Latest / Kvetch & Release / Hezbollah rocket attack in northern Israeli village kills at least 12 children playing soccer

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Hezbollah rocket attack in northern Israeli village kills at least 12 children playing soccer · Kvetch & Release

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  Speaker 1: Hey, we're back John Ledkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW.
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  Speaker 1: Hope you're all doing well. It is eleven thirty four. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we just saw this rocket attack by Hesbela from Lebanon
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  Speaker 1: into Israel. Hesbela started attacking Israel the day after Hamas
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  Speaker 1: attacked Israel on October seventh, so we're going back almost
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  Speaker 1: we're getting close to the one year anniversary, and we
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  Speaker 1: saw a number of deaths of the Druze community, primarily children.
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  Speaker 1: A soccer field was attacked, which is where one of
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  Speaker 1: the rockets landed. Just absolutely tragic and horrific and wanted
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  Speaker 1: to talk about this here on the air. We have
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  Speaker 1: someone joining us who is a Canadian born and raised
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  Speaker 1: in Toronto, but as a professional hockey coach and mental
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  Speaker 1: health coach in Israel, where he's lived with his wife
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  Speaker 1: and two children. He's not Jewish, but he moved to
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  Speaker 1: Israel in twenty eleven and his family has been evacuated
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  Speaker 1: from their homes since October of last year because of
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  Speaker 1: those rocket attacks that I just referenced. There's over eighty
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  Speaker 1: thousand people who have been evacuated from the north of
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  Speaker 1: Israel because of those rockets. Before October seventh. My guest
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  Speaker 1: had led multiple mixed delegations of Jewish and Arab youth
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  Speaker 1: to North America for hockey bonding trips.
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  Speaker 2: He was also the ass associate coach of the.
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  Speaker 1: Israel national junior team U eighteen and U twenty, winning
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  Speaker 1: a silver medal with the U eighteen and eighteen team
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  Speaker 1: in Sofia, Bulgaria. Joining me right now to discuss is
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  Speaker 1: Michael Masica.
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  Speaker 3: How are you doing, Michael, Hi, John, thanks for having
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  Speaker 3: me on. I wish I could say I'm happy to
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  Speaker 3: be on, but it's extremely difficult days here in northern
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  Speaker 3: Israel and across the country.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, can we again my sympathies to you.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's just absolutely tragic situations that have been ongoing,
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  Speaker 1: and I just what's it like just being there, being evacuated,
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  Speaker 1: you know, dealing with these situations. It's a daily basis
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  Speaker 1: that rockets are being levied.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's extremely disheartening and it's easy to give up hope.
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  Speaker 3: And I'll be a little bit more clear, it's not
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  Speaker 3: because of my personal situation of being uprooted and being
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  Speaker 3: currently a refugee in the country where I live. It's
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  Speaker 3: the lack of moral compass that I see from the
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  Speaker 3: mainstream media. I mean, twelve kids, and we hope, as
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  Speaker 3: bad as that sounds, that the number will say at twelve.
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  Speaker 3: But there's still dozens in critical condition in Israeli hospitals,
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  Speaker 3: receiving the best care possible. But we see twelve of
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  Speaker 3: them die on a Saturday while they're just trying to
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  Speaker 3: go out play soccer to forget about all of the
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  Speaker 3: stuff that's going around them. And it's unfortunately because if
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  Speaker 3: it was anywhere else, pretty much there'd be an uproar
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  Speaker 3: and protests in the streets and on college campuses. But
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  Speaker 3: I guess it's not enough if you're from northern Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I honest, I don't know. It's not good to
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  Speaker 1: break on radio. It makes for really bad radio, quite frankly.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean, I'm at a loss for words. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know how to respond to you, just as a
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  Speaker 1: human to human basis.
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  Speaker 3: I'll be honest with you, John, I want to commend you.
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  Speaker 3: You you don't really have to, You're you're being amazing
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  Speaker 3: and brave for just having me on the fact that
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  Speaker 3: this story hasn't absolutely blown up on the news, and
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  Speaker 3: the fact that I look on the front page of
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  Speaker 3: the Washington Post today and it's just an atrocious cover
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  Speaker 3: for an internationally acclaimed newspaper. It's a picture of my friend,
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  Speaker 3: a girl who I took on these delegations that you
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  Speaker 3: still earlier, delegations where Jews and Arabs, Christian Muslims, drus
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  Speaker 3: and Jewish people all together going across to Canada, North
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  Speaker 3: America wherever, and finding a commonality through sport. And through
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  Speaker 3: that commonality through sport, they saw really other commonalities in
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  Speaker 3: their lives. But you see these things and it's just
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  Speaker 3: really disheartening.
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  Speaker 1: Well, sport is supposed to be what brings us all together.
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  Speaker 1: One of the people, one of the kids that was
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  Speaker 1: killed is your cousin, you coach, you coached I suppose
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  Speaker 1: I have to say, a seven year old?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and well there was confusion at the beginning. Now
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  Speaker 3: the youngest that has died is ten. From what I understand,
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  Speaker 3: I have a direct connection to each and every one
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  Speaker 3: of these families. Unfortunately, normally, in some sort of tragic thing,
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  Speaker 3: somebody might have a connection with one, maybe two. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: because of the proximity of our region, for one, and
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  Speaker 3: the proximity of the community of Montreal, champs. It really
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  Speaker 3: is a few families that really make up one big family,
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  Speaker 3: and I literally have a connection to all of them,
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  Speaker 3: and so it's really it's a girl whom I coached,
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  Speaker 3: Natalie al Din. She unfortunately has to bury her eleven
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  Speaker 3: year old cousin. I have another player who I coached,
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  Speaker 3: do you have Halliby And he has to bury his
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  Speaker 3: eleven year old cousin, Our goaltender Bisatt Mary, who many
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  Speaker 3: Canadians have seen on television from our movie Neutral Zone
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  Speaker 3: that was done by TSN years ago. Josh Schiman and
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  Speaker 3: Michael Farber put that together. And she has to bury
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  Speaker 3: two of her cousins. It's indescribable, and it's really really indescribable.
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  Speaker 2: It's just it's tragic. It's without words.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry that I got to shift things into the
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  Speaker 1: political and the politics side of things, but I would
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  Speaker 1: like to get your response to this, okay. Our Minister
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  Speaker 1: of Foreign Affairs melanisually put out a tweet yesterday that
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  Speaker 1: said we are horrified by the rocket attack on a
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  Speaker 1: soccer field and Maje Dlscham's which has killed more than
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  Speaker 1: ten innis In people and wounded many more, primarily children.
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  Speaker 1: Will unequivocally condemn this attack and offer our condolences to
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  Speaker 1: the families of the victims and the JRWIS community. We
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  Speaker 1: reiterate our demand that Israel and it's affiliated terror that
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  Speaker 1: Iran excuse me and it's affiliated terrorist groups refrained from
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  Speaker 1: destabilizing actions in the Middle East. We remain gravely concerned
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  Speaker 1: about the prospect of further escalation across the region. Notably
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  Speaker 1: absent in that first statement was the word israel I.
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  Speaker 1: Noticedly absent from that statement was the word Hesbela, who
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  Speaker 1: committed the attack? What do you think when our Minister
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  Speaker 1: of Foreign Affairs and then to be fair, there was
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  Speaker 1: a cleanup on ale Foreign Affairs. She put out a
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  Speaker 1: tweet afterwards that said we support Israel security, stand with
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  Speaker 1: it against Iran back threats. Canada assesses that Hesbola and
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  Speaker 1: I ran back to terrorist organization is responsible when it
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  Speaker 1: goes on from there, I mean, what does it say
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  Speaker 1: that they have to go and put out clean up
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  Speaker 1: statements because they were unable to say the country where
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  Speaker 1: this occurred and the terrorist outfit that committed it.
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  Speaker 3: It's puzzling to me. I really have a tough time
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  Speaker 3: understanding what the trouble is with language over there. I
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  Speaker 3: don't know why it's so hard to say that a
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  Speaker 3: terrorist group named hesbel Lah which is a proxy of
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  Speaker 3: Iran at least she mentioned that. Good for her, But
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  Speaker 3: we have terrorists who are attacking our communities, civilian communities.
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  Speaker 3: From October the eighth, my community of Matula, where I live,
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  Speaker 3: more than one hundred and twenty homes have been devastated
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  Speaker 3: by rockets. I don't live on an army base. We
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  Speaker 3: have an army base close to us, unfortunately, because our
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  Speaker 3: neighbors want to erase us off the map. We want
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  Speaker 3: to live there peacefully beside our neighbors. But for now
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  Speaker 3: they still are living in times that are way way
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  Speaker 3: past where we need to get going here.
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  Speaker 1: So by all accounts, it looks like if there's ever
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  Speaker 1: been a time for a ceasefire with Hamas, it seems
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  Speaker 1: like it's getting closer to that than it's been before.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the reasoning that I've been reading is that
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  Speaker 1: Israel is looking to prepare for an offensive against Hesbolah
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  Speaker 1: in Lebanon, and I just wonder what your thoughts are
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  Speaker 1: about that, you know, being from a community that has
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  Speaker 1: seen houses destroyed, that has seen immense evacuation, what your
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  Speaker 1: thoughts are about, you know, the shifting focus of this
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  Speaker 1: multi front geopolitical conflict that Israel has found itself in.
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  Speaker 3: It's again puzzling because I want to remind all of
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  Speaker 3: your listeners and anybody who's willing to just listen. When
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  Speaker 3: nine to eleven happened, I don't recall any calls for
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  Speaker 3: common restraint. I calls for shock and awe. Now, if
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  Speaker 3: there were kids playing in a park, you know, somewhere
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  Speaker 3: there in Windsor on a Saturday, just trying to enjoy
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  Speaker 3: the day, or maybe playing street hockey on there on
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  Speaker 3: a Friday, and all of a sudden, rockets started raining
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  Speaker 3: in on them, what would you, folks want to happen?
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  Speaker 3: How would you want response to be? Now, I agree
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  Speaker 3: with you, I don't want war. War is absolutely awful.
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  Speaker 3: But you know what else, nobody else that I know
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  Speaker 3: here in Israel wants it. The folks in mad Del Champs,
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  Speaker 3: in the Israeli sovereign Golan Heights. Since two thousand and nine,
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  Speaker 3: when the President of the United States declared sovereignty over
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  Speaker 3: the Golan Heights, that was the end of that discussion.
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  Speaker 3: And some people just don't want to admit facts. Some
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  Speaker 3: people don't understand still, how maps are written on the globe.
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  Speaker 3: It seem unfortunately for us, our conflict is fresh, it's
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  Speaker 3: happening now, and people are living in a utopic la
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  Speaker 3: la land. I want to know why Israel is the
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  Speaker 3: only country in the world where everybody else outside of
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  Speaker 3: Israel has a better idea how to run the situation
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  Speaker 3: with the people inside of it.
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  Speaker 2: And again, you're not Jewish right.
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  Speaker 3: Now, No, I'm not Jewish.
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  Speaker 2: But what does it say when.
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  Speaker 1: You hear people say that, you know, Israel is just
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  Speaker 1: a country that's only for Jews, It's a white ethno state.
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  Speaker 2: It's apartheid.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is that it doesn't sound like that's the reality,
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  Speaker 1: at least for you.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's very far from the reality. And that's another
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  Speaker 3: just morally bankrupt spin that gets put on the place here.
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  Speaker 3: When I was first introduced to Israel in twenty ten,
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  Speaker 3: my very second day, I came to Mad del Champs
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  Speaker 3: and I saw Drew's Arab people who I would have
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  Speaker 3: thought hated the Israelis welcome us with love and an
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  Speaker 3: abundance of food, and they look at you in the
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  Speaker 3: eye and they tell you what they mean and they
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  Speaker 3: do what they say. And the people here inside of Israel,
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  Speaker 3: the Jews, the Arabs, the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews,
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. People here inside of Israel want peace,
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  Speaker 3: and since nineteen forty eight, that's what they've been trying.
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  Speaker 3: They've been trying to live here with their neighbors in peace.
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  Speaker 3: But the neighbors don't want to live next to the
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  Speaker 3: Jewish state in peace. I also would love to see
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  Speaker 3: one day people say, well, why does there need to
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  Speaker 3: be a Jewish state? Well, why does religion need to
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  Speaker 3: be involved? Well, that's the fact that the life we're
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  Speaker 3: living in, folks, There's plenty of Arab states, there's plenty
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  Speaker 3: of Christian states with a cross on their flag. I
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  Speaker 3: don't understand why everybody has such a problem with the
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  Speaker 3: one Jewish state. It's very puzzling to me.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think, you know, we could probably speculate us
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  Speaker 1: to what the reason is, but we certainly know that
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  Speaker 1: the Jews community has faced men's persecution throughout their history,
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  Speaker 1: much like Jews have.
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  Speaker 2: And right now Israel is.
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  Speaker 1: Dealing with relentless attacks that seem to be never ending,
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  Speaker 1: And I just I couldn't imagine what it's like to
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  Speaker 1: be living there throughout all of this and to deal with,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the immense loss as you said that you
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  Speaker 1: have knowing everybody who had passed away as a result
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  Speaker 1: of that horrific attack there. But I really want to
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  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for your time, Michael. Tough
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  Speaker 1: conversations to have, but I think very important ones, and
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  Speaker 1: if we can help to humanize it, I think that's
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  Speaker 1: always an important thing to do.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree. I would just say in closing also,
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  Speaker 3: that's the key. Humanize it. Enough with all of the
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  Speaker 3: right versus left, lou versus red, it's my way or
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  Speaker 3: this way. Everybody has good ideas. We need to listen
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  Speaker 3: to each other and we need to move forward and
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  Speaker 3: search for peaceful ways to live in coexistence.