Posted on 07/16/2014 10:04:12 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
TORONTO - The Stephen Harper government stands out today as the “most stalwart” and “most clear-minded” friend Israel has internationally, says Israel’s consul-general to Toronto and Western Canada.
DJ Schneeweiss told the Toronto Sun in a candid interview Wednesday the Canadian government’s “full-throatedly clear” view that Israel has no choice but to respond to the indiscriminate violent attacks by Hamas is the kind of position many Israelis wish they’d see emulated by other countries around the world.
“The story is a lot simpler than a lot of people would like to think ... by those who think they have to play both sides,” he said.
I spoke with the 49-year-old native Australian, who moved to Israel at age 22 and has been at his Toronto post for two years, on the ninth day of a conflict that has seen more than 1,300 Hamas rockets fired from Gaza at Israel’s heavily populated areas, most especially Tel Aviv.
A day earlier Hamas had rejected a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and to which Israel had agreed. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird condemned Hamas, claiming they have no interest in peace and that in addition to putting Israeli lives in jeopardy, the terrorist group has no problem using Palestinians as human shields (by placing their rocket launchers in civilian areas).
Israel has now agreed to a UN-brokered five-hour ceasefire starting at 10 a.m. their time Thursday.
Schneeweiss said there is a “very clear dichotomy” between those who exist solely to “perpetrate violence” and those people who want to put a stop to the conflict — but sadly far too many people in the international community “don’t make that distinction” and don’t understand that the terrorists are against western democracies as much as they are anti-Israel.
“They (the international community) end up empowering those anti-peace forces,” he said, noting the Canadian government has no problem “calling a spade a spade.”
Although he was away in Australia during the initial week of the conflict, his sense is that Israel’s story is “doing OK” in the Canadian media this time around and that is in large part because Hamas has succeeded in convincing more people than ever before “how completely and utterly unacceptable” it is to rain rockets on Israel’s largest cities several times a day.
In fact, to put it all in perspective, let’s imagine the equivalent of a theoretical Gaza somewhere near Niagara Falls, 130 km from Toronto.
“Imagine if Niagara decided it was hostile, that it was Islamist and bent on destruction of everyone else and started lobbing rockets into Toronto,” he said.
“I don’t think we always get a fair shake ... but at this point in the conflict, Israel’s position is better understood this time around than before.”
Israel is also doing a much better job telling its story, he conceded, and their use of social media has also “improved and expanded.”
Schneeweiss insisted there not a single army in the world that takes the kind of precautions the Israeli army does to avoid hurting civilians in any and all attempts to destroy Hamas rocket launchers. He notes that they warn civilians with leaflets and radio messages and if they believe there are terrorists in specific buildings that they intend to strike, they warn civilians with what’s called the pre-bombing “knock on the roof” and text messages to specific phone numbers.
He said not only do the Palestinians have no bomb shelters but in their experience, Hamas has been encouraging civilians to stay where they are and ignore the Israeli warnings.
“There is no doubt that there is civilian casualties that are regrettable and shouldn’t happen but we hold Hamas responsible for those casualties,” he said.
“Hamas is the one that is using its own civilian areas as staging grounds for its military operations. Hamas is the one that spends its money not on shelters but on rockets and uses its tunnels to protect its leaders and hide its rockets.”
I asked him what it’s like to be in Israel at the moment and whether the current conflict has affected tourism from Canada.
As I write this, my 19-year-old niece is on her way home from a 10-day Birthright program that carried on during the conflict.
Schneeweiss said because of what they’ve done to protect their citizens with the Iron Dome (that explodes the rockets in the air), it’s still pretty safe.
“The best response to the Hamas terrorism is not to be cowed by it,” he said. “That’s what the state of Israel has done throughout and will continue to do.”
His own wife and two children are there and despite having been through seven or eight air raid sirens so far — during which they are given 15 seconds to find cover either in the standard safe room of their own home, another bomb shelter, in stairwells, or at the side of the road — they’ve been busy going about their normal lives.
“The beaches are full, the theatre houses are full, the coffee shops are full,” he said. “It’s difficult to go out and live a normal life when you know there’s a threat of bombing but we are so experienced with this that people do keep on living their daily lives.”
Besides the nearness of the terrorist threat, Schneeweiss said many people in Canada can’t understand their hate.
“We don’t have hate in our hearts ... we are going to defend ourselves resolutely but we don’t have hate in our hearts,” he said. “We are doing the moral thing .. protecting our citizens from the aggressive violent assault, the indiscriminate violent assault on them perpetrated by Hamas.”
We’re #2!
Well, our government is.
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