Israel is pursuing a sweeping diplomatic and public relations campaign to convince Canada to change the way it tackles acts of antisemitism.
From the office of Israel’s president down to its ambassador in Ottawa, the message is the same: Canada must do more to curb threats against Jews.
But while the country’s ambassador is suggesting Ottawa should limit certain “freedoms” in order to deal with threats his government links to Iran, he hasn’t said which freedoms should be limited.
“We have a very clear objective this year, and that is to create a significant change in the way antisemitism is being dealt with here in Canada,” Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed told a virtual forum last week.
“It is hard for a liberal person to think that we have to limit other people’s freedoms, so that our freedom will be protected. But that’s where we are right now.”
Carleton University political scientist Mira Sucharov, who researches Israeli-Palestinian relations and Jewish politics, said there “are two things happening” — Israel is trying both to improve protection for Jews worldwide and to generate support for the war it has launched with the U.S. against Iran.
Moed spoke after Israel issued a series of high-level statements following shootings at three Toronto-area synagogues.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog convened a call with Toronto-area Jewish community leaders on March 9 — a rare move by a country whose head of government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to speak with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We must learn the lessons of previous antisemitic attacks, including the horrific Bondi Beach terror attack,” Herzog wrote on social media, citing the mass shooting last December at a Hanukkah event in Australia.
“All eyes are on Canada: it’s time to halt the unprecedented wave of Jew-hatred that has erupted ever since Oct. 7,” Herzog added, referencing the 2023 attack by Hamas and its allies against Israel which started the war in Gaza.
Hellbound and Down 