Canada’s shame

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s announcement Tuesday that Ottawa will halt arms sales to Israel made headlines worldwide. Israel’s supporters predictably blasted the decision, while pro-Palestinian progressives libelously accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza hailed it.

The decision also undoubtedly put a smile on the faces of the hate marchers who have taken to Canada’s streets since October 7, threatening and intimidating Jews as they call for a “free Palestine” “From the river to the sea.”

It also surely came as a sorely needed piece of good news to Hamas leaders holed up in their tunnels far underground as they use Gaza’s civilians aboveground as expendable human shields.

Hamas’s leaders can, with satisfaction, look at this decision as evidence that if they hold out just a little bit longer, and if in the meantime more Gazans are killed as a result of their refusal to surrender and release the Israeli hostages they are holding, then the world will not hold them responsible for all the carnage, but instead will condemn Israel and seek to tie the Jewish state’s hands behind its back.

Canada’s decision also must bring joy to terrorist organizations worldwide searching for a winning strategy. They, too, are carefully watching the Israel-Hamas war.

If these nefarious organizations see that the West is standing firmly with Israel, then that will send one message.

If they see that through the cruel use of Palestinian human shields, however, Hamas can survive and murder more Jews and Israeli innocents, then they could be excused for saying to themselves, “This is a great game plan, and if it works for Hamas, it can work for us.”

The military equipment that Canada sells Israel – according to various accounts, some $21 million in 2022 – is not going to make or break the IDF or determine the course of this war. What it will do, however, is give encouragement and a tailwind to Hamas and other terrorist organizations around the globe.

What this says to terrorists is that they can send thousands of murderous goons and fanatics armed to the teeth across a border to murder, rape, mutilate bodies, burn down communities, and kidnap grandparents and babies. Then they can run and hide behind their grandparents and babies – secure in the knowledge that the enlightened countries of the West will step in to hold back those they attacked from taking action to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

With this decision, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing that it is confused. It has confused the aggressor with the victim and lost sight of who is responsible for the horrible and undeniable suffering taking place inside Gaza.

Here’s a review: Hamas started this war with its savage and brutal attack. After igniting the war, it then retreated to a labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, shielding itself from Israeli soldiers, bombs, and missiles. Hamas’s terrorists were safe, but Gaza’s civilians were exposed – not by accident, but rather by design.

That’s Hamas’s grand plan: Kill Israelis, then run and hide in hospitals and behind the skirts of women, knowing that when Israel pursues the terrorists, it will be blamed for causing civilian casualties.

But Israel must pursue it, and the Canadian government should know that. If it is to survive in this region, Israel must destroy Hamas – because if that terrorist organization remains standing as a significant force after what it did on October 7, then other equally evil forces in the region, such as Hezbollah and Iran, will try to duplicate Hamas’s actions. Only by utterly degrading Hamas’s capabilities will those other forces be deterred.

By embargoing arms to Israel, the Canadian government is doing what it can to hinder Israel’s ability to degrade those capabilities.

Or as Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said after Joly made her announcement: “It is unfortunate that the Canadian government is taking a step that undermines Israel’s right to self-defense against the Hamas murderers who have committed terrible crimes against humanity and against innocent Israeli citizens, including the elderly, women, and children.”

History “will judge the Canadian government’s current move harshly,” he said.

Katz is correct. Tuesday was not Canada’s finest hour.