Kevin Mitchell
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Iddo Moed sips coffee in a downtown Saskatoon restaurant Friday morning, under the watchful eye of a small security detail.
His tie is orange. He’s been wearing it for nearly two years. It reminds him, daily, of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, young Israeli boys who were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and whose bodies were eventually retrieved.
On his wrist are two bands, one yellow and one blue. The yellow one is an exhortation to bring home those kidnapped by Hamas, and the blue one has Yiddish writing. A woman gave it to him, saying “Think positive and you’ll do good.”
A yellow ribbon pin on his chest reminds him of Oct. 7.
Moed is Israel’s ambassador to Canada, and the relationship between the countries is strained. It became even more so two days after this morning coffee, on Sunday, when Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada is officially recognizing a Palestinian state.
That hadn’t yet made the news cycle on this Friday in Saskatoon, where Moed was working to forge partnerships with Saskatchewan on things like technology and agriculture.
But he talked about areas where he feels Canada is failing Israel, and he talked about the pending anniversary of the day Hamas and other Palestinian groups invaded Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 more.
That launched a war that has seen much of Gaza levelled, almost 70,000 killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and condemnation of Israel from numerous international quarters. Forty-eight Israeli hostages remain in Gaza.
“It’s a wound that is still open,” Moed says. “You visit Israel, you see the pictures everywhere. We feel that we can’t really breathe freely until they’re retrieved back home. So the issue of Oct. 7 is very much alive in our daily, hour to hour activity.”
He pointed to the bands, the tie.
“This is, for me, just a symbol to show others that this is what’s important for us.”
Moed sat for a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from the Israel-Canada relationship, to genocide accusations, to life as an Israeli ambassador in the midst of turmoil.
Q: When were you last in Israel? How different is it now than before Oct. 7?
A: I was there last June, and I noticed that the atmosphere is different. We are always very strong and positive, but some part of our happiness disappeared. Everybody knows someone who is affected by the war. And at some point in time, when Iran was attacking Israel, the whole of the country was under attack.
Just imagine that you’re sitting in your home, and even if you have a safe room, you feel like it’s Russian roulette. You don’t know if this missile will hit you. That changes the mood and the atmosphere.
At the same time, we’re very, very strong. You’ll see, on one hand, people demonstrating for the release of the hostages. On the other side, people are supporting the government and saying, move forward with the operation in Gaza. There is a very lively debate inside Israel; what is the future of politics? That debate will culminate in elections sometime in the coming year.
We know we are redefining the identity of Israel in many ways. There is a discussion about ultra orthodox people going to be drafted to the military, just like other people. There is a discussion about what kind of politics you would like to have in the future. Judicial reforms … all of that is very much alive.
Israel is looking inward for answers for Oct. 7. We still don’t know exactly what happened there, but we know we left the back door open to the worst kind of atrocity. We need answers for that, and people are still looking for that.
At the same time, there is international pressure, and people in Israel feel that and notice that, and are very perplexed, because we know when countries talk about a two-state solution … Knesset (the Israeli legislature) actually rejected that notion already last year, 99 of the 120 members of the Knesset. So a very vast majority rejected the two-state solution for now, because we don’t see on the Palestinian side any will to come to terms with Israel.
Q: Canada has recently announced its willingness to recognize a Palestinian state. This past week, it called Israel’s newest ground offensive “horrific.” I ask you honestly, how are Canada-Israel relations right now?
A: I think that (this is) probably one of the worst moments, because we see the Canadian government is not interested in the perspective of Israel. They are more interested in joining the international choir that uses popular slogans like a two-state solution, and that doesn’t really help to solve problems there. But it creates problems here.
It’s actually part of the effort of antisemitic forces to be more aggressive. We see a very clear rise of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel activities in anticipation of this. And we know that Hamas already thanked Canada for stating that it’s going to declare. So all that to say, that through all our channels of communication, we have been trying to convey that message to Canada — don’t do it, because it’s not good for the solution in the Middle East. It’s not good for the relations with Israel, and it’s not good for the Jewish community here. And I don’t think they’re listening.
Q: What needs to be done to restore that relationship?
A: It should start from trying to seek, to identify, what are the points that connect us? It’s the values, of course — of democracy and tolerance and all of that, (which) Canada still believes in, and Israel as well. Saying out loud that Israel and Canada believe in the same values. Israel and Canada maintain a friendship, a long-standing friendship and partnership, which actually will enable us to grow together. That is something that I haven’t heard from this government.
The Jewish community hasn’t heard, really, any strong support for their issues. So combating antisemitism, that’s an issue that this government has not been very strong in.
And what is most important is that this government recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself right now, which is exactly what we are doing. We may not be perfect, but I don’t think that any other country had to face the kind of urban warfare that we are faced with in Gaza. This is why it’s taking us two years.
It’s a very small piece of land. We can conquer it in an hour, if we want to, but that’s not the point. You have two million people who are held as human shields to protect Hamas and to shield hostages, and we are trying to get them out of harm’s way. So we only have bad choices.
Unfortunately, we cannot just say, ‘Okay, we stop the war.’ But Hamas, on the other hand, can lay down their weapons, release the hostages, and everything will change. They are not doing that.
Q: Have you talked to Jewish Canadians? What are you hearing?
A: I’m speaking with Jewish Canadians all the time, and they are at their wit’s end. They feel that the government is not really seeing them; doesn’t really come out strongly and publicly and say, enough is enough. That’s what they need to read. That’s what they’re asking for.
There is legislation that’s coming up, bubble legislation, so-called anti-hate legislation, that’s all very important and very relevant. But at the end of the day, I think the Jewish community would like to see leadership come out and say ‘we will not condone these attacks on Jewish people.’
So when a woman was stabbed in a supermarket in Ottawa, when a man was attacked in front of his children in Montreal, and when synagogues are vandalized and other institutions are attacked, there should be visibly more support to show the Jewish community, this is not allowed. I think the government does not allow it, but I don’t see that there are actions taken to show the Jewish community that the government is with them.
Q: The UN Commission of Inquiry recently said Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. They cited four areas — killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births. How do you respond?
A: The United Nations has, for many years, become the platform for hate against Israel and the institutionalization of that hate through so-called expertise reports. We see it time and again: we offer information, we offer data, and that is completely neglected.
Many times these reports are based on one-sided information that they get from Hamas-controlled organizations, or Palestinian sources that are not being controlled and checked and verified. You have United Nations representatives, who are defined by the international community as antisemitic, and still their reports are being accepted and tolerated as if they are sort of impartial. That is what makes the United Nations a weaker organization, and we have to understand that.
Time and again, we find it very difficult to combat when we know that there is an automatic majority that will support those findings.
There is an effort, not to come to terms within the region and find a solution, but to actually delegitimize Israel as a state, and to say Israel does not have a right to exist.
This is why it’s so important that the prime minister says and repeats that, because this is the endgame, the end goal of those who are actually pushing this war.
Q: As an ambassador, is the job different now than it was before the massacre happened and war broke out?
A: It’s more intense, and sometimes we have to go back to basics, and talk about things that we thought were long accepted.
I find it more difficult to connect directly with the younger generation, because when you see what’s happening in the universities … for me, it has always been one of my goals to connect with young people and discuss and answer questions and let them probe and check and find and verify whatever ideas and opinions they have. That’s what I’m here for. But that has become an unsafe environment, and I lament that. So the routine has changed significantly.
Q: The Oct. 7 anniversary is coming up. How do you mark it?
A: It’s a solemn moment of reflection. It happens close to our new year, Rosh Hashanah, which is a moment in Jewish tradition to reflect on the year that passed and the year ahead. We are not closer to the peace environment that we wish for. After two years, we still have hostages that are held there. We think of their families, 48 families that miss their loved ones for such a long period of time. We know that those who are alive are held in the worst conditions.
When you see that the public domain is being threatened by radicals who — like the Capital Pride Parade (which was blocked by pro-Palestine protesters), like the Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal (where regular protests by Montreal4Palestine have been held) — they just want to spread hate. That must be combated.
So I’m thinking on the second-year anniversary of Oct. 7, not just about our loss in Israel and our trauma and how this happened and all the horrible stories that came — also stories of heroism — but I’m thinking also about here, about Canada, about the Jewish community. Also, broadly, about the values that connect us as a free and open and tolerant society that all of a sudden is confronted with so much hate and intolerance, and ways to combat that. I think this is the most important thing.
And I must mention that (Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary for combating crime) Vince Gasparro (said Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap) will not come to Canada. They spread hatred; it’s a hate manifestation, what they do. They’ve been barred from entering Canada, and I welcome that very much, because I think that’s a very strong and bold move. That’s leadership. That’s moral clarity.
Q: When you reflect on that day, what comes to your mind first?
A: Incredible. Incomprehensible. We were just about to go to bed. We watched Israeli TV, (and) the screen gets filled with messages of incoming fire. This is sort of routine on TV. If there are incoming missiles, the locations where these missiles may fall appear on the screen. It happens every now and then. We have the technology to know where these mortar shells will fall.
Normally, if you see it, it’s one or two places, because it’s sporadic fire every now and then, which is also crazy, of course. Just imagine that Saskatoon, one morning you see a screen (with an attack) from Regina. So the screen was filled with it — more and more and more.
(Then) we saw the images of fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and you cannot understand what is happening. And it appears later on that thousands of Hamas terrorists crossed the border and abducted and destroyed and killed and did all these horrific things, on that massacre, on that day. So at that moment when we saw that, we couldn’t really comprehend what was going on, but it was very, very big.
And in hindsight, I think that astonishment, that moment of shock, that’s our wake-up call.
Vivian Silver was a Canadian Israeli who was driving Palestinian kids from the Gaza Strip with their parents to Israel for medical treatment, because they couldn’t find a way by themselves. There were Israeli volunteers who did that. Most of those volunteers lived in those kibbutzim that were attacked by Hamas. She was obliterated. It took three weeks to find her remains.
And with that, the sort of peace camp in Israel was blown to pieces because we realized that it’s good to do good things. It is important to do good things. But you cannot rely only on that in order to move forward, to improve coexistence.
Q: What will it take to end the war?
A: Releasing the hostages and laying down weapons. Hamas can end the war in the next minute. That will end the war. That’s clear. It’s not complicated at all.
Q: You’re a long ways away from Israel right now. You’re here. You’re talking agriculture while there’s a war going on. Is it hard to focus on agriculture when other things are happening?
A: It’s not hard. It’s part of who we are. We had a group of about 30 Israeli surgeons travel to Rwanda to have what we call an eye camp, which is a routine of operations for treatable diseases that affect vision. They travelled to Rwanda, and did that the last week.
We know that we have to fight this war and win this war, but we are also part and parcel of the international community. We feel that we have to pursue our goals and contribute whatever we can to the international community as a country that wants to have a better world. We’re able to do that. We are strong. We’re able to fight that war, but also continue our relations and draw people’s attention to other things.
And to Canada, I would say, especially to the government — looking at Israel only through the lens of Gaza is wrong, because our relations date back to … 76 years ago, (former Canadian prime minister) Lester B. Pearson made a difference for Israel and for Arabs by moving forward with a partition plan. He made a difference again in 1956 when the Suez Crisis broke out, and he was the one that introduced the blue helmets to keep the Sinai military-free. That arrangement held for 11 years.
So that difference can be made. But it takes bold people, bold decisions, and especially it takes motivation to see our perspective and understand where we come from, and try to make sure that whatever solution is introduced is good for all sides involved.
Q: Do you have anything else to add?
A: No — just to remind everyone that 48 families are anxiously waiting for their hostages, for their loved ones, to come home. This is the most important thing.
kemitchell@postmedia.com
