SPECIAL REPORT: As we mark two years since October 7, is peace even possible...

While I hope for an end to the bloodshed, I have my concerns especially in Canada.

Two years ago today, more than 1,200 people were brutally killed including 7 Canadians and even more with deep connections to Canada.

Vivian Silver

Netta Epstein

Alexandre Look

Judih Weinstein

Shir Georgy

Ben Mizrachi

Adi Vital-Kaploun

These are the names of the Canadians killed in the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack. We don’t talk about them enough and today, we’ve got fellow Canadians marching and rallying in support of the folks who carried out the attacks that led to these murders.

In fact, as I write this, “protesters” are scuffling with police.

It haunts me still…

There were so many events and sights that haunt me still from my trip to Israel in January 2024. The war was still fresh, my family didn’t want me to go, but I felt compelled to bear witness.

The scenes in the two kibbutzes that we visited were harrowing. In some spots, you could smell the death where people had been burned alive, it was awful and I hope you never experience that.

That said, one of the most haunting scenes was the car graveyard. As they cleared away the Nova Music Festival and area around it, there were so many cars belonging to those who had been killed that were abandoned, where people had died inside their cars from the terrorist attacks.

We went to the place that these cars were taken to and I took these photos on January 22, 2024.

Ceasefire, but not right now…

For the last two years, I’ve been listening to the protestors, the ones described as peaceful protestors, “pro-Palestinian” protestors, call for a ceasefire and an “end to the genocide.”

Well they have that now and they don’t appear to be happy, in fact, they are ramping up the rhetoric about globalizing the intifada.

Like him or hate him, Donald Trump appears to have a deal in place to halt the fighting and get the hostages returned. It’s believed there are around 20 hostages still alive two years after Hamas invaded Israel and 28 hostages who have died or were murdered and whose remains will be returned.

I’d just like to point out that after two years of going to protest after protest in Toronto, sometimes just running into them as I went about my life, I’ve never heard a single person at these protests call out for the return of the hostages. Had the hostages been returned, this war would have ended long ago, but Hamas never wanted to end the war and neither did their supporters on the streets of Toronto or other Canadian cities.

The reason that I call these protesters in Toronto, and elsewhere, Hamas supporters is because I talk to them, I listen to what they say, I read what they write online. Most of my colleagues in the media are comfortable not getting into the nitty gritty, won’t question or don’t understand what is being chanted and call them “pro-Palestinian” protesters.

Quite frankly, I’m not sure most of them understand this conflict and/or are afraid of standing on the side of a liberal democracy - Israel - when the zeitgeist is all for the other side.

A pro-Palestinian protester would welcome the end of fighting, instead, they are pledging to keep fighting - from Toronto - until the final goal is achieved, eliminating Israel.

That’s what the groups announcing marches across the country are doing. Consider this group with tens of thousands of followers, backed by more community groups with tens of thousands of followers promising to rally here in Toronto.

The statement is clear, “Until total liberation.” That is essentially saying, no peace until we get what we want.

They don’t want a peace deal, they want all the land and Israel eliminated.

If you thought that slogans like “From the river to the sea” or “We don’t want no two state, take us back to ‘48” were just protest rhetoric then you were wrong. The people chanting this over the last two years, mostly a coalition of far-left white folk combined with Islamists, were not joking, they meant those sayings.

A chance to stop the “genocide” and yet they say no…

We’ve been hearing since before Israel’s attack in response to October 7, 2023 that Israel was involved in a genocide. I don’t believe that claim and I’ve spoken to global experts who dispute it, both inside Canada and out.

On CNN Dan Senor, who grew up in Toronto, explains what few will tell you. Well, other than me, the people who have been calling for an end to the so-called “genocide” are suddenly upset at the potential end of the war.

Do Palestinians even want peace with Israel…

It’s a valid question that few will ask, we’ve all been conditioned to say that Hamas is not the people of Gaza and do not represent the people of Gaza. That stops all of us questioning the issue of how deep the support for Hamas really is.

Which brings me to a great clip from the Honestly Podcast with Bari Weiss interviewing Leland Vittert, an anchor with News Nation and former correspondent in the Middle East. Vittert described in detail his interview with a Palestinian woman who had her life saved twice by Israel and yet still told him that she wanted to kills Israelis.

I welcome this potential peace deal, and it is still just a potential peace deal, and hope that it does work, but that remains a long shot. There is a good chance that the hostages come home, but the idea of a lasting peace when people are so radicalized seems like faint hope.