Eventful
In a short span of time this week, some very strange things took place. None of them were earthshattering events, and were not really treated as such in the press. They are not connected, nor do they stand up to juxtaposition. I thought them intriguing enough that I shelved my intended post in favour of this one.
A report came out of the White House from Axios that there is displeasure with Israel over the elimination of Hamas honcho Raad Saad. It seems that it may have been a violation of the ceasefire agreement in which President Trump is heavily invested. For his part, Trump said that they would look into it. So far, no one is making anything of it. I would guess that it is Trump’s lip service-obligatory criticism of Israel in order to maintain ties with Qatar and the Saudis.
Nothing will likely be made of this in the face of the next step that Trump took. There were no more significant statements regarding Saad’s removal. Instead, Trump imposed a new travel and immigration ban on Tuesday for anyone attempting to enter the United States with documents issued by the Palestinian Authority or Syria. That is striking. He is actually saying out loud that Americans should not have to live under the potential threat to their lives posed by people from those places. He just made it easier for us to say the same thing.
And then there’s Canada. A delegation of 30 Canadians, including six sitting MPs, was refused entry to Judea Samaria from Jordan on Tuesday, allegedly because of ties of the organizing group to a banned terror group, Islamic Relief Canada, which is a subsidiary of Islamic Relief Worldwide, a listed terror organization in Israel. The delegation’s motives – from where they were going to, from where they chose to enter in the first place – do not interest me. What is of note – and a positive development – is that this government sees a value in keeping those who wish to harm us with the very effective weapon that is perception far away.
Just when we think things are going a certain way, things get said and done and blow away previous observations and analyses. There can be a fair amount of “didn’t see that coming” events that have consequences, impact and influence. We as a light unto the nations can see what others are doing – how they treat their enemies, how they treat their friends. Let’s try to pay attention, everybody.