Former ambassador says Iran has a hand in Hamas attacks on Israel

A long-time Canadian diplomat says Iran likely had a hand on the attacks on Israel by Hamas, which have left hundreds of Israeli civilians dead.

Chris Alexander, who spent almost two decades in Canada’s foreign service and served as Canada’s first resident ambassador to Afghanistan, told John Gormley on Tuesday morning that his initial reaction to the attacks – which began Saturday on an unprecedented scale – was shock and horror.

“It was kind of an unaccustomed jolt, because it has been a number of years since we saw that number of fatalities. It’s far beyond what we’ve seen in the big European attacks 10 or 15 years ago,” Alexander said.

“This brought home to us all that terrorism groups are still out there. While they might not be attacking Europe, the United States, they’re still at large and Israel is still a major target for them.”

According to Alexander, the crisis in Israel is more global than some might realize. He suggested Hamas is a proxy for Iran in the conflict.

“Nobody should be surprised that Hamas has meted out terror and violence on that scale at Israel from Gaza, because they’ve been doing it since 2007. Remember, Israel occupied Gaza up until 2005. Under national pressure, (Israel) left Gaza after a peace deal, and two years later Hamas took power and has been organizing rocket attacks and other terrorist attacks ever since,” Alexander explained.

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“Hamas is not a singular organization. It is a proxy of Iran, and most of their missiles and training has come directly and indirectly of Iran.”

Alexander suggested Israel was left vulnerable after dealing with an internal political crisis and a close deal with Saudi Arabia, which he said did not sit well with Iran.

“That would be a very difficult outcome for Iran,” Alexander said.

The former diplomat said he’s worried things could get worse before they get better, given that there are so many civilians located within Gaza.

“There’s a real humanitarian imperative (around) protection of civilians here that everyone wants Israel to observe,” he explained.

Alexander said there should be international support for all those in Gaza caught up in the conflict who are not associated with Hamas.

“They need the support of the world, I think, to get the best result possible for the civilians in Gaza,” he said.