U.S. condemns Canada and other allies sanctioning two Israeli ministers
OTTAWA — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is condemning Canada and other allies' decision to sanction two members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Tuesday, calling for the move to be reversed.
Article content
Earlier in the day, Canada joined the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand in announcing sanctions against National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, two far-right members of Netanyahu's war cabinet, over what the countries said was inciting settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Article content
Article content
Article content
Smotrich was one of two ministers who recently announced the approval of 22 Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Ben-Gvir has also called for Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, which is home to around two million Palestinians. Smotrich has supported the idea of Israelis settling in Gaza.
Article content
Article content
'Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous.'
Article content
By Tuesday afternoon, Rubio delivered a sharp rebuke of the decision by Canada and other allies, saying it rejects 'any notion of equivalence' with Hamas and wanted to remind its partners 'not to forget who the real enemy is.'
Article content
'These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war,' Rubio posted on X.
Article content
Article content
'The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.'
Article content
Article content
The sanctions come amid growing pressure on Israel from allies over how it is conducting its war against Hamas, which was triggered when Hamas militants stormed from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 people hostage.
Article content
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry estimates more than 50,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its response. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Article content
Prime Minister Mark Carney, along with the leaders of the U.K. and France, said in a statement last month that they opposed Israel's latest expansion of the war and called on the country to allow more deliveries of food and other aid into Gaza.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Alan Kessel: Canada's silence after Judih Weinstein Haggai's murder has been a national shame
Judih Weinstein Haggai was a Canadian. A teacher, a poet, a peace activist. She was also a victim of Hamas's October 7 massacre, murdered — alongside her husband Gadi Haggai — by terrorists who violated every principle of humanity and international law. Article content Her death should have shaken this country to its core. Her name should have been remembered in our schools, our Parliament, our streets. Instead, Judih was nearly forgotten. Article content Article content There is a quiet shame in how Canada responded to her murder. While she and Gadi lay dead, their remains taken into Gaza — our leaders equivocated. When it mattered most — when Canadians were kidnapped, raped and slaughtered — Canada's political voice was cautious, hedged, and absent. And now, after that moral failure, we watch in disbelief as the government moves to restore funding to support a 'reconstructed' Hamas-led Gaza under the guise of humanitarianism, and to recognize a Palestinian state without a single assurance that terrorism will cease or that Canadian lives will be protected. Article content Article content Judih had devoted her life to peace. Her work as a teacher reflected a belief in dialogue, education, and coexistence. She was everything we say we value: compassionate, thoughtful, engaged. But her Canadian identity and her Canadian death were treated as inconvenient. Her story didn't fit the narrative that had taken hold — one in which nuance is unwelcome, and moral clarity is drowned in political calculation. Article content Article content Her body and that of her husband were finally recovered from Khan Yunis in a special operation by the Israeli military — retrieved from the territory of their murderers, where they had been discarded and hidden for over 600 days. The terrorists who held their remains were members of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement — the same group that kidnapped and murdered Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. That is who we are dealing with: not freedom fighters, not a resistance, but sadistic murderers who hold the bodies of grandparents and babies as bargaining chips in a depraved game of political leverage. Article content Article content We are right to feel profound sorrow, and we are right to feel anger, not only at the terrorists who killed Judih, but at the silence that followed. When a Canadian peace activist is murdered by genocidal extremists, and our government cannot even summon the decency to name the crime, or the courage to defend her memory, we have lost more than lives. We have lost our compass.
Calgary Herald
an hour ago
- Calgary Herald
From bear traps to camped-out soldiers, security measures in place for G7 in Kananaskis
Article content Starting Sunday, seven of the most powerful people in the world will be at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., where they will discuss economic instability and security issues, including Russia's war on Ukraine. Article content Unsurprisingly, to bring the most powerful people in the world together, even at the best of times — and this is not the best of times — necessitates a massive security operation, with coordination across multiple Canadian agencies. Article content Article content Article content '(Security) is both massive and essential,' said John Kirton, the director of the G7 Research Project at the University of Toronto. Article content Article content While Canadians are perhaps unlikely to have wildly strong views about French President Emmanuel Macron or Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, U.S. President Donald Trump has angered millions of Canadians with his aggressive rhetoric. Prime Minister Mark Carney has also angered many by inviting Saudia Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman and India's Narendra Modi. Article content Already, unspecified security concerns have led to at least one ceremonial casualty: Calgary's White Hatter ceremony. Traditionally, the ceremony welcomes delegates to Alberta's largest city, and they're handed a white Smithbilt cowboy hat to celebrate Calgary's frontier spirit. Article content In 2002, when the G8 Summit was also held in Kananaskis, leaders were given the ceremonial hats. U.S. president George W. Bush put it on his head, but Jacques Chirac, the late French president, reportedly turned up his nose at the gift and Russian President Vladimir Putin — not yet the international pariah he is today — examined the hat without putting it on his head. This time, however, there will be no ceremony. Article content Article content 'We have to respect that security considerations today are very different from the last time we hosted the summit in 2002 … there's been a lot of nostalgia about what we were able to do in 2002,' said Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek earlier this week. Article content Article content In 2002, a bear also died after falling from a tree as security officials were trying to scare it away from delegates. This year's security team has a bear trap, should a curious bear get too close to the humans in the region. Article content The meeting, last held in Canada in Charlevoix, Quebec, in 2018, will happen against the backdrop of a global economic reorientation. Under Trump, the United States has initiated an international tariff war, breaking down decades of movement towards free trade. Meanwhile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to the conference — and Israel's war on Hamas continues to destabilize the Middle East.
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Israel says it detained Hamas members during an operation in southern Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli forces conducted an operation in southern Syria to detain several members of Hamas, the military said Thursday. Syria TV, a local station, reported that a force of about 100 Israeli troops stormed the southern Syrian village of Beit Jin near the border with Lebanon and called the names of several people through loud speakers who were detained. Syria TV said one person was shot dead by the Israeli force.
