“Israel’s war on Gaza has become increasingly unsustainable. The parallels with Vietnam grow stronger by the day: a technologically superior force mired in a prolonged, morally fraught, and politically costly conflict. Israel is trapped in a campaign it cannot decisively win, facing a resilient opponent, internal dissent and mounting international isolation.”
“The paradox is, Israel has no future in a protracted war with Iran, but an inconclusive end to this war will pose the high risk for Netanyahu of a cascading demand for a regime change in Israel. Loss of power means loss of parliamentary immunity from prosecution that Netanyahu hitherto enjoyed from corruption charges against him and his family members, and a possible imprisonment.”
For Canada’s official Jews, the G7 went their way, last week. CIJA’s (The Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs) wish list included the G7 “reaffirming Israel’s right to defend itself; reiterating unwavering support for Israel’s security and identifying Iran as the principal source of regional instability and terror”.
And the G7 “reiterate[d] our commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East.” This really means the status quo, which is genocide.
An additional $2 billion in military assistance this year.
The disbursement of a $2.3 billion loan to Ukraine through the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans mechanism.
The allocation of $57.4 million in security-related assistance to Ukraine.
There was not one dollar spent (or a dollar taken from arms manufacturers) to put an end to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
It’s not just the Liberals under Mark Carney.
The NDP never worked to stop weapon sales to Israel
The other day a friend of mine cited the important role the NDP played in keeping the Trudeau Liberals, when it was a minority government in power. The two parties had an agreement to govern more or less together. At any time, the NDP could have insisted that Canada sell no more weapons, parts and arms to Israel, or to the US which shipped to Israel.
Since Oct. 2023, at any time the NDP could have made that demand to the Liberal government. But it never happened. The NDP which either piloted or gave its blessing to a (more or less) universal dental plan, to improvements for pharmacare; to 10 days of paid sick leave for federal workers and anti-scab legislation among other positive legislation – took no action to stop the sales of weapons to Israel.
A drone photo of rescue forces at the impact site of residential homes, following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Ramat Gan, Israel, June 14. (credit: REUTERS/Yair Palti )
What is going on here?
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians (including progressive Jews) have protested Israel’s massacre of Gazans (and then West Bank Palestinians, and people in Lebanon) for every one of the more than 600 days of Israel’s war on Gaza. Every weekend in major Canadian towns and cities there are demonstrations to stop the war, stop Canada selling Canadian-made arms to Israel. There are fundraisers for families in which scores of parents, children. uncles, aunts and cousins have been killed by Israel’s drones, missiles and bombs. There are go-fund-me pages dedicated to getting orphaned children, the injured and relatives out of Gaza, into Egypt and from there to Canada – almost a Herculean task.
Recently the RCMP investigated Maple writer and editor Davide Mastracci because he published a list of Canadian Jews who had gone to fight with the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) in Israel. Technically, it is illegal for Canadians to join a foreign army — but it’s been allowed in the case of Israel for decades, and is the subject of a legal challenge, now under appeal by Rabbi David Mivasair of Independent Jewish Voices Canada .
Shane Martinez, a criminal defence and human rights lawyer who advocates for Palestinian rights, is handling the case. He said,
“Essentially what we’re saying is that the government acted in bad faith, that they interfered for political purposes,” said Martinez, who also represents the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians – Canada, a group of pro-Palestinian lawyers.
“Imagine if there was an organization in Canada that was recruiting volunteers for the Russian army — they would go there and they would wear Russian military uniforms, they’d live on Russian bases, they would repair Russian weapons, clean Russian tanks, the government wouldn’t allow it for a second. They’d immediately step in.”
Photo at the top: Experts with the UN have called the situation in Gaza ‘one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time’. [credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
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