In his November 1 opinion column in The Globe and Mail, Doug Saunders made the astounding statement that Israel is fighting Iranian-backed terrorist proxies in order “to shape the outcome of a U.S. election.”

Saunders’ commentary entitled: “Escalating a war to elect a U.S. president: Is this the Netanyahu strategy?” identified “what was formerly known as the Israel-Hamas war,” lamenting that it is “now a complex and bloody three-front war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran,” all because Israel has orchestrated it.

While it may be news to Saunders, the war of aggression from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s terrorist proxies against Israel has been happening much longer than a few weeks. On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out its bloodthirsty massacres in southern Israel. The very next day, Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy, began firing rockets unprovoked into Israel, in ‘solidarity’ with its ally Hamas. Both groups are committed to Israel’s destruction, and Hezbollah is widely considered to be the world’s most powerful terrorist group.

Soon enough, Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen, as well as Iranian terrorist groups based in Iraq joined in as well, firing rockets into Israel, despite having no reason whatsoever to do so. And Iran itself, the proverbial head of the multi-tentacled octopus, fired hundreds of drones and missiles into Israel in April, in its own aggressive act.

All this appears to be ignored by Saunders, who apparently only began paying attention once Israel responded in self-defence, implying that Jerusalem was the aggressor. Instead of acknowledging that Iran, not Israel, launched a war of aggression, Saunders accused Israel of placing its own soldiers and civilians in harm’s way to satisfy the personal political ambitions of its prime minister.

Saunders quoted a number of critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while ignoring that Israelis by a wide margin, regardless of their criticisms of the prime minister, recognize the deadly threat posed by Iranian-backed terrorist groups and the necessity in Israel defending itself.

This tired practice by so many columnists – to ignore Iranian terrorism against Israel, and only notice when Israel dares to protect itself – is not worthy of publication.

Saunders complained that Israel has refused to capitulate, even after the “top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed,” but any casual observer would note that neither group has ceased to exist, an estimated 100 hostages remain in captivity by Hamas, and Hezbollah continues to fire deadly rockets into Israel on a daily basis, proving daily that the groups pose deadly threats to Israel.

Even more bizarre, Saunders made the completely false statement that Israel has carried out a “months-long refusal to engage in negotiations that might free the Oct. 7 hostages…” In contrast to Saunders’ accusations, the United States government has made clear that Hamas has refused to engage in ceasefire talks for weeks on end. Saunders has long falsely accused Israel of being obstructionist.

Instead of meaningfully – or even casually – addressing the elephant in the room, namely Iran’s ongoing attempt to wipe Israel off the map, Saunders lamented what he characterized as Israel’s “violent escalations that could trigger a regional conflagration.” The Iranian-backed “regional conflagration began long before October 7, 2023, as Tehran’s array of terror proxies surrounded Israel.

Simply because Iran has desired to fight a war against Israel on its terms does not mean that Israel has to agree to those terms. In fact, Jerusalem is morally obligated to protect its population, and that means ensuring that genocidal terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah can no longer threaten Israel’s existence.

Perhaps most obscene in Saunders’ column is his apparent unwillingness to acknowledge that Iran, for no reason other than its fanatical Islamist ideology, has been prosecuting a war against Israel for decades, and consequently, can end it any time it likes. Iran makes no secret of its ultimate goal to destroy Israel, and its actions prove that it is deadly serious.

Perhaps it is time that Doug Saunders starts paying attention.