Mr. Carney should instead welcome Mr. Netanyahu to Canada, Dr. Ophir Falk, foreign policy advisor to Mr. Netanyahu, told The Globe and Mail Saturday.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Canada’s Prime Minister is “betraying” Israel, and should reconsider his willingness to have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he steps on soil, an adviser to the Israeli leader said Saturday.
Mark Carney told Bloomberg in an interview published Friday that he would abide by the policies of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, to act on a 2024 warrant issued for Mr. Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court, which alleged that he committed war crimes by using starvation as a tool of warfare.
Israel has called the ICC allegations an absurd overreach by a politicized court.
“We had hoped that after Canada endorsed President Trump’s Middle East 20-Point Peace Plan, Prime Minister Carney would retract his policy of appeasing terrorism and betraying Canada’s traditional ally,” Dr. Ophir Falk, foreign policy advisor to Mr. Netanyahu, told The Globe and Mail Saturday.
He called Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, which has been suspended for a week by a fragile ceasefire, “a just war by just means against a genocidal terrorist organization that carried out the worst atrocities against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200. In the two years since, Israeli forces killed more than 68,000 in Gaza, according to local authorities, who said the number continues to rise as bodies are found beneath rubble. More than half of the dead are women and children, according to the Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government.
Israel has countered that its math shows a ratio of non-combatant to combatant casualties of less than two to one, “which is one of the lowest in urban warfare history in one of the most challenging and dense urban settings,” Dr. Falk said.
Mr. Carney, he added, should “welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the lone Jewish state and only democracy in the Middle East, to Canada.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump appears at the Knesset, on Oct. 13, in Jerusalem.Kenny Holston/Reuters
In his interview with Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain, Mr. Carney said Canada’s decision last month to recognize a Palestinian state was in direct response to the conduct of Israel’s current leadership, which has been accused of genocide in Gaza, a charge it denies.
“What we saw – just to be clear about why we did what we did – was that the actions of the current government, the Netanyahu government, were explicitly designed to end any possibility of a state of Palestine in violation of the UN charter and going against Canadian government policy of whatever political stripe since 1947,” Mr. Carney said.
“We did this because the prospect was receding – as opposed to viewing it as any sort of panacea, game changer fundamentally.”
Canada’s recognition of a state of Palestine has taken it out of step with the U.S., although it has acted alongside France, Spain the U.K. and numerous other countries in the United Nations.
But “it was the very least that Canada could do,” said Michael Bueckert, acting president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.
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Similarly, supporting the arrest of Mr. Netanyahu “is the only choice available to Carney if his government is serious about upholding international law,” he said.
What role, if any, Canada has to play in the future shape of Gaza will be initially determined by U.S. President Donald Trump as chair of the Board of Peace, Dr. Falk said.
The second phase of a peace plan for Gaza will involve dismantling the ability of Hamas to govern or exert military force; demilitarizing Gaza; and deradicalizing the strip’s population of two million, Dr. Falk said. He suggested Canada’s experience as a multicultural country could allow it to contribute to the latter.
But he also criticized Canada for what he called an increase in antisemitism that is among “the greatest in all Western countries.”
“Prime Minister Carney’s unconditional call for a Palestinian state poured fuel on this antisemitic fire,” he said. “It rewarded Hamas terror and emboldens those who menace Canadian Jews.”
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He suggested that Mr. Carney would do well to heed the actions of Mr. Trump, who signed an executive order to combat antisemitism in January. “Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders stay silent,” Dr. Falk said. “It retreats only when leaders act.”
Mr. Bueckert called that a conflation of issues. “Any attempt to hold Israel responsible for its conduct in Gaza is being perceived as having to do with attacking the Jewish people or undermining their safety in Canada, and it’s completely untrue,” he said.
“Canadians want action. They want Canada to be a leader on human rights. And I think that people who are defending Israel as it commits some of the gravest crimes under international law are trying to change the conversation.”