“Oct 7 2023”

The war between Israel and Hamas creates two challenges for Justin Trudeau, as it would for any Canadian prime minister.

First, he must try to take and hold a principled position on a dire conflict. Second, he must try to hold together a country whose citizens are understandably agonized by the death and destruction.

The strain of both those tasks only becomes more apparent with each passing day. Within 24 hours of Trudeau’s remarks on the conflict Tuesday, Trudeau was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters inside a Vancouver restaurant for what he didn’t say — and scolded online by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he did say.

He’s kissing Hamas Ass.

Moral lessons from World War II.

As the war between Israel and Gaza rages on, some inevitable questions must be raised. If Hamas, an indisputable rogue organization that governs a region which exists more like a plot of land in a state of nature than as a civilized geographic entity, is not totally obliterated (which, with sentimental calls for ceasefires and daily pauses in aerial bombings and ground incursions on Israel’s part, seems unlikely), then can Hamas be politically rehabilitated? What would such rehabilitation look like? Or should we be thinking of more robust and radical solutions such as global incarceration whereby a country is evicted from the community of nations and radically contained militarily?

Americans were horrified at the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli villagers on October 7 this year. The brutality and futility of the attack rocked the imagination. Yet within days, we witnessed huge protest marches in U.S. and world capitals and universities in favor of Hamas. Their favored chant, “from the river to the sea,” means only one thing, and that is the annihilation of Israel and all its Jewish inhabitants.

A five-day pause in fighting, monitored by aerial surveillance, could see dozens of women and children freed from captivity in Gaza, according to people familiar with the terms of the agreement

Israel, the United States and Hamas have agreed to a tentative deal that would free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza, in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.

The release, which could begin within the next several days — barring last-minute hitches — could lead to the first sustained pause in conflict in Gaza, according to people familiar with its provisions.

Toronto police have charged a 25-year-old woman who allegedly vandalized a Starbucks in Forest Hill with pro-Palestinian messages.

In a news release issued Saturday, police said officers were called to the coffee shop at Eglinton Avenue West and Bathurst Street in Forest Hill early Thursday morning to respond to a “mischief-related incident.”

“The investigation is ongoing, however at this time this incident has not been classified as a hate crime,” police told CTV News Toronto on Saturday.

The Anti-Semitism Epidemic

According to a popular meme, “Queers for Palestine” is like “Chickens for KFC”: To sign on to that slogan, you’d have to be suicidal or an idiot. That, at any rate, seems to be the prevailing view in the circles I travel in when it comes to the transgender activists who support Hamas. The climate activists, the feminist extremists, Gays 4 Gaza, and sad-sack members of Jewish Voice for Peace—each of them strikes us as dupes of a regime that would happily jail, repress, or massacre them. Can they really be this self-defeating? Can they really be this gullible and dumb? Well, at the poker table of today’s leftism, if you don’t know who the fool is, more than likely, the fool is you.

Hamas has already penetrated American society, and CAIR is the tip of the spear.

After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women, and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The old conventional wisdom was that the United States couldn’t be too pro-Israel for fear of inflaming “the Arab street.”

The new conventional wisdom will have to be that we can’t be too pro-Israel for fear of inflaming “the Western street.”

The Arab street, a hoary cliché of commentary on the Middle East for decades, was a reference to public opinion in the Arab countries, with the strong implication that if we offended it, the result would be massive anti-Western demonstrations and perhaps violence.

Most of what you have been told about the Palestine-Israel conflict is at best misleading, and much of the rest has no basis in fact. One common false claim involves the cause of the conflict. The underlying source of the conflict is not territory, human rights, or political autonomy; it is religion. The hundred-year Arab-Jewish war is a religious war.

Anti-Israel comments posted online by a SickKids anesthesiologist, who is also a University of Toronto teacher, are under investigation by the hospital.

“We consider Israel to be absolute evil. There is nothing worse than Israel. If Israel and the devil fight each other, we will stand with the devil,” reads Christian Zaarour’s Instagram post.

All out for Palestine in Toronto #CeasefireNOW #freepalestine🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/AKLgcmqLcC

— Spring Magazine (@springmagca) November 18, 2023

Toronto is out for another weekend in a row demanding a ceasefire #AllOutForGaza #CeasefireForGazaNOW #FreePalestine #EndZionistOccupation pic.twitter.com/zVuxaoA1ZS

— Anna Lippman🍉🗝️ (@anna_lippman) November 18, 2023

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters during a visit to Qatar on Wednesday evening that South Africa “put through a referral” to the International Criminal Court (ICC) “because we believe that war crimes are being committed” in Gaza.

The alleged crimes were being committed “in real time,” Ramaphosa said, citing Gaza’s biggest health care facility, the al-Shifa hospital, as an example.

Israel said that Hamas has a command center underneath the hospital, a claim the Palestinian militant group denies.

The growing civilian casualties and desperate humanitarian conditions have alarmed Arab allies, but also stirred an extraordinary level of criticism from within his own administration.

“I’m stunned by the intensity,” said Aaron David Miller, who worked as an adviser on Arab-Israeli relations during a 25 year tenure at the US State Department.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”