Marty York: Carney has only doubled down on Trudeau’s Israel failures

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Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his underlings joined leaders of Britain and France and chose to restrict imports of goods from Israeli “settlements.” This, of course, was a slap in the face to many who had taken comfort in the long history of mostly positive diplomatic relations between Canada and the Middle East’s only democratic country.

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Oh, but this was merely the Liberal government pouring shakers of salt into the wounds of countless Canadian Jews whose kissers already have been smarting from Carney’s backhands and forehands. Only a year ago, Britain, France and Canada decided to recognize “Palestine” as a state. Even though many luminaries worldwide, such as American comedian Jerry Seinfeld, have said Palestine does not actually exist, and even though Canada formally recognized Israel in 1949, relations have deteriorated woefully between Canada and Israel since Carney became prime minister.

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It’s reached the point where Carney has never even spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, Carney has publicly reiterated what previous Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau pledged: that he would arrange for the arrest of the Israeli leader if the latter set foot in Canada.

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Some Israeli spokesmen and diplomats, with whom I continue to chat after more than a decade as former chief media officer and chief communications director at B’nai Brith Canada, view Carney as a foe rather than a friend — not just to Israelis, but also to Jewish people in general. They feel the same way about the minister of foreign affairs, Anita Anand, and others in Carney’s cabinet.

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What particularly burns Carney’s critics is that Canada, in a multi-million-dollar policy initiated by Trudeau and continued by the current prime minister, sends megabucks to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

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UNRWA describes itself as a necessary support system for Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The belief among many Israelis and others worldwide, however, is that UNRWA is corrupt, has misused funds and has employed people responsible for a multitude of crimes — including kidnapping Israelis and starving them after the heinous, murderous attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

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Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said in a release earlier this month that UNRWA boasts of sweeping progress “on paper” but, “on the ground, its employees continue to be exposed as members and supporters of terrorist organizations, hateful educational content persists, and Hamas-dominated unions continue to obstruct neutrality and discipline.”

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In August, the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that it was investigating multiple former UNRWA employees for collaborating with Hamas, the de facto governing group in Gaza.