World Jewish News
News from Syria shouldn’t distract from what’s been going on in Gaza
By BERNIE BELLAN Amidst the head-spinning news coming out of Syria this past week, it’s easy to forget that there is still a war going on in Gaza. What, exactly, Israel’s government is trying to accomplish there now is not easy to figure out.
The Israel Defense Forces would seem to have achieved all their military goals, including completely nullifying Hamas and Islamic Jihad as threats to Israel, so what more does the Israeli government (and here, I want to clearly differentiate between the goals of the government and the goals of the IDF) hope to accomplish?
In asking that, I want to reflect on two recent articles that appeared in Haaretz. One was about a Hebrew University professor by the name of Lee Mordechai, who has been carefully cataloguing war crimes that the IDF has been committing in Gaza.
Here is the introduction to that Haaretz article: “A woman with a child is shot while waving a white flag ■ Starving girls are crushed to death in line for bread ■ A cuffed 62-year-old man is run over, evidently by a tank ■ An aerial strike targets people trying to help a wounded boy ■ A database of thousands of videos, photos, testimonies, reports and investigations documents the horrors committed by Israel in Gaza”
The article goes on to note that “The report Dr. Mordechai has compiled online – “Bearing Witness to the Israel-Gaza War” – constitutes the most methodical and detailed documentation in Hebrew (there is also an English translation) of the war crimes that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. It is a shocking indictment comprised of thousands of entries relating to the war, to the actions of the government, the media, the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli society in general.”
In talking with many people about what’s been going on in Gaza over the past year and a half, the reaction I often receive when I suggest that Israel achieved all its military goals very early on in this war is: “Good, let them keep on hitting them so that they’ll never pose a threat to Israelis again.”
That’s understandable, but the dehumanization of the Palestinians in Gaza is something that many of us find detestable. If Israeli soldiers have lowered themselves to the same level of brutality as their enemies, is that anything to be proud of?
As for the rationalizations that by now we’ve become so accustomed to hearing – that you have to fight dirty when you’re fighting terrorists or that the IDF maintains the highest principles of conduct – notwithstanding any evidence to the contrary, simply don’t excuse the kinds of behaviour that Dr. Mordechai describes in graphic detail in his report.
As if that weren’t enough to lead one to doubt Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza – which is being pushed forward by the right wing forces who are calling the shots within the Likud-led government of Israel, there was yet another thorough indictment of Israel’s strategy offered up recently, this time by former Defense Minister and Army Chief of Staff Moshe Ayalon, who accused the IDF of engaging in “ethnic cleansing” in northern Gaza.
In an interview with Channel 12 news in Israel, Ayalon maintained that “The IDF is not the most moral army in the world.”
Later in that same interview, Ayalon offered two clarifications of what he meant by using the term “ethnic cleansing.” According to a report, also in Haaretz, Ayalon explained that “First, his definition of ethnic cleansing did not include genocide, but rather ‘evacuating civilians from their homes and demolishing those homes, as is happening in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.’ He also said that he does not hold the military responsible for these crimes but rather the government, in particular far-right lawmakers like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch, who have repeatedly declared their intentions to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.”
I would venture to say that, if you didn’t know who it was that offered that assessment of what Israel has been doing in Gaza, you would likely think that it came from one of the usual suspects, such as UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The fact that it came from a former Israeli defense minister, also a former IDF chief of staff, not to mention a member of the Likud Party, should lend it some credibility.
But, in the black and white worldview that permeates so many individuals’ thinking when it comes to what Israel has been doing in Gaza, Ayalon would no doubt simply fall into the category of naive critics of Israeli policy according to so many defenders of Israeli government policy.
It’s hard to know where readers of this publication stand, however, on what Israel has been doing in Gaza. There have been almost no letters to the editor commenting on this particular issue – not that letters to the editor offer a true picture of people’s thinking. Further, I don’t make it a habit of engaging everyone I meet in a conversation centering on Israel’s strategic goals in Gaza. Frankly, as is with the case involving a discussion of Donald Trump, tempers can flare easily – and trying to engage in a relatively dispassionate conversation about either Gaza or Trump isn’t easy.
But, a recent survey conducted by three different Canadian Jewish groups shows how diverse opinions are among Canadian Jews are when it comes to Israel.
The survey was conducted by marketing firm Leger and was sponsored by the New Israel Fund, JSpaceCanada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now.
Here are some of the findings from that survey:
• While 84% of Canada’s Jews say they are “very” or “somewhat” emotionally attached to Israel and 94% percent support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, just 51% of Canadian Jews consider themselves Zionists.
• The poll also found that 34% of Canadian Jews believe the continued building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank hurts Israel’s security, with only 27% saying they believe it helps Israel’s security. The remainder of those polled either said it made no difference or they didn’t know.
• Most Canadian Jews still believe that the ideal outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a two-state solution – a Jewish state of Israel alongside an Arab state of Palestine, with 61% support amongst Canadian Jews with an opinion on the subject. 55% of Canadian Jews agree that Canadian politicians should increase pressure on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to engage in a meaningful peace process.
• Canadian Jews are also more likely to indicate their intention to vote for the federal Conservative party if the election were to be held tomorrow, with 55% indicating support for the Conservatives, and 26% for the Liberals. These trends are similar to those in the general population, but the decline in Liberal support and increase in Conservative support is more pronounced among Jews.
I would suggest that the majority of Canadian Jews don’t pay much attention to what Jewish federations do – and here it’s important to note that determining who is Jewish is not easy – as I showed repeatedly ever since the results of the 2020 census came out. (For instance, I was able to establish that only 6700 Winnipeggers identified as Jewish both in terms of their religion and ethnicity in that census.)
The groups that conducted this most recent survey of Canadian Jews’ attitudes would likely not be considered mainstream Jewish organizations in the sense that they do not follow along with what our Jewish federations and CIJA would suggest is the nominal position of most Canadian Jews on Israel. All three are highly critical of Israeli government policies and all three strive to promote peaceful co-existence among Israeli Jews and Palestinians.
Yet, by referring to the work done by Prof. Mordecai documenting Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the assessment that Moshe Ayalon offered that what Israel has been doing lately in Gaza amounts to “ethnic cleansing,” and the recent survey of Canadian Jews’ attitudes towards Israel, I wanted to show how thoughtful Jews – whether they’re in Israel or in Canada, can hold highly divergent opinions from what you are likely to read in most Jewish media (including The Jewish Post). If nothing else, if I can get some readers to consider different viewpoints when it comes to thinking about Israel, I will have accomplished something.
World Jewish News
Israel’s “starvation plan” for Gaza.
The world rushes to judgement
By GREGORY MASON (May 28, 2025) Israel’s re-imposition of a blockade on food and other necessities of life flowing into Gaza produced the expected hail of condemnation from the usual suspects. Typical was the reaction by Alex de Waal writing on UnHerd (May 22, 2025), a blog that prides itself on swimming against the current. De Wael writes:
“It seems monstrous, as we watch children in Gaza wasting before our eyes. But in truth, the weaponisation of food in counterinsurgency is nothing new.”
He continues to place Israel’s current blockage in the same category as infamous starvation programmes intended to demoralize a population, such as the British campaign of the fifties to suppress the Malayan counterinsurgency. This is a crude characterization of Israeli goals and motivations for the renewed military push into Gaza and the blockade on food aid.
Benny Morris, the noted Israeli historian, also expressed doubts about this strategy, although in a more nuanced tone than de Wael. Writing in Quillette magazine (May 24, 2025), he stated:
“Meanwhile, Israel’s international position dramatically worsened. EU member states and Canada have imposed minor sanctions against the Jewish state and threaten worse. Observers in Jerusalem have warned that Israel faces an international relations “tsunami.” In Washington, Israel’s staunchest ally, President Donald Trump’s aides, speaking anonymously, told The Washington Post that a break with Israel is likely if it does not end its war-making in the Gaza Strip.”
And more concretely on the withdrawal of food, fuel and medical supplies on March 2, 2025, he writes,
“Western public opinion and European governments are driven by daily TV clips from Gaza showing dead and dying women and children, though never dead and dying combat-age males. They are also influenced by worsening humanitarian conditions on the ground—Trump has even spoken hyperbolically of “a lot of people starving,”
The allegation that Israel has starved the Gaza population is a fabrication. According to the World Food Program, 94.000 tons of food can feed one million people for four months. During the first months of 2025, up to the most recent Israeli blockade, Gaza received 380,000 tons of supplies, sufficient to feed its population of 2.1 million for eight months. What happened to the extra supplies?
In a word, Hamas intercepted the supplies, allowed some to dribble to the civilian population, but then sold most to local merchants at widely inflated prices, to pay salaries to its fighters and acquire more military equipment. This expropriation has been an open secret for years. Hamas has diverted all the well-meaning aid from the West to create the military infrastructure and to support the lavish lifestyles of its political leadership in Qatar. For example, the late Ismail Haniyeh was estimated to have a net worth of $4 – $6 billion at the time of his assassination.
The current Israeli call-up of 30,000 reservists and deployment of regular troops into Gaza was triggered by the refusal of Hamas to agree to the release of 10 hostages, the cessation of all hostilities, and to lay down its arms. It did not occur out of a vacuum.
Israel’s stated goals for the current action in Gaza are to recover all hostages (estimated dead (39) and alive (20), control of Gaza militarily, the complete elimination of Hamas, and forcing the civilian population into areas where they can receive food aid without interference.
Notably, while the Geneva Convention requires all combatants to care for civilian populations, if one party subverts the distribution of aid, the other parties are no longer obligated to provide food aid. Under this criterion, the diversion of aid by Hamas appears to have obviated Israel’s legal requirement to distribute aid to Gaza,
But legality and political reality diverge especially when it comes to Israel. Quite simply, Israel has always struggled with public relations and communication. In contrast, the messages of Hamas have a fertile field of skepticism by much of Western media that seems ready to believe the worst of Israeli intentions. The recent statements of Starmer, Macron, and Carney neatly capture this deep confusion among Western leaders. Recent developments regarding food supplies to Gaza may force these virtue signalers to reconsider their stance; however, that’s a slim chance.
A hopeful development, if anything about Gaza can be promising, is the creation of a US-based NGO, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which will manage food distribution to the civilian population under the protection of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). After initial glitches triggered by Hamas interference, aid appears to be flowing to the civilian population. IDF reports cautiously claim that the limited capacity of Hamas to impede food distribution, as well as increased boldness of the population to defy Hamas, indicate its weakness.
As with everything about Gaza, the food aid situation is volatile, but some grounds exist for cautious optimism that mass starvation has been averted.
World Jewish News
What would the late Yoram Hamizrachi have made of the lack of discussion of Israeli government policies within our Jewish community?
By BERNIE BELLAN Many readers are undoubtedly aware of the name “Yoram Hamizrachi,” a.k.a. Yoram East. Yoram was a big man and his somewhat menacing appearance belied his warm nature. For several years Yoram was also a columnist for the Jewish Post – when my late brother, Matt, was editor.
Yoram Hamizrachi was born in Jerusalem, Israel on February 20, 1942. He worked for many years as a newspaper, radio, and TV journalist for Israeli and foreign media in Israel and abroad (South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Germany).
Yoram also spent many years of his life in the service of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). As a reserve officer, he took part in the Battle of Jerusalem during the Six-Days War. After the war of Atonement in 1973, he moved with his family to northern Israel where he rejoined the IDF and became the first Israeli commander of the now defunct South Lebanon Security Belt (from Mount Hermon in the east to the Mediterranean in the west).
Yoram immigrated to Canada (Winnipeg) in 1982 and in 1984 played a crucial role in the rescue of Ethiopian Jews – ‘The Lost Tribe’.
Premiers, mayors, elected and high-level officials from all levels of government actively sought out Yoram’s wise counsel on many issues. He was a personal advisor to several Canadian foreign ministers on counterterrorism and a sought-after expert on terrorism, instructing courses for the Canadian and US military and police forces across North America.
Throughout his time in Winnipeg, he was a leading voice of Zionism and defender of Israel, and he initiated the annual Remembrance Day service for Jewish veterans.
But Yoram was also an iconoclast, often challenging the accepted wisdom of the day. In May 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War, during which a coalition of forces led by the U.S. expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait – which Iraq had invaded in 1990, Yoram spoke to a gathering at the Gwen Secter Centre.
The event was sponsored by the United Jewish People’s Order. (In fact, Hamizrachi spoke several times at events sponsored by UJPO. He also spoke on occasion to the Winnipeg chapter of “Peace Now.”)
To be sure, while Hamizrachi was an advocate for peace between Israel and her Arab neighbours, he was also totally realistic about the obstacles that stood in the way of peace.
At that May 1991 talk, my late brother noted how controversial some of Hamizrachi’s views were – and how eager several in the audience that day were to pose questions to Hamizrachi.
The title of Matt’s article was “The question askers’ take on Yoram Hamizrachi’, with the subtitle: “When the provocative former Jewish Post columnist spoke to a local Jewish crowd, some were ready and willing to challenge him.”
Here are some excerpts from that article:
‘The ‘question askers’ were out in full force May 13 for Yoram Hamizrachi’s lecture on the Gulf War and its aftermath.
“The question askers in Winnipeg’s Jewish community aren’t always the same, although three or four show up at almost every community event where Israel is the topic.
“They come partly to hear the lecture. But at least as important is the ‘question and answer session’ that follows.
“The burly Hamizrachi has a controversial reputation in Winnipeg’s Jewish community.
During the time he was a columnist for the Jewish Post, Matt wrote, “He delighted in taking aim at Israeli targets some more conservative elements in Winnipeg’s Jewish community considered off limits – subjects like some of the more bizzare practices of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox.”
At one point during his talk, Hamizrachi took aim at then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, saying “Shamir is contributing to President George Bush’s heart condition: ‘Every time his hear beats, it goes Shamir, Shamir’.”
“But when the speaker aimed a more stinging barb at Shamir, he fell into a trap,” Matt continued. “The ‘question askers’ were ready and waiting.
” ‘Shamir is still stubborn and vicious,’ Hamizrachi said. ‘His agenda isn’t changed – It’s ‘We love peace, we want to negotiate peace. We’d like to have peace with the Palestinians, but what our conditions? Our conditions are that nothing will change.’
” ‘Why don’t you criticize the Syrian leader?’ a heavyset, whitehaired man in the audience bellowed.
” ‘ What do you think of dividing Jerusalem?’ someone else in the audience demanded – ignoring calls from the somewhat timid moderator to ‘wait for the question and answer session.’
“Hamizrachi answered again. He was born there and fought to capture East Jerusalem during the Six Day War. He was in favour of giving that back for the sake of peace. if that were possible.
” ‘What will be the economic future of an independent Palestinian state’ another audience member asked.
” ‘I asked Arafat the same question,’ Hamizrachi replied. ‘He said: “The same as yours. The Americans are helping you (Israelis). The Arabs will help us.
” ‘Do you think Palestinian brainpower is any less than Israeli brainpower?’ Hamizrachi asked the audience.
” ‘Yes!’ a question asker snapped back.
” ‘I say it’s the same,’ Hamizrachi replied.
” “So why don’t they use it?’ the questioner demanded.
At that point the lecture and question and session were over, and audience members were “invited to stay for coffee and cookies, and ask Hamizrachi more questions.
” ‘I am ready for my execution,’ he said jokingly.”
My point in excerpting from an article written 34 years ago is to show readers that there was a time when someone extremely well respected within not just the Jewish community, but the wider community as well, could challenge accepted dogma on Israel. Here was someone who had fought for Israel, but who still respected Palestinians. Even further, he was someone who had fought to liberate Jerusalem, but who was ready to give it back for the sake of peace.
Of course, that was many years ago, but Israel had already begun its rightward tilt, which has only continued and become even more extreme under the current Netanyahu-led government. One wonders what Yoram Hamizrachi would have to say today, if he were still alive, about Israel’s never ending war in Gaza – and the absolute silence that our Jewish Federation, along with other establishment Jewish organizations, insist on maintaining when it comes to criticism of Israeli government policies?
Yoram Hamizrachi was someone who retained an open mind about issues – and insisted on looking at events through as clear a lens as possible. One can only imagine what he would have thought about how the Jewish Federation forced the resignation of BB Camp co-Executive Director Jacob Brodovsky – over Brodovsky’s alleged “anti-Israel views.” Finally, what would he have thought about how his son, Ron East, has taken it upon himself to be the self-styled “protecter” of Winnipeg Jews, also someone who is eager to swat down anything Ron labels “antiZionist?”
World Jewish News
Where Does Israel Fit into Donald Trump’s Middle East Vision?
By HENRY SREBRNIK Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East will lead, the U.S. president promised, to a region where interest has replaced ideology.
“A new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together — not bombing each other out of existence.”
Nice words, but behind them is a framework that is consistent with Trump’ approach to the region during his first term, when he crafted the Abraham Accords. He isn’t going to let its age-old animosities get in the way of business. The result is the rise of advisers who champion “realism and restraint,” by which they mean no more misbegotten wars in the Middle East and Central Asia leading to disasters such as the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires.
Where does this leave Israel? Perturbed. Trump is moving ahead on a whole range of regional issues without including Israel and without heeding Israeli concerns in an expanding number of agreements. Trump visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — yet did not stop in Israel.
It also did not go unnoticed that the last remaining American hostage held by Hamas, Eden Alexander, was released from captivity in a deal brokered by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was apparently completely bypassed. Witkoff negotiated directly with Hamas through a secret backchannel. Indeed, he even expressed his “disappointment” that America “wants to return the hostages, but Israel is not ready to end the war.”
Now, in a dramatic turn of events, Trump is establishing friendly relations with the new Syrian president, whom he met face-to-face in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman al-Saud looking on. Earlier this year, it was reported that Israel had lobbied Washington to keep its sanctions on Syria, but to no avail.
Trump lifted all sanctions on a Syrian leadership that Israel understandably regards as a terrorist regime. After all, its new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is a former jihadi whose group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was until 2016 al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. Twenty years ago al-Sharaa was languishing in an American military prison in Baghdad, held on suspicion of terrorism on behalf of the Islamic State.
And while Trump has forged a truce with Yemen’s Houthis, in which they promised to no longer attack international shipping in the Red Sea, it seems they will still be able to strike Israel with missiles and drones. The deal served to shield American ships from attacks but said nary a word about Israel’s security. Indeed, it was announced two days after the Houthis had launched a missile that struck Ben Gurion Airport, prompting foreign airlines to flee.
Pro-Israel Republicans and hawkish foreign policy experts worry that Trump’s dealmaking with oil-rich Gulf nations, with trade deals in the hundreds of billions of dollars, puts Israel at a diplomatic disadvantage.
“His approach is obviously completely transactional. If he has a view about U.S. national interest, that view revolves around financial and commercial interests, and that diminishes the value of the alliance with Israel, which is not primarily financial and commercial,” contended Elliott Abrams, a former longtime Republican official who served as Iran envoy in Trump’s first term. The Israel relationship is “based on values. It’s based on military cooperation.”
Financially, “Israel can’t compete with these other states,” remarked David Schenker, who headed the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the first Trump administration. Rather than financial investments, he said, Israel could make concessions to what Trump wants to see in the region. If it doesn’t adapt, Israel could run the risk of being sidelined in Washington.
Trump did make it clear that he remains interested in mediating a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, even as he announced new arms sales to Riyadh and heightened defence cooperation that many expected to be connected to a normalization deal.
Trump’s various actions, including the deal with the Houthis that ended their of attacks on shipping vessels, but not on Israel; his direct negotiations with Hamas over the release of Edan Alexander; the legitimacy he granted Syria’s new president, and his skipping of Israel as a stop on his Middle East tour, all leave Israel feeling it is on the sidelines during this critical time.
Knowing all this, Israel needs to begin the move towards ending its reliance on U.S. military aid, Netanyahu said in a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee May 11.
“We receive close to $4 billion for arms. I think we will have to wean ourselves off of American security aid, just as we weaned ourselves off of American economic aid,” Netanyahu told them. He added that, just as stopping economic aid helped spur economic growth in Israel, stopping military aid could help the defence sector.
The remark was made in the context of talks with the U.S. about the next 10-year aid package for Israel. Things are moving fast in the Middle East.
Henry Srebrnik is a political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island.