Adedokun Waliyu 
Justin Trudeau doesn’t like Benjamin Netanyahu, that’s something our prime minister has made abundantly clear. That he continues to blame the Israeli prime minister for blocking a “two-state” solution is beyond ridiculous.
Yet that is exactly what Trudeau did on Friday when asked about Israel’s attempts to go into Rafah to defeat Hamas militarily once and for all.
“Canada’s position has always been that the solution to the extraordinarily difficult challenges in the Middle East are a two-state solution. A peaceful, secure, democratic Israel alongside a peaceful, secure, democratic Palestinian State,” Trudeau said.
Perhaps Canada’s PM hasn’t noticed that Israel is democratic, but they don’t have security and they can’t live peacefully because Hamas, the leaders in Gaza, aren’t peaceful or democratic. There haven’t been elections in Gaza in nearly 20 years, and Hamas, which controls Gaza, has been waging war against Israel that entire time.
That seems lost on Trudeau, as does that fact that Hamas leaders – effectively the leaders of the government in Gaza – have defended the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and said they will continue to attack Israel until they achieve their goal. That goal is a world without Israel and where they control all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Any rational person would take the position of Hamas as one that rejects the two-state solution that Trudeau said he wants, but instead he blames Netanyahu.
“Unfortunately, the Netanyahu government is creating barriers and blockages to ever being able to create or even imagine that two-state solution. That is where we fundamentally disagree with the Netanyahu government,” Trudeau said.
Here’s a question for Trudeau: Would he accept a violent terrorist group launching attack after attack on Canada without Canada responding to stop the killing of Canadians?
Most Canadians would hope that the answer to that question would be no. Yet that is what Trudeau is asking Israel to do — let the terrorists continue to occupy the territory on their border and continue to launch attacks.
Just a week ago, Netanyahu appeared on CNBC saying that he wants to see the people of Gaza make all their own local decisions but until there is peace, Israel must continue to have a role in security.
“It would be a state that would be immediately taken over by Hamas and Iran, and it wouldn’t advance the purposes of peace, it would just be used as a launching ground for a future war against Israel,” Netanyahu said of pushing for a Palestinian State at this point.
Israel and the Netanyahu government are not the main obstacle to peace and a two-state solution. Hamas and those who support them in Gaza and around the world, including in Canada and within Trudeau’s own government, are the true obstacles to peace.
Trudeau, though, would rather play at domestic politics, try to secure voters who are leaving him for the NDP for not backing Hamas quite enough, than deal with reality.
Once again, Canada’s foreign policy under this government is directed by diaspora politics rather than the principles that built western liberal democracies.
In making his comments on Friday, Trudeau said that we need an end to the violence and more humanitarian aid. Well then, let’s compare the actions of the two governments when it comes to these two issues.
In the last week, Israel facilitated 2,065 aid trucks entering Gaza to deliver food and other essentials. There was also 352,000 litres of fuel delivered to support hospitals, shelters and other essential services.
As this aid was entering Gaza, Hamas was bombing places like the Kerem Shalom border crossing, slowing the delivery of the humanitarian aid they claim is so desperately needed.
Trudeau needs to start laying the blame where it belongs, at the feet of Hamas, not the Netanyahu government.
