Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Is Stepping Into Her Own

SHE LEFT JUSTIN TO WRITE A SELF HELP AUTOBIGRAPHY, SERIOUSLY

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Is Stepping Into Her OwnCourtesy Penguin Random House Canada

In August, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau announced their split after nearly two decades together. During their marriage, Trudeau credited his wife, who accompanied him on official government engagements all over the world, with helping him to be a better feminist, world leader, and dad. On the heels of the separation, Grégoire Trudeau is taking a step back from politics—but she has no plans to leave the public eye. Instead, she is focusing on her mental health advocacy, a new communications company, and the publication of her memoir. Below, an exclusive first excerpt of Grégoire Trudeau’s autobiography-meets-self-help-book Closer Together (Random House Canada, April 23, 2024), which reveals, in intimate detail for the first time, her struggles with an eating disorder, career as a television host, and rise to become de facto “first lady” of Canada.

Courtesy Penguin Random House Canada

Let’s start with a tiny confession. There’s this thing I do every time I find myself standing around somewhere: in a line at the supermarket when someone is taking forever to place their items on the conveyor belt at the checkout, or standing at a function, maybe, or waiting offstage before I’m announced to make a speech. I also noticed myself doing it while I was sitting at my desk for months writing this book (when I wasn’t occasionally doing jumping jacks to get the feeling back into my legs!). It’s subtle—if you looked at me, you wouldn’t even be able to tell, unless you were really observing closely, which I hope you were not! First, I root my feet deeper into the floor, which supports me. Then I try to find where my breath is in my body; I make it deeper and longer, and more spacious in my belly than in my chest. Next, I check if my shoulders are too close to my ears and release them. And last, whether I’m standing upright or sitting in front of the com­puter, comes the pelvic tilt, where I push my hips a tiny bit forward and bring my tailbone down toward the floor. All of a sudden, I feel more grounded, solid, and calm.


I’ve always been curious about how people inhabit their bodies. As a child, I could effortlessly pick up on facial expressions and cues, any quirks in posture or tone of voice or tics. Once back in the pri­vacy of my bedroom, I would attempt to imitate their stances or movements (surprise, surprise—my kids pick up on the same stuff!). Ever since I studied yoga in my thirties, and became an occasional teacher, I have had a natural, loving desire to adjust the skeletal posi­tioning of human bodies around me. If you’ve ever attended a yoga class and have given consent to hands-on adjustments, you’ll know what I mean. A beautiful assist while you are sitting on your mat: the teacher takes both hands to roll your shoulders back and then elongate your neck by softly lifting up your head. Sometimes that’s all it takes to feel more relaxed, to bring out a sigh of relief.

Did you maybe adjust your own body a tiny bit while reading this?

Grégoire Trudeau and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau watching election results their children in 2021.SEAN KILPATRICK - Getty Images

There’s no question that I am deeply interested in physical align­ment, which can offer hints as to mood, health, disease, personality, and energy. The way we walk, sit, or stand can reflect habits, a former injury, and our own fitness level. But I’m also fundamentally and passionately curious about another type of alignment: our unique emotional alignment. In fact, that’s why I decided to write this book.

As a mental health, emotional literacy, and gender equality advo­cate for the past two decades, I’ve discovered more about human emotions than I ever thought I would. As much as we are thinking beings, we are feeling and sensing beings at our core. Whether we feel happy and hopeful or angry and fearful, we engage not only in a physical or facial expression but also in an emotional posture. Are we truly aware of this process and of how we hold ourselves from the inside? Do we observe, strengthen, and stretch the parts of ourselves, and our minds, that need it the most?

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau at the White House in 2016. Pool - Getty Images

Tell me: If you were to take a snapshot of your mental land­scape, what would it look like? Whatever lights and shadows you can discern, whatever moods, emotions, and images, know that they are all part of you. Much of what you’ve seen or felt was wired into what we call your “primitive brain” during childhood, through your relationship with your parent or caretaker. You carried this hard-wiring through your childhood and into your teenage years (whether rebellious or not), and through the emotional discoveries you made as you grew into your adult life. We tend to convince ourselves that we are unique—so very different from everyone else around us. But the truth of the matter is that the structure of our brains hasn’t changed in more than two hundred thousand years. Where we differ is in our programming, which is dependent on the care we received, the relationships we foster, and the experiences we live through. As therapist and author Vienna Pharaon explains in The Origins of You, “understanding your origin wound and the long-standing pat­terns it leads to will go a long way to addressing conflicts and behav­iours that trouble you today.” If you’re doubting that your childhood experiences affect how you come into relationship with others and yourself, then, just like me, you’ll be surprised by what you’ll learn in this book.

Twenty years ago, when I was a young radio and television host in Quebec—a newcomer in my field—I decided to speak out about my struggles with an eating disorder. It wasn’t an easy deci­sion. I was hesitant to show my vulnerability publicly and won­dered if I would ever be hired again. No one spoke much about mental health back then, and especially not about eating disorders. But deep down, I felt like it was the right thing to do. I faced my fear and went ahead with it—and it became a turning point that has given my life direction.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and their children pose for a photo with the future King Charles and Queen Camilla in Canada in 2017. Chris Jackson - Getty Images

Suffering is part of life. We don’t need to avoid or transcend it. Rather, we must develop wisdom, self-reliance, and resilience through and with our pain. In our search for happiness, we must uncover its roots, as we carry them with us into our mental state and, therefore, into whatever we do and whomever we come into relationship with. Yale psychology professor Laurie R. Santos, who has studied the science of happiness, found that many of us are working at and doing things that actually put a damper on our level of happy. “Natural selection isn’t into us being happy,” she said in a Time magazine interview, in which she discussed her own experience with burnout during the pandemic years. “It would prefer we drove ourselves into the ground trying to survive, reproduce, and get the most resources. It’s not in it for joy.”

Think about that for a minute: on a purely neurological level, our brains don’t care if we’re happy. We need to make that happen, and running ourselves ragged as we chase good grades, status, titles, eternal youth, and bliss isn’t going to do it.

It actually takes courage and work to be happy. We must learn to live with integrity and coherence, staying true to our values and expressing our authentic self. In this way, we can take control over ourselves and our lives. As Dr. Santos says: “Getting out of our own way is the first step to happiness!”

I’m still learning how to get out of my own way. Discovering more about the intricacies of my inner wiring and emotional pos­ture, my childhood, the defense mechanisms I’ve developed, my ongoing longing for safety, and so much more, has allowed me to better understand why I suffered from an eating disorder, how I could heal from it, and how to live with and accept the suffering that had led to it. And along the way, I’m transforming my life—and my brain—with every step.

Excerpted from Closer Together by Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Copyright © 2023 Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Published by Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Growing backlash over Harvard students' pro-Palestine letter


Madeline Halpert - BBC News, New York
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Harvard University campus

A letter from Harvard University student groups blaming Israel for violence in the region has drawn a backlash from prominent alumni and US lawmakers.

The letter, authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, stated that students "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence".

It was co-signed by 33 student groups.

"Today's events did not occur in a vacuum," the statement said.

"The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years," the letter added.

The letter comes after Israel says 1,000 people have been killed and 100 kidnapped since Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in the early hours of Saturday. In Gaza, more than 700 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli air strikes.

The student statement, posted on Saturday, was swiftly rebuked by some professors as well as former Harvard president Larry Summers, who wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was "sickened" by it.

"The silence from Harvard's leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups' statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel," the former US treasury secretary said.

Harvard University issued its own letter on Monday that did not directly address the controversy but instead said university leaders were "heartbroken" by "the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend, and by the war in Israel and Gaza now under way".

In another statement issued later on Tuesday, the university's president, Claudine Gay, clarified that the school "condemn[ed] the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas".

"Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one's individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region," she said.

She added that while students had the right to "speak for themselves", none had the right to speak on behalf of Harvard.

Mr Summers' criticisms, meanwhile, were echoed by several Republican US lawmakers, including Harvard alumni Ted Cruz who wrote on X: "What the hell is wrong with Harvard?"

Harvard Computer Science professor Boaz Barak also took to social media to condemn the letter, asking the university to remove the student groups' school affiliations.

"I have a lot of criticisms of Israeli policies, but everyone who signed this statement is condoning terrorism, rape, and murder," he said.

As The GOP Slams Biden On Israel, No One Mentions Trump's Dangerous Intel Leak

S.V. Date
Updated Tue, October 10, 2023 

WASHINGTON ― As Republicans try to link President Joe Biden’s release of $6 billion of frozen Iranian money as part of a prisoner swap to the weekend terrorist attack on Israel, they continue to ignore the documented damage done to that country’s security by the de facto leader of their party, Donald Trump.

Less than four months into his term, the coup-attempting former president was bragging to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during their Oval Office visit about the quality of the briefings he was receiving, and as proof offered details about a secret Israeli intelligence operation into Syria.

Israeli intelligence officials were incensed upon learning of the leak because, given Russia’s close ties to Iran and Syria, they had to assume that their local source for the information had been compromised and possibly killed, according to Israeli press accounts at the time.

“If indeed Trump, out of innocence or ignorance, leaked information to the Russians, then there is a real danger to sources that it took years to acquire, and to our working methods,” an Israeli intelligence source told journalist Ronen Bergman.

Shabtai Shavit, who led the Mossad intelligence agency in the 1990s, told the Times of Israel: “If tomorrow I were asked to pass information to the CIA, I would do everything I could to not pass it to them. Or I would first protect myself and only then give it, and what I’d give would be totally neutered.”

Despite this, not one of the candidates running against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has criticized Trump for his lack of discretion, even as they uniformly attack Biden for unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian money that had been held in a South Korean bank. Their attacks link that decision with the assault on Israel by the militant group Hamas.

The Biden administration has defended the release of the money as a way to help get five American citizens who had been unjustly detained in Iran back home. Officials point out that the money can only be spent for food, medicine and other humanitarian purposes. Republicans critics argue that money is fungible, and that saving $6 billion on food and medicine allows Iran to spend it on terrorism instead.

On Saturday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, within hours of Hamas’ attacks, blamed Biden: “This terrorism is funded by Biden’s idiotic release of $6 billion to the Iranians.”

“Iran has helped fund this war against Israel and Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran have helped fill their coffers,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a video he released Sunday morning. “Israel is now paying the price for those policies.”

A little later, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott posted: “Biden’s weakness invited the attack. Biden’s negotiation funded the attack. Biden admin wanted Israel to stand down after the attack. At this point, Biden is complicit.”

It’s unclear how the agreement to release money to Iran for humanitarian purposes ― not a dollar of which has yet been spent ― less than a month ago could have “funded” Hamas’ attack, which involved thousands of rockets that must have been stockpiled over a period of many months.

Notably, none of the candidates’ statements criticized Trump for action weakening Israel ― even though they are all running against him for the nomination, and he is the current frontrunner by a wide margin.

Of the half dozen campaigns contacted by HuffPost, Christie’s, DeSantis’ and Scott’s among them, on the matter, only Christie’s responded: “He’s been pretty clear across the board that Trump shouldn’t be president again,” said campaign spokesman Karl Rickett.

Trump’s campaign also did not respond to HuffPost queries.

The May 10, 2017, White House meeting was covered by Russian media, but not American media, and began with Trump telling Lavrov and Kislayak that he had just fired FBI Director James Comey over the agency’s investigation into his contacts with their country ahead of his 2016 election. The Washington Post, which first reported on the incident, quoted an administration official who said that Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

The intelligence concerned ISIS’ newfound ability to make bombs in laptop computers that could get through airport screening, which had led to a ban on people carrying laptops with them on flights coming from a number of Muslim countries.

The information had come via Israeli intelligence agencies through a source who had infiltrated an ISIS cell in Syria and which had been confirmed thanks to electronic eavesdropping equipment planted in a daring nighttime mission by Israeli commandos.

Trump revealed this to the Russians, including the Syrian city in which the operation took place, as part of his boasts.

“Donald Trump further proves he is too dangerous to lead the United States on the world stage,” Biden campaign co-chair Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois senator and military veteran, said in a statement. “The generals and other military leaders who served under Trump—those in a position to know—have repeatedly said he made our country less safe, not more.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have worked closely with their Israeli counterparts for nearly 70 years, since an Israeli agent got hold of a secret speech Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had delivered denouncing Joseph Stalin’s brutality.

In recent years, that cooperation has included work against Iran and the various terror groups in the Middle East.

The clandestine destruction of Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges undertaken during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, for example, was a joint venture between American and Israeli intelligence services.

But U.S. intelligence officials just before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 warned their Israeli colleagues that they may want to be careful about what intelligence they chose to share in the coming administration, given Trump’s fondness for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ties to Iran and Syria.

Israeli officials reportedly were skeptical about that warning ― until the Oval Office meeting four months later proved it correct.

Trump’s Overrated Peace Plan Helped Enable the Horrors in Israel and Gaza

Nicholas Grossman
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

No American president caused Hamas’ surprise assault across the Gaza border that killed over 900 Israelis—mostly in deliberate, brutal attacks on civilians, including 260 at a music festival—and kidnapping about 150 more. But U.S. policy, especially the Trump administration’s, contributed to the unsustainable situation that made an outbreak of violence more likely.

Claims that “Trump brought peace to the Middle East” are almost an inversion of reality.

He shifted U.S. policy fully in Israel’s favor—reducing support for the Palestinians and treating their quest for statehood as something that could be ignored—and shaped the regional context by heightening confrontation with Iran without strategic benefit.

It’s Dangerous for the U.S. to Give Israel a Blank Check to Assault Gaza

Ignoring the Big Problem

Let’s start with Trump’s relatively most positive contribution, the Abraham Accords. That deal normalized relations between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), opening flights that sent tourists to each other for the first time.

All three of those countries are small, wealthy American partners that oppose Iran, making an agreement easier. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Central Command and the Fifth Fleet. The Trump administration greased the skids with the UAE by authorizing F-35 fighter jet and Reaper drone sales, making them the only country in the Middle East besides Israel with advanced stealth aircraft.

But whatever you think of that price, more peace is a positive development, and could provide a stepping stone for a wider Arab-Israeli deal, as the Biden administration has been attempting with Saudi Arabia.

But lying about the Abraham Accords, stretching them into “the dawn of a new Middle East,” and playing them up for an American domestic audience was emblematic of Trump’s larger failure. He threw America’s weight behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s squeeze-and-ignore approach to the Palestinians, as if the fundamental problem of people displaced and living under occupation would just go away.

Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy there, breaking American policy since the 1979 Camp David Accords that treated the city as disputed, given Palestinian claims to a capital in East Jerusalem. Trump cut $25 million in U.S. support for Palestinian hospitals, and $200 million from the UN Relief and Works Agency that has helped displaced Palestinians and their descendants since 1949. In early 2020, Trump’s son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner put out a “peace plan” that mostly just proposed giving Israel what it wants and dismissing Palestinian concerns.

The U.S. Government Can’t Allow Elon Musk the Power to Intervene in Wars

Meanwhile, Israel expanded settlements in the West Bank, along with the corresponding military/policing presence that defends setters from violence (including when the settlers commit some). On the other half of the Palestinian territories, Israel kept Gaza under blockade, and fought occasional wars with Hamas. The Israeli government moved further and further right, pursuing West Bank annexation, and the two-state solution, which was never that plausible to begin with, became more and more of a pipe dream.

That describes the last decade and a half, since Hamas forcibly took control of Gaza in 2007. Trump gave Israel things it wanted without getting anything in return, and encouraged Netanyahu’s sense that Israel could build international relationships, cultivate partnerships with Arab states who share fears of both Iran and jihadists, and ignore the Palestinians.

But the Bush and Obama administrations essentially punted on the issue, increasing military aid, albeit with varying levels of criticism. For example, Israel bristled when the Obama administration abstained rather than vetoed a UN resolution calling for an end to Israeli settlement-building, but certainly didn’t object when Obama authorized a $38 billion package of military assistance to Israel, the largest in history.

Former President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty

Unignorable Violence

Now Hamas has conducted an impossible-to-ignore attack. The size and brutality of the assault means the logic of national security has taken over—no state would tolerate this—and the Israeli military will try to root out, or at least significantly weaken the organization behind it.

First step is regaining control of border towns, clearing out Hamas infiltrators. Israeli forces have reportedly killed 1,500 fighters on their territory. Airstrikes on Gaza are already underway, and hundreds of Palestinians there are dead. That will surely rise into the thousands, especially if Israel conducts extensive ground operations (as appears imminent).

Some of the dead will be civilians, including children. Israel takes steps to reduce civilian casualties, but a large number is an inevitable consequence of IDF assaults, especially in densely-populated Gaza, as Hamas takes cover among the civilian population.

Israel will likely go in hard, searching for Hamas fighters, leaders, and equipment, and rescuing hostages if they can. Hamas and other Palestinian militants, such as Islamic Jihad, will probably try to draw Israeli forces into urban areas and inflict maximum casualties via ambushes, including with booby traps and tunnels. Small, inexpensive drones give them the ability to spot Israeli movements, or attack targets. As determined and technologically advanced as Israel may be, urban warfare in a densely populated area against a prepared enemy will be difficult and costly.

The United States will back Israel, with President Biden promising assistance, and efforts to “ensure no enemies of Israel believe they can or should seek advantage from the current situation.” The U.S. Navy moved a carrier group into the eastern Mediterranean, presumably as a warning against other states getting involved.

America is rushing Israel interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome air defense system, and munitions for offensive operations. The U.S. has long designated Hamas a terrorist group, and, like many others, seems appalled by the latest attack—which more resembles an ISIS-style massacre than the rocket barrages that killed fewer than ten Israelis in the worst year of such attacks, or the commando operations that snuck under the border in a tunnel and kidnapped an Israeli soldier.

Do Hamas’ Brutal Tactics Do Anything to Help Palestinians?

Depending on how the fighting goes, and how the hostage situation unfolds, Israel could need more U.S. military aid, which would require an act of Congress. But the House is currently in turmoil, lacking a Speaker due to the Republican majority’s dysfunction.

Regional War?

The other big, short-term concern for America is whether the Israel-Hamas war sparks a wider regional conflict. A lot of that depends on how much Iran was involved in Hamas’ attack, and on what Hezbollah does.

The Iran-allied militants based in southern Lebanon, who fought Israel to a stalemate in 2006, likely were not involved in Hamas’ assault, but could open a second front in the war as Israel attacks Gaza. The border situation is uneasy, as a small contingent from Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacked from Lebanon, killing an Israeli soldier. Israel fired back into Lebanon, reportedly killing three Hezbollah members, and the group fired rockets back at Israel, but didn’t kill anyone.

Hezbollah is stronger than Hamas, and would pose a difficult challenge, especially with Israel already engaged in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) called up 300,000 reservists—a large, rapid mobilization for a country of 9.3 million—and deployed some to the north in case Hezbollah acts. But at least for now, the cross-border firing is limited, on par with other exchanges since the 2006 war. And Hezbollah is closer than Hamas to Iran, which means Tehran is a big factor in whether the fighting goes regional.

President Joe Biden at the White House on October 7, 2023.
Samuel Corum/Getty

The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive claiming that Iran helped plot the attack, and gave Hamas a green light. However, an IDF spokesperson says they’re continuing to investigate, but haven’t seen evidence Iran “was involved in planning or training.” The U.S. says similarly, while both Hamas and Iran denied that Iran directed the attack or knew about it in advance.

That signals that none of those parties want a wider war. Unless evidence emerges that Hamas’ assault ultimately came from Tehran, Israel will likely focus on Palestinian militants, and the U.S. will work to avoid a regional conflagration, rather than start one.

Nevertheless, Iran does supply Hamas with weaponry, and expressed support after the recent attack. They’re both part of an “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, the U.S., the West (and to some extent Saudi Arabia), along with Syria, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militias. With this many volatile relationships involved, there are multiple ways the war could spiral, even if none of the major players want it to.

Here, too, Trump’s foreign policy put the U.S. in a worse position.

In 2018, he unilaterally broke the Iran nuclear deal, which the Pentagon and American intelligence said Iran was following, letting Iran out of nuclear restrictions in exchange for nothing, and angering U.S. allies. In 2019, Trump moved towards war after Iran likely was behind attacks on two commercial tankers in the Gulf, but offered to negotiate at the last minute, and when Iran declined, called off the attack anyway. The U.S. had already started conducting cyber operations against Iranian defenses, revealing which systems America had penetrated for what turned out to be Trump’s unsuccessful bluff.

LAST TIME I CHECKED A TANK IS NOT A CIVILIAN

Hamas fighters hold a Palestinian flag as they destroy a tank of Israeli forces in Gaza City, Gaza on October 07, 2023.
Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency via Getty

In early 2020, after U.S. exchanges with Iran-backed Iraqi militias and a riot at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qasem Soleimani, the first direct American attack on a foreign military commander since WWII. Soleimani had a lot of blood on his hands, and constituted a legitimate military target in Iraq given his involvement in the threat to the American embassy. But the strike prompted the Islamic Republic’s first-ever open attack on American forces, firing missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq that injured over a 100, but luckily killed none, giving the U.S. an offramp from escalation.

Killing Soleimani ultimately yielded no strategic gain, as other Revolutionary Guard leaders moved up a spot and operations continued. The one lasting effect was Iraq falling under more Iranian influence.

Elsewhere, the Trump administration backed the failed Saudi-led attempt to blockade Qatar, which did little besides pushing Qatar closer to Iran, and seemed driven more by an effort to line Jared Kushner’s pockets than advance any coherent American interest. Later, Trump’s chaotic, haphazard approach to Syria screwed over America’s Kurdish partners, embarrassingly yielded U.S. bases to Russia, and ended up improving Iran’s position.

The People Who Protect Israel Are Scared as Hell

Biden has played the weakened hand Trump gave him with a mix of force and diplomacy, ordering airstrikes against Iran-backed militias along the Iraq-Syria border, maintaining post-JCPOA sanctions while trying to get Iran to agree to new nuclear restrictions—which may be impossible, since Trump gave Iranians good reason to think America won’t honor any commitment—and securing the release of five Americans held prisoner by Iran.

Republican critics, such as Rep. Mike Lawler and recently ousted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, accuse Biden of some responsibility for Hamas’ attack because Iran got $6 billion in unfrozen funds as part of the prisoner deal, but that doesn’t make sense. The money was Iranian, not American, and came from oil sales to South Korea authorized by Donald Trump. It will be held in a Qatari bank, available only for humanitarian goods, and Iran hasn’t used any yet.

Hapless Netanyahu Was Totally Unprepared for Attack

Money is fungible, so Iran could shift funds to weaponry while anticipating the budgetary boost, but given the size and sophistication of Hamas’ operation, there’s no way they started plotting it last month, when the deal went through. (Reuters reported that Hamas’ plot was two years in the making.) And few to any Biden critics say they wish those five Americans were still in Iranian prison.

But on Israel-Palestine, Biden let the status quo fester, first focusing on COVID and ending America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, then on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and broader geopolitical competition with China. In July 2023, the Biden administration expressed concern over Israel’s far right governing coalition’s divisive effort to increase their power by overhauling the Israeli judiciary, but didn’t go beyond verbal criticism.

Now Hamas’ attack and Israel’s response have grabbed America’s attention, while dashing hopes that gradual economic improvements would lead Hamas, and especially Palestinians who do not closely support them, to prefer relative stability (under occupation) over militancy.

In the short-term, Biden’s task is clear, albeit challenging. Support Israel’s security while trying to minimize harm to innocent Palestinians, keep the war from turning into a wider conflagration with Iran, and manage the regional instability Trump left in his wake.

But the longer-term Israel-Palestinian situation is a tragic mess. It’s easy for outsiders to imagine an end state that sounds fair to them, but no one knows how to get there.

 The Daily Beast.

PUBLIC PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY IN CANADA

'You do not speak for me' to 'A strong statement needed to be made': Canadians react to leaders addressing Israel-Gaza war

Both the Canadian and Ontario Premier were in attendance and made statements at pro-Israel rallies on Thanksgiving Day


Corné van Hoepen
·Contributor, Yahoo News Canada
Updated Tue, October 10, 2023 

Canadians gathered across the country on Thanksgiving Day in a display of solidarity — some to Palestine, some to Israel — as the conflict lingers on and the death toll mounts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a firm stance against the deadly Hamas attack at a gathering Monday evening at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre in Ottawa.

“Hamas terrorists aren't a resistance, they're not freedom fighters. They are terrorists, and no one in Canada should be supporting them, much less celebrating them,” Trudeau said.

Over in Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland took to the stage at Mel Lastman Square in North York where a massive crowd gathered to show support for Israel.

“We will always be an ally, we will always be a friend and, my friends, we wish you lasting peace and freedom,” Ford said.




Israel-Gaza conflict: Trudeau condemns 'brutal, horrific' Hamas attacks

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a vigil for Israel at a Jewish Community Centre in Ottawa on Monday, expressing his support for Israel. “First, let me begin by being absolutely clear: Canada unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms condemns these terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas," Trudeau said, describing the attacks as “brutal and horrific.”

 

'You will NEVER speak for me': Social media reacts

With both the prime minister and Ontario premier making blanket statement pledging support of Israel while denouncing the pro-Palestinian rallies held on Canada's streets, social media users are reacting with varied responses.

Some point to Palestine's right to defend themselves — but it is worth noting that the unprecedented attack against Israel on Saturday by Hamas militants was not an act of self-defence.

Some notable responses poured in applauding the prime minister's strong denunciation of the Hamas attack.

"He nearly sounded like a prime minister," commented one social media user.

Although, the synonymous front Canadian leaders from various political backings appear to hold is drawing skepticism from some.

Over in Toronto, one social media user says the Ontario premier "spoke with moral clarity," during his remarks in North York.

Others were calling for the Ontario premier to share some of the history behind the the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"Proud to have you as a premier of Ontario!" said one social media user in response to the premier's speech.

'That's nice and all' to 'You are siding with oppression': PM Trudeau's unapologetic pro-Israel stance draws flurry of reactions from Canadians

Canadian landmarks were lit up in solidarity for Israel on Sunday as the country lashes back at an unprecedented terror attack


Corné van Hoepen
·Contributor, Yahoo News Canada
Updated Mon, October 9, 2023 

Canadian landmarks lit up to show support for Israel (@norlowsky/Twitter)

As Canadian landmarks were lit up in Israeli colours and flags on Parliament Hill flown at half-mast as a display of solidarity in the wake of the deadly Hamas terror attacks against Israel, some social media users are reacting with mixed opinions.

Monday saw Israel enter it's third day of conflict with Gaza in what is now being declared as a full-blown war, with hundreds of Israeli and Palestinians dead, and thousands more injured.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was quick to publicly condemn the surprise attack by the Hamas, posted on social media on Sunday that the Peace Tower in Ottawa would be lit up blue and white, and flags at the Peace Tower, Prime Minister's Office, and across Parliament Hill would be lowered.

"Canada stands with Israel," the prime minister's statement reads.

Sunday evening, the City of Vancouver also announced that they would be decking the city hall in Israeli colours as a show of solidarity.

Prime minister's unwavering Israel support draws mixed reactions

Reaction from Canadian social media users to Trudeau's response to the attacks range from supportive to calls for more support for the Palestinian community.

As Thanksgiving Day sees flights grounded in Tel Aviv and the Canadian embassy shuttered, many are calling for more efforts to help Canadians on the ground in Israel.

Others point to the performative appearance of lighting of landmarks, and saying more should be done to bring peace to the region.

These social media users raise the point on how innocent blood is being shed on both sides as the conflict wages on.

Others pondered if Canada would show support for lives of Palestinians lost during the long-standing conflict between Israel and Gaza.

Some social media users say the lighting of landmarks in Israeli colours only continues to uphold and legitimize apartheid.

Others just offered up a simple thanks for taking a strong stance on an act of terror.