Western Standard - Israel goes for broke

00:00:00.000 good evening western standard viewers i'm nigel hanaford it's october the 7th 2024 and welcome

00:00:10.400 to the hanaford show we are honored to have with us today the ambassador from israel the ambassador

00:00:18.960 to canada from israel his excellency edu moed and we're going to talk about the sad anniversary

00:00:29.920 that this date represents for it was indeed one year ago today that the hamas terrorist organization

00:00:39.320 that controls the gaza strip swarmed israel's southern border and with indescribable brutality

00:00:47.580 began to kidnap rape murder burn blow up incinerate and otherwise slaughter approximately 1200

00:00:59.080 innocent and mostly unarmed israeli citizens in cold blood it was a genocide most were unarmed 0.92

00:01:09.780 all were taken by surprise in their homes or in their businesses and in the case of quite a large

00:01:15.500 number young people attending a rave in the desert oddly enough dedicated to peace

00:01:23.020 i say it again this was a genocide performed in the name of palestine it had been planned with great 1.00

00:01:32.940 precision and after hamas breached the border fence it was followed by masses of people from gaza

00:01:43.040 who cooperated with the trained forces of the hamas terrorist entity

00:01:48.360 your excellency welcome to the show thank you for having me nigel may i ask you this sir

00:01:58.580 the horrifying experience uh that suffered by the jewish people during the second world war commonly

00:02:06.460 known as the holocaust is well known in canada people have been prosecuted for denying the holocaust

00:02:14.660 yet the shock and horror of what happened on israel's southern border on october the seventh

00:02:21.840 it lasted about a week and after that week the palestinian demands for sympathy 0.99

00:02:31.080 and support took over and as israel retaliated it was marked as the aggressor

00:02:38.920 and here in canada in canada hostile mobs harassed jewish canadians in their businesses in universities

00:02:49.680 they even swarmed neighborhoods where jewish people tended to congregate this surprised me

00:02:57.620 does it surprise you sir it surprised all of us i think because although we have seen a rise in the

00:03:05.140 level of anti-semitism up until that date um i think that what erupted was a level of hatred

00:03:13.860 and aggression and intimidation that was unprecedented i don't think that although i'm new to canada i just

00:03:22.240 arrived when all this erupted i've never heard of hate marches on the streets calling for the

00:03:29.360 annihilation of the state of israel calling for jews to go back to europe calls that are uh in their

00:03:39.360 very essence and nature very contradicting to what i've come to learn what about tolerance and acceptance

00:03:48.400 and uh collaboration and respect for each other so yes in that respect it was something completely new

00:03:57.240 to me i saw and i still see the jewish community hurting very much from this not understanding

00:04:05.080 why some people actually lost friends over this why students actually way not to go to canadian

00:04:12.360 universities but elsewhere they're very welcome in israel but i think that as societies both israel

00:04:18.600 and canada are free and open societies and tolerant this uh phenomenon of hatred pure hatred that we've seen

00:04:26.120 been going on this past year is is unacceptable it's intolerable and uh i must say i'm not very um

00:04:36.600 happy with the way that i see that the authorities are dealing with it i know that there is a question

00:04:42.440 about the freedom of speech academic freedom much of those issues are very very important but none of us accept

00:04:50.600 anything like freedom of hate and this is what we are seeing these days and this is really a phenomenon

00:04:56.680 that needs to be addressed head on so it seemed that this came about very quickly and on a large scale

00:05:09.160 do you think that there was an organization in place to

00:05:13.560 do you think that there was an organization in the united states in the united states in great britain

00:05:20.840 and in canada uh it seemed to come from nowhere and suddenly it was all around us with

00:05:27.400 kids camped out in tents on their campuses and proclaiming you know sort of free palestine and so

00:05:33.960 forth was this planned i would make a distinction here between an accusation that there were

00:05:42.120 some no i'm not i don't think that that was the case but i do think that for a very long time there

00:05:50.360 have been this sort of dormant elements waiting for something like this to erupt and once it happened

00:05:58.040 immediately they took over and the best evidence for that is to look at the facebook page of an

00:06:04.680 organization called samedun which is a so-called organization that is set up for the welfare of the

00:06:11.080 palestinian prisoners it's an organization affiliated with the canadian recognized terrorist organization

00:06:17.800 palestinian front for liberation of palestine on that very same date on october the 7th saturday morning

00:06:25.720 they already went to the bridges in vancouver hung up huge um uh boards claiming this is the way to

00:06:34.040 resistance this is the way to uh freedom and and liberation and so when you happening on campuses and

00:06:42.840 you see how well organized that is you understand that there is an infrastructure here that needed very

00:06:49.960 very very little to be triggered and to set off the level of hatred that we see right now well it

00:06:57.080 obviously there was something because it happened and that that demonstrates the point right there so

00:07:03.320 the reaction of the canadian government i want to read to you really for the benefit of viewers more

00:07:09.720 than yourself but at any rate a couple of comments that have been made or to which the canadian

00:07:16.120 government has applied its signature one of them of course is the joint statement that came out in

00:07:21.880 june from the leaders of several countries united states argentina austria but we don't need to go

00:07:28.040 through them all but um canada was one of the ones and they signed on to this thought that they call on

00:07:35.400 the leaders of israel as well as hamas to make whatever final compromises are necessary to close this

00:07:43.480 deal and bring relief to the families of the hostages as well as all those on both sides including

00:07:50.280 the civilian populations and then about a month later uh the international court of justice issued a

00:07:58.680 an opinion saying that israel's occupation of the west bank i i would i'm not quite sure whether israel

00:08:07.720 really occupies the west bank but at any rate that's uh that's how the icj in east east jerusalem of

00:08:14.840 course but they they said we call on israel another group of international leaders called on israel to

00:08:23.720 respond substantively to this opinion of the court and ensure accountability for ongoing acts of violence

00:08:32.440 against palestinians by extremist settlers reverse the settlements and work to a two-state solution

00:08:42.680 i would imagine there's a number of red flags in that statement for you sir but why don't you talk

00:08:48.840 to us about them let's first talk about the picture behind me on this side if you can see yes

00:08:57.880 their faces these are 101 hostages being kept in gaza by hamas for a year a full year they are being held

00:09:08.120 in those dungeons uh buried alive uh at gunpoint by hamas this is the essence of what we are talking about

00:09:18.280 this is what we are dealing with so there my point being that our world of norms and of liberty and

00:09:27.480 respect and understanding of each other and agreements and all of that works only to a certain degree

00:09:33.800 in my neighborhood where i come from doesn't really work hamas doesn't care about the united nations

00:09:41.320 hezbollah doesn't either and they're all driven by the way by iran which is a member of the united

00:09:47.640 nations that actually stood still when their leader just died a few weeks ago which is which is another

00:09:54.760 nation because that country has vowed to wipe israel off the mat so of the face of the earth so what we 0.99

00:10:01.000 are talking about in israel is coming to terms with our reality and in our reality terrorist organizations

00:10:09.800 even if the whole world calls them to lay down their arms they wouldn't because that means absolutely

00:10:16.680 nothing to them they are actually established as uh as a contravention to the law they don't

00:10:23.480 it it doesn't exist in their reality in their realm so we here in the west have to understand that we

00:10:30.040 have to use sometimes other means to attain our to our liberty to safeguard our security and this is

00:10:37.880 what israel is doing we would love to be able to negotiate and talk this is what we've been doing

00:10:44.360 up until october the 6th we were actually providing the population in gaza with the means to sustain

00:10:51.080 themselves to develop their industry traders uh have a bigger income actually some of the people

00:10:57.400 some israelis volunteered to assist palestinians to drive to take them to israeli hospitals when it was

00:11:03.400 possible like vivian silver who was murdered on that day canadian was murdered on that day by hamas

00:11:10.520 we are speaking in two different universes and trying to reconcile our reality with global politics

00:11:19.080 and all the all the well-meant words of a ceasefire and and coming to terms trying to reconcile that with 0.93

00:11:27.080 the barbaric uh terrorists that are out there that are that have only specific goal killing all jews and

00:11:36.200 eliminating the state of israel that there are two parallel lines that don't really reconcile so

00:11:42.280 asking israel to do something in accordance with our normal diplomatic ways it's nice is good yes we

00:11:52.200 are democracy of course it's very important for us to listen to our friends around the world including

00:11:56.280 canada of course which is a great friend of israel but when it comes to dealing with terrorists it just

00:12:01.880 just doesn't work so in lebanon we have hezbollah it's a state that doesn't really have a competent 0.86

00:12:08.760 government and the lebanese army is not able to implement united nations security council

00:12:13.640 resolutions and because of that israel is obliged to cross the border and to make sure that there is 0.56

00:12:19.880 no more threat to israelis living beyond that border within israel as you may know hundreds and

00:12:26.920 hundreds of homes already have been destroyed tens of israelis being killed including 12

00:12:32.600 much those shams and i didn't hear at that time the whole world coming together and saying let's

00:12:38.840 immediately have a ceasefire it only starts when israel is actually uh going to the next level instead 0.89

00:12:45.800 of containing this barrage of of rockets into israel up until that time about 8 000 rockets were shot from

00:12:53.400 lebanon into israel not just at the border area but far into haifa and as far as tel aviv when israel

00:13:00.040 acts all of a sudden the world says oh wait a minute let's try and find a diplomatic solution here

00:13:04.520 it doesn't work like that not in our reality if we stop the other side of course uses that to rearm

00:13:10.840 and to continue their attacks so really it's not that helpful when uh got foreign governments and

00:13:17.000 we'll just talk about canada but when our own canadian government says well we need to cease fire

00:13:21.960 and uh and we need a two-state solution there is no is there a two-state solution sir a two-state so

00:13:31.960 when the palestinian leadership will acknowledge israel's rights to exist as the homeland of the

00:13:39.960 jewish people that has never happened up until now even if one even when we sign the austro agreements 1.00

00:13:47.240 everybody said well late wait for that uh recognition that will come start with small

00:13:53.240 steps and eventually they'll see the benefit of it but it has never happened actually the only reason

00:13:58.120 why there has never been elections uh among the palestinians is because palestinian authority which

00:14:03.560 is led by fatah knows that hamas will take over and they don't want to lose power but even those two

00:14:10.120 parties within the palestinian society fatah and hamas are not able to come to terms about their own

00:14:16.600 future so there is no viable partner on the other side and so for us at this moment there is no way

00:14:24.840 that we can move forward in discussing a two-way solution until we know somebody of authority and

00:14:31.800 capability is ready to do that and to negotiate the palestinian the palestinian cause with us so that

00:14:38.280 we'll have a solution we've actually have many arrangements in place so that palestinians can

00:14:43.480 live their lives we know that palestinians want to have their own state we understand that but with 1.00

00:14:49.560 the government that they have at the moment with the overall majority that uh actually supports hamas's

00:14:55.240 line from the river to the sea we don't see that in in the near future happening this is one of the

00:15:01.240 reasons why 99 members of knesset out of 120 supported a resolution saying let's not have a

00:15:09.240 two-state solution at this moment but the overall majority of israelis do believe in coexistence and

00:15:15.400 let me just give you one example of what is what do we mean when we talk about coexistence within israel

00:15:21.400 you have about 20 percent of the population is not jewish there are supreme court surgeons there are

00:15:29.000 pharmacists there are lawyers there are bus drivers they are everywhere they are part and parcel of

00:15:34.360 israel society and they're not happy but neither are the ultra orthodox or the orthodox or the left or

00:15:42.520 the right nobody's happy in israel because it's a democracy and everybody takes part in it everybody

00:15:47.640 has a voice an equal voice and this is how our country is managed and so when we are talking about

00:15:53.320 coexistence the same that we have like we have peace agreements with jordan with egypt with the gulf

00:15:58.680 countries we aspire to have similar agreement with the palestinians but at the moment as we see the

00:16:04.360 situation they are not ready for it i see um it occurs to me that um the success of the abraham accords the

00:16:14.840 president trump's personal middle east initiative in in late 2020 led to peaceful led to agreements

00:16:23.160 with bahrain sudan and the united arab emirates and at the time there was a feeling well you know maybe

00:16:31.640 maybe the arab world is coming around would you make any connection between the october 7th attack

00:16:40.760 and that diplomatic success which may have led the hamas to think they were being left behind by the rest of

00:16:50.760 the arab world perhaps but i would argue that the mechanism that hezbollah that iran put in place

00:17:01.400 with his prox proxies hezbollah hamas houthis iraqi militias uh syria and lebanon and even our terrorist

00:17:10.920 organizations that are supporting on the west bank they've been waiting for a pretext for a moment to

00:17:17.080 attack and they wanted actually to do that perhaps uh even a bit later when iran would be

00:17:25.480 your arsenal and that would have been much more dangerous but the idea was israel has israel will 0.93

00:17:32.920 not be uh will not be there anymore it needs to be wiped off the map the fact that there was rapprochement

00:17:39.560 between israel and saudi arabia that has been going on for quite a while perhaps the timing now the trigger

00:17:45.560 may have been indeed some uh uh steps diplomatic steps to get the sides closer and to sign some

00:17:52.440 kind of a peace agreement i'm i i suspect that that is the trigger for now but we have to remember that

00:17:59.000 the whole idea of the shia revolution is not just to wipe israel off the map let's just think about the

00:18:05.960 180 ballistic missiles they shot into israel uh just a few days ago those missiles have a far further

00:18:13.000 reach than israel and we have to remember they reach is well inside europe and they continue to

00:18:18.200 develop it and they work together with north korea there is an access of evil one is part of and they 0.69

00:18:25.480 are partnering with those who will support their interest and their interest is to spread the shia 0.97

00:18:30.920 revolution around the world and they will not stop just like they are active here uh in social media

00:18:38.120 in supporting uh encampment in mcgill or in united states universities we have enough evidence for

00:18:43.560 that so the threat that emanates from iran is not just for israel it's not just regional it's globe and

00:18:49.720 we have to remember that you you have just placed this conflict in a very much larger context

00:18:55.160 um i i'm not sure that people are familiar with the idea that uh iran wants to export its religion

00:19:05.400 around the world just to be sure is that what you're saying yes they are working very hard at it

00:19:12.840 they are developing tools uh to use social media in a subversive way and to affect people

00:19:22.760 or all of a sudden young people on universities are converting that's part of the encampments you

00:19:30.360 you see those processes taking place if they are pro-palestinian that's that's one thing but there

00:19:37.000 is no religion there why would people all of a sudden also show their willingness they are willing 0.56

00:19:42.840 to convert to islam there is something much deeper going on it is not just about israel it's about western

00:19:50.600 free civilization uh democratic world as we know it and this is something that we have to remember

00:19:57.000 israel is at the forefront but as you know professor evan kotler says very often it starts with the

00:20:03.240 jews it never ends with the jews there is something much deeper behind this and we we have to look at 1.00

00:20:08.520 it from that perspective this is why iran is not just israel's adversary they may be at this moment but

00:20:15.000 as you've heard i also mentioned the united states and other countries that threaten actually now from

00:20:21.880 supporting israel so they are they are a global threat to security global threat to security certainly 1.00

00:20:30.280 the uh the idea that they are actually exporting their religion is a is one that i think western

00:20:36.200 audiences are going to have to have that explained to them more more frequently uh when you saw the the

00:20:42.600 kids dressing up in the jabs and so forth i just i think we just took that as uh kids being kids and

00:20:48.440 doing something to be provocative to their their superiors um look this makes the whole matter of

00:20:56.600 how you respond to iran after their missile attack earlier last week uh very much more significant

00:21:06.120 people are talking about the possibility of of attacking the nuclear production facilities or attacking

00:21:14.200 their oil and crashing the economy creating an internal revolution i wouldn't expect you to tell

00:21:19.800 me what you were going to do but uh is the destruction of the iranian government the object of your

00:21:29.400 retaliation by whatever means you attempted our our objective is to make it very clear to the decision

00:21:36.600 makers in the iranian regime that it is not worth their while to attack the state of israel

00:21:42.520 that they should not even contemplate doing that this is our message to them and we want to achieve

00:21:48.680 that message make it clear and strong by not only consolidating an international uh front

00:21:58.040 coalition to make it clear to them but also to letting them understand in essence what what what we mean

00:22:04.840 when we talk about that and so uh the point really being that the iranian people are suffering under this 0.92

00:22:14.120 iranian regime years we know that we know their human rights records are horrible they're hanging uh gay 1.00

00:22:22.600 people they were they throw into dungeons their opposition um they uh uh oppress minorities all throughout

00:22:31.480 iran we know all about that but their terror program their support of proxies the use of the houthis for 0.95

00:22:38.600 example to thwart one of the major trade routes global trade with roots has nothing to do with israel

00:22:44.840 it's with their plan to affect global economy we have to remember that and so uh their nuclear program

00:22:53.160 similarly it is to threaten israel but also to be a player on the global map they want to have much

00:23:00.520 bigger weight than they carry at the moment and their their people are suffering under the the wrong

00:23:07.320 choices that the regime is making by investing all its resources and they have an abundance of risk

00:23:15.400 oil deals they should instead of investing in the development of the iranian people

00:23:19.800 they are actually building this mechanism the proxies the nuclear uh missile and all of that

00:23:28.440 and of course it's investing much in in spreading their religious ideology in in a very harmful way

00:23:34.920 instead of a peaceful way and so this again what we are what we would hope is that from inside iran

00:23:43.000 there would come some kind of a change but iran is not a democracy and so we see and we've seen the

00:23:49.320 people trying to rise up against their governments in many ways women students everyone and it's very

00:23:57.720 very hard but the world should unite to make sure that iran changes and become a player a positive

00:24:05.240 player in the global scene instead of an oppressive dangerous genocidal regime that wants to wipe a

00:24:11.080 democracy off the face of we're almost out of time seven the last question is really probably the most

00:24:19.080 important one what would a middle east look like that was safe for israel do you have to reoccupy gaza do

00:24:29.960 you need to reoccupy southern lebanon what does it look like let's imagine that there would be no hezbollah 0.98

00:24:40.040 in lebanon there is there is no dispute between israel and lebanon actually a few years ago we

00:24:46.920 brought in the united nations to make sure that the borderline is exactly what goes exactly according

00:24:53.880 to the maps that they are accepted to by the united nations and the international community that's called

00:24:58.680 the blue line so we are there we have no dispute with lebanon hezbollah not being there would have made

00:25:05.480 our relations completely different there are huge in lebanon partly because uh syria and iran are

00:25:15.320 abusing that country as a proxy for them against israel but otherwise the middle east could change

00:25:23.400 because the people in the middle east want peace the same applies for jordanians egyptians uh gulf

00:25:31.160 population saudi arabia morocco north africa we've had peaceful relations with some of these countries

00:25:39.160 for many years to tell you that there was always a brotherhood and and love no but there is the respect

00:25:47.000 that we have for each other for each other's sovereignty for each other's existence for each

00:25:52.040 other's development and we've been working very closely with many of those governments sometimes also

00:25:57.720 under the radar to help alleviate some of the issues that do not really pertain directly to to uh

00:26:04.040 security but of course that very much because we're in a region where

00:26:08.600 trans extremists are very dangerous so what do you do about gaza 1.00

00:26:13.400 so let's talk about gaza just as an example as you uh mentioned i think at the outset israel left

00:26:19.720 in 2005 with the hope that in gaza would emerge a community that is self-supported self-governing

00:26:29.160 autonomous and uh and as an example also for the west bank so that we can uh we can see some some some

00:26:35.960 of the fruits of peace as we call it and instead of that hamas took over whilst hamas was taking over

00:26:42.760 israel was still continuing to convene donor conferences and contribute as much as it can under the

00:26:49.480 agreements with the palestinian authority so that this part of uh of the of gaza would be able to

00:26:57.560 develop prosper create its own independent resources it never materialized but i do believe now that

00:27:06.920 when we attain our goals hamas is leaving uh i know hamas ideology may persist but let's say that it

00:27:14.520 can be marginalized if people see other ways if gaza is demilitarized and de-radicalized these are

00:27:22.840 actually the the ground uh changes conditions that need to change their so for the order in order for

00:27:29.240 people there to have a better life i do hope that with israel's uh with our war against iran and the 0.89

00:27:37.480 access of evil in our region people will see that we can overcome this evil together it's not much

00:27:44.760 published but we are fighting much of this together with our arab allies and neighbors and if we believe

00:27:51.640 and we continue to work together we will make a difference for people and we'll hopefully very

00:27:56.440 soon be able to establish a new order in the middle east that uh is able to to push away the the 0.99

00:28:04.280 barbaric acts and intentions that some people have and instead of that create development create

00:28:12.680 prosperity for everyone and find a way to live together the same way we live in israel live and

00:28:18.600 let live we will never all be very happy but we'll be living together in a satisfactory way in a peaceful

00:28:25.160 manner and i do believe that that's possible but we have to persist we have to make sure that we win

00:28:30.440 against the evil forces that have risen to destroy us and uh once they are gone we have a new reality

00:28:37.240 that we can shape in a way that's beneficial for all of us thank you your excellency for this uh

00:28:44.280 this commentary on what's going on i'm sure that uh i'm not alone when uh when i say that the vision

00:28:51.400 that you have described in the last 20 seconds is one that would be widely shared in this country

00:28:57.880 notwithstanding some of the things that we were talking about earlier which frankly disappoint us

00:29:03.320 all ambassador maude thank you very much appreciate your time thank you for the western standard i'm

00:29:12.440 myself

00:29:23.720 so

Western Standard - October 08, 2024

Israel goes for broke

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