Mark Carney, as the new Liberal leader and prime minister-designate, had the opportunity this week to reset relations with Israel, to approach the Middle East dilemma with a less blinkered view and to take a robust stand against antisemitism.
Instead, the leader’s first foray into Middle East foreign policy has seen him follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, as well as the likes of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, in demonizing Israel and giving terrorists a free pass.
It is this mixture of blind Liberal ideology and moral ambivalence that has seen an explosion of antisemitism in Canada.
Jewish leaders were already concerned about Carney’s silence, with Vivian Bercovici, Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2014 to 2016, telling the Jewish News Syndicate, “He’s made it his business to say nothing.”
The appointment of Marco Mendicino, a strong Israeli supporter as Carney’s chief of staff, might have signalled that a shift in thinking was coming from the new leader.
But now that Carney has said something, Jewish leaders are unlikely to be comforted.
On Tuesday, Carney tweeted, “It has been more than two days that the supply of electricity to Gaza has been shut off. It must resume — essentials including food, electricity, and medical supplies should never be used as political tools.
“Canada must work with our allies to stand up for international law to promote sustainable peace and security in the Middle East and to support full access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian families. As this work continues, both parties must work towards the return of all hostages and the completion of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israel cutting electricity to a desalination plant in Gaza and halting aid into Gaza are indeed controversial decisions, though not necessarily in breach of international law as Carney suggests.
But what is so irksome and outrageous about Carney’s message is that it reduces the fate of the hostages — illegally and violently kidnapped in an affront to the very notion of international law — to a throwaway line at the end of a tweet.
Saying that “both parties” must work to return the hostages is merely inane virtue signalling because one of those parties is Hamas in whose power rests the means to release the hostages immediately.
Carney should have said that under his leadership the hostages would be paramount — they are not political tools either. He should have demanded their immediate and unconditional release and he should have denounced Hamas for the killers they are.
Instead, he appealed to “both parties” as if Hamas were good-faith negotiators instead of undisputed war criminals.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has rightly been demanding the return of the hostages, but Hamas, flouting not just international jurisprudence but basic moral law, has refused. Hamas has reduced the hostages to mere bargaining chips.
More than 500 days after Hamas started the war, Israel is still trying to get its citizens back. It is believed 24 hostages are still alive in Gaza while another 35 hostages are dead.
And yet as Hamas barters with corpses — even dead babies are used by the terrorists as obscene propaganda — Carney believes that Palestinian terrorists are the type of people who can be reasoned with.
Carney’s tweet was prompted by Israel’s decision on Sunday to cut electricity to Gaza.
“We will employ all the tools available to us so that all the hostages will return, and we will ensure that Hamas won’t be in Gaza on the ‘day after’,” said Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen.
The move comes amid a crisis in ceasefire negotiations with Israel and Hamas standing firm about the next stage. Phase one of a ceasefire ended on March 1, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding a 50-day ceasefire extension to discuss stage two.
Hamas rejected the proposal, which prompted Israel to suspend aid into Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported that the move to cut electricity was “less dramatic” than it appeared. Israel cut power to Gaza after October 7, but restored it to a desalination plant in November. It was power to that plant that was being axed.
Palestinians must now rely on a diesel-fuelled power plant, private generators and solar panels for energy.
But if the international community from the start had joined voices demanding the release of hostages as a first condition, this war would have been over by now. This humanitarian lesson eludes Carney.
Meanwhile, Israel’s obligation to supply Gaza with humanitarian aid will be the subject of a hearing next month before the International Court of Justice.
One law professor says international law is on the side of Israel.
“For the record, international law is very clear on this point: Israel is not obligated to provide aid that will be used by an enemy in a time of war, and anyone who argues differently is either illiterate or wilfully ignorant,” wrote Mark Goldfeder, a law professor and CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, in a column for Newsweek.
Blockades were a lawful military tactic, regulated by international law, he wrote, and not necessarily banned if there was no intent to starve the civilian population.
Hamas, obviously, denounced Israel’s move as a “war crime.”
Carney’s tweet suggests he has very little understanding of the genocidal, baby-killing, terrorist-kidnapping butchers of Oct. 7.
National Post