Madam Speaker, I just want to point out how disappointing it is that a government that tries to present itself as an ally of the only democracy in the region, of standing shoulder to shoulder with a people and a country that have been subject to the worst attacks that human beings have been able to conceive of, will not unequivocally and clearly state that the country, Israel, and its people have a right not only to defend themselves, but to destroy those who attack it over and over again. We are not talking about squabbles over natural resources or where borders should be drawn. We are talking about terrorist organizations that deny Israel's right to exist at all, and that state in their charter that they not only want to dismantle the state of Israel, but they want to end Jewish lives.
When this member, this foreign minister and this government cannot unequivocally state that, when faced with those types of threats and attacks, Israel does not have the right to destroy terrorist organizations is to deny to Israel what every other state in the world would claim for itself. Let us make no mistake, if Canada or our NATO allies were continuously subjected to terrorist attacks, rocket launches and missile launches, not only would we defend ourselves, but we, as a people, would demand that our government destroy those who are perpetrating such acts of terror.
However, this is a pattern from this government. We saw this when the head of Hezbollah, Nasrallah, was eliminated. World leaders around the globe, who have a wide range of views on the conflict in the Middle East, were all united on the idea that Nasrallah headed up a terrorist organization, that he was responsible for the loss of many innocent lives, including 240 American lives and dozens of French lives, and the list goes on and on. We do not have time in the short amount of time left to us to enumerate all the atrocities that Hezbollah has committed and all the innocent lives that were lost at its hand. However, this Prime Minister basically put out a statement, which was probably was written by AI or copied and pasted from Wikipedia. It made no mention of the justice that was done and the relief that many people felt that this terrorist leader had finally been eliminated.
I grew up in Ottawa, and there is a very significant Lebanese population in Ottawa. I have known many people whose families fled here after Hezbollah started to destabilize that country. Lebanon had a long history of a wonderful quality of life and relative peace and security. Beirut used to be called the Paris of the Middle East until IRGC-backed terrorist entities like Hezbollah started to infiltrate Lebanese society, weaken the Government of Lebanon and basically act as a parallel state, handing out its own form of perverse justice to those who opposed its radical agenda and perpetrating crimes against its own people. Hezbollah and Nasrallah himself aided the genocidal and psychopathic regime in Syria that had committed so many war crimes against its own people. Yet, we see this moral equivalency from the government after the news of Nasrallah's death was made public, and we see it again tonight on display here.
In closing, I will just basically say that it is very clear that on this side of the House, we stand for human rights, we stand for the rule of law and the rule of international law, and we recognize Israel's right to exist and Israel's right to dismantle those entities that have their stated purpose as the elimination of Israel and the death of Jewish people. On that side of the House, we have a Prime Minister who says one thing to one group of people and another thing to a different group of people, because he will not take a principled stand. That is the choice that Canadians have, and we know where the Canadian people stand. They stand on the right side of history, they stand on the side of innocent human beings who are just trying to defend themselves, just trying to carve out a small place on the planet where the Jewish people can live in peace and security, and that is where the Conservatives stand as well.