Western Standard - Israeli ambassador on Israel’s declining support from the West

00:00:00.000 I'm joined today by Israeli ambassador to Canada, Ido Mouad.

00:00:29.140 He is in town for the Calgary Stampede and has generously offered to sit down with the Western Standard today to talk about what his mission is during the Stampede and in Canada, Israeli-Canadian relations, and some of the Israeli issues more broadly and how that's affecting its relationship with the West and the Christian world.

00:00:49.900 Ambassador Moed, thank you very much for joining us today.

00:00:52.260 Thank you for having me.

00:00:53.120 Well, first off, you've been in town since Thursday, enjoying the Stampede.

00:00:59.140 You're on a largely economic mission, dealing with AI, technology exchanges.

00:01:04.440 Tell us a bit about what you're doing in Calgary right now.

00:01:08.080 So I'm meeting with a whole bunch of people here, locals, and also people who come from other parts of Canada.

00:01:15.220 I see Stampede as a central point for fast-track networking with so many counterparts around Canada.

00:01:24.920 My mission here is to showcase Israeli technology and innovation as an important component, as a crucial component in the transformation of Canada into what it is becoming now, given the geopolitical circumstances, Canada moving to reinvent itself in some ways.

00:01:44.060 And I feel that the Israeli innovation ecosystem has so much to contribute to that.

00:01:47.960 So in order to create a more competitive edge for Canada, I think it's crucial to have an Israeli component in there.

00:01:55.580 So I call it, let's say, oil, Israeli oil in the wheels, make it easier to shift gears, make it easier to attain your goals, make it easier to develop high-tech solutions and so on. 0.88

00:02:05.500 This is what Israel is about. 0.52

00:02:06.540 And I think that that kind of very dynamic atmosphere that we have and dynamism, that ecosystem, may as well with Calgary and Stampede, especially Stampede, but Calgary broadly, Calgary Economic Development, Chamber of Commerce, the government, everybody is very easily accepting and understanding what we are talking about.

00:02:24.600 So we found many counterparts. We've brought in six companies, six tech companies in AI, cyber security, infrastructure, agriculture, what have you, all to talk about how that connects with local industry and commerce and development.

00:02:39.140 We do it together with university. We do it together with government and the private sector, which are the three parts of an ecosystem that drives Israeli innovation very, very well.

00:02:49.120 I want to have a fairly broad ranging interview here.

00:02:54.600 So I want to maybe begin with Canada-Israeli relations, not just government-to-government, but people-to-people.

00:03:03.280 After the October 7th attacks, broadly speaking, most mainstream Canadians were very supportive of Israel, striking back at Hamas.

00:03:13.740 But that support in Canada, the United States, and the West more broadly has collapsed very significantly since then.

00:03:21.700 Pew Research says that now just 22% of Canadians hold a favorable view of Israel.

00:03:26.640 That's down from 33% in April of 2023.

00:03:30.180 33% is already not particularly strong.

00:03:33.120 Now, according to Pew, at least it's down to 22%.

00:03:36.440 But 75% of Canadians still agree Israel has a right to defend itself. 0.87

00:03:40.620 That should be self-evident. Any state has a right to defend itself.

00:03:44.540 But 62% of Canadians believe that Israel's actions during the Sixth, Seventh Front War, whatever we're calling this, this kind of all-encompassing conflict since, 62% say that Israel's military actions have been excessive, 52% even believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

00:04:03.520 um so negative views of israel or opposition to israel it's no longer confined as it was when i

00:04:12.480 was in university to just kife i don't know how you say that the kifa kafia kafia kafia wearing

00:04:18.720 campus radicals you know that's that's where it was when i was in university and you could just 0.74

00:04:23.900 dismiss it on these these crazy guys that's just what they do it's not limited to the just that

00:04:28.600 now. Israel has lost support among the large, broad mainstream of Canadian society. It's still 0.69

00:04:37.000 stronger among conservative-leaning Canadians and conservative-leaning Americans. But even there,

00:04:42.020 it has been significantly eroded. What do you think is behind it? And do you think that the

00:04:48.840 Israeli government bears any responsibility for that shift in perception? I think that what we've

00:04:55.920 been seeing and you just mentioned it that we the numbers were low before and then when they came

00:05:00.320 into canada uh for my arrived here in august 23 i already saw a rise in anti-semitism and i know

00:05:07.200 that there was a lot of hatred that's brewing on campuses and so on a lot of uh uh articles written

00:05:13.120 about that as long before anything that has to do with it with gaza uh came into the public domain

00:05:20.560 what we are facing with i think is a campaign that has been going on for quite a while

00:05:25.200 that tries to um uh isolate israel try to paint the jews who are not part of israel or canadians

00:05:31.920 or french or british or dutch uh also with the actions of israel and pin them as the culprit

00:05:37.920 for whatever is happening in israel and i can remind you i've been a diplomat for 35 years

00:05:42.880 that in my times there have been so many times that israel was accused of war crimes and of

00:05:47.440 genocide and i've just imagined that for two and a half years we've used the most powerful

00:05:52.000 bonds in gaza and we still there are still two million people there so if we try to commit

00:05:57.040 genocide we are so bad and so lousy at that um we are we we know that there is a campaign

00:06:03.760 that is very strong and very powerful that has been going on for a very long time on social media

00:06:07.920 especially but also on campuses and so on that we have not that we have underestimated very clearly

00:06:13.840 and that campaign is there to paint everybody who is remotely connected to anything that has

00:06:19.680 to do with the defense of israel and it's we are defending ourselves it's israel defense forces

00:06:25.440 anything anybody who has anything to do with that to isolate him and to uh blacklist him and whatever

00:06:30.960 it is if we're talking about any responsibility on our side that's neglecting to understand the

00:06:36.560 depth and the broader and and how broad this this problem is um it's not our policies because when

00:06:43.440 When we came, when October the 7th happened, on that very day, you had here in Canada,

00:06:49.720 from Vancouver to Montreal and Toronto, you had people hanging signs already that Israel

00:06:56.020 is committing genocide, that this is the beginning of the liberation, and so on and so forth. 0.66

00:07:00.280 These are people that are supported by terrorist organizations like Hamas, like the Palestinian

00:07:05.640 Liberation Front, the Popular Liberation for Palestine, PLFP, and so on.

00:07:09.560 they were ready and they were ready to go to unleash whatever hatred they had it took 20 days 0.76

00:07:15.660 before israel started the operation guys and we were already accused of everything and anything so 0.81

00:07:19.760 the fact of the matter is that we are facing a campaign we are a small country and we know how

00:07:26.500 to defend ourselves but we underestimated what is happening on social media and we definitely

00:07:30.420 didn't see coming a campaign that is so well orchestrated that started with encampments and

00:07:36.320 on ask students today what they think about genocide i'm not sure that they would know any

00:07:41.760 real fact about them ask them what is from the river to the sea what's the river and what's the

00:07:45.920 sea they have no idea what it's all about they were just regurgitating all kinds of slogans that

00:07:51.440 they heard from others so it's sort of a fashion and that's dying out what is still there what is

00:07:56.480 extremely dangerous is the impact of those terrorist organizations and movements like 0.81

00:08:00.640 the muslim brotherhood that are actually an undercurrent that is also uh attacking western 0.95

00:08:07.520 societies around the world and we see when they uh start talking about uh islam islamophobia 0.88

00:08:15.360 as a matter that has to do with uh not allowing jews to express themselves they otherwise it's 0.83

00:08:21.280 islamophobia when you talk about anti-palestinian racism which is a canadian invention then you see

00:08:27.200 that there is something very dangerous it's actually an attack on western values and it's

00:08:31.280 an attack on our society i want to come into that in a bit uh but you know you you when i asked about

00:08:39.680 you know does the israeli government bear any responsibility for this your answer was that it

00:08:43.680 it failed to anticipate um you know the social media campaigns and uh marches etc against israel

00:08:52.000 But my question was focused around, was there anything Israel has done itself, other than, you know, fail to, you know, win the information war, perhaps, but is there any of its actions that perhaps did not help the cause?

00:09:09.920 um you know the uh you know we've had two wars with iran apparently its nuclear program was

00:09:16.420 destroyed both times you know a lot of people like myself were very questioning particularly

00:09:21.300 of the second iran war if it's if its nuclear program had been completely destroyed then how

00:09:26.100 come it had to be destroyed a second time and no evidence was really supported around this you know

00:09:31.140 kind of smelt like like the iraq war you know my generation came through and it really jaded a lot

00:09:36.700 of us to believing the intelligence, to just trust governments with these kinds of things.

00:09:42.900 You know, so is there, you know, you had to do something with Gaza, but, you know, with

00:09:48.220 Gaza, was it excessive?

00:09:49.760 Is there anything the Israeli government has done other than fail to win the information? 0.88

00:09:53.840 Yeah, I get what you're saying.

00:09:54.940 Let's talk about a few things.

00:09:58.220 One is propaganda war.

00:10:00.700 We just mentioned that.

00:10:01.600 But to give you an example of how fast Israel is blamed and condemned, you may recall at some point in time a hospital was hit by a missile.

00:10:11.340 And at that very moment, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time issued a condemnation of Israel.

00:10:18.600 And apparently, within a few hours or days, it was clear that it was a projectile, a rocket that was fired by the Islamic Jihad.

00:10:30.000 and it didn't hit the hospital it hit the parking lot and didn't kill 500 people but something else

00:10:35.840 so in the in the propaganda war and in this information warfare much damage is being done

00:10:42.780 to israel that's one the other part is what are we actually doing on the ground so we know that

00:10:48.060 hamas has been hiding itself among and within the population in hospitals in mosques in schools

00:10:53.020 we've seen peers of those tunnels those infamous tunnels when terrorists were hiding that came out

00:10:58.440 in uh baby rooms in in kindergartens and so on so what do you do if you want you have 200 uh 0.53

00:11:05.640 hostages held in gaza you want to retrieve them and you want to stop hamas from firing into israel 0.93

00:11:09.880 how do you fight them so one thing what we did is to make sure that palestine the population got 0.85

00:11:14.680 away and this is how so many people's lives were were saved on the other end you have to 1.00

00:11:20.760 sometimes destroy those homes and you have to attack them and sometimes you hit them and you

00:11:25.480 hit civilians because they forced civilians to stay there or they did whatever they did that's

00:11:30.360 a it's a huge question then it's very hard to say who is a civilian and who is a terrorist because

00:11:35.960 they don't wear uniforms that's what distinguishes terrorists they hide themselves among population

00:11:41.080 so the numbers are striking and we say it and i said it also on canadian media again and again

00:11:47.240 any death on the palestinian side is a tragedy for israel any death of palestinians we understand

00:11:53.000 when a mother loses a child we understand when a father loses the rest of her family

00:11:57.240 we know it what it means when a home is destroyed when livelihood is destroyed well you've got

00:12:01.560 ministers like i think was ben gavir who said you know the death should be a thousand to one for

00:12:06.200 every one they kill of ours we need to kill i know he's one minister among others in a coalition

00:12:10.760 government i understand that dynamic but at the very least there's elements of the government 0.96

00:12:15.960 that certainly do not view civilian casualties as a tragedy when he says for every one who dies

00:12:21.800 a thousand other mothers must weep so so let me take you uh to the battlefield and to the guys 0.91

00:12:28.520 we're in uniform there are the benjure followers they are the peaceniks they are the ultra-orthodox 0.69

00:12:35.320 they are the religious and the secular and the druids and the non-jews and so on they are

00:12:40.280 fighting together their message throughout the war was guys stop your inner fighting because

00:12:45.960 these kind of things of course great strife when benjure says you know one four thousand and all

00:12:50.840 that a lot of israelis are objecting to that when benviour came out with a video horrible video

00:12:56.440 the president the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs came out with immediate

00:13:00.120 condemnations of that yeah so so so it's a democracy and in our democracy it's allowed

00:13:05.080 to say what he said but you have to look at what we do and this is a failure on our side we we don't

00:13:11.080 take you know we don't embed journalists into our operation we don't show that we have in every

00:13:16.440 combat unit legal counsel to ascertain at the real-time decision that the decision is correct

00:13:26.820 and that non-evolved are not being protected, are being kept out of harm's way. That's what we have.

00:13:33.580 And so we can talk about rates between Israel, compare the war in Gaza to wars elsewhere,

00:13:38.460 about how many combatants and non-combatants are victims. But we do acknowledge and we know,

00:13:44.060 and Benviu knows and everybody knows 1.00

00:13:46.000 that Palestinians will stay there 0.94

00:13:47.380 and we will need to find a way to live side by side 1.00

00:13:49.740 including living with this tragedy.

00:13:53.180 We know that.

00:13:54.260 And having to understand

00:13:56.160 this is a message that I find very difficult

00:13:57.860 to convey to Canada and to Canadians

00:13:59.620 that we understand the responsibility

00:14:02.160 of what we do and we accept it

00:14:04.140 and we know that it's not going to make

00:14:05.980 more friends on the Palestinian side.

00:14:08.160 But we have to protect ourselves. 0.84

00:14:09.760 We have to get our hostages back

00:14:11.560 which we eventually did

00:14:12.720 and make sure that Hamas doesn't attack us.

00:14:16.020 But in terms of things that, you know, no war is perfect.

00:14:19.860 It's messy. 0.99

00:14:20.960 Anyone who expects perfection from the Israelis is not being realistic. 1.00

00:14:25.200 They've already made up their mind. 1.00

00:14:27.400 But, you know, it was, I forget exactly what it was.

00:14:31.140 It was a number of months ago.

00:14:34.060 Israeli soldiers were in, there was no active combat taking place

00:14:39.040 from the information we have at the time.

00:14:40.580 But there was a Commonwealth graveyard there from soldiers from the First and Second World War, from the British Empire, including Canadians, and there was a Canadian section.

00:14:50.500 And these Commonwealth soldiers are people who conquered it from the Turks that allowed British Mandate Palestine to be established, which, you know, precursor to the modern state of Israel.

00:15:00.700 But Israeli, I think it was engineering units, and it bulldozed Canadian soldiers' graves.

00:15:08.900 And it was a very big mix-up about what exactly had happened.

00:15:14.020 The Israeli government was very hush about it for a while.

00:15:16.440 Then it said that it was necessary for combat operations.

00:15:20.780 But the groundskeeper of the war cemetery said that there was no combat taking place at that time that it happened.

00:15:29.400 And, you know, we had been on this story.

00:15:31.140 And the embassy, the Israeli government itself were just entirely hush about this kind of thing.

00:15:39.860 And in the end, we still don't really know exactly what happened.

00:15:42.860 But the idea of bulldozing war cemetery graves of people who fought for at least the precursor of Israel rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

00:15:53.900 So there are things like, I don't know if you want to comment on that in particular.

00:15:58.060 I know you'd be briefed on it. 0.52

00:15:59.460 I know, and I'm very familiar with this, and you have to believe me that just to imagine that an Israeli soldier will not just take a bulldozer and say, ah, what shall I destroy now? 0.59

00:16:09.660 Oh, let's go there.

00:16:10.720 It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, which is why we still don't have a lot of information about what happened.

00:16:14.080 No, but we don't just do that.

00:16:16.440 We don't destroy things for fun.

00:16:18.580 We don't destroy anything for fun, and we just don't destroy it.

00:16:22.540 That's a fact.

00:16:23.280 When we need to fight, when we need to uncover where Hamas is hiding weapons

00:16:27.760 or where Hamas is shooting from, then we'll use the means necessary to attain that mission.

00:16:34.500 I'm still waiting for a response to know what exactly transpired

00:16:38.560 in the Canadian portion of that graveyard because I really want to understand.

00:16:44.120 But I can assure you that nobody does anything for fun.

00:16:46.740 And if anybody does anything for fun, they're directly punished 1.00

00:16:49.780 because, yes, we have some idiots sometimes. 1.00

00:16:51.720 what can we say? It's a war situation 1.00

00:16:54.180 and we don't always

00:16:55.560 but we know we find out who they are

00:16:57.880 and we punish them very severely

00:16:59.840 and this is... Well the soldier who

00:17:01.560 in southern Lebanon who destroyed 0.64

00:17:03.240 the crucifix, he was punished and the Israeli

00:17:05.940 government acted very quickly there

00:17:07.300 but we still don't really know what happened with the war cemetery

00:17:09.820 and it's been a while

00:17:11.440 I know, I admit, and I'm

00:17:14.040 asking for those questions, for those

00:17:15.940 answers because as you are asking

00:17:17.960 me, I want to be able to tell

00:17:19.800 canadian public what exactly happened there so what i do know is that hamas was using portion

00:17:26.040 of that graveyard to hide weapons that's what i know uh and i would not take the response from the

00:17:33.480 from the graveyard keeper uh for it is because we have seen so many times people telling us you know

00:17:40.200 by they're swearing this is completely innocent that there's nothing here and their lives is

00:17:45.720 threatened and they are you never know what's behind it so so just to say promise the israeli

00:17:50.260 government has been so hush we're not but we're not getting a story okay that's that's your point

00:17:54.980 that's been the problem but uh well but yeah i look forward to those answers uh you know once

00:17:59.600 we have it we'll be definitely definitely able to to share it with you okay uh we'll bring it a

00:18:05.420 little closer to home here uh you know since october 7th there's been a gigantic rise in

00:18:10.860 anti-Jewish protests, even a Daxon property like synagogues. And the Israeli government and

00:18:20.540 yourself have called for some kinds of, I would describe it as a censorship to fight

00:18:27.060 anti-Semitism. You were quoted as in March saying, in this last March saying,

00:18:33.500 it is hard for a liberal person. I think he means small L liberal, you know, freedom loving. I think

00:18:38.520 that's what you're saying by the small liberal it's hard for a liberal person to think that we

00:18:42.920 have to limit other people's freedoms so that our freedom will be protected but that's where we are

00:18:48.340 right now um i i took that very much as we have to limit the freedoms of canadians to limit

00:18:58.460 anti-semitism that's that's a hard pill for me to swallow and so i know for a lot of people like my

00:19:08.160 You know, Israel does largely claim to speak for the Jewish diaspora, but calling for the

00:19:13.860 freedoms of Canadians to be limited to fight anti-Semitism, I'd posit that that might actually

00:19:21.180 create anti-Semitism where it wasn't found before among people who might actually be

00:19:26.340 sympathetic to Israel and the Jewish people.

00:19:28.500 So I would say the following.

00:19:32.200 I'm glad that you asked this because this is a sort of a quote that's entirely misunderstood.

00:19:38.160 I think that there was another context for it, and what I was talking about there, I gave an example, is that we give up freedoms in Israel for the security of entire society.

00:19:53.380 for example when you go into a mall you open your bag and a stranger looks through your stuff 0.84

00:19:58.740 and that's before the times of a magnometer and so on and people accept it and they say

00:20:03.720 yes we know with our terrorists they sometimes carry bombs in bags or weapons or whatever so

00:20:08.900 somebody needs to somebody can verify before i go into that shopping mall that i'm that i'm safe

00:20:13.840 not carrying any threat that's it so i give up my freedom i allow a stranger to look through my bag

00:20:18.320 That's something that normally you would say, why should I allow that?

00:20:21.940 So definitely not talking about silencing people unless it's unlawful what they say.

00:20:27.320 That's the only time that, you know, government should act against that.

00:20:30.860 Well, they have the law to make a certain speech unlawful.

00:20:33.200 Yeah, but that's not to me, for me as an ambassador to go into that.

00:20:37.200 That's a local internal affair of, you know, law protection and I'm not there.

00:20:43.680 What I'm trying to say is that we have to understand that there are people among us who abuse our freedoms and our democracy in a way that's dangerous for us.

00:20:52.640 I'll give you an example. 1.00

00:20:54.320 A conference that was held very recently in Toronto by the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:21:00.940 And in that conference, there was one speaker.

00:21:03.740 Is it the Semidun?

00:21:04.880 No. 0.99

00:21:05.920 It's Muslim Brotherhood. 0.97

00:21:07.460 Okay.

00:21:08.540 Oh, under the name Muslim Brotherhood.

00:21:10.120 Well, it was called...

00:21:11.200 only the operator behind other muslim behind other uh yeah i can't recall right now exactly but um

00:21:19.440 uh there was a question posed there uh among the young attendants what in your mind should

00:21:27.840 the umma look like in the future the umma house of islam yes and the society under islam and so

00:21:35.120 people would use words and they created a word cloud of whatever they wrote and there was uh

00:21:39.920 there were two words there that were apparently bigger than others which means that more than one

00:21:44.800 supported that which said Jew free in my mind that's hateful of course but the question that

00:21:53.120 I asked myself I would ask myself as as you know as a Canadian or an Israeli if this was in Israel

00:21:59.280 what do we do with that what does this mean for us uh should we look back into our education

00:22:05.120 system is it a law enforcement issue whatever and i actually call for this kind of discussions

00:22:11.840 to to take place because what i see is what i mentioned earlier this undercurrent it brings

00:22:16.880 into our thoughts and into our lives all kinds of ideas that normally would say well it's freedom

00:22:22.400 of speech but at some point in time become more and more threatening and the first to sense that 1.00

00:22:27.360 are the Jews. So this week in Toronto people put up posters and names of Jews on the street 0.94

00:22:36.240 and more and underneath their name and a Zionist or whatever they they were called and I wonder

00:22:43.440 this has never happened in Canada before and what does this mean for the Jews and what does

00:22:47.520 it mean for the non-Jews when you walk past these pictures what would you do what do you think to

00:22:53.120 yourself when you see that isn't it shameful isn't it something that you call out and it's this is

00:23:00.160 this is the borderline of freedom of speech of abuse of freedom of speech that in my mind when

00:23:05.840 it breeds hate it's dangerous that's why i wrote to the prime minister about this nakba exhibition

00:23:11.920 taking place at the federal museum of human rights because it breeds hate so i think that this is 0.98

00:23:18.400 where we should be focusing on and this is my call i'm not about limiting democracy i think

00:23:24.080 that democracy is the strongest tool that we have but we have to use it whatever uh intellect we

00:23:30.400 have to understand when it is coming under threat and stand up together and make discuss it and come

00:23:36.960 to conclusion and protect ourselves because there are people out there who clearly who say it very

00:23:42.240 clearly we are going to abuse the laws the weakness of the west and its society to take over

00:23:48.960 okay but i don't i would disagree that there is such a thing as abuse of freedom of speech

00:23:53.680 there's free speech or there's not free speech um not free speech is advocating harm against

00:24:01.360 people or their property you know if someone was to say let's uh you know shoot or assault 0.79

00:24:10.480 jewish people or we should uh firebomb this synagogue that's advocating clearly criminal 0.98

00:24:16.960 behavior but you know these other examples you've cited they're extremely unpleasant 1.00

00:24:23.040 they're unwelcome and they should be condemned but if we're a free society they must be allowed

00:24:28.720 i think part of the problem is we've allowed we've imported these kinds of people with hateful views

00:24:33.580 but that's a migration issue once they're here they have to enjoy the same freedoms

00:24:38.040 as other Canadians and I am it I would have a real problem limiting my ability to say something

00:24:47.200 that even I don't want to say if you limit my ability to say something I almost kind of want

00:24:52.340 to say it now you know it was like COVID I actually I went had beers with my friends a lot

00:24:57.380 more during COVID when the government said I wasn't allowed to do that because it was more fun

00:25:02.080 So, you know, I wouldn't say something hateful just because it's fun.

00:25:05.400 But that does sound to me like it is limiting free speech.

00:25:10.140 It's limiting very unpleasant and maybe unwanted speech.

00:25:15.520 But we either have free speech or we don't.

00:25:17.980 And this problem seems to me have been just it's more of a migration problem that we've largely imported that.

00:25:23.660 It's not exclusive. You know, you will get some of that from your campus, radical, you know, crazy people. 0.89

00:25:30.600 you're going to get that from them but we've largely just imported this um i agree i'll just

00:25:36.040 say that you know in israeli supreme court we have the same discussion because people would say very

00:25:41.160 hateful things in israel as well jews against arabs arabs against jews and uh and we want to

00:25:46.760 people to be able to say whatever they have on their minds i'm just saying that i'm not calling

00:25:52.440 for anything to be limited i'm just saying that at some point in time we should be having discussions

00:25:58.120 about how do we see the future of society what do we tolerate what don't we tolerate and this is

00:26:05.160 the nature of democracy so i'm calling for that discussion i'm i gave an example of what we did

00:26:10.600 in israel uh not talking about free speech but talking about something else our uh you know our

00:26:16.200 our uh intimate world and uh and privacy and how do we in some way harm privacy a little bit to

00:26:23.080 increase security so we open the bag in the mall uh that's that's what i'm calling for and i think

00:26:27.960 But we don't need to check the bags. I mean, Canada is less safe than it used to be, but we're not at the point yet where we need to check the bags at the mall. We don't have that kind of daily threat.

00:26:37.400 I just say that I see the hate rising. And so I think that we have to have a discussion on that. That's my point. I think that there are things happening here that didn't happen in the past. And we have to be aware of that. And if people want to talk about it, it's fine. And if they have your opinion, that's fine. And other people have other opinions.

00:26:53.060 And at some point in time, through our democratic mechanisms, maybe we'll change something, maybe we won't.

00:26:58.060 That's the whole thing. That's what I'm talking about.

00:27:01.060 I think that this kind of awareness is important. It's always important.

00:27:04.060 It wasn't on my list to talk about, but you brought it up.

00:27:06.060 So I want to talk about the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg.

00:27:13.060 Nakba, for those who don't know, means I think catastrophe.

00:27:16.060 The term Arabic Palestinians use during the Israeli War of Independence in 48, 49, a lot of Arabs were, for lack of a better term, expelled or left their homes and not allowed to return.

00:27:31.760 It's a bunch of different things.

00:27:32.900 But that's what the Arabs call it.

00:27:37.900 And so there is this very controversial exhibit that's been put up at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

00:27:44.760 And I'm sympathetic to the Israeli arguments against it, but, you know, the man on the board of the Human Rights Commission who resigned over this, he did not resign, nor did he even speak a single word of protest when the same museum sets up exhibits saying that Canada's genocidal, which is even more absurd.

00:28:07.980 uh you know what's happening in gaza there's different sides of it you could debate it

00:28:14.020 it's even more absurd i think to say that canada is this genocidal terrible country

00:28:19.660 there wasn't a word from him on it um and these kinds of exhibits are always inherently political

00:28:26.260 they're they you can try to be balanced but they're always gonna take a side um

00:28:31.880 so i know i always took the the view that we should stop funding the whole museum together

00:28:36.560 If people want to have exhibits on one side or the other side, they can pay for it privately through charities.

00:28:43.400 This seems to be, I don't know, Canada is now funding exhibits at museums that call everybody genocidal.

00:28:51.980 I'll keep it very short because this is an internal discussion, internal Canadian discussion, what a museum should do or not.

00:28:58.560 And I'm not about that.

00:28:59.840 I wrote to the prime minister because I felt that this exhibition breeds hate.

00:29:03.640 It is insightful in the sense that the narrative that's been presented there, which is not congruent with the facts, will, when young people read that, or adults read that, they would say, well, Israel is a colonizer, and yes, we've seen the museum, it's there, it's a fact, and I think that that's wrong, that's all, that's my take on that, that's all, but I wanted to comment on what you just said.

00:29:33.640 I don't know if you caught the last thought that you expressed.

00:29:39.300 I wanted to say something about, not about narratives.

00:29:49.260 I think that, let me just try and think back.

00:29:53.760 If you need a moment to think about it, we can cut out the thinking part.

00:29:57.980 Yeah, yeah.

00:29:59.120 No, you can't recall what you just said.

00:30:01.080 Well, I was saying, you know, that Canada will have exhibits calling everybody genocidal, including ourselves now that, you know, and there's different sides of these things.

00:30:11.780 The whole museum itself, I'm not particularly sympathetic towards that this is a government-funded institution.

00:30:19.300 I'll add that my proposal to the Jewish community, when they asked me what my opinion was, I said, for a Jewish community, for Canadians,

00:30:27.640 I would use this as an opportunity to say, leave that exhibition there and have another exhibition, talk about your story and then create a discussion, actually encourage a discussion between people and say, this community has this opinion, that community has that opinion, but we are Canadians and we are part of Canada, so this is how we conduct ourselves around this topic.

00:30:49.100 and i didn't know i don't know where that kind of discussion went further that's not my position

00:30:54.160 but i think that again my my personal inclination is that we should be able to converse and be able

00:31:01.140 to communicate about everything i mean that is the only way where we can keep all the disagreements

00:31:06.400 out of the way you think that the street should be narrow and short and i think there should be

00:31:12.020 more trees and and whatever we'll talk about that this is how we we could this is actually

00:31:17.260 you know in israel we have jews and non-jews we have a very significant portion of the population

00:31:22.120 that's non-jewish that feels very strongly affiliated with the state with the country

00:31:26.660 and that on october the 7th which was a jewish holiday also uh drove into the battlefield to to

00:31:33.240 to get uh wounded people out not as soldiers just as ambulance drivers because they were the ones

00:31:38.120 on duty and so that kind of solidarity is there at the same time we had we have a lot of differences

00:31:44.260 between Arabs and Jews and secular and orthodox, you may know.

00:31:49.960 But that's the country.

00:31:51.380 So we have a very strong democracy.

00:31:54.540 It's very vibrant.

00:31:55.560 It's very vocal.

00:31:57.940 Well, I want to speak about one of the groups that are there in Israel

00:32:01.440 and in the West Bank, the Christians.

00:32:04.460 So I mentioned this briefly, but I think one of –

00:32:08.980 there's a lot of reasons for declining support of Israel

00:32:12.080 in Canada, the United States, the West.

00:32:14.260 One, I think, is what's emerged that didn't get a lot of attention until more recently.

00:32:21.140 It still doesn't get a ton, but it's a bit, is what's happening with the Christian population in Israel proper, but also in the West Bank.

00:32:29.360 When I was over in Israel in the West Bank in December, I went to at least what used to be a Christian area, Bethlehem.

00:32:36.840 It's still got Christians, but it's now a minority.

00:32:39.180 and Taibe, which is the last

00:32:43.020 entirely Christian village there.

00:32:46.640 It's a real anomaly. The Middle East is only Oktoberfest, so I feel like 1.00

00:32:50.760 I have to go back for it, but

00:32:52.380 these guys are not Hamasnic terrorists.

00:32:58.500 There's no legitimate grounds for targeting them for security reasons.

00:33:03.960 They don't sympathize with Hamas at all,

00:33:07.960 But they still are Arabs, and they still broadly identify as Palestinians.

00:33:13.000 And they, the ones I spoke to overwhelmingly identified the problem for them is the settlers.

00:33:20.780 Which tend to be, maybe not uniformly, but they tend to be the most radical among Israeli society.

00:33:29.720 And they're trying to drive them off their land.

00:33:32.280 They face land seizures, arson attacks, general beatings, general terror. 0.60

00:33:40.680 You know, the Christians I spoke to don't see Israel as an enemy necessarily, or certainly not most Israeli people, but they definitely see these settlers as an enemy.

00:33:50.740 Settlers don't, you know, they're not the IDF.

00:33:55.600 But there seems to be, at least among the Christians I spoke to,

00:34:00.220 they feel that these settlers operate at least with the quiet acquiescence of the IDF in some cases.

00:34:09.780 And, you know, I've already mentioned, we got Ben Gavir and Smatrich. 0.51

00:34:14.340 And I know many Israelis I spoke to over there, they spit when they say their names. 0.94

00:34:18.520 They know that these guys are creating problems, but these guys are significant and powerful cabinet ministers, and they largely represent the settler movement. 0.90

00:34:29.320 It seems to give a lot of credence that there is at least tacit state support for some of these settlers that are driving people off their ancient lands.

00:34:39.200 So I want, you know, your view on how the settler movement is perhaps impacting support for Israel in the Christian world right now.

00:34:52.060 Thank you for this question.

00:34:53.580 It's a tough one.

00:34:54.640 It's a tough one.

00:34:55.600 It's a very sensitive issue.

00:34:57.080 But I came here to talk about things, not to hide away from them.

00:35:00.260 So, yes, there are extremists among the settlers.

00:35:03.540 There are many more.

00:35:04.700 I mean, 95% or 99% of them, I don't know how many, are just law-abiding people.

00:35:09.200 but there are among them some very rogue elements that do things.

00:35:13.440 And sometimes, you know, not enough is done to prevent them from harming other people,

00:35:18.160 from chasing people, from driving them out of their homes or of their lands.

00:35:22.900 We are aware of this phenomenon. 0.60

00:35:25.860 But they're often allowed to build settlements on Christian lands.

00:35:29.200 So let's talk about this separately, but just talk about the behavior,

00:35:34.700 this violent, aggressive behavior that Israeli chief of staff spoke about several times,

00:35:41.700 and the president, the prime minister, the minister of defense,

00:35:47.780 that is also responsible for the Israelis on this part of Israel,

00:35:53.060 just to say these are not Israeli values, this is not Israeli law, 0.90

00:35:56.680 this is not the way we want to conduct ourselves vis-à-vis the Palestinians. 1.00

00:36:00.240 But they are there, and they are a problem, and we are trying to mitigate that, 1.00

00:36:04.000 we are trying to make sure that those who do whatever they do are punished. I know that

00:36:09.200 their perception is not always that, that they are acting with impunity, they are not acting

00:36:14.400 with impunity, they are arrested, they are put away, but we see this phenomenon continuing. And

00:36:19.200 it's warring for Israel, we acknowledge that, but we have to make sure that this doesn't continue.

00:36:24.320 I know that at the same time, you know, there are claims that Israel is about a two-state solution,

00:36:31.760 where do we go from there and israel is trying to prevent that um the thing is i'm sure that you also

00:36:36.800 found out with uh your discussion with israelis that overwhelming majority of israel's don't

00:36:42.080 believe in two-state solution right now uh 99 99 members of the 120 members of the knesset voted

00:36:49.280 against the two-state solution which is from you know the whole political spectrum it's not just 0.99

00:36:54.320 the current coalition government it's very broad yeah yeah because we lost trust in the palestinians 1.00

00:36:59.200 that's it we just don't see counterparts there that can that we can work with that they can 1.00

00:37:04.080 communicate that we trust and um and and there are some outliers there are some very positive ones

00:37:10.320 there are some very negative ones but hamas for for now enjoys a very an overwhelming majority

00:37:16.880 in the west bank and knowing that uh president uh palestinian leader ahmoud abbas is actually

00:37:24.880 preventing from elections to take place because he knows he's going to lose big time so it doesn't

00:37:29.920 really make sense for him by the way when canada recognized palestinian statehood and said we want to

00:37:37.040 have elections at the same time excluded hamas meaning that there are only two parties there

00:37:41.600 basically yeah but that's not you'd have an election with one party yeah yeah so anyway but

00:37:46.080 we going back to where we stand where israel stands on this um we have um we have our policy

00:37:52.960 the government has a policy of of of uh you know settling people uh on the west bank as as we we

00:38:01.920 have done in the past but we've also had policies in the past where we uprooted uh whole settlements

00:38:08.720 villages uh towns cemeteries even in gaza we did that in 2005 2006 so um one thing in some ways

00:38:18.400 doesn't exclude the other but uh but this is where the policy is right now when we will have

00:38:24.380 a partner with the palestinians when we will have people on the palestinian side that will be vocal

00:38:29.420 and influential and say we want israel to exist in peace and security side by side with the

00:38:36.020 palestinian state then we'll have another discussion we don't have that we have palestinians

00:38:40.700 and i know palestinians who you know recognize israel as a homeland of the jewish people

00:38:45.460 and understand that Israel, of course, has a right to exist and so on and so forth.

00:38:49.400 But they are a very, very small minority from that.

00:38:52.400 All right. But these settlements are not just being built in areas that are, say, hotbeds of Hamas support in the West Bank.

00:39:00.280 They're being built on Christian lands as well.

00:39:03.560 And I doubt there is a single Christian supporter of Hamas. 0.71

00:39:07.240 That's obviously incongruent. 1.00

00:39:10.040 You know, I met one man. His family in Bethlehem, he had an olive orchard.

00:39:15.460 and his family he's had for 400 years i didn't see the property deed but i'll take his word for it

00:39:20.080 and 2003 a settlement was built right on the middle of it and a security barrier built around

00:39:24.520 it he can't he can't go on to his own land he now carves nativity scenes and sells them

00:39:29.600 near the church of the nativity in bethlehem the man has never raised a hand against israel he is

00:39:35.620 no security threat yet there's a settlement right on his land to taiva the christian village i went

00:39:41.380 to it's surrounded by three settlements pinning it in and attacks are made on that village from

00:39:46.820 from there i i don't think there's any security imperative there those those are not people

00:39:52.360 who are sending in the way and in addition you know there's you know it's obviously there's

00:39:56.780 gonna be a lot more hamas support among muslims but there's also a lot of moderate muslim areas 0.57

00:40:00.920 as well and they're all being punished collectively so we are having um this is not a

00:40:07.500 punishment policy. We're having an ideological discussion here right now because as you know

00:40:13.120 very well that Israelis and many Jews believe that Israel has rights to the whole land of Israel

00:40:19.940 and the fact that there is a division created between Judea and Samaria and the rest of Israel

00:40:27.240 is artificial and the land of Israel, the land where the homeland of the Jewish people

00:40:32.820 spans at least from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

00:40:37.140 And this is not just an ideology.

00:40:41.940 This is a strong belief that is based, is rooted in our religious belief,

00:40:47.880 at least among some people in Israel.

00:40:52.380 And therefore, for them to implement, to fulfill their ideology,

00:40:58.160 they want to be able to live wherever they want to live.

00:41:00.340 it has nothing to do with the fact that there is a hotbed of hamas or not because as i mentioned

00:41:06.560 70 so it's a whole of you know everywhere uh it's not any any any uh place that's being built is not

00:41:14.240 as a punishment it's not a punishment for anything but we can go back in history and talk about who

00:41:19.680 lived where when and how where did all these people come from where did all these arabs come

00:41:23.900 from uh in the 1920s uh or in the 1870s when mark twain was traveling the country he said it was

00:41:30.780 barren and empty we can talk about the fact that the zionist movement uh came to into into being

00:41:37.900 and that jews wanted to settle there and that created the whole movement and people also wanted

00:41:42.140 to have part in this economic development there are a lot of things that we can talk about but

00:41:46.380 i just want to put people at ease here when it comes to christian community because this is an

00:41:50.940 important group that uh the best example of for for how israel treats other religions is to look

00:41:57.980 into where do we put position them in our collaboration uh in in israel in jerusalem

00:42:05.500 in nazareth in other parts of the country how do we maintain how do we have special government

00:42:10.460 representatives to be able to allow them to have the most direct impact on any issue that rises

00:42:18.220 to their concern and and let us know we are very attuned to that we are very sensitive to that and

00:42:25.100 we will continue to do that not just that when we are abroad like an embassy we reach out to

00:42:31.500 christian communities because we want to make people understand that israel is not there just

00:42:35.820 for the jewish people but we are homeland of we are the holy land and it means we know that that

00:42:41.260 We bear responsibility to facilitate the access, the joy, the travel, the experience for people who have another bond than Jews with that part of the world.

00:42:53.540 We understand that that bears for us a lot of responsibility and that we have to understand that also the sensitivities that we have to be able to address that.

00:43:04.000 And this is what we're trying to do.

00:43:05.100 You know, Israel's excellent at facilitating, you know, Christians and Muslims coming to the Holy Land and being in Jerusalem and the holy sites in Bethlehem, etc.

00:43:15.660 But the issue was more around those who were living in, you know, what is it, really something called Judea and Samaria and others called West Bank.

00:43:24.900 And I know there's at least a very large segment of Israeli society that believes that, you know, this is the land granted, the entire thing, including Judea and Samaria, the West Bank.

00:43:36.320 But there's people there.

00:43:38.340 And, you know, among people on the right in the United States and in Canada and the West, it's traditionally been more supportive of Israel because it was seen as this outpost fighting against radical Islam. 0.70

00:43:50.220 And so these settlements could be justified from the West perspective.

00:43:53.900 as it's pushing back these hotbeds of terrorism.

00:43:58.380 But as you've said, they're not designed as punishment.

00:44:00.860 They're designed as settlements.

00:44:03.920 And so it kind of comes back to my second question from the top

00:44:08.200 was that are these kinds of actions taken by Israel

00:44:13.320 harming its reputation in the West?

00:44:17.280 These are actions taken by Israel.

00:44:19.020 These are not propaganda.

00:44:20.220 This is not information war.

00:44:21.200 This is something it does.

00:44:22.620 and is probably hurting its support among what were its core supporters in the West.

00:44:28.500 So we try to make sure that people understand what we are about

00:44:31.580 by communicating whatever we are doing with others.

00:44:34.700 That's, among other things, my responsibility.

00:44:37.440 We know that sometimes we take actions that people are not happy with.

00:44:40.640 But as I told you earlier, in our own internal domestic society,

00:44:44.900 the government takes action that puts it in a very bad light with specific groups.

00:44:49.740 Sometimes it's this group and sometimes it's that group.

00:44:52.620 And that may be the case also with communities around the world, with Jewish communities as well.

00:45:01.120 It's a very complicated, and I hate that word, but that's a fact of life.

00:45:05.440 Israel is a very complex little ecosystem.

00:45:08.540 It's very tiny.

00:45:09.400 I don't know, by the way, if people know how small Israel is.

00:45:12.940 But at its nearest point, it's 10 kilometers broad.

00:45:16.120 It's smaller than Calgary in terms of width at some point.

00:45:20.000 It's shocking.

00:45:20.640 there's a reason i wanted to be able to ride the motorcycle from one end to the other and back in

00:45:24.000 one day one day yes easy so so people don't realize that in that little uh you know cosmos

00:45:33.360 we have different groups and we have different people different aspirations different ideologies

00:45:39.520 and everybody has to find a place for themselves and so that's horizontally on the ground but also

00:45:44.960 vertically if you dig into the ground you'll see how many wars were fought there and every

00:45:49.520 excavation will find another layer and uncover another layer this is what we are the israeli

00:45:55.920 people are committed to allow everybody to live in peace side by side there are people out there 0.52

00:46:04.640 who want to harm the jewish people and not allow us to do that as long as that is the case we will

00:46:09.600 continue to defend ourselves to the utmost taking into consideration everybody's rights

00:46:15.520 we are far from perfect and uh we are the first to admit that but we have issues for example uh

00:46:24.260 with uh let's say um the support for unra okay do you know what right yeah yeah the un agency

00:46:30.860 dealing with the refugees yes 48 49 yes and do you know that at the same time that unra was

00:46:36.600 created by the way by arab countries and data became adopted by the united nations

00:46:41.300 There was another organization with a very similar name that was called UNKRA, with a K.

00:46:47.700 And that was when Korea was divided into two, to settling Korean refugees.

00:46:55.040 UNKRA was this band after five or six years when they finished dealing with that refugee problem. 0.57

00:47:01.500 UNRWA is actually eternalizing, in terms of eternity, the refugee problem. 1.00

00:47:06.120 So you have six and seven and eight generations already of refugees, which you don't have anywhere around the world. 1.00

00:47:11.880 And you ask yourself, why is that the case? 1.00

00:47:13.780 Because they have not been allowed to return.

00:47:16.360 In some of their cases, them and their descendants have not returned to where they were and what is behind the green line. 0.88

00:47:21.760 Because Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, wherever they are, don't allow Palestinians to integrate where they are. 0.93

00:47:28.420 They keep them in camps. 1.00

00:47:30.120 these are camps that were set up by arab countries to keep arabs from integrating into their society

00:47:37.340 i don't think that anybody knows that but that is unra and it's also even in the west looking at 0.97

00:47:42.680 their textbooks you'll see that jews are the source of evil in the world israel has no right 0.88

00:47:49.640 to exist so unra funding unra actually is a very good way of maintaining the conflict and making 0.97

00:47:56.660 sure that young palestinians will grow up and hate jews so much that they will one day take weapons 0.94

00:48:03.140 drive into the kibbutz and do what all these atrocities that took place on october the 7th 0.95

00:48:08.740 and i wonder why countries still continue to fund that organization without demanding real reform 0.76

00:48:15.380 even if when we presented evidence that its people were responsible for the most horrible terrorist

00:48:20.260 the thing. Well, I'm trying to reform the UN. Good luck. Okay, I want to kind of finish it off

00:48:27.860 just dealing with Lebanon. Lebanon doesn't normally make a ton of news, but it's been kind of the real 0.81

00:48:32.900 sticking point right now. Just Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said that

00:48:41.820 there are Christian villages in southern Lebanon that have asked to be annexed. That got my

00:48:48.020 attention um i i know a fair number of christian lebanese and i don't know a single one who would

00:48:54.820 entertain the idea uh a bunch of these towns and villages very quickly issued a statement saying

00:48:59.860 absolutely not uh 15 of the towns and villages did um but you know there had there's been a fair

00:49:09.400 bit of talk that israel wants to build a kind of buffer zone in southern lebanon uh security zone

00:49:16.380 whatever you want to call it, you know, there's Hezbollah in the area. But of course, these 0.65

00:49:23.620 Christian towns are not Hezbollah hotbeds. It's a purely Shiite Muslim phenomenon, obviously.

00:49:29.900 But Israel's actions in Lebanon, particularly southern Lebanon, have been a sticky point that

00:49:37.940 have held up the peace deal between the United States and Iran. So I want to get from you,

00:49:43.240 You know, what does Israel have ambition, long term ambitions in southern Lebanon? Is it potential annexations as Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about? Is it a security zone that may or may not include settlements at some point in the future? It seems to be of incredible value to the point where it's become a huge point of contention between the Netanyahu and Trump administrations.

00:50:07.600 We don't have any annexation plans for Lebanon. We've reiterated that.

00:50:12.040 kind of hinted at it no no he has not he sent his ambassador to discuss with the lebanese ambassador

00:50:19.240 settlement in lebanon and we were as clear as can be about what we expect from lebanese government

00:50:27.400 to do and that is to assume its responsibility and its sovereignty over the whole territory of

00:50:33.560 lebanon as we see it we the line that defines the border between israel and lebanon was actually

00:50:40.280 rectified by the united nations we call it the blue line so we know exactly where the border is we have

00:50:45.880 agreed agreed and committed to it uh in the most uh clear way uh hezbollah took over the southern

00:50:53.960 part of lebanon and hezbollah used that as a launching pad to attack to attack israel again

00:50:59.400 and again and acquired the weapons and the hundreds of thousands of rockets and so on we have never

00:51:05.320 stated at any point in time that we have any territorial claims beyond the blue line so

00:51:11.400 uh that is just wrong uh regarding the christian community in lebanon i would

00:51:18.520 ask you to look at what today the leader of the christian community said about the agreement with

00:51:24.360 israel saying that the lebanese people should actually endorse this and use this as a starting

00:51:33.080 point to building some peaceful relations with israel and so if i don't know what this claim

00:51:38.760 was and i don't know where this came from this uh this information piece of information about

00:51:43.880 those 15 villages but we've had well this was very young we've had very strong relations with the

00:51:49.960 with the christian community uh in southern lebanon for many many years and actually

00:51:54.680 there are there are lebanese christian refugees in israel that had to flee lebanon after israel

00:52:02.120 retreated from lebanon that they lived there in israel because their lives are in they have been

00:52:06.760 in danger and they couldn't stay there in their own country so israel provided security for them

00:52:13.560 but or or shelter for them but there are no claims no territorial claims of israel in lebanon and

00:52:21.080 this must be very very clear there may be a case where lebanese leaders want to approach israel and

00:52:27.640 to seek Israel's protection so that Hezbollah doesn't take over the communities because that's

00:52:33.180 what they did. I didn't hear you, anybody else speak about Hezbollah's control over Christian 0.92

00:52:41.160 communities in the southern part of Lebanon, taking over whatever assets they thought that

00:52:46.260 are important for them to launch their attacks into Israel. Nobody spoke about that. Nobody

00:52:50.780 speaks about the fact that the Lebanese army is not able to fulfill its national mission,

00:52:56.020 which is to protect the sovereign territory of lebanon we want that we want to strengthen that 0.94

00:53:01.540 we want to find a way for lebanon to be free country free from hezbollah and free from anything

00:53:07.700 that inhibits the the prosperity of the lebanese people we see the lebanese people as friends as

00:53:13.620 neighbors with which we would to develop relations with drus christians muslims whoever they are

00:53:19.940 We have good relations with Arab countries, those relations withstood the toughest stress test, which is this war. No Arab country severed relations with Israel. And so I think that we have to look at Israel's regional approach as one that seeks to create peace and coexistence and not strife. 0.94

00:53:42.400 And we have to address all our energy to repel all those who want to destroy freedom and all those who want to actually impose their constrictive reign over free society. 0.83

00:53:55.920 Because this is the biggest threat, not just for the Middle East. 0.85

00:53:59.100 Again, that's the entry point, but that will go further. 0.97

00:54:02.520 I've given you some rough questions, and I appreciate your time.

00:54:06.320 Is there anything else you wanted to add on any of these topics or about your time here in Calgary?

00:54:12.400 I want to speak about Calgary as a very friendly environment where we've been able to share Israel's technology and innovation ecosystem with a very strongly developed ecosystem.

00:54:29.640 I think Calgary's ecosystem is growing four times faster than the rest of Canada.

00:54:36.100 And whether it's during Stampede or outside Stampede, the same vibe is there of can-do, of developing, of making things happen, finding solutions.

00:54:45.020 And our companies that are here, six of them, find it very easy to connect with local counterparts, be it investors, founders, or researchers.

00:54:54.400 And we are very open to working together in order to make whatever transformation Canada is undergoing now grow faster, more effective, and more profitable for Canada, but also for Israeli businesses.

00:55:13.620 I see that collaboration as one that is unique.

00:55:17.360 We've had great relations in the Middle East with the United Arab Emirates, with India, with giants that have funds in abundance and want to see growth and prosperity just like us.

00:55:29.520 And we want to see the same happen in Canada.

00:55:31.480 So we see Calgary as a sort of a case where we can also show as an example for other parts of Canada.

00:55:39.080 The vibe you talked about, the vibe when I was in Tel Aviv, I had a very Calgary vibe when I was there.

00:55:45.260 It's reminded me of home when I was in there. So it's and Tel Aviv is, you know, the big high tech hub there.

00:55:51.860 So very interesting. I appreciate your time. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stampede.

00:55:57.000 Thanks for coming in. Thank you very much. All the best. Thank you.

Western Standard - July 11, 2026

Israeli ambassador on Israel’s declining support from the West

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