Justin Trudeau is struggling to walk a very fine line on the Israel-Hamas war

 

The PM is caught between asserting Israel's right to self-defence and reflecting Canadians' grief and fear

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the Antisemitism: Face It, Fight It conference in Ottawa

The war between Israel and Hamas creates two challenges for Justin Trudeau, as it would for any Canadian prime minister.

First, he must try to take and hold a principled position on a dire conflict. Second, he must try to hold together a country whose citizens are understandably agonized by the death and destruction.

The strain of both those tasks only becomes more apparent with each passing day. Within 24 hours of Trudeau's remarks on the conflict Tuesday, Trudeau was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters inside a Vancouver restaurant for what he didn't say — and scolded online by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what he did say.

Trudeau's five-minute statement on Tuesday — delivered in the middle of an announcement of federal support for a new battery facility in British Columbia — began with comments and arguments he has offered before. The "human tragedy" unfolding in the Gaza Strip is "heart wrenching," he said, and the "price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians."

"Even wars have rules," he added. "All innocent life is equal in worth — Israeli and Palestinian."

He later condemned Hamas's use of human shields and called for the release of all hostages. He cited Hamas's threat to launch repeated attacks like the one it carried out on October 7.

He called again for a "humanitarian pause" and unfettered access to humanitarian aid. He expressed a hope that a sustained pause would create the conditions for peace.

He denounced recent incidents of antisemitic violence in Montreal and elsewhere. He called on Canadians to "remember who we are" and to be there for each other.

But what seems to have drawn the ire of Netanyahu and others is a portion of Trudeau's remarks that began with a call for Israel to exercise "maximum restraint."

"Because the world is watching," the prime minister said. "On TV, on social media, we're hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who've lost their parents. The world is witnessing this. The killing of women and children, of babies. This has to stop."