By David Isaac\/JNS.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canada\u2019s Jewish community faces a \u201crealistic possibility\u201d of a \u201cviolent extremist attack\u201d within the next six months, according to a Canadian federal intelligence organization assessment obtained by JNS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most likely scenario of an attack targeting the Jewish community is a lone actor using unsophisticated methods against easily accessible targets,\u201d according to a March 18 report by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ITAC, a specialized organization in the Canadian intelligence community, provides\u00a0threat assessments\u00a0for decision-makers and security partners. Hosted at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada\u2019s equivalent to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, ITAC answers to the director of CSIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a violent attack on the community is a credible threat, the report assessed as \u201cunlikely\u201d that Canadian Jewish public officials, as a specific group within the Jewish community, would be targeted for attack. Still, those officials, together with non-Jewish pro-Israel officials, would face a heightened threat compared to other public figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe convergence of ideologically, politically and religiously motivated violent extremist threats to the Jewish community and, by extension, Jewish public officials drives this elevated threat,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe convergence of ideologically, politically and religiously motivated violent extremist threats to the Jewish community and, by extension, Jewish public officials drives this elevated threat,\u201d the report said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That threat would most likely take the form of \u201ccriminal harassment and intimidation,\u201d acts that would not qualify as violent extremism. They would remain criminal matters, ITAC said, referring to media reports about vandalism at constituency offices of officials \u201cdue to their identity or perceived support for Israeli actions in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIranian lethal operations\u201d against Jewish public officials, which ITAC described also as \u201cunlikely,\u201d may change as the conflict continues, it noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service did acknowledge the threat of lethal violence is real, telling JNS in an email that CSIS had countered \u201cthe actions of Iranian intelligence services and their proxies\u201d over the last year. \u201cIn more than one case, this involved detecting, investigating and disrupting potentially lethal threats against individuals in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike Fegelman, executive director of HonestReporting Canada, a group promoting accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel, the Middle East and Canada\u2019s Jewish community, told JNS that the ITAC report is \u201cboth alarming and not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the deepening crisis is a \u201cdirect result of numerous avoidable failures\u2014failures of leadership, failures of policy. And failures of people at all levels and places of taking escalating antisemitism seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a failure that extends to the media, he said. Canada\u2019s press has downplayed, contextualized and inadequately notified the public \u201cto clearly name what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven in reporting this threat, there remains a tendency to treat it as something emerging, rather than something that has been building, visibly and predictably, in plain sight,\u201d Fegelman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJewish Canadians have been sounding the alarm for more than two years,\u201d he said. \u201cAt this point, continued inaction is not a failure to understand the problem; it\u2019s a choice. And the consequences of that choice will be measured in more than headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018These are not random acts\u2019<\/strong>
Canada\u2019s Jewish community has already come under attack. Two synagogues in Toronto\u2019s Thornhill and North York neighborhoods were targeted in shootings on March 6. Those shootings came just days after a North York synagogue was hit by gunfire on March 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIsraeli President Isaac Herzog, in a Zoom call with leaders of the Canadian Jewish community on March 8 stated<\/a> that \u201call eyes are on Canada to halt this unprecedented wave of Jew-hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n