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National Post

Opinion: If RCMP is probing Israel for war crimes, it has no morality

As the sun shines over the ghost town of Metula which abuts the Israel-Lebanon border, blue jacaranda petals softly fall from their trees to blanket its missile-torn streets in a vibrant lavender hue. It is a scene of heartbreaking juxtaposition — nature's relentless beauty blooming against the backdrop of human devastation, where time stands still in an eerie dance between lush abundance and complete war-torn destruction. Article content Article content 'Most of them will return,' David Azoulay, the mayor of Metula, told our group on our recent tour — speaking of his 2,000 evacuated residents — 'because this is our home. We will rebuild and pull through.' These words come from a man who slept on the floor of his tiny subterranean office for months after October 7, as his town was mercilessly shelled by Hezbollah in a devastating campaign entirely unprovoked by Israel, one that obliterated over 60 per cent of the city's buildings and homes and forced the evacuation of an entire community. Article content Article content Article content Once-beautiful family homes now lie in piles of rubble, with all that remains of everyday life found in the charred remnants of furniture and melted appliances. Yet here, rolling up their sleeves, the people of Metula are rebuilding their city piece by piece, determined to breathe life back into what was once a vibrant community in northern Israel. Article content Amidst rising tensions with Israel, Canada's premier law enforcement agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), is preparing the ground for an investigation into potential war crimes related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Should the target of the investigation be the state of Israel, or Israeli Canadians who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), it would expose a moral blindness so profound it borders on the obscene. Article content Article content Perhaps, Ottawa needs reminding that Hamas set the region ablaze in its barbarous rampage on October 7, forcing Israel into a seven-front war of survival against the Iranian regime's genocidal Islamist terror proxies. Inexplicably, the RCMP didn't disclose any plans to prosecute Hamas for murdering eight Canadians. While Canada launched a thunderous campaign for its Ukraine investigation — complete with hotlines, dedicated webpages, airport signage, and breathless media interviews — the Israel-Hamas war probe has skulked in shadows, acknowledged only when pressed by journalists. Article content