OTTAWA, CANADA | “You’re at war when you get attacked; we got attacked.”
Mark Carney uttered what is likely to go down in meme history, similarly to “Peace in our time,” or “Read my lips: no new taxes” by George H.W. Bush in 1988, several years prior to his raising taxes and thereby losing the next election.
But Mark Carney seems to be on safe ground. The Trump Whisperer who could deal with Trump but apparently could not, has once again raised his elbows as he morphs into the Trump Warrior. He and the press have successfully encouraged the seeds of American hatred in Canadians, and we, as a nation, are spoiling for a fight. One insightful pundit suggested that any deal that PM might make with Trump would hurt Carney and the Liberals at the polls. And so even though jobs will be lost, our debt will grow, and we will receive our hurts, we are thirsting for a fight. Or at least some of us, notably those with flush bank accounts and a safe source of income.
Apparently the American negotiators were sticking it to Canada, and so Carney told his soldiers to leave the fray and return to base. Could Carney have done anything differently? Maybe. How about saying, “We cannot and will not sign this deal in its current state. We are prepared to continue negotiating, but this is a non-starter.” That puts the ball in the American court again. And if they then quit, well then it’s on them. That might have been the Canada of old, but – I don’t know, maybe we want to avenge our years of inferiority complex. Elbows up, eh! And PM Mark Carney, instead of letting cooler heads prevail, is the Pied Piper of Trade Talks.
Additionally, that Carney statement reveals a mountain of hypocrisy. It’s as though Carney’s left hand doesn’t remember what the right hand is doing. Remember only a year ago, Carney formally recognized a Palestinian state:
It is in this context that Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel…
He did manage to acknowledge, to a small degree, the role Hamas played in the current war, citing the pervasive threat of Hamas terrorism to Israel and its people, culminating in the heinous attack Oct. 7, 2023; the terrorist organization Hamas’ longstanding violent rejection of Israel’s right to exist and its rejection of a two-state solution.
Let’s zoom in on Carney’s words, heinous and terrorist. They are abstract and bloodless. Let’s put some flesh on them, so to speak. In his August 23 posting, Substack writer, Uri Kurlianchick bears eye- witness to that attack. It’s worth the read, but here’s a sample that begins to make concrete what heinous meant on October 7th. Kurlianchich describes:
Piles of bullet-ridden corpses of elderly women in a bus stop, beautiful young people hunted down in the fields around a music festival, terrified women and children dragged through cheering masses that snapped at them like a pack of hyenas, Arab children beating and humiliating terrified Jewish children, blood-crazed mobs mutilating the bodies of the slain. The count of the dead kept increasing: 60, 100, 300, 600, 1,000…
“You’re at war when you get attacked, we got attacked,” says Carney. With what? With clauses in a trade deal that did not spill one iota of Canadian blood, did not burn Canadian children nor rape Canadian women! But nevertheless, Canada is at war, Carney says. On October 7, 2023, Israel was attacked and Israel was at war. Real war. The kind that other Canadian Prime Ministers over the years were forced to fight, sending Canadian youth to foreign lands to kill or be killed. Israeli youth began this war on their own land before they could cross over to Gaza. Had they not succeeded, the country was at grave peril.
So Israel engaged in the Hamas war. Taking Gazan wine off the shelves in Jerusalem liquor stores wasn’t going to cut it. Levying tariffs on Hamas goods was not likely to down any of the 34,000 rockets Hamas launched at Israel over the years. Not visiting Gaza wasn’t going to destroy the attack tunnels, and anyway doing so would get you dispatched rather quickly. The only remedy for Israel’ survival was all out war of the WWI and II variety.
Carney the warrior’s view on this? He said of Israel, “Its sustained assault in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of civilians, displaced well over one million people, and caused a devastating and preventable famine in violation of international law. It is now the avowed policy of the current Israeli government that ‘there will be no Palestinian state’.”
There is much that is false and incorrect in that statement, but, yes, Israel launched a sustained assault, and yes, Palestinians were killed and displaced (never mind the 600,000 Israelis displaced from the north when Hezbollah joined in the war in support of Hamas. And never-mind that it is documented that Hamas stole much of the food), but what exactly does Carney want? How would Carney – and all those like him who say Israel has a right to defend itself but then criticize it for doing so – what would Carney do? What war would he prosecute if he had been attacked not with tariffs, but tanks?
The UN vote which seemed far in the future when Carney declared Canada was recognizing a Palestinian state is almost upon us: this September, only weeks away. In the intervening months, Hamas was supposed to disarm: they haven’t; they are to play no role in negotiations – they have categorically rejected that, and the PLO was supposed to have held free and democratic elections. Anyone recall that happening?
None of those preconditions were met. Does anyone believe Carney will say, “Well, boys, you blew it. Sorry, but the deal is off the table.”? Didn’t think so, but he has to save face. The only way I can think of is for him to somehow blame Israel: How about this: that by its belligerent and continued prosecution of the war, Israel made it impossible for Hamas and the PLO to fulfill their obligations. (Actually, that’s pretty good! Feel free to use it Mr. Carney.)
So, yes, ultimately, you might be at war if you’re attacked, but you’d better not defend yourself, not if you’re Israel. For Canada against the States, though? Bring it on, baby!
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