Maxime Bernier says we should all be Canada first, but what does that mean? Plus, an update from a reporter on the ground in Israel, Avi Yitzchak, on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
00:06:31.620And by the way, I wrote to him today and invited him to come on the show just to talk about it.
00:06:36.500He said, to all those living in Canada who care more about what's going on in Ukraine and the Middle East than in this country and want to import these conflicts and get us more involved in them, why don't you just go there and fight there yourself instead?
00:07:53.520But the newspeg for Bernier's tweet is obviously the Hamas attacks on Israel.
00:07:58.320I mean, nothing new has happened in Ukraine.
00:08:00.420What is the Canada-first approach that Bernier would recommend for Israel that is different from what is happening now or what anyone is calling for?
00:08:10.520There is one Canadian Armed Forces jet that's going to Israel to bring home some stranded Canadians.
00:08:16.680And that's pretty much standard operating procedure all the time.
00:08:20.540I don't think it's a particularly big deal.
00:08:22.520I don't think that Israel these days even thinks about Canada.
00:08:28.180We're now known for Justin Trudeau's socks and for bungling every file from India to China.
00:08:35.040I mean, here's what Trudeau had to say at the G20 meeting a few weeks ago.
00:09:31.480Don't try to stop it from extirpating the terrorists on the other side of that fence with Gaza.
00:09:37.980I think Israel is just saying to Canada, stay out, not come in.
00:09:41.740I think it's a very different argument from the Ukraine matter where Canada is using unusual bellicosity in terms of language and diplomacy and the $9 billion in aid.
00:09:52.260I mean, here's Trudeau the other day when Zelensky was in town.
00:09:54.940It's hard for the democracies around the world who are there to support their citizens, who are investing for the future, who are challenged with a challenging economy around the world to continue to step up as Canada has.
00:10:07.320We're close to $9 billion in aid for Ukraine, but we will because the cost on Canadians, on our lives, on our world will be so much greater.
00:10:18.320If Putin wins this war, that we will and have to stand every single day until Ukraine wins this war.
00:10:26.560How is that comparable to the Israel situation?
00:10:41.180Remember, the Gaza Plaza Hamas parade that we broke the news on by videotaping it, rallies across Canada supporting Hamas, cheering the murders, cheering the terrorism, people talking about exterminating Israel.
00:10:56.380If that's what you're mad about, and I think you should be, say so.
00:11:00.920But the tweet has written, it bundles the murderers and the murder victims together and tells them both to shut up.
00:11:07.520Bernier is a friend of mine. I've known him since before he was even a member of parliament.
00:11:12.880I knew him when he was a vice president at the Montreal Economic Institute years ago, sort of a free market think tank.
00:11:20.100I think Rebel News has got to be the most supportive media company in the whole country towards him.
00:11:25.400We've interviewed him countless times.
00:11:27.460We've been supportive of him in many ways.
00:11:29.420We've even invited him to speak at our live, in-person events.
00:11:32.580I consider him a friend, although, honestly, I realize you can never fully be a friend with a politician, especially if you're a journalist.
00:11:39.740I've always regarded Bernier as courageous, especially during the lockdowns.
00:11:45.720I mean, I remember when he was arrested.
00:12:45.460But now Pierre Polyev is the leader, and he's done none of those things.
00:12:50.440There are fewer and fewer differences between Bernier and Polyev, and that means that the People's Party vote is sort of sliding back to Polyev.
00:13:03.220And Bernier is trying to differentiate himself.
00:13:05.060But back to the terrorism statement, to me, the past week has not been about policy A versus policy B, or this solution or that solution, or is the war being prosecuted correctly.
00:13:19.760The past week has just been about acknowledging the most barbaric moment in a generation, deliberately barbaric, designed to terrorize and terrify and humiliate.
00:13:30.220It is a massive pogrom, a massive Nazi moment, like Kristallnacht.
00:14:15.400Because, and I think this is actually the explanation, I think he didn't have the political courage to say what he actually means, which is, you pro-Hamas supporters with your pro-terrorism rallies, you should go back to Gaza.
00:14:31.960Because Bernier, who's normally quite courageous, didn't quite have the political courage to speak the unvarnished truth, because to do so would mean to lose, I don't know, 10% of his party.
00:14:45.700So instead, he came across as absolutely heartless towards people who weren't asking for anything from him, other than to maybe say, I'm so sorry for this atrocity.
00:14:56.580I stand with you and I stand against the monsters.
00:14:58.840Instead, he lumped the monsters and the victims together and said, enough out of both of you.
00:15:06.340I think he actually lacked the political courage to say what he actually meant.
00:15:20.040There's even a touch of Holocaust-style Nazism there.
00:15:24.120Telling everyone just to shut up isn't the right message.
00:15:27.540And I don't even think it's Bernier's message.
00:15:31.400Ironically, I think it's Bernier because he didn't say what he believes, well, what I think he believes, which is that he's truly revolted by the pro-Hamas rallies we've seen across the country.
00:15:42.640He's playing politics, which is rare for him.
00:15:53.520Hey, instead of having our regular interview, I've asked our friend Avi Amini to record a little video from being on the ground in southern Israel earlier today.
00:16:07.760He was there when a rocket attack happened.
00:16:10.800He arrived, and five minutes later, rockets slammed into the town of Sterot.
00:16:15.340Here's a little video that Avi put together for our show today.
00:16:18.600Avi Amini for Rebel News in Sterot, southern Israel.
00:16:23.540We're at the site right now of a direct hit minutes ago.
00:16:27.880Literally five minutes after arriving here in Sterot, we heard a loud explosion.
00:16:37.260They continue to throw the missile, and three people injured from the missile here, and we have 20 rockets that land in the town.
00:16:45.920This is the reality now because we're in a war.
00:16:47.960As we drove into this city, a city that only days ago there were terrorists marching the street and butchering anyone in their way, we suddenly heard explosions having to run for our lives.
00:17:00.120I didn't hear a warning, and there certainly wasn't 15 seconds to get to shelter, but it didn't hit us.
00:17:05.500It's about 500 meters from where we were, and unfortunately, there are three victims, one in a critical condition.
00:17:13.360I was driving in as it happened, as the explosions.
00:17:20.100I think I hear a warning, and I run away.
00:17:24.020The problem is that everyone, even you, everyone that stay here, every time that they hear something, they need to run and run and go under the ground or go to a bomb shelter to save their life.
00:20:23.120There was three injured, one in a serious condition, all taken to hospital when we got there.
00:20:30.600And you can just see the daily life for Israelis here.
00:20:34.520And the thing that was interesting, the thing that struck me is that they were saying this is new to the world.
00:20:39.920But this has been their life for 20 years.
00:20:42.240And a lot of the people who live in and around these areas were actually removed out of Gaza, so out of Gush Katif and places like that in 2005 as part of the disengagement plan for peace.
00:20:55.260And they say they were warning Israel, they were warning the government that if we move, all we're doing is we're bringing the problem closer.
00:21:05.260You know, they saw themselves in Gaza before 2005 as the defense.
00:21:12.860They were what was standing between Hamas and the different terrorist groups and the rest of Israel, the non-occupied territories.
00:21:25.640Because you've got to remember, Gaza is not occupied.
00:21:28.220It was given back, like I said, in 2005.
00:21:31.100And, you know, when we went there, we saw, as soon as we got there, we saw the mayor, basically the mayor, calming one civilian down who was visibly really upset and cursing out.
00:21:46.500And it felt like it felt like the government almost, as well as Hamas, as in felt like, come on, this has been 20 years.
00:21:54.820We caught up with the mayor who, you know, told us that this has been his life forever.
00:22:01.660That's the sentiment here is that, yeah, the world's woken up because they saw the horrific scenes over the weekend.
00:22:07.220But really, this has been the reality for people, especially in the south.
00:22:10.440There was one mother, and I think she was a volunteer to the local council, who literally just started speaking to us.
00:22:21.920And it was raw and it was passionate in the moment right after an attack.
00:22:29.460Do you know that the border is 800 meters away, right?
00:22:32.380So the city sits 800 meters from the border.
00:22:34.480The minute they destroyed the border and our first line of defense was gone and they walked in 6 a.m. in the morning or 5 a.m. in the morning or something like this, of course they were on the streets because it was a holiday.
00:22:47.560Some people already left the city to travel.
00:22:51.400Some people were on their way thinking about going to the synagogues to pray.
00:24:02.120I have to tell you, we have been warning governments and organizations that have been giving money to the Hamas for years.
00:24:10.660And we've been saying, if you're going to teach a five-year-old how to stab a Jew, and if this is the ceremony, ending ceremony of kindergarten, how to stab a Jew, what do you think is going to happen in 20 years?
00:24:22.200Do you think he's going to be a rocket scientist or is he going to be a terrorist?
00:24:28.060If a mother or the women that I've seen from Gaza are celebrating their son's success by killing and raping women, when they do that, do you think I have someone to talk to?
00:25:17.000If you would have asked me two years ago, I would say, OK.
00:25:19.300If you would have even asked me six months ago, I would say, OK, I don't care.
00:25:23.860Once you touch our kids the way you did, once you showed such brutality towards children and women, you are no longer someone that we need to take account for.
00:29:05.960We're all working hard to defend the country and do whatever we can to defend the people.
00:29:11.160We went to go and do the order and the owner of the burger place BBB here told us it's on the house.
00:29:21.340You guys deserve it and they treated us.
00:29:24.660And it goes to show how great everyone's coming together to defend the country and just supporting by any way they can.
00:29:33.080Are you seeing this kind of broad support widely or is this a unique story?
00:29:38.300I would say from what we've been seeing, there's been a lot of special people doing amazing donations
00:29:43.520and doing everyone, even if they're not serving in the army or they're not connected, finding and doing their part.
00:29:49.360But this was a very pleasant surprise and it goes to show that the sacrifice that everyone will make to defend our people and defend our country.
00:29:58.460And Israel's been in a pretty divided place the last few years.
00:30:01.500Has this attack and basically now the response, is that uniting the country?
00:30:07.780Does anyone even remember the protests about the law reform?
00:34:35.860They receive an enormous amount of money from Justin Trudeau to call out hate.
00:34:40.440Well, I think we've had the most hateful week in 80 years.
00:34:45.380And we've had hate rallies calling for death and atrocities.
00:34:50.120And this group, the Canadian Anti-Hate Coalition, hasn't said a word in a week because it's the kind of hate they like.
00:35:01.100They have no criticism of Hamas or left-wing hate, do they?
00:35:06.040Blizzara 316 says, I'm on the hunt for a conservative viewpoint that at least explains why people are protesting Israel's actions instead of just being baffled and outraged.
00:35:17.000Listen, every single war in history has civilian casualties.
00:35:20.780The Second World War had tens of millions of civilian casualties.
00:35:25.160And by the way, America contributed to that.
00:35:27.880And I think that dropping the nuclear bombs on Japan were the right thing to do.
00:35:31.840So it's estimated that a land invasion would have had a one million casualty count, which, I mean, imagine a million lives lost to invade Japan.
00:35:42.620So dropping two atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was atrocious.
00:35:47.520And in some ways, you could say a violation of the laws of war.
00:35:50.840You could say that targeting cities instead of military bases.
00:35:53.640But those tens of thousands of lives lost probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives by averting the need for a full invasion.
00:36:35.440It's a very different thing than the accidental or collateral death of civilians.
00:36:40.360And yet, be prepared for the pro-Hamas media to declare that Israel's attempt to fight back and minimize civilian casualties is morally more grave than Hamas' deliberate strategy of targeting Israeli civilians.