OTTAWA — Despite an 11th-hour amendment that defanged the NDP’s contentious Palestinian motion in the House of Commons on Monday evening, Canadian Jewish groups reacted to the motion’s passage with alarm.
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA,) reacted to the non-binding motion’s passage with both disappointment and anger.
It’s not just merchant ships being targeted by the Houthis in the Red Sea. The US carrier strike group trying to protect them has also been under constant threat too.
The BBC is the first British media to visit the USS Dwight D Eisenhower since it began this mission in November.
“This is deadly stuff,” says Captain Dave Wroe, who commands the four US Navy destroyers which provide the extra protection for the carrier.
The United States on Monday confirmed that an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last week killed senior Hamas commander Marwan Issa.
“Hamas’s number three, Marwan Issa, was killed in an Israeli operation last week,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during a White House press briefing.
OTTAWA—A majority of federal MPs voted Monday to support an NDP resolution calling on Canada to work “towards the establishment of the state of Palestine” after sweeping changes demanded by the Liberal government were made to allay fears it would be seen as an anti-Israel move.
The Liberals and NDP agreed late Monday to amend the motion to drop more controversial language recognizing the “state of Palestine” immediately. It is not binding on the government.
In the end, the motion passed in a 204-117 vote, with most Liberals, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, siding with the NDP, the Bloc Québécois, and the Greens supporting it.
“People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.” — Niccolo Machiavelli.
So, there you have it: Fatah is now taking a more grown-up line on the Gaza war than most of the woke left. Where Western radicals are still running around damning Israel as a uniquely barbaric state that is carrying out a genocidal pillage of Gaza, Fatah says that, actually, a certain terror army called Hamas bears vast moral responsibility for this calamity. It was Hamas’s ‘adventure’ of 7 October that lit the fire of this war, this ‘horrific and crueller [Nakba] than the Nakba of 1948’, Fatah says. It’s true – so why can so few in the West see it?
President Biden, keeping Prime Minister Netanyahu at arm’s length, is reportedly considering leaving Israel short of the armaments it needs to fight Hamas. Such a politically based move risks harming America’s global interests.
By Sunday, Israel must tell America that it is complying with international restrictions on arms supplies, including by facilitating ample humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the national security adviser, Jacob Sullivan, told reporters Monday, adding that it is yet to do so.
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem official noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies to Israel, ABC news reports. The Israel Defense Force is running out of 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells, as well as sensitive guidance equipment, the official said.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada will allow more people trapped in Gaza who have extended family members in Canada to apply for temporary refuge – but he admits the move is “cold comfort.”
The government launched a family reunification program in January that offers temporary refuge to parents, grandparents, siblings and grandchildren of Canadian citizens and permanent residents.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada initially said it would only consider 1,000 applications for the program.
The vote on the NDP motion to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state gave every indication that the House of Commons is now governed by its nursery.
Except the motion was watered down to nothing.
The amended version of the NDP motion on Palestine easily passes the House 204 -117. The vast majority of the Liberals voted yes, along with the NDP and Bloc.
Liberals Housefather, Carr, Mendicino voted no, along with the CPC #cdnpoli https://t.co/0Swxz2yjNl
— Mackenzie Gray (@Gray_Mackenzie) March 19, 2024
Sore losers!
By 204-117, Canada’s Parliament just voted for an end to military exports to Israel. Other key demands, including recognition of the State of Palestine, were dropped from the final watered-down motion. See CJPME’s full statement: https://t.co/5elnCPSXDa pic.twitter.com/njhtL9mGRd
— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) March 19, 2024
Majority of surging hate crimes in Toronto are antisemitic: Police Chief
Citing the crisis in the Middle East as an ongoing factor, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said the city continues to see disturbing surges in hate crime calls, with the majority being antisemitic in nature.
Chief Demkiw provided an update Monday on hate crime and vehicle theft statistics – saying both are on the rise and remain a focus for Toronto Police.
“It has been 163 days since the Middle East crisis began, and the impact of the geopolitical unrest abroad continues to affect people worldwide, including in Canada and right here in Toronto,” Demkiw said in a release. “We are laser focused on the task at hand: keeping the city safe.”
OTTAWA—Political tensions were high on Parliament Hill Monday as weekend talks to adapt a controversial NDP resolution to recognize Palestinian statehood carried on in the final hours before a key vote Monday evening.
Despite proposed changes to the resolution, it was unclear at midday whether the Liberal government — or a big chunk of its backbench MPs — would back the NDP motion that, among other demands, calls on Ottawa to recognize Palestine as a state.
The motion would be non-binding on the government, but it has nevertheless exposed deep divides in Justin Trudeau’s caucus, with some suggesting over the weekend that up to 50 Liberal MPs could vote in favour of it.
I do not think it will pass, this time.
Five Americans are still being held hostage by Hamas, and Biden has sent no troops to help them, but at the State of the Union address, he promised to send troops to build a pier for Gaza.
The estimated over 1,000 troops will spend as long as 2 months laboring to build a floating pier in a war zone under potential attack to help transfer aid to the Hamas supporters living in Gaza.
Nothing about this plan makes sense.
The IDF’s reinvasion of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza started around 2:30 a.m. early Monday morning and included a mix of IDF Division 162 regular infantry, armor, special forces, the Shin Bet, and IDF intelligence collection Unit 504.
Although the IDF said it achieved surprise on a group of terrorists who had returned to Shifa, it said it had both given a general warning to the medical staff there and had been following the return of terrorists for a long time.
The area of Shifa hospital pic.twitter.com/0YBW281rWK
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) March 18, 2024
An opposition day motion brought forward by the NDP’s foreign affairs critic Monday could set the cat among the pigeons in the federal Liberal caucus.
The non-binding motion calls on the government to take a number of actions in response to the war in the Middle East, including that it should “officially recognize the State of Palestine.”
The motion was sponsored by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh with the party’s foreign affairs critic, Heather McPherson, acting as the point person.
“We wrote this in a way that it’s not supposed to be a ‘gotcha’ motion,” she said.
It is Non-Binding giving Trudeau an out.
