Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the standing committee for the opportunity to speak.
I was an Israeli government spokesman for the first six months of the October 7 war, and now I speak to you in a private capacity in the hope of encouraging our ally, Canada, to avoid steps that would be destructive to the cause of peace.
Most Palestinians believe that the October 7 massacre was a good idea, and they believe it was a good idea because the world has rewarded them for it. According to regular polling, a large majority of Palestinians believe that the October 7 massacre was the correct decision by the government of Gaza, Hamas, and that's because they believe it has taken their national cause forward.
They see nations like Norway, Ireland and Spain unilaterally recognizing statehood, and they conclude, entirely rationally, that terrorism works.
Now, “terrorism works” might not be the message that well-meaning lawmakers want to send to the Palestinians, but it is the message they are receiving. Palestinians see that Hamas's genocidal violence on October 7 triggered waves of protests calling for the violent destruction of Israel. They see that it leads to more money for UNRWA, a Hamas front, and they conclude rationally that barbaric atrocities are the way to mobilize international opinion to their national cause, the elimination of Israel, as protesters here in Canada are chanting “From the river to the sea”.
Now, I understand that there are demands for Canada to recognize the State of Palestine outside of a peace settlement with Israel, following the barbaric atrocities of October 7. That would be a terrible mistake.
When Norway, Ireland and Spain took that step, they were effectively telling Palestinians, “Burn more Jewish families alive, and we will reward you.” I'm confident that none of the honourable members of this committee would wish to encourage the Palestinians to take hostages again—like Canadian citizen Judih Weinstein, whose body is still held hostage—and they would in fact be horrified to think that this would be the consequence of such an action. However, that is exactly what unilateral recognition would do, and that incentive must be avoided at all costs.
The underlying cause of the conflict remains that Israel is surrounded by enemies who wish to destroy it. The Palestinian national movement remains committed to an ideology of a forever war against Israel, until it achieves its goal of no Jewish state anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. I would challenge the committee members to find any Palestinian speaker who would embrace a vision of two states for two peoples.
Also, the Palestinian movement is backed by an Iranian regime that has surrounded Israel with a ring of fire, arming proxy armies to wage war on seven fronts, and would seek to exploit any further vacuum to continue its attacks on Israel.
Now the challenge for policy-makers is to strengthen the voices that seek peace by accepting Israel's permanent existence and the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their ancient homeland. Currently, international practice is empowering those who are committed to waging a forever war against the Jewish state.
World leaders must aim to induce the Palestinians to abandon that forever war against Israel. That means, for example, ending the farce of UNRWA. UNRWA openly employs terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre using Canadian taxpayer money. It indoctrinates Palestinian children to glorify martyrdom. Since UNRWA educates most of Gaza's children, it is a fact that most of the October 7 terrorists went to Canadian-funded schools. That is an appalling indictment of Canadian foreign policy.
UNRWA also tells Palestinians that they are entitled to welfare at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer until they achieve their vision of no more Israel. Canadian funding to this Hamas front therefore discourages Palestinians from reconciling with Israel's permanent existence, pushing hopes of peace further away.
I'll point out another way that Canadian foreign policy has pushed away prospects of a two-state solution. Israelis are now scarred by the failures of past withdrawals. In 2000, we left southern Lebanon, and we got Hezbollah. In 2005, we left Gaza, and we got Hamas. Israelis have every reason to think that a further withdrawal from the West Bank would lead to the creation of another Iranian puppet state committed to Israel's ultimate destruction.
Israelis have learned the hard way, while Palestinians are chanting “From the river to the sea,” that we cannot afford to give them from the river to nine miles away from the sea so that they that can sprint the remaining distance.
Canada's failure to fully back Israel's neutralization of the terrorist armies that filled the vacuums created by its own withdrawals has taught Israelis that if they take risks for peace, they will be on their own, and the world will expect them to tolerate these threats on their borders. Any future settlement and any future Palestinian state must therefore be predicated on full Israeli security control west of the Jordan to avoid its takeover as an Iranian client state.
In conclusion, if Canada wishes to play a constructive role toward a two-state solution, then it needs to create a pathway toward peace. That pathway runs through Palestinian deradicalization. It means conditioning any change in the international status of the Palestinian Authority on an embrace of peace, an acceptance of Israel and stopping funding for agencies that support, encourage and incentivize a forever war against Israel.
It means giving Israel its full backing to eliminate all and any threats from territory that it vacates under pressure. The Palestinians must not be allowed to look back on October 7 as a national holiday—
