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The Dangerous Double Standards of Britain, Canada and Germany
Mourners gather in Jerusalem for the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Taken by author
JNS.org – Earlier this month, the United Kingdom announced that it is imposing an “immediate” weapons embargo against Israel. The announcement came on the same day that American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, all of 23 and one of the six hostages recently executed by Hamas, was buried in the Jewish state.
The British government thought it appropriate to punish Israel on a day the entire Jewish nation around the world was mourning six of its murdered innocent civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the move as “shameful.”
According to the Gatestone Institute’s Robert Williams, the U.K. suspended around 30 licenses for items used in the current conflict in Gaza, which go to the IDF, allegedly due to Hamas-induced fear that they “might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
At the same time, Williams noted, the United Kingdom willingly continues to support Hamas.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government announced in July that it was going to “restart funding to UNRWA in order to get aid as quickly as possible to those who need it in Gaza” as a “moral necessity in the face of such a catastrophe.”
Starmer’s blind insistence on continuing to fund UNRWA comes even after Israel has provided evidence that the so-called aid agency is enmeshed with Hamas, with roughly 10% of its members proven to be terrorists or to have ties to terror groups. UNRWA schools and hospitals were knowingly used to facilitate terror and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Williams said Starmer seems “unperturbed” that all funding goes straight to Hamas and not to the needy civilians of Gaza, who are shot if they try to approach the trucks carrying aid supplies.
Williams mocked Starmer and his government for “taking away the annual winter fuel allowance for British pensioners” and instead sending £21 million ($28 million) to Hamas.
The Daily Telegraph defense editor Con Coughlin noted that the embargo is only the latest in a string of anti-Israel moves by the United Kingdom.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s “first act was to withdraw the British government’s official objection to attempts to persuade the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges,” Coughlin wrote.
Then came the decision to restore U.K. funding to UNRWA. Its suspension of arms contracts with Israel followed soon after.
The embargo includes, according to Lammy, “important components which go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting.”
Williams noted that in his announcement of the embargo against Israel to the House of Commons, Lammy claimed that “this government’s priority … [is] to advance the cause of peace … .”
Then Lammy admitted that although the British government cannot verify whether or not Israel is, in fact, committing any war crimes, it is still going to enforce the embargo.
“In many cases, it has not been possible to reach a determinative conclusion on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities, in part, because there is insufficient information either from Israel, or other reliable sources to verify such claims,” Lammy said. “Nevertheless, it is the assessment of His Majesty’s Government that Israel could reasonably do much more to ensure lifesaving food and medical supplies reach civilians in Gaza in light of the appalling humanitarian situation.”
‘Pure racist perfidy’
Williams also recalled that in March, the former U.K. government, led by Rishi Sunak, reportedly conditioned continued arms supplies to Israel on its allowing the Red Cross or international diplomats to visit the detained terrorists of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force. The foreign secretary at the time, David Cameron, had even warned Israeli officials that Europe as a whole would impose a weapons embargo on Israel.
According to Williams, the U.K.’s arms embargo “appears to represent nothing so much as pure racist perfidy.”
Lammy “completely ignores the extreme lengths to which Israel has gone to avoid civilian casualties, as well as the huge amounts of humanitarian aid it has facilitated into the Gaza Strip,” he added.
Williams quoted the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer, who wrote, “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Richard Kemp, a former British Army officer and commander, has echoed these sentiments supporting Israel and the IDF.
According to Coughlin, Lammy’s “blatant anti-Israel agenda will place the U.K.’s long-standing strategic alliance with Israel under intense strain.”
Unfortunately for Israel, Britain is not alone. Sadly, Germany and Canada have also felt it is appropriate to sanction Israel by imposing an arms embargo exactly at a time when Israel is trying to fight Islamic extremism that is already rising in those countries.
Germany, under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has delayed nearly all of Israel’s requests for arms sales since the start of the war. Sales to Israel in 2023 amounted to more than 300 million euros and, in 2024, they allegedly dropped to just 14 million.
But when juxtaposing these policies against Israel alongside other countries, the hypocrisy becomes clear.
Astonishingly, Germany has massively armed Qatar, which, alongside Iran, is the most significant backer of Hamas, and one of the main sources of evil in the world today.
“In the first half of 2024, the federal government approved arms sales worth just over 100 million euros to the rulers in Doha, who are probably the most important supporters of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Bild journalist Björn Stritzel noted.
Likewise, Canada has also decided to punish Israel over baseless and false accusations of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
For the past several months, Ottawa has not approved new arms export permits to Israel, halting about 30 such permits, including a deal between the Canadian subsidiary of American company General Dynamics and the U.S. government, according to a recent announcement by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.
“First and foremost, our policy has been clear since Jan. 8, we and I have not accepted any form of arms export permits to be sent to Israel,” she said.
She also said that she asked her department “to look into any existing permits of arms or parts of arms that could have been sent to Israel.”
Alan Baker, a former Israeli ambassador to Canada and current director of the Institute for Diplomatic Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS that Canada’s decision is “absurd.”
“I wouldn’t call the policy in and of itself antisemitic, but it is certainly misguided,” he said. “It is based on ignorance or naivete, and not on an understanding of the situation.”
Baker called out Joly, “who seems to be completely persuaded that Israel is involved in a genocide. She doesn’t want to understand the facts and get down to the true situation.”
Baker pointed to hostile anti-Israel organizations based in Quebec that “seem to be influencing her whole policy.”
“What’s sad about this is that she seems to be pulling the Canadian prime minister by the nose when he should be sufficiently responsible to rein her in,” Baker said.
“You expect someone who has been prime minister for so long to be somewhat more circumspect and to consult and take into consideration those who perhaps have a less politically driven point of view and a more facts-based point of view,” he added.
Baker noted that the previous Canadian premier, Stephen Harper, gave a speech before Israel’s Knesset toward the end of his term and said that Canada will always have Israel’s back. He said it is inconceivable that Canada could ever act against Israel’s interests.
“But here we are,” said Baker. “Canada is being held hostage by an irresponsible foreign minister who seems to have great influence on the prime minister, based on political assumptions that are fed by propaganda that has no relation to the truth.
“Rather than trying to ascertain the facts and being in contact with those elements, whether in the United States or Israel, that are conversant with the statistics and the truth and genuine data, she and Trudeau prefer to base themselves on the accusation of genocide. And they come to the wrong conclusions.”
Canadian aid organizations have called for a complete embargo on military exports to Israel, warning that it is impossible for them to provide basic support to Palestinians while Israel operates in Gaza.
Clueless of facts on the ground
Canadian news outlet The Maple interviewed Dalia Al-Awqati, head of humanitarian affairs at Save the Children Canada (SCC).
“We don’t believe that the government of Canada should continue to provide weapons that are likely being used in violation of international humanitarian law against civilians and particularly against children,” Al-Awqati said.
Among other willful deceptions, lies and false accusations against Israel, Al-Awqati also claimed that SCC “has been present in Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1953.”
Unfortunately for Al-Awqati and her effort to smear Israel, from 1949 to 1967, Jordan controlled the so-called West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not maintain a presence in those areas until the 1967 Six-Day War.
The sole occupier at the time was Jordan, which illegally annexed the West Bank in 1950. Only the United Kingdom and Pakistan, and possibly Iraq, recognized the move.
This is just one small but important example of how blatantly anti-Israel—or completely clueless of facts on the ground—that so-called aid organizations like SCC truly are.
In March, the Trudeau government said it would pause authorizations of new permits for exports of military goods to Israel. However, this measure did not apply to approximately $95 million worth of export permits approved before Jan. 8 or any goods that flow to Israel via the United States and other third countries.
According to documents published by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE) in July, there were 210 active military export permits for sales of goods to Israeli end users, including Israeli arms companies. Some of those permits had expiry dates as late as the end of 2025.
Then, in August, the U.S. government announced that a Quebec-based company would be the principal contractor in a “possible” $61 million U.S. sale of high-explosive mortar cartridges and related equipment to Israel.
Following that announcement, civil society organizations, including SCC, wrote a letter to Joly warning that Canada risks being complicit in the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza through its ongoing transfer of military goods bound for Israel.
The signatories also claimed that Canada’s military exports to Israel could violate Canada’s obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits the government from permitting military exports if the goods are likely to be used to commit serious violations of international law.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Israel is fighting a just war against radical Islam and has gone to great lengths to save the Palestinian civilians Hamas wants dead.
The embargoes wrongfully placed on Israel by the U.K., Germany and Canada accomplish one thing only: They feed into Hamas propaganda and help isolate Israel while emboldening and encouraging Iran.
As Williams states, “Arming Israel’s enemies, whether through UNRWA or Qatar, while limiting Israel’s ability to defend itself, is setting up a disaster that is likely to end up in Europe, on the heads of Starmer, Trudeau and Scholz.”
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‘Half Human’: Antisemitism Rampant in Ontario Public Schools, New Canadian Report Says

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters, primarily university students, rally at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square on Oct. 28, 2023. Photo by Sayed Najafizada/NurPhoto
Antisemitism has been rampant in public schools of the Canadian province of Ontario since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, according to a new report published by the country’s federal government.
Nazi salutes in the hallways, assaults, pronouncements of solidarity with the aims of Hitler’s Final Solution coupled with expressions of regret that he did not live to “finish the job,” and teachers converting their classrooms into outposts for the distribution of anti-Zionist propaganda compose the background of the lives of Jewish students in the province, the report says. One teacher, it added, even called a student “half human” after learning that she has one Jewish parent.
Written by University of Toronto sociology professor emeritus Robert Brym, the report is based on data drawn from interviews conducted with 599 Jewish parents as well as nearly 800 reports of incidents of antisemitic hatred which took place in Ontario public schools, roughly three-fourths of which occurred in the Toronto District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and York Region District School Board systems.
Toronto specifically was the site of 61 percent of the incidents, part of a broader trend in which Ontario’s largest city, home to half of Canada’s 400,000 Jews, has seen a surge in antisemitism following the Oct. 7 atrocities. Last year, 40 percent of all hate crimes reported to law enforcement involved antisemitic bigotry, according to police data.
“The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli retaliation in Gaza provoked a three-month outburst of hostility against Jewish K-12 students such as never before seen in Ontario schools,” Brym wrote. “One is immediately struck by the high percentage of responses that have nothing to do with Israel or the Israel-Hamas war. More than 40 percent of responses involve Holocaust denial, assertions of excessive Jewish wealth or power, or blanket condemnation of Jews — the kind of accusations and denunciations that began to be expunged from the Canadian vocabulary and mindset in the 1960s and were, one would have thought, nearly totally forgotten by the second decade of the 21st century.”
Some 30,000 Jewish school-age children live in Ontario, according to the report, which was commissioned by the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, in order to provide a picture of the situation in Ontario schools.
Brym noted that many Jewish students abstain from reporting antisemitic discrimination due to fear of “being ostracized, re-victimized, or physically harmed.” In lieu of pursuing a course of action which guards their civil rights, they resort to effacing “visible symbols of their Jewishness,” which, he explained, “suppresses the visibility of the problem and contributed to the undercounting of incidents.” He recommended that school boards correct the hostile environments on their grounds by applying the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and recognizing the Zionist component of Jewish identity, which is often the target of antisemitic bullies.
“This report exposes an appalling reality that far too many Jewish students face antisemitism and harassment on a regular basis, and worse yet, many schools are failing to take the necessary steps to protect them,” Michael Levitt, chief executive officer and president of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights nonprofit which raises awareness of discrimination and racial intimidation, said in a statement responding to the Canadian government’s findings. “These latest revelations are a searing indictment of what we’ve been hearing anecdotally for some time now.”
He added, “While the Ontario government and some school boards are making an effort to bring antisemitism training and Holocaust education to staff and students, our education must do more to root out antisemitism and hold perpetrators accountable. There must be a genuine commitment by schools and school boards to ensure every student, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, feels welcome and safe.”
Antisemitism infects all levels of Canadian society, as The Algemeiner has previously reported, from the streets to the halls of government. Following the Oct. 7 attack, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) issued data showing that Jews had been the victims of 57 percent of all hate crimes, with 56 of the 98 hate crimes that occurred in the city from Oct. 7 to Dec. 17 being documented as antisemitic. Compared to the same period in 2022, the number of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community during that period more than tripled.
During all of 2023, Jews were the victims of 78 percent of religious-based hate crimes in Toronto, according to police-reported data. Overall in Canada, Jewish Canadians were the most frequently targeted group for hate crimes, with a 71 percent increase from the prior year.
In 2024, according to the latest TPS data, Jews were the victims of over 80 percent of religious-based hate crimes in Toronto.
“These numbers reflect a disturbing reality: antisemitism in our city is growing more aggressive, more visible, and more tolerated,” Michelle Stock, vice president of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in May, commenting on the statistics. “Jewish Canadians — like all Canadians — deserve to feel safe. It’s time for governments to match words with actions.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israel to Raise Defense Spending to Meet Security Challenges

Israeli tanks are positioned near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel will raise defense spending by 42 billion shekels ($12.5 billion) in 2025 and 2026, the finance and defense ministries said on Thursday, citing the country’s security challenges.
The budget agreement will allow the Defense Ministry to “advance urgent and essential procurement deals critical to national security,” the ministries said in a statement.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the new defense budget “fully covers the intense fighting in Gaza, alongside comprehensive security preparations for all threats — from the south, the north, and more distant arenas.”
Israel‘s military costs have surged since it launched its military offensive on Gaza following the deadly attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since then, Israel has also fought Hezbollah in Lebanon and waged a 12-day air war with Iran, and carried out airstrikes in Syria this week after vowing to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria and demanding they withdraw.
Over the past 21 months, Israel‘s missile defense systems have been working almost daily to intercept missiles fired by Hezbollah, Iran, and Houthis in Yemen.
Current annual defense spending is 110 billion shekels – about 9 percent of gross domestic product – out of a total 2025 budget of 756 billion shekels.
The extra budgetary funding “will allow the Defense Ministry to immediately sign procurement deals for the weapons and ammunition required to replenish depleted stocks and support the IDF’s ongoing operations,” said Amir Baram, director general of the Defense Ministry.
It would also enable the defense establishment to initiate development programs to strengthen the Israel Defense Forces’ qualitative edge for future systems, he said.
MULTIPLE SCENARIOS
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the funds would allow Israel to prepare for multiple scenarios since “enemies are openly declaring their intent to destroy us … For this we require complete military, technological, and operational superiority.”
Separately, the Defense Ministry said it had signed a deal with state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to accelerate serial production of Arrow interceptors.
The Arrow, developed and manufactured in cooperation with the US Missile Defense Agency, is a missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles.
The Arrow had a high interception rate during the conflicts with Hamas and Iran. As part of the deal, IAI will supply the military with a significant additional amount of Arrow interceptors.
“The numerous interceptions it carried out saved many lives and significantly reduced economic damage,” Baram said.
On Wednesday, the ministry signed a $20 million deal with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) to supply advanced machine guns aimed at significantly enhancing the IDF ground forces’ firepower capabilities.
($1 = 3.3553 shekels)
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French Court Backs Release of Lebanese Terrorist Jailed for US, Israeli Diplomat Murders

A protester holds a flag with the slogan “Freedom for Georges Abdallah” during a demonstration to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist held in France since 1984, on the eve of a French appeals court ruling on his conditional release, in Paris, France, July 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
A French court on Thursday ruled in favor of releasing Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from prison, after he served almost 40 years of a life sentence for attacks on US and Israeli diplomats in France.
The Paris Appeals court agreed to Abdallah’s release on July 25 on the condition he leaves France, a judicial source said. A second source familiar with the case said he would be deported to Lebanon.
Abdallah is the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions. He was jailed in 1987 for his role in the 1982 murders in Paris of US military attache Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov and for the attempted murder of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.
The US Department of Justice and France’s general prosecutor have for years vigorously opposed his release, and eight previous release requests had been rejected.
Neither Abdallah’s lawyer nor the Lebanese and US embassies were immediately available for comment.
In a hearing in February, the Paris court said Abdallah should make an effort to compensate his victims’ families, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His lawyer said in June that around 16,000 euros ($18,546) had been disbursed into his account, an amount the US Department of Justice and France’s general prosecutor said was insufficient and did not come from Abdallah.
A source familiar with the case said on Thursday that Abdallah will not have to pay compensation to the victims.
It was not clear if there could be further appeals.
Abdallah, 74, has remained a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause.
The Paris court has described his behavior in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts.”
However, the US Department of Justice has asserted that his release would pose a threat to the safety of US diplomats.
Washington has also used Abdallah’s previous comments that he would return to his hometown Qobayyat on the Lebanese-Syrian border as a reason not to release him, given the recent conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
($1 = 0.8627 euros)
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