Speaking as the keynote speaker at the Stand With Israel rally at the Toronto Centre for the Arts retired Major-General Lewis MacKenzie spoke of Israel’s need to crush Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon so that an international force could secure the area and help bring peace to both Israelis and Lebanese. MacKenzie noted that if a cease-fire were brought about now it would simply give Hezbollah a chance to rearm.
MacKenzie also mentioned that he received a copy of the now widely published email from Canadian Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener who is missing and presumed dead after his United National Military Observer post in Lebanon was attacked by the Israeli Air Force. In the letter Hess-von Kruedener mentioned the conditions in which his UN post was operating. MacKenzie offered his explanation of what the penultimate paragraph of the email meant. Hess-von Kruedener wrote:
What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.
To MacKenzie “tactical necessity” was solider speak for Israel needing to fire close to the UN base because Hezbollah was operating close to it and using the base as cover.
Tragically it appears an Israeli warplane may have targeted the base. But it is nearly certainly a mistake, just as the American bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan in 2002 that killed four Canadians was a mistake.
Two thousand people saw MacKenzie at the Arts Centre with many more watching a close-circuit television feed on a screen set up in the adjacent Mel Lastman Square.
Update: July 27, 2006
The Toronto Star, National Post, and CBC have articles on the rally. The National Post states that organizers estimated the crowd at 5,000 people while the Toronto Star and CBC use a figure of at least 8,000 people.
All note that a volunteer at the rally stated that the Toronto Jewish community had raised $6 million in emergency funds with a planned target of $20 million.