Toronto Star columnist Linda McQuaig continues to selectively pay attention to the Middle East whilst blaming Israel for the Iranian-backed terror war launched against it on October 7, 2023.

Her October 17 column entitled: “Canada should be tougher on Israel for defying UN,” is just the latest installment of her habitual anti-Israel rhetoric. Long before Hamas’ October 7 massacres, in 2020, she called for Canada to sanction Israel.

But some background on the United Nations’ (UN) role in “peacekeeping” in Lebanon is called for in order to set the record straight. UN Resolution 1701 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 2006 following the war initiated by Hezbollah against Israel. It established a UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, that would be deployed in southern Lebanon, and it required “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so there will be no weapons or authority in the country other than that of the Lebanese State.” Further, it compelled both Israel and Lebanon to keep the area in between the Israeli border and the “Blue Line” free from all military personnel. The Blue Line is a line running 120 kilometres across southern Lebanon demarcating a distance of about 10 kilometres from the Israeli border in which only UN forces may take up positions.

On both counts, Hezbollah has failed to abide by the resolution, and UNIFIL has been spectacularly inept at best, and complicit with Hezbollah at worst. Reports abound of Hezbollah military infrastructure built near UN posts, of UNIFIL being at Hezbollah’s mercy     , and UN peacekeepers bribed by Hezbollah to do its bidding. And yet, McQuaig’s column failed to note, address, or make any call to action on these escalations and violations of UN neutrality.

The United Nations forces cannot have failed to witness Hezbollah constructing their vast tunnel network in this “demilitarized” zone over the past two decades. Hezbollah’s military infrastructure abounds in this area, in close proximity to UNIFIL installations. While UNIFIL was obligated to alert the United Nations of these actions in order to avoid the inevitable escalation that would ensue, there is no record of this taking place. At this time, UNIFIL is refusing to vacate their positions so that Israel can take action against Hezbollah, deliberately acting as human shields for the Islamic terrorist group.

McQuaig claimed that Israel is displaying “open hostility” to the United Nations, and that this should merit a stern response from the Canadian government in the name of “safeguarding” the international body that adopted more anti-Israel resolutions in 2022 than against all other countries combined. Apparently the United Nations, which counts notorious human rights abusers Afghanistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia as members on its “Human Rights Council,” ought to be bolstered by a more strident anti-Israel position by the Canadian government and the Canadian representative to the world body.

Hezbollah, of course, fired the opening shots of the recent escalation, and continues to antagonize communities in northern Israel with rocket fire and drone attacks from southern Lebanon. In support of Hamas, Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, and has since fired some 10,000 explosives into Israel. Israel has acted in its defense in countering these attacks, with the goal of returning tens of thousands of Israelis who live in northern Israel to their homes. The goal is not, as McQuaig would have readers believe, to stage an “invasion” of Lebanon.

Israel is similarly fighting a defensive war in its south, as it tries to defeat Hamas and their destructive hold over Gaza. McQuaig parroted casualty numbers provided by the Hamas-run “Gaza Health Ministry” to demonstrate how Israel is fighting a war too deadly to be justified, ignoring the highly suspect figures, the scores of dead terrorists among them, and Hamas’ use of its own population as human shields.

In her column, McQuaig displayed no interest in the reality facing the Israeli civilians who are engaged in a multi-front war for their very survival. She provided no alternative courses of action that would allow them to avoid any of the conflicts in which they are currently engaged. In selectively holding UN resolutions as sacrosanct only when it fits her anti-Israel narrative, McQuaig recused herself from any claim to a reasonable or balanced view on the conflict, though that has not stopped her from condemning Israel in her columns again and again and again.