Joe Oliver: Canada’s misplaced moral neutrality

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be hailed for their historic accomplishment of containing Iran's nuclear threat, writes Joe Oliver. Photo by Getty Images /iStock

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The U.S. bombing of Iran’s buried nuclear sites, following on Israel’s devastation of its above-ground nuclear facilities, command centres and leadership, are a massive defeat for the genocidal Islamo-fascist terror state. In response to this watershed moment, we were treated to knee-jerk pearl-clutching and moral confusion from the Canadian government. Now that a ceasefire has been declared, effectively an Iranian surrender, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be hailed for their historic accomplishment.

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Before the U.S. attacks, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did not re-confirm Israel’s right to defend itself from an existential threat or thank it for reducing a menace to world peace and regional nuclear proliferation. Instead she called on all parties to “refrain from actions that further destabilize the region.” This echoed Prime Minister Mark Carney urging “all parties to exercise maximum restraint.” Israel and the U.S treated this reflexive virtue-signalling as the irrelevance it was.

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After the U.S. acted, Carney did express opposition to Iran acquiring a bomb but also called for a “diplomatic solution … including a ceasefire in Gaza.” Pablum such as this reinforces false moral equivalence. It also ignores the strong possibility that eliminating Iran’s nuclear capacity will stabilize the region: Iran’s acquisition of a bomb would have precipitated a nuclear arms race among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. Given these likely benefits from Israel’s action, a cynic would attribute the government’s detachment, certainly when compared to its strong support for Ukraine in its battle against Russian aggression, to domestic politics. There are many more Canadians of Ukrainian and Muslim heritage than Jewish.

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So it not surprising that, since 2015, Canada has donated around $900 million to the West Bank and Gaza, with most going to Gaza, including $165 million since the Oct. 7 massacre. But Hamas, which Canada identifies as a terrorist organization, diverted about a billion dollars of international funding to the construction of over 500 kilometres of tunnels, where it imprisons Israeli hostages and plans its war of terror.

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Carney’s opposition to the use of force by a democratic ally runs counter to Canada’s own proud military history, ignores Iran’s maniacal obsession with wiping Israel off the face of the Earth and is at odds with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which Canada ratified in 1969. After the first Israeli attacks, Foreign Minister Anand said “further action risks triggering a broader regional conflict with devastating consequences.” But Iran’s military had been degraded, an Iranian attack on third parties risked incurring ruinous retaliation, and what few allies Iran still had did not want to be involved in a wider conflict.

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What would Prime Minister Carney have had Israel do in the face of the Iranian threat? Or is he among the many millions around the world who only support Israel’s right to defend itself until it does? Iran called Israel, 70 per cent the size of Vancouver Island, a “one-bomb country.” In an increasingly hostile or indifferent world, self-reliance and strength are crucial. Israel has no choice but to respond preemptively to looming threats to its survival from weapons of mass destruction.