Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques
The incidents and subsequent hypervigilance add to what many American Muslims say has already been a charged climate amid the fallout in the U.S. from the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza. The war started in October 2023 with a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel.
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Toronto Sun
24 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
GOLDSTEIN: A Palestinian state won't lead to peace in the Mideast
Prime Minister Mark Carney listens to a journalist's question during a press conference on Parliament Hill following the Cabinet Policy Forum, in Ottawa on May 21, 2025. Photo by DAVE CHAN / AFP via Getty Images The latest call for the creation of a Palestinian state by Prime Minister Mark Carney and the leaders of many other countries is a classic example of politicians believing they have to say something and this is something. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The political fraud inherent in this call, however, is the implication that creating a Palestinian state will end the suffering of the Palestinians and ensure Israel's security. A peace deal requires credible leaders on all sides of the conflict who genuinely want peace, which doesn't exist in Israel today. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza — one half of the proposed Palestinian state, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem — in 2005, using its army to forcibly remove 9,000 Jewish settlers in 21 settlements, plus four Jewish settlements in the West Bank. None of this led to peace. Far from it. Ever since then, Hamas has controlled Gaza and used it as its base for terrorist operations and missile attacks on Israel. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Simply put, Hamas doesn't want a viable Palestinian state living in peace beside a secure Israel. It wants Israel cleansed of Jews — Judenfrei — as the Nazis called it — which is in its founding charter. Carney's choice to preside over the creation of a Palestinian state — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — is a discredited, 89-year-old antisemite and periodic Holocaust denier whose authority is limited to the West Bank and not Hamas-controlled Gaza. Polls show Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, who regard his Fatah party, which has received billions of dollars in foreign aid, as corrupt. They want him to resign. On the other side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, intends to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and may be about to re-occupy Gaza, escalating the war yet again, which some military commanders oppose This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Israeli parliament recently passed a symbolic motion to annex the West Bank — where 700,000 Jewish settlers live illegally, according to international law, among an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians. Netanyahu's supporters view him as the only Israeli leader tough enough to counter the threat posed to Israel not only by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, but by terrorist-sponsoring Iran, whose nuclear facilities were recently bombed by Israel and the U.S. Netanyahu's opponents say he is corrupt. He's on trial for 2019 charges of breach of trust, taking bribes and fraud. Despite his claim of being Israel's 'Mr. Security,' the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust — by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 — occurred on his watch. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Netanyahu has been accused of propping up Hamas as a bulwark against the creation of a Palestinian state by Abbas. In fact, Israel promoted Hamas in the 1980s — disastrously — as a bulwark against the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed by the late Yasser Arafat, forerunner of the Palestinian Authority. To be sure, the myth promoted by Israel's enemies that one cannot criticize Israel without being accused of antisemitism is absurd and ignores that some of the harshest critics of the occupation are Israelis. Read More Many are in Israel's security forces. One example was the late Avraham Shalom, director of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, in the 1980s. He described Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank as 'brutal … similar to the Germans in World War II. Similar, not identical … We've become cruel to ourselves as well, but mainly to the occupied population, using the excuse of the war against terror.' RECOMMENDED VIDEO World Celebrity Columnists Golf Editorial Cartoons
Canada News.Net
an hour ago
- Canada News.Net
Holy site visit by Israeli minister escalates Gaza war backdrop
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked renewed outrage over the weekend by leading prayers at Jerusalem's most contested religious site, an act that drew swift international condemnation and heightened tensions amid Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. Ben-Gvir, a prominent ultranationalist settler leader, has made repeated visits to the hilltop compound—known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif—since the Gaza war began. The site, revered in Judaism as the location of the First and Second Temples and home today to the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine, has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Confrontations there have often spiraled into broader violence. Since Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in 1967, Jews have been allowed to visit the compound but not pray there, in line with a long-standing status quo arrangement. Palestinians view high-profile Jewish visits—particularly by political leaders—as deliberate provocations and potential steps toward asserting Israeli control over the mosque. Although most rabbis forbid Jewish prayer at the site, a growing movement has pushed to change that, with Ben-Gvir among its most vocal advocates. The visit on August 3 coincided with Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Temples. Israeli media reported it was the first time a sitting minister had openly led prayers at the site, a move widely seen as breaking with convention. Ben-Gvir used the occasion to reiterate his hardline positions, calling for Israel to take full control of the Gaza Strip, establish sovereignty there, and promote what he described as "voluntary" migration of Palestinians from Gaza—plans Palestinians say amount to forced displacement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by insisting that the official status quo at the Temple Mount "had not changed and will not change to allow Jewish prayer." Trained as a lawyer, Ben-Gvir became known for defending Jewish extremists accused of attacking Palestinians. His media-savvy persona propelled him into politics, winning a Knesset seat in 2021. After the 2022 elections, his Jewish Power party joined Netanyahu's far-right coalition, securing him the post of national security minister, where he oversees Israel's police. Since then, he has championed arming Jewish citizens, taken a hard line on anti-government protests, backed Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, and openly rebuked U.S. leaders. His latest visit to the holy site is likely to deepen both domestic and international criticism of Israel's far-right policies.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Pressure on Netanyahu intensifies as Israeli military chief opposes Gaza war expansion
Social Sharing Israel's military chief has pushed back against Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to seize areas of Gaza it doesn't already control, three Israeli officials said, as the prime minister faces increasing pressure over the war both at home and abroad. During a tense, three-hour meeting on Tuesday, military chief of staff Eyal Zamir warned the prime minister that taking the rest of Gaza could trap the military in the territory, which it withdrew from two decades ago, and could lead to harm to the hostages being held there, according to sources briefed on the meeting. The Israeli military says it already controls 75 per cent of Gaza after nearly two years of war, which began when militant group Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities in October 2023. It has repeatedly opposed imposing military rule, annexing the territory and rebuilding Jewish settlements there — policies advocated by some government members. Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire in the coastal enclave, which has been reduced to rubble in the fighting. Most of its two million people have been displaced multiple times, and aid groups say residents are on the verge of famine. WATCH | UN official says full occupation would be 'catastrophic': Israel expanding Gaza operations risks 'catastrophic consequences,' UN official says 3 hours ago The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming" if true. The military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, has at times avoided areas where intelligence suggested hostages were held. Former captives have said their captors threatened to kill them if Israeli forces approached. Netanyahu told Zamir that so far the military had failed to bring about the release of the hostages, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Most of those freed so far came about as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X Wednesday that the military chief has both the right and the duty to voice his opinion, but said that the military would carry out the government's decisions until all war objectives are achieved. The prime minister's office confirmed the meeting with Zamir on Tuesday but declined to comment further. The military did not respond to a request for comment. The prime minister is scheduled to discuss military plans for Gaza with other ministers on Thursday. A fourth source said Netanyahu wants to expand military operations in Gaza to put pressure on Hamas. Netanyahu, who in May said that Israel would control all of Gaza, leads the most right-wing coalition government in Israel's history. Some of his key partners have in the past threatened to quit if the government ended the war. Following a 40-minute meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday, opposition leader Yair Lapid told reporters he had advised Netanyahu that the public was not interested in continuing the war and that a full military takeover would be a bad idea. Emaciated hostages There are 50 hostages still being held in Gaza, of whom at least 20 are believed to be alive. Videos released last week by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza, showed two extremely emaciated captives and triggered international condemnation. Nearly 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, about half of them children, according to Gaza's health ministry. More than 20 died on Wednesday when a truck believed to be carrying food overturned as it was swarmed by a desperate crowd, according to local health authorities. Salim Asfour, 85, said he's lost upward of 50 pounds due to a lack of food in the enclave. He said he's too weak to walk the 20-kilometre round trip from Khan Younis to Rafah for aid. "I can't even walk a metre. I lean on my son to go to the bathroom," he told CBC News freelance journalist Mohamed El Saife in Khan Younis. "Even if I got to the aid, how am I supposed to carry it? How can I carry a bag of flour?" WATCH | Aid drops into Gaza on Monday: Military plane drops food aid into Gaza 2 days ago A freelance videographer working for CBC News was on the ground in central Gaza Monday at the same time as a Canadian military plane was dropping aid from above. Mohamed El Saife ran with his camera alongside Palestinians trying to reach the falling parachutes, witnessing the chaos as people rushed to grab whatever they could get. The latest ceasefire talks in Qatar broke down last month. Hamas insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war, while Israel accuses the group of lacking sincerity about giving up power afterward and must be defeated. An expansion of the military offensive in heavily populated areas would likely be devastating. "I wish I could get treatment and go back to normal like I was before, and we end this war that destroyed our families, destroyed our lives and left us without any desire to live," said Asfour. "We just want to be done with it." The war in Gaza has also overextended Israel's military, which has a small standing army and has had to repeatedly mobilize reservists. It is not clear if more reservists would be needed to expand operations and take more territory. The military continued to carry out air strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 135 people in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said, with the death toll since the beginning of the conflict now at more than 61,000, mostly civilians, it says. About 1,200 people were killed, including more than 700 civilians, and 251 hostages taken to Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
