Israel had to act

PAT JOHNSON

On the day when Israeli bombs killed seven members of a Canadian family in Aitaroun, Lebanon, Israel's ambassador to Canada spoke to a rapt audience that filled Richmond's Beth Tikvah Synagogue.

Alan Baker said Sunday night that Israel's foreign affairs minister, Tzipi Livni, had expressed her condolences to the Canadian government and the Canadian people. Baker did so again, addressing International Trade Minister David Emerson, who was seated in the front row of the sanctuary.

"Today, I was going to be here ... to talk about enhancing friendship between Israel and Canada," said Baker. "Unfortunately, events have overtaken our best intentions."

The deceased Montreal family, including four children under the age of nine and their parents, were visiting the family's village of origin. Hezbollah was operating a base from which it was attacking Israel, Baker said. The Israel Defence Forces urged civilians to leave the area before the attack began, he said, but the family apparently opted to hunker down in the cellar of the ancestral home. Eight Israelis were killed the same day in an attack on Haifa's railway station.

Canada began evacuating the estimated 40,000 Canadians in Lebanon that day.

But catastrophes like the deaths of the Montreal family must be blamed on the terrorists who operate offensive positions from heavily populated residential areas, said the ambassador.

"They establish them in the middle of the population base intentionally to use civilians as shields for what they're doing," Baker said. "We do not target innocent civilians." He stressed that leaflet drops urged people to evacuate before the bombings.

"All we want is what the international community wants," said Baker. "Stop trying to kill Israelis. That's all we ask. Nobody else will do it for us, so we have to do it ourselves."

Israel ended its presence in southern Lebanon in 2000 because the international community led Israel to believe that Lebanon would extend its sovereignty over its southern territory, where Hezbollah terrorists operate, said Baker. He said Hezbollah, which has 14 seats in the Lebanese parliament and two cabinet posts in a coalition government, has never renounced violence but acts as a surrogate for Syria and Iran, targeting Israel and its civilian population from the north.

"We decided that we are going to move Hezbollah out of this border area," said Baker. He added that when the president of the United States or anyone else urges Israel not to upset the delicate democracy emerging in Lebanon, he wonders why this concern was not expressed when it was Hezbollah, whose jihadist quasi-state is in the southern part of that country, that was imperiling Lebanese democracy.

"For the last five years, Israel has been living not opposite Lebanon as a neighbor, but opposite Hezbollah," Baker said. Until now, Israel tolerated the situation because it had its hands full with an intifada and was in the process of disengaging from Gaza and planning a future disengagement from the West Bank – a move which is now deeply in doubt.

Baker was part of the negotiating team that drafted a 1991 Israeli-Lebanese peace treaty, but the Syrian government, which was operating a puppet regime in Beirut at the time, refused to allow Lebanon to make peace with its Jewish neighbor, the ambassador said.

The emergence of an imminent threat from the north placed Israel in a two-front conflict, with Hezbollah operating in Lebanon and with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is funded and trained by Iran and Saudi Arabian elements. Hezbollah is essentially an arm of the Iranian revolutionary government.

An audience member asked whether it was reasonable to expect Lebanon's weak government to clean up the terror that is flourishing in its southern territory.

"We are cleaning up for them," said Baker.

The ambassador repeatedly drew parallels between the conflicts Israel is having in Lebanon and the ongoing crisis in Gaza. In both cases, he noted, the underlying issue is the legitimate government's inability or refusal to rein in the terrorists who operate with near-impunity within its borders.

When Israel disengaged from Gaza last year, he said, it was on the assumption that what would emerge there would be a model of Palestinian governance – a template for a civilian administration that could also govern the West Bank following Israel's withdrawal there. Exactly the opposite occurred, said Baker. Instead of using the infrastructure that Israel left behind to expand economic opportunity, Israeli homes, businesses and agricultural structures were turned into quasi-military bases from which to attack bordering Israeli neighborhoods, he said.

"Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] begged us to give him a chance to disarm Hamas, but it didn't happen and the missiles kept landing," Baker said.

Israel taking matters into its own hands was necessary, Baker said, because the Palestinian and Lebanese governments refused to act. He told the crowd that Israel has given the Palestinians the addresses of the locations where suicide belts are being sewn and where nails and other shrapnel are being sharpened for maximum flesh wounds in bombing attacks, but nothing has been done to stanch this aspect of the terrorist infrastructure.

Baker thanked the Canadian government for its support and noted that the two countries are liberal democracies founded on mutual respect, bilingualism and multiculturalism.

"It's only natural that Canada is supporting Israel and we hope that will continue," said Baker.

Bernard Pinsky, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, which co-sponsored the Sunday night event, commended the federal Conservative government for its approach to the region.

"This government has been unbelievably supportive," Pinsky said. "They've done all the right things. They've said all the right things. It's so heartwarming."

Mark Weintraub, chair of Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), Pacific Region, and Michael Elterman, chair of the Canada-Israel Committee, Pacific Region, spoke on behalf of their two organizations, which also sponsored the event. Howard Jampolsky, a CJC regional board member and a Richmond businessperson, organized the event, which was originally intended to focus on trade and business opportunities between Israel and Richmond – British Columbia's second-largest Jewish community. Beth Tikvah's Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth led the assembly in prayers for peace and consolation.

During his weekend visit, the ambassador spoke at Richmond's other synagogues and met with local elected officials. Richmond's mayor and two city councilors shared front-row seats with other dignitaries at the Beth Tikvah event.

How you can help

Alan Baker, Israel's ambassador to Canada, asks that Canadians who have friends and family in northern Israel call them to show concern and send best wishes.

As soon as possible, Baker said, come visit.

He added that Israel will need financial support to reconstruct the buildings damaged in this fighting.

Meanwhile, he asked Canadians to contest slanted reporting in the media, saying that Israeli government websites have the answers to questions that Jewish Canadians and others have about the current conflict. He urged those in the audience to maintain their relations with their members of Parliament to encourage continued support for Israel's right to live free from terrorist attack.

"As long as it takes, we need your support. As long as it takes, we need your encouragement. As long as it takes, we need your help," he said.

Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.

^TOP