Terrorism

May 12, 2023

What would you do if a terrorist organization that sought your destruction lived next door? Would you take preventive action if you knew the group was amassing weapons to be used against you? If the terrorists fired rockets indiscriminately at your community’s kindergartens, hospitals and neighbourhoods, would you back down and accept your fate? Probably not. Most people would defend their families and their communities.

Yet Israel is the only country on earth that has to fight terrorism and defend itself against international condemnation all at the same time. It is fighting terrorist organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad with one hand tied behind its back — always cognizant of the international propaganda levelled against it every time it defends itself.

After taking out a terrorist cell in Jenin recently, the head of Israel’s intelligence service said, “We have no intention of waiting defensively for threats, but are always acting on the offensive against those sending them.”

For this reason, Israel has built the most ethical military force on the planet, always striving to minimize civilian casualties. Unfortunately, it’s well documented that Palestinian terrorists have perfected the cowardly behaviour of hiding among civilians and using children and families as human shields.

This week, to protect its civilians, Israel had little choice but to neutralize four Islamic Jihad terrorists who were responsible for recent rocket fire into Israel. It’s the moral obligation of any nation to protect its own citizens through deterrence, including the destruction of military facilities that manufacture rockets and store weapons.

Predictably, in response, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far launched more than 800 rockets into Israel. Thousands of Sderot residents were evacuated from the city this week to hotels near the Dead Sea. On Thursday, an Israeli man was killed and five other were injured when a rocket hit an apartment building in the city of Rehovot.

Internationally, the White House and the Pentagon affirmed Israel’s “right to defend its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks.” Similarly, Tariq Ahmad, the British minister of state for the Middle East, condemned the “indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza targeting innocent civilians in Israel.”

The U.S. and Britain are standing up to terrorism. They immediately blocked the United Nations Security Council’s usual knee-jerk attempt to condemn Israel for this latest flare-up in Gaza.

However, many other democratic countries lack the fortitude to take a firm position on the Middle East conflict — including Canada, which has a substantial pro-Palestinian community. This is sad, because defending the only democracy in the Middle East should be sacrosanct and above politics.

While most western nations deal with no more than a handful of terrorist incidents a year, since the start of this year, Israel has thwarted over 110 terrorists, including numerous potentially devastating terrorist attacks, according to the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

Peace in the Middle East will only be achieved once terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad end their violent struggle against Israel. They have no hope of winning a military confrontation, but backed by Iran, they still hold onto the radical idea that the land of Israel should be governed by Islamic law.

They fail to recognize the historic indigenous presence of the Jewish people in the holy land and aim is to rid the land of “Zionists” and to liberate it from the Jews. So long as they are being funded by outside interests, they will continue launching rockets at Israel.

This violent behaviour is being aided, not only by terrorist states such as Iran, but by western countries that continue to funnel cash into Gaza and the West Bank. So long as billions of dollars continue to flow into Hamas-held Gaza and the corrupt West Bank, peace will remain elusive.

Despite Israel’s political instability, this week’s take down of Gaza’s top terrorists demonstrated Israel’s cutting-edge ability to meticulously plan and execute military operations meant to defend its citizens and protect its right to exist in the Jewish homeland.

National Post

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the founder and chairman of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/israel-morally-justified-in-its-recent-action-against-islamic-jihad-terrorists

A seismic shift is taking place in the Middle East. A year ago, the Abraham Accords offered the promise of peace, which has been illusive for Israel’s nearly 75-year history. However, due to a confluence of factors mainly energized by Palestinian radicalism and the West’s unwitting support of it, the region has turned into a tinder box that could explode into absolute chaos.

As a proponent of peace and a two-state solution — a term hardly in vogue these days — it's disillusioning to learn about surveys like the one recently released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), which found that 71 per cent of Palestinians support the recent murder of two Israelis in the West Bank town of Huwara. In other words, they support the murder of brothers Hallel Menachem and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, who were murdered as they drove through town.

At the United Nations Security Council’s monthly meeting on the Middle East this week, Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, addressed the Palestinian representative directly, saying, "Shame on you … your president and the rest of the Palestinian leadership regularly incite terrorism, never condemn the murders of Israeli civilians, praise Palestinian terrorists and actively attempt to rewrite facts and the truth by erasing Jewish history."

Sadly, Palestinian terrorism claimed another victim this week: Or Eshkar, 32, died on Monday after being shot in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv on March 9. He was one of three Israelis wounded in the attack, which was claimed by Hamas.

According to PCPSR, only 27 per cent of Palestinians support a two-state solution, which dashes any hope for peace. But it should not come as a surprise. In Canada, as elsewhere, pro-Palestinian groups regularly walk the streets with placards and megaphones yelling, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” It’s a call to ethnically cleanse the Jews from the Land of Israel and replace the Jewish state with a Palestinian one.

More significantly, that call continues to be validated through aid agencies like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and its funders — including Canada and the United States — which are keeping the Palestinians in a holding pattern in camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Beirut, Amman and Damascus.

Because Palestinians are prevented from reaching their full potential by ensuring they remain as perpetual refugees, their anger and frustration is directed at the Jewish state. For this reason, the survey also found that 68 per cent favour forming armed groups such as the Lions' Den — a new independent terrorist organization based in the West Bank, whose leadership has been targeted by the Israel Defence Forces.

Showcasing the incredible foreign influence working to disrupt Israel’s stability, in the Tehran Times this week, the pro-regime paper called the now-deceased leader of Lions' Den, “Man of the year.” In a cover photo glorifying him as “The lion of Nablus,” the Iranian editorial worked to undermine the Abraham Accords, arguing that, "Some treacherous Arab rulers have chosen to normalize relations with the child-killing regime, but the Muslim people of the region have never forgotten Palestine."

Not dissimilarly, Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based, anti-Israel media powerhouse, posted a new “documentary” on what it says is a “new generation of Palestinians fighting Israeli raids.” In reality, it is a propaganda puff piece that portrays terrorists as heroes. “We gain rare access inside the Jenin Battalion as they fight back against Israeli raids,” reads the subhead. Yet it's those same terrorists who are responsible for the murder of scores of Israelis in recent months.

So is it any wonder that 83 per cent of Palestinians say they are "against the surrender of the armed groups’ members and their arms to the PA"? Especially considering that 69 per cent of Palestinians living in the West Bank and 48 per cent in Gaza expect the situation to continue to deteriorate, leading to a third intefadeh (violent uprising).

Since 73 per cent of Palestinians believe that a two-state solution is no longer viable or feasible, the question is: what comes next? A third intefadeh wold only lead to more misery on both sides.

For those of us who have been advocating for a peaceful resolution since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in 1993, these latest developments are a disappointment. While we have been advocating for a peaceful solution, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have been inciting their people against Israel.

With 58 per cent of Palestinians calling for renewed violence, according to the study, driven by an international community that is funding them and an Iranian government that's cheering them on, the promise of a better future is quickly fading.

We cannot afford to take Israel’s safety and security for granted. Its up to each and every one of us to defend Israel unconditionally, advocate for western governments to stop funding UN agencies unconditionally and tell our Abraham Accord peace partners in the region that we stand by them in this important journey. This is the time to stand together for peace.

National Post

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the founder and chairman of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-palestinian-intransigence-once-again-dashes-hope-for-peace-in-the-middle-east

Thousands of people attended Elan Ganeles’s funeral this week in Israel. They came from every sphere of Israeli society, representing an incredible level of social cohesion around the denunciation of Palestinian terrorism. Ganeles, 27, represented the epitome of modern Zionism. Raised a proud American Jew, his family belonged to Young Israel of West Hartford synagogue where he also attended modern Orthodox schools. Ultimately, he fell in love with Israel and enlisted and served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

His only crime for being murdered by a Palestinian terrorist was that he was Jewish. On his way to a close friend’s wedding, Ganeles was shot and killed as he was driving near the dead sea. As in the case of most Palestinian terror attacks, they simply wanted to murder a Jew. Any Jew.

Two days earlier, on Sunday, brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, were murdered as they drove through the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwara. For them too, their only crime driving through the town was that they were Jewish. Sadly, and despite the fact their parents called for unity amidst the pain, anger over the incident boiled over as religious Jews set fire to the town. This was the first ever such incident and it has been condemned by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and the international community.

Palestinian terrorism has destabilized the region for decades and now threatens to elicit direct people-to-people confrontations. Weeks before these murders, seven Israelis were murdered in front of a Jerusalem synagogue. In the last year alone, 29 Israelis were murdered in terror attacks, while the IDF reports it had prevented an additional 2,200. 

Shockingly, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas boasted that this number is too low and that in fact, Palestinians perpetuated 7,200 attacks against Israeli targets in 2022. All this, says a new report on terrorism published today by The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (my foundation) is directly linked to western aid supporting Palestinian terror.

Prepared by Henry Kopel, a retired U.S. Federal Prosecutor and the author of War on Hate: How to Stop Genocide, Fight Terrorism and Defend Freedom, our report states that the spike in terrorism happens “in part because of, over $6 billion in U.S., Canada, and European Union aid given to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) since 2008. The PA invests a substantial share of its budget, and hence of this foreign aid, on inciting terrorism, on glorifying terrorism and on financially rewarding terrorism”.

Foreign nations that are funnelling money to the PA through UN agencies and other entities have Jewish blood on their hands. Despite the fact that the PA rewards terrorists for murders through the so-called pay-for-slay program, these three western entities have increased their allocations. Aside from breaking every moral and ethical code established by democracies when it comes to human rights, apparently it's perfectly okay to compensate terrorism despite “blatant violation of several PA commitments to foreign aid donors, and in clear violation of US and EU conditions on such foreign aid” says our report.
Palestinian terrorists have no shame. They are strategically targeting our youth and our children. Just two weeks before the Ganeles and Yaniv murders, a terrorist rammed his car into a crowd of civilians standing at a Jerusalem bus stop killing another two brothers — Yaakov, 6, and Asher, 8, Pally. Alter Shlomo Liderman, 20, was the third victim who was also murdered in that incident.

Despite these heinous terror attacks, our report says that “according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States since 2008 has given the Palestinian Authority between $250 million and $500 million annually. Over that same period the United States also has given between $180 million and $390 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which administers the Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East. In total therefore, annual US aid to the Palestinians has ranged between $430 million and $890 million, or well in excess of half a billion each year.”

In other words, the West is subsidizing the Palestinian Authority to destabilize Israel (we are seeing this play out right now) by inculcating generations of Palestinian children to be venerated as “martyrs” for mass murders. How often do we see Palestinians handing out candy in their villages when a Jew is murdered? How often do we see PA leaders pay their respect to the “martyred” families? Or hear about streets being named after terrorists? This is the death-culture the west is supporting unabashedly.

More significantly, Israel’s lurch to the right and the resulting social turmoil we are witnessing right now in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is a direct consequence of aid to the Palestinians. The very reason this government was elected with a substantial majority was because of increasing Palestinian terrorism. Israelis did not necessarily vote for Judicial reforms. They voted for security against the forces that are attempting to destabilize the country through Palestinian terrorism and incitement.

We believe that “the unfortunate but glaring reality here is this: Decades of negotiations, agreements, promises, warnings, moral appeals, and temporary aid suspensions all have done nothing to reduce or prevent the Palestinian Authority’s relentless commitment to inciting, glorifying, and financially rewarding acts of terrorism committed against innocent Israelis.” So long as this irresponsible behaviour continues, there will be more victims like Ganeles and the Yaniv and Pally brothers. G-d help us. May their memory be a blessing.

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-west-keeps-subsidizing-the-palestinian-authoritys-death-culture

Our funding of UNRWA allows the Palestinian Authority to continue its murderous 'pay-for-slay' program

Canada funds the Palestinians with an average of around US$23 million (C$31 million) a year through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). On top of that, in 2021, Canada also gave the Palestinians an extra $25 million, ostensibly for emergency relief due to “urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, as well as those affected by violence in the West Bank.” That year, Canada’s aid to the Palestinians was over US$48 million, making us about the sixth-largest donor.

Following the murder of seven Israelis outside a synagogue last week by a Palestinian terrorist, there is a question that begs to be answered: by continuing to fund Palestinians, are we complicit in these murders?

It’s not that the money sent to organizations like UNRWA, which has an annual budget of around US$1.5 billion, isn’t necessarily needed for poverty relief, medical assistance and education. It’s that UNRWA is keeping them indefinitely as refugees. In addition, countries like ours are not only helping cover the costs of providing these services, but also assisting organizations — Hamas and the Palestinian Authority — that incite violence and incentive terrorism.

Its been well documented that the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists by giving monthly allowances to their families, should they die while carrying out an operation against the Jews or find themselves in prison if they survive. It sounds completely insane, but the Palestinian Authority has actually institutionalized what is now called “pay for slay.” In other words, you get paid to murder Israelis — especially Jews.

Where does the Palestinian Authority (PA) get the money to finance its pay-for-slay program? Think about it. With a per capita GDP of roughly US$3,500 and an average unemployment rate of 25 per cent, the PA simply could not afford to pay for the salaries of terrorists without international assistance. These funds alleviate stress on the PA to pay for schools, hospitals and social programs, so it can instead support the “resistance.”

Reacting to the Jerusalem attack, British journalist Melanie Philips wrote, “Once again, we have witnessed the nauseating spectacle of western governments — which sanitize, fund and pump up the genocidal Palestinian Arab cause — expressing shock and sympathy with Israel over these attacks (while continuing) to fund the Palestinian Authority despite the PA’s ‘pay-to-slay’ policy of rewarding the families of terrorists for every Israeli Jew they murder, and despite its never-ending incitement to murder Jews and steal Israel’s land.”

Indeed, both Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the United States under President Donald Trump cut funding to UNRWA due to its close ties with Hamas, systemic corruption and antisemitism. Yet these policies were reversed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration has funded UNRWA with a whopping US$890 million over the past two years. And this week, instead of penalizing the Palestinians for last week’s heinous terror attack, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rewarded them with an additional US$50 million.

In Forward, Palestinian political analyst Bassem Eid wrote, “It’s time to admit that Palestinian institutions are broken, and that they have developmentally harmed generations of Palestinian men and women, boys and girls, by whipping them into a constant froth with violently antisemitic educational and media content that celebrate ‘martyrdom’ attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian Authority provides a financial incentive for terrorism by providing pensions to the families of those who attack Israelis.”

Palestinian Media Watch found recently released prisoners Karim and Maher Younis were the highest-paid Arab-Israeli terrorists. Each collected nearly US$100,000 from the Palestinian Authority for murdering Avraham Bromberg, a corporal in the Israel Defence Forces.

Back in 2018, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that, “We will neither reduce nor prevent (payment) of allowances to the families of martyrs, prisoners and released prisoners, as some seek, and if we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners.”

As a result of the latest Palestinian killing spree, Israel’s parliament is fast-tracking new legislation that will revoke the Israeli citizenship of terrorists who receive financial support from the Palestinian Authority. But this is clearly not enough.

Countries like Canada have a moral and ethical obligation to stop funding the Palestinians until the PA stops its pay-for-slay program. Our hands are bloodied with each dollar we provide the Palestinians, as it enables them to fund terror. We cannot continue to hide behind the illusion that we are providing much-needed aid.

By providing free money to the Palestinians, we are feeding a beast that openly promotes terrorism and compensates terrorists. So long as we and other countries pour money into Palestinian coffers, Israelis like 14-year-old Asher Natan will continue to be murdered at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-seven-israeli-civilians-are-dead-and-canada-has-blood-on-its-hands

Iran’s fingerprints are on much that counters our prevailing values in this country. This week, a groundswell of voices from Canada and around the world joined The Abraham Global Peace Initiative in calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory to stop the hateful and antisemitic Iranian-backed “Al-Quds Day.”  

We will hear condemnations from our leaders to appease the Jewish community — especially in an election year. But ultimately this annual hate fest against Jewish people will continue despite the fact our provincial and federal governments are investing millions of dollars to combat antisemitism. Antisemitism at Al-Quds Day events and on our university campuses is not being addressed in law and public policy. 

Instead, money is being thrown back at the very community that is being attacked, for it to mount a counter-offensive alone. This is equivalent to asking assault victims to stand up for themselves.  Al-Quds Day was invented by the Iranian regime as a way to incite violence and hatred. As we all know, many nations consider Iran a state sponsor of terrorism. Its Holocaust denial and promotion of antisemitism is well documented, and it has engaged in terrorist activity for decades. 

In the past number of weeks, Argentina commemorated the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 died and for which a group linked to Iran claimed responsibility. Iran was also blamed for the bombing two years later of the Jewish Community Centre (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, in which 86 people died.  

Al-Quds Day was invented by the Iranian regime to incite violence and hatred  This, of course, is merely the tip of the iceberg of crimes Iran has committed, and the toxic antisemitism it has bred. It has bolstered such terrorist groups as Hezbollah and Hamas, while expanding its own terrorist activities into Syria — engaging in the slaughter of thousands of civilians — in order to protect Bashar Assad, now believed to be the world’s No. 1 war criminal.  

Just last week, former Canadian cabinet ministers Peter MacKay, John Baird and Stockwell Day and many other leading Canadians joined me in warning U.S. President Joe Biden against consenting to Iran’s demand that its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) be dropped from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list. Canadians know Iran’s terrorism well. On Jan. 8, 2020, the IRGC shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 with 167 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. Like the Jewish community in Buenos Aires, the Iranian community in Canada has been calling for justice.  

This is why fighting Al-Quds Day is significant not only for the Jewish community, but for all Canadians. The Jewish community is the vanguard of rebuffing threats to freedom and democracy. If you believe this is an internal tribal squabble between two rival ethnic groups, you are missing the radicalization taking place in our country.  

Over the years, Torontonians have witnessed speaker after speaker defame the state of Israel and, by extension, motivate the rising tide of hatred of Jewish people. Young people attending the rallies are infected by hateful propaganda that undermines our peaceful communities.  

 In truth, no other religious or ethnic community in Toronto is as maliciously and continuously attacked as the Jewish community. Last May, we witnessed brawls and violent attacks by pro-Palestinian demonstrators targeting Jewish people.  Justifiably, we condemn the horrific war crimes unfolding now in Ukraine and take action. At the same time, society turns away from calls for violence against Israelis. But we cannot have double standards when it comes to ethics and morality — speaking out and taking action for some persecuted groups and not for others.  Canadians need to start paying closer attention to foreign-driven threats to peace upon our soil. Otherwise, the security and freedom of all citizens here is in jeopardy. 

 National Post April 22, 2022

BUENOS AIRES — Iran has been committing and supporting heinous acts of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world for years. It is responsible for war crimes committed in Syria, for supporting Hamas and Hezbollah’s hostility against Israel and for financing the war in Yemen. Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing 167 passengers, including many Canadians. It is also responsible for the horrific bombing of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. Can you imagine an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons?

  Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the devastating attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina. On that horrific day in 1992, 29 people were killed by the blast and 242 were injured.  Iran struck again just two years later, hitting the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), killing 85 people and injuring hundreds more in the vicinity. Argentine state commissions and international investigations have implicated Iran and its terror proxies in the bombings, which were part of its shadow war against the State of Israel.  

Argentina immediately broke off diplomatic relations and severed its ties with the Islamic republic, accusing Iran of murdering Argentinian nationals. Yet despite Argentina’s obvious support for Israel and its Jewish community, the wounds and trauma of these terror attacks resonate profoundly with the country's Jewish population.  Argentina has issued five requests through Interpol for the extradition of suspected Iranian terrorists who were identified as having been complicit in the attacks. 

Still, most Latin-American Jewish community leaders who are currently in Argentina for meetings with the Latin Jewish Congress expressed shock and dismay at the lack of progress in bringing the perpetrators to justice.  In fact, Argentina’s top Jewish leader, Jorge Knoblovits — who sits on the Abraham Global Peace Initiative's board of advisors and presides over the community’s umbrella organization, the Asociationes Israelitas Argentinas — is concerned that Iran will demand immunity for its crimes, as part of the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna.  By most accounts, the Argentinian Jewish community is highly respected by the government. In a meeting I attended with Argentinian President Alberto Fernández earlier this week, he spoke of the nation’s shared values and the importance of its Jewish community. This sentiment was shared by multiple government officials with whom I had the pleasure of meeting.  

The City of Buenos Aires’ undersecretary for human rights and cultural pluralism, Pamela Malewicz, told me that the city instituted legislation marking March 17 as the Day of Memory and Solidarity with the Victims of the Attack on the Embassy of Israel, to make people aware of the consequences of international terrorism and promote peace. Most significantly, the legislation is incorporated into the school calendar so that each year all students read a text of remembrance of the attack against the Israeli Embassy.  While the terror attacks against Jewish institutions unified the city, life hasn’t been the same ever since. Nearly every Jewish building I toured, including the Macabi Jewish community centre and the AMIA complex, is defended by massive concrete barriers. Every visitor must endure a complex system of security measures upon entry, which is often more stringent than airport security. 

The doors on these buildings are all made from bullet- and blast-proof heavy metal. Even the newly renovated Holocaust Museum is heavily guarded (imagine the sad irony).  As nuclear negotiations between the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran continue in Vienna, the West must make every effort to prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. Russia’s assault on Ukraine illustrates just how dangerous it is for the West to deal with genocidal regimes, especially when they fall under the protection of a nuclear umbrella.  

Iran has a history of supporting terrorism and extremism throughout the Middle East and around the world and has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Even while Iran was sitting across the negotiation table from the United States, it launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraq’s northern city of Erbil, which was described by Reuters as "an unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region that appeared to target the United States and its allies."

  This year’s anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina is more important than ever. The Iranians may be sitting in beautifully tailored suits in fancy hotels in Vienna, creating an illusion of civility. But make no mistake: an Iran guided by religious fundamentalism with a nuclear weapon is much more dangerous than even Russia.  

So why are we making a deal with the devil?  National Post - March 18, 2022

That the attack by a lone gunman on Jewish worshippers at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was immediately labelled a “hostage-taking,” instead of a terror attack, highlights the blind spot that many people in authority and in the media have when it comes to violent anti-Semitism.

For nearly 24 hours during and following the incident, authorities refused to label the attack as terrorism — despite the fact that most of the evidence pointed in that direction.

To his credit, U.S. President Joe Biden eventually declared the incident a terrorist attack. But there is still a strange debate about whether the terrorist, Malik Faisal Akram, was motivated by anti-Semitism. This is despite the fact he chose to vent his anger by targeting a synagogue on the Sabbath.

Suggesting he wasn't motivated by anti-Semitism would be like arguing that, in 2015, Amedy Coulibaly chose to attack the Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket in Paris at random, rather than because he knew it would be full of Jewish people shopping for Shabbat.

Indeed, despite recent evidence showing that Akram was motivated by Islamism and had made anti-Semitic comments before the attack, one FBI agent was quoted as saying that Akram was “singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

As naive as that may sound, he seemed to believe Akram was only driven by a desire to free Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani neuroscientist with links to al-Qaida, who was sentenced to 86 years for the attempted murder of American soldiers and is being held in Fort Worth, Texas.

Well, my friends, let me say this: the minute anyone enters a synagogue with a gun and points it at Jewish people, it becomes an issue related to the Jewish community. This was not merely an act of “hostage-taking”; it was a terrorist attack motivated by anti-Semitism.

If the definition of terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims, Akram’s assault to force the release of Siddiqui and his intimidation of civilians clearly qualifies him as a terrorist.

To its credit, the FBI immediately flew in top officers and negotiators and, together with local law enforcement, succeeded in killing the terrorist and freeing the four Jewish hostages. It is becoming clear that law-enforcement agencies throughout North America are now paying more attention to the dangerous trend of violence perpetrated against Jewish institutions.

In 2018, following the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, I sent an alert to police agencies across the country about the need to secure Jewish communities. This time around, as the terrorist attack was unfolding in Texas, local and national police immediately contacted me to reassure me that extra patrols were being immediately deployed to Jewish institutions to guard against copy-cat attacks.

In my remarks at this week’s launch of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative's Power of One exhibit at Vancouver police headquarters, I spoke about the necessity for law enforcement to secure our communities. Without question, the work of police services is more essential than ever in protecting and defending faith communities from targeted assaults. Often times, this is done in collaboration and partnership with the communities themselves.

Even though Akram had been investigated for possible terror activity in the United Kingdom, he was able to sneak into the United States in an attempt to carry out an attack against the Jewish community. This should concern intelligence agencies in both countries. While lone-wolf attacks are often challenging to uncover, we cannot let our guard down when it comes to potential acts of terrorism.

To a large degree, Akram, and others like him, represent a moral and ethical failing of our society. He apparently thought that Jewish people wielded so much power that they could free Siddiqui with a single call to the White House. How ignorant.

Whereas in past decades, anti-Semitism was deemed to be reprehensible and forced to the extreme margins of society, today, conspiracy theories like this one have become normalized. Instead of countering these lies with truth, our education system is propagating them.

Nearly four generations of students have now graduated university falsely believing that Israel practices apartheid and that Jewish people are “colonizers” of their own homeland. Some high schools are also getting in on the action by supporting students organizing “free Palestine” walkouts.

Despite being a free and democratic state, left-wing media is refusing to position Israel in a positive light, while “woke” culture refuses to even acknowledge racism against Jewish people. Is it any wonder that violence against Jewish people is increasing?

Let's start calling a spade a spade: what happened in Texas last weekend was terrorism — full stop.

National Post January 21, 2022

Let’s put everything on the table: there is no equivalence between Hamas and Israel. The latter is a nation just like any other and should be treated with the respect and dignity it deserves. The former is a globally designated terrorist organization that should be treated with the disrespect and the indignity it deserves. There should be no ifs, ands, or buts.

Instead, what we are starting to see once again in the media and in some political circles are attempts to excuse Hamas for sending 1,500 high-powered Iranian-made rockets into civilian populations in Israel. Rockets that are launched indiscriminately targeting civilian populations (not the military) are classified as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. They are intended to murder as many people as possible — including children.

In the past 72 hours, five-year-old Ido Avigal was fatally struck by shrapnel that penetrated his home in Sderot during one Hamas rocket barrage. I have visited Sderot many times and met with its mayor, seen the piles of rockets at the local police station and noted that every bus stop is also used as a bunker against rockets. The town is within eyesight of the northern tip of the Gaza Strip and is the most targeted by Hamas terrorists. I have seen art-therapy drawings by its children — they are traumatized and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many have nightmares. Some wet their beds at night from fear. Others cry spontaneously.

So when politicians like NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stand up in Canada’s Parliament and denounce Israel for so-called human rights violations, they should be answerable to the Jewish and Muslim children of Israel who hunker underground in fear of a murderous terrorist organization that is out to kill them. 

Before standing in our House and accusing Israel of anything, Singh and similar minded leaders should step into the shoes of every Israeli child. That includes 16-year-old Nadine Awad, an Arab citizen of Israel, who was killed alongside her 52-year-old father, Khalil, when a Hamas rocket hit their home in central Israel.

Israel does not discriminate against defending and saving the lives of its citizens, no matter their faith. Conversely, Hamas does not discriminate in wanting to kill any Israeli citizen, no matter their faith. When a rocket is launched from Gaza at Israel, crowds are heard cheering and yelling “Allah Akbar.” When Israel sends its soldiers to the border with Gaza, mothers and fathers cry in pain and sorrow that their children may have to fire a weapon to defend their nation state.

While strongly condemning Hamas and rocket fire into Israel, our government leaders are also unfortunately drawing a moral equivalence of some sort. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would always support “Israel’s right to assure its own security.” But in the next sentence, he added, “We are also gravely concerned by the continued expansion of settlements and evictions.” What does this have to do with terrorist rocket attacks on innocent civilians in Israel? Do land disputes justify bombing an ally? Would Ottawa allow bombs to fall on any Canadian city without taking action?

Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist living in Jerusalem, wrote that he only blames Hamas: “The fanatics who rule over Gaza with an iron fist cannot resist the opportunity to stir up anti-Jewish violence for their own political gain. If innocent Jews and Muslims die in the process, all the better for them. The pretext for the latest missile barrage is the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem, where a long-running legal dispute was scheduled for a court hearing. It is the kind of situation that would be handled by a local municipal court in any other country and there would be no public interest.”

Exactly. Instead, what we are seeing once again is that some Western governments are excusing the bombing of Israel and interfering in the civic and security affairs of a free and democratic state. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Iran has been deeply involved in arming Hamas, and in the past week, inciting the violence now taking place. Given the fact that Iran shot down an airliner killing nearly 60 Canadians, Canada’s leaders should be well aware of what Iranian proxies like Hamas are capable of.

Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper got it right when he tweeted days ago, “Attacks on the State of Israel are attacks on us all and must be immediately condemned by international leaders.” Harper understands there is no moral equivalency between a free and democratic state that shares the same values as Canada, and Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. This conflict is not about so-called “settlements,” “evictions” or land disputes. It is not about the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is treated with the utmost respect by Israel and all Jews alike. This is about a terrorist group whosr mission statement and raison d’être is the destruction of the State of Israel.

To excuse this terrorist attack on Israel with “ifs, ands, or buts” endangers freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide.