Jewish and Iranian community leaders in Manitoba condemn Iran’s attack on Israel | CBC News

Members of the Jewish and Iranian communities in Winnipeg say Iran’s air attack on Israel has them fearing there will be more clashes between the countries — or even full-scale war.

Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones targeting Israel on the weekend, the latest escalation in a conflict sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The missile launch was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian Embassy in Syria that killed some top commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps on April 1. That, in turn, came after months of clashes between Israel and Iran’s regional allies over Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the embassy attack — nor for any of the other assassinations or precision strikes it is suspected to have made on targets in Iran over the years — but Israeli leaders have also not denied they were behind it.

In an email sent out Sunday, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg condemned the Iranian attack. It has contacted local law enforcement to see whether there are any security implications for the community, though it added nothing suggests any threat.

Jeff Lieberman, the federation’s CEO, said the war has instilled fear in the Jewish community.

“There’s a lot of ties to Israel within Manitoba and, you know, people are fearful for their friends’ and relatives’ lives. It’s not easy,” he said.

“The hope is that this won’t escalate into anything more than what it is now, and that cooler heads will prevail and the two sides will stand down.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has warned its Israeli ally that America will not take part in any counter-offensive.

However, Lieberman added, even if no one wants war, Israel has a right to defend itself. He said retaliation might be inevitable since this was the first direct attack on Israel by a sovereign nation since the Gulf War.

“Israel, I guess, needs to stand up when they’re being attacked by another country. But at the same time I don’t think anybody would want this war to escalate,” he said.

“There’s just too many people’s lives on both sides that are affected, and, you know, it’s a very difficult situation for everyone … for Israelis especially.”

‘Canada fumbled the ball’

Mohammad Fadel, a law professor at the University of Toronto and a specialist in Islamic legal history, told CBC News most experts were expecting Iran to hit back after the embassy strike “one way or another.”

Fadel said escalation will depend on how the Americans react.

“A lot of this is going to depend on whether the United States is willing to restrain Israel. I think the Iranians calibrated their response so as to make it look like they could retaliate without trying to trigger a war,” he said.

Israel’s military said 99 per cent of the missiles and drones were intercepted. The attack only caused modest damage in Israel, as most were shot down by the country’s Iron Dome defence system and with help from U.S., British and Jordanian forces. 

Fadel added that this might not have happened if the international community — including Canada — had put their foot down earlier.

“I think Canada fumbled the ball when it didn’t condemn Israel for bombing Iran’s Embassy in Syria,” he said. “I think this retaliation could have been avoided, for example, if the [United Nations] Security Council had condemned Israel for a flagrant violation of international law.”

Fadel said the only way to “climb down from this increasingly catastrophic set of events in the Middle East” is to insist everyone respect international law.

“So far, there hasn’t been any willingness to do that,” he said.

Iranian associations call for terrorist designation

Saeid Ghavami with the Association of Iranian-Canadians in Manitoba, told CBC News in an email statement that the missile attack was not “what the Iranian people want.”

“We have to separate [the Islamic Republic regime] from the Iranian people,” the statement continued. “Iranian people are beside Israel people, who are also victims of the terrorist attack of Hamas. [Sunday’s] attack shows it is mandatory that the whole world consider [the Revolutionary Guard] as a terrorist organization.

“Every minute delay on this increases the chance of a huge war in the world.”

Arian Arianpour, president of the Iranian Community of Manitoba, also condemned the Iranian government for the attack, and asked for people to make a distinction between the regime and the Iranian people, who he said have been fighting for freedom and justice for more than a century.

“It’s really heartbreaking to see that the regime who has been turmoiling the region for more than four decades, is turmoiling it again but on a bigger scale,” he said.

“If [a war] happens, on top of all the atrocities that it brings to the Iranian people given the already chaotic social and economic situation, the Islamic Republic regime will use a war or even a higher level of tensions as a tool to suppress the Iranian people even more.”

Arianpour said he doesn’t believe a full-scale war is likely, but that the rest of the community will be monitoring the situation closely.

“Even if they are born here, they have family or friends back in Iran, so of course they are on edge,” he said.

“When you have a regime in Iran that has shown their unreasonableness time and again, and you have Israel on the other side, you’ll never know what’s going to happen.”