ottawa –
Israel’s ambassador to Canada says the war that began a year ago has significantly changed Israelis’ views on peace in the Middle East and strained the long-standing strong relationship between Israel and Canada.
In a recent interview with the Canadian Press, one year after Hamas’s attack on Israel, Id Moed said the war has united Israelis across political lines, but Canada’s position on the conflict is unclear. said it was causing confusion.
“We want to get the hostages back at all costs,” Moed said.
“We are at a historical point in time. Decisions must be made based on principles, and our moral compasses should point in the same direction.”
Last October, Hamas and affiliated militants in the Gaza Strip stormed the border with Israel, killing 1,200 civilians and soldiers and abducting another 250, marking the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Ta.
The following month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry showed foreign journalists a video showing a grenade thrown into the air raid shelter where the family was hiding, a close-range execution, a severely burned corpse with his hands tied.
Footage showed grinning fighters chanting as they drove terrified Israelis into Gaza.
These horrifying images were shared widely through WhatsApp, filling the Israeli public with sadness and anger.
“We are traumatized by October 7. We are still coming to terms with what happened there, as a violent and barbaric expression of hatred,” Moed said.
Israel has launched a ground operation in Gaza with the goal of overthrowing Hamas, but has never specified the criteria for victory.
The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said the war had killed more than 43,000 people in the region, including combatants. UN officials say nowhere is safe, as Israeli forces continue to ask Palestinians to evacuate to areas that are frequently bombed.
Due to the war, a large amount of gruesome footage is sent every day from Gaza, showing refugee camps wiped out by bombing, pale children with limbs missing, and hospital patients being set on fire.
Ottawa has expressed concern that Israel may be exceeding its right to self-defense and violating international humanitarian law, a claim Israel rejects.
Moed said that while Israeli society is broadly united around the need to defeat Hamas, opinion polls show deep divisions within Israel over whether it is worth continuing the war.
The ambassador noted that his country is facing not only Hamas, but also Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and the Iranian military. “Israel is going through the most difficult period since its founding,” he said.
Israeli communities near Gaza and Lebanon remain empty, with families living in hotels that were once crowded with tourists. Israel’s central bank continues to revise its economic growth forecasts downward.
In Canada, humanitarian concerns over the Gaza war led Parliament to vote in March to suspend approval of new military export licenses to Israel, prompting Ottawa to review previous licenses. Canada has no military embargo against Israel, but the use of Canadian weapons in the Gaza Strip is prohibited.
Canada, which has rejected resolutions for decades as unbalanced, abstained from voting on a UN resolution condemning Israel due to similar concerns.
“This departure from a very principled position is very unfortunate for us,” Moed said, adding that these resolutions were not about seeking peace but “weakening Israel as much as possible diplomatically and politically. He claimed that the purpose was to “encourage”
He expressed similar views about Canada restoring funding to United Nations agencies for the Palestinian people. The Canadian government says the funds are essential to saving lives in Gaza.
Israel claims, without providing evidence, that hundreds of Palestinian militants work for UNRWA and that more than a dozen staff members took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. UNRWA investigated 19 employees suspected of participating in the attack and fired an unspecified number. The agency has 30,000 employees.
Moed praised Canada for designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a division of Iran’s military, as a terrorist organization in June after years of Conservative pressure.
He hopes that by sharing the information that led to the designation, Ottawa will “lead other countries to follow Canada’s path.”
Overall, Moed suggested that Canada’s position on the Middle East would be clearer to Israelis if Ottawa provided “solutions to real problems,” giving one example: It suggested radicalization and demilitarization programs.
Canada has repeatedly said that long-term peace is only possible with the existence of a Palestinian state, and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is undermining efforts to develop one.
Ireland, Spain and Norway expressed similar concerns when they formally recognized a Palestinian state in May. Most of South America, Africa and Asia already do so, but few of Canada’s allies do so.
In July, Israel’s parliament overwhelmingly rejected the two-state solution by a vote of 68 to 9.
Moed said the push for Palestinian statehood would only reward Hamas’ attacks at a time when Israel faces threats on multiple fronts. He said Israelis feel that most Palestinians do not respect the existence of the Israeli state, making it impossible to live in peace.
He asserted that there is strong support for Hamas among the Palestinian people. “I don’t see the kind of leadership emerging on the Palestinian side that can change the mindset of the majority of Palestinians,” he said.
Israel has criticized Palestinian leaders for failing to condemn last fall’s Hamas attack.
Mona Abumara, Palestinian Ambassador to Canada, said Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories, along with the air, sea and ground blockade of the Gaza Strip, had led to a buildup of grievances leading up to a Palestinian Authority agreement. He said that peace can only be achieved if people understand. Hamas attack.
By closing the door to negotiations and not using non-violent means such as boycotts and sanctions, she said, the Palestinians have been forced to engage in what the West classifies as terrorism and other countries consider as armed resistance to a violent occupation. They argued that they would have to rely on what they had.
“It didn’t start on October 7th,” Abuamara said in an August interview with the Canadian Press.
“We need people to understand that every life has value. We want everyone to be safe, and we want everyone to be safe. But… Israeli lives cannot be more important than Palestinian lives.”
Ottawa has followed a similar tone in condemning far-right Israeli ministers who have expressed support for insurgents demanding the release of a soldier accused of perpetuating the filmed gang rape of a Palestinian prisoner.
Last month, an Israeli airstrike killed a Canadian couple in Lebanon as they fled to safety. Last April, Canadians were among a group of aid workers killed in a triple Israeli attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy operating with Israeli authorization.
Moed said the Israeli military is doing its best to minimize civilian casualties while eliminating the “roots of evil in the Middle East”, which are believed to be often deeply rooted in civilian areas. Ta.
“We are in a fight for survival,” he said.
“We want to be able to look back in 10 years in Israel and say that we acted in accordance with the best moral values that we want to live by.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
— With files from The Associated Press
