schools.Their children would be raised to be ‘martyrs,’ believing the worthiest thing they could do in life was to get killed, killing Jews.So, they actually know they would be governed by monsters. And got out.Smart.Canadians are famously fair-minded and our customary sympathy for the underdog is one of this country’s praiseworthy attributes.But Canadians should be careful what they wish for. And above all, they should not jump to conclusions about who are the good guys in this story.Writing in the National Post about her experience of the videos shown by the Israelis, Sabrina Maddeaux says, “I watched Hamas hack innocents to death. The worst part was their glee.”Glee.What sane person anywhere would want to live in a country with people in charge who take gleeful delight in cutting up women and beheading babies?And what sane person in Canada would want their political leaders supporting people who do that?Looking at the violent anti-Israel rhetoric in Canada during the last four months, I have to say there is something seriously amiss in our politics.Canadians should be careful what they say 'yes' to.
