Thank you for the question and the opportunity to comment.
First of all, it is a recognized fact that this is one of the most protracted conflicts in the world. Some would say it is the longest lasting conflict that has ever been.
It is important what you mentioned about there being no equivalency between the Government of Israel, which is democratically elected, and a terrorist organization like Hamas. I would never dispute that, but it is important to zoom out and look at this from a much higher level and look at what Canada has traditionally and fundamentally believed, which is that both these peoples deserve to live in peace and security.
We have seen many efforts in the past and we expend a lot of time and energy finding the voices inside Israel and inside Palestine of those who continue to seek this peaceful cohabitation. There's a lot of extremism. There's a lot of hate and a lot of mistrust right now.
It is part of what we see as our role to be the voice of reason that sees into the future and tries to bring parties to the conflict where we believe their best interests will be served in the future. Enough voices exist in both Israel and Palestine to continue these efforts.
The department is working on options to provide to the ministers and Prime Minister for where we can be most helpful. We have areas of expertise. I mentioned demining before, and I mentioned governance training and a technical transfer of knowledge and democratic development, which means, in this case, the holding of elections in Palestine in a way that will legitimize future leadership for Palestinians. These are all areas that play to Canada's strengths. It's not to say that we couldn't make a contribution elsewhere, but we each need to play to our strengths, and these are, in the first wave, the areas where we would consider making contributions, all subject, of course, to the level of ambition and decisions to be made by the Prime Minister and the minister.