Listen to the full conversation with Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel on The CJN’s North Star podcast:
When Israel’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel heard the news that three Toronto-area synagogues were shot at last week, she says it struck her personally.
Haskel was born in Canada and has strong family ties here. She serves in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a member of the Knesset
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called Toronto Jewish leaders this week to say that “all eyes are on Canada” to see how the government responds.
After the synagogues and several Jewish businesses were targeted by gunfire, Ottawa announced it will allocate $10 million in emergency security funding to help protect Jewish communities in Toronto, Montreal and smaller centres.
Haskel says Israeli intelligence services have been offering help to Canada, even while diplomatic relations remain strained over Ottawa’s recognition of a Palestinian state, and other disputes.
Now, Haskel hopes the Carney government gets the message, before it’s too late–as North American Jews are on high alert after the latest synagogue attack in a community near Detroit, just across the river from Windsor.
Haskel joins The CJN’s North Star podcast to explain why she believes the Toronto synagogue shootings were “the last warning” from armed gangs targeting Jews–something she says “ends with blood”.
Related stories
- They want to scare us: hear from one synagogue member after the BAYT attack, on The CJN’s North Star podcast on YouTube.
- How Toronto synagogues ramped up security after the weekend gunfire targeting the BAYT and Shaarei Shomayim, in The CJN.
- Sharren Haskel is repeating her call made in 2024 on this show , for Diaspora Jews to move to Israel, in the light of revamped antisemitic attacks in Canada and France and elsewhere.
Transcript
Ellin Bessner
Jewish communities across North America are on high alert after in Detroit, on Thursday, an armed attacker rammed his truck into a synagogue and opened fire before he was killed by in-house security.
And because Detroit sits right across the border from Windsor, and some Canadian families send their children to Jewish schools there, it means that attack is being felt on both sides of the border. Everyone was safe in that attack, but it happened just days after three synagogues in Toronto were shot at overnight–prompting Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to personally call Jewish leaders here on Monday and warn that “All eyes are on Canada” for how this government responds.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel, is also speaking out about what Canada needs to do and who she fears is behind the rising antisemitic attacks against Jews in her native country.
She was born in Toronto. She’s now a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Haskel says Israel has been providing intelligence to Canadian authorities for a while now, despite the strained relations between Ottawa and Jerusalem. Canada announced yesterday it’ll allocate $10 million in emergency security funding to protect Jewish communities in Toronto, Montreal, and in smaller centers.
But many Jewish Canadians are asking: is that money really going to stop the violence? especially after the U.S. consulate in Toronto was also shot at this week.
Airspace above the downtown mission is now closed ahead of the City of Toronto allowing the annual Al-Quds Day parade to go ahead this weekend, right across the street from the consulate, where every year the Iranian-backed event features anti-Jewish and anti-Israel and anti-American chants, slogans, signs and flags. Toronto police say they’ll be on hand in force, but they rarely lay any charges.
Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister
The writing is on the wall. I believe the last shootings during the last three nights or the final warning before blood will be spilled. And unless there’s deterrence enforcement and a clear red line arising in guarding as well, blood will be spilled. And we will do everything in our capability to try and prevent that.
Ellin Bessner
I’m Ellin Besner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Friday, March 13th, 2026. Welcome to North Star, the flagship podcast of The Canadian Jewish News, made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
The Israeli government appears increasingly worried about the safety of Canada’s Jewish community. Even before the president’s call with the rabbis and Jewish leaders in Toronto, the Foreign Ministry was offering journalists a briefing with Sharren Haskel, the deputy foreign minister.
She also held an online meeting earlier in the week with dozens of opinion leaders from across Canada, including many non-Jews. While Israel is at war with Iran, she says, the regime’s terror tentacles are not merely a problem for Israel, but also, in her words, “threaten to destabilize the Middle East and threaten democracies around the world”.
So what does Israel want Canada to do? And why are the Toronto attacks happening and personal?
Sharren Haskel joined me from her home north of Tel Aviv.
Ellin Bessner
I’m happy that you’re able to fit us in. You know, you spent a lot of the last 24 hours in briefings with Canadian leaders, Jewish leaders and allies. So these were happening while the Jewish community is reeling from these synagogue shootings and also targeting Jewish businesses. Five in one week in Toronto. What is your take on this situation? What message do you want the Jewish community and the Canadians to hear about this week?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
So the first thing is that we stand beside you and we understand the difficult time that you’re going through. And I know that personally as well.
I know how Canada was one of the safest places for Jews, for any minority, for any community. And that’s been completely obliterated in recent years.
With people not assimilating into the Canadian traditions and culture and values, spreading radical ideas, having hate marches in the streets and calls for violence against a minority community, full calls for murder, for violence against and the shootings. I mean, it is unbelievable!
There’s been shooting at schools and bakeries, Jewish homes, Jewish synagogues. The Jewish community has been violently threatened.
And that was, I believe, what was the last warning of an armed gang who’s executing crimes against the Jewish community. And this will end with blood.
And it’s important for me that I will do everything in my capability to warn, to shake up, and to try and get the Canadian government to start acting and enforcing the law. Because I know if they don’t draw a red line, and we’re far beyond words, I mean, there has to be serious action taken to fight the rise of antisemitism, those violence attacks on the community. There has to be action, and I will do everything in my capability to push them to start acting.
Ellin Bessner
You said that these are “people that don’t fit into the values”. Some politicians have said that these are internationally financed, Iranian-backed terror groups that are taking their direction? Who do you think, who does Israel think is behind this?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
You know, I’ve seen people camping in Canada in universities, attacking and, you know, directing violence and racism towards Jewish students. It’s very much organized. You know, you see same flyers, same tents, same signs and demonstrations. So I think that there’s a serious problems of radicalization in Canada. And in Operation Rising Lion, when we saw that the IRGC leadership and family members were afraid for their lives, and they chose not to escape to Azarbaijan or Turkey or Qatar or Russia or anywhere else. They chose to flee to Canada, 700 since then. That is already proof of the in-depth problem that Canada actually has.
Ellin Bessner
So are you saying that these terrorist attacks, Israel thinks they’re linked to the IRGC?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Look, I don’t know if these particular ones are linked to the IRGC, but we know and we see a rise in activity worldwide in attempts to hurt Jewish communities, Israeli assets as well, like embassies and diplomats.
And we see a rise of activity and we are concerned. I don’t know if those attacks are directly related to that.
But I know that there is a problem in Canada, because if you look on organizations, I think it was the last one, Hizb al-Tahrir or Hezbollah itself, and you see fundraising in Canada and people who are actually outspoken promoting those groups, walking around with flags or symbols of them, it means that there’s a problem. There’s probably agents, there’s probably certain operations there.
Ellin Bessner
Your president today had a Zoom call–maybe you were on it as well–with the rabbis,
Sharren Haskel,
Yes,
Ellin Bessner
And some of the Jewish leaders. Were you part of that?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
So I wasn’t on the president’s phone call, but I keep up to date and I read a lot of the material that comes out afterwards.
Ellin Bessner
So basically he said in his statement, I’ll just read it to you, “All eyes are on Canada to halt this unprecedented wave of Jew hatred. The lessons of previous antisemitic attacks in countries around the world, including the deadly Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney, must be learned.:
When you hear this, do you have anything to add to that?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
This is 100% accurate….And this is the call of the president as well. It’s also the phone call that our foreign minister, Gideon Saar, had today with your foreign minister as well to try and shake up the government to start act.
Ellin Bessner
Look, what is Israel able to do? Can you give intelligence? Can you send people from your own security units to help the Canadian government? Is that even being offered?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Look, there’s a sharing of intelligence and we’ve been cooperating with some of the forces. Even when we had difficulties, it wasn’t even a question. We will always share intelligence and information that can save lives: Canadian lives, Israeli lives. We’ll always do that.
And there’s been close cooperation between our security forces within, for a very long time. I mean, Canada and Israel share a very long historical bond and friendship, even though there were many challenges in the last couple of years, unfortunately.
We understand it is not about one government or another. It’s first of all about the people-to-people relationship and friendship that we share and that we have.
Unfortunately, we lack authority in Canada. This is the job of the government to actually protect its civilians. And so it is a matter of building up policing force, cameras, real deterrence to make sure that they can catch the perpetrators. There’s not a lot of physical actions that we can do, but on the diplomatic level, the ministerial level, the government to government, and the president of Israel as well, we’ve been trying to constantly push the government to take more actions.
Ellin Bessner
There are about, I guess, 100,000 Israelis here too in Canada. And so it’s not just the Canadian government protecting Canadian Jews. You have your own citizens who are stranded here or living here or dual citizens as well. The Israeli government issued a warning recently, the National Security Advisory, as you’re aware, for Jewish people from Israel and maybe even traveling abroad to be very careful. “Don’t go to Chabad. Don’t go to different Jewish buildings. Don’t wear your obvious things showing.” What else did they say? “Don’t post on social media.”
What was the reason the government thought that it was important to say this at this time?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
It’s pretty obvious. We see a rise in antisemitism. We see a rise in people who are trying to target and attack Jewish communities, Jewish businesses and places of worship in particular. And we want them to be aware that there’s a rise in activity. We’re very worried about it and we want them to make sure that they are safe, especially in places that the government haven’t taken extreme measures or real effort in actually protecting them and defending them.
Look on what’s happening in certain countries, in Germany and Hungary: these are places that are very much protected by the government.
Then you see France…My own grandmother was attacked in the streets by an Arab mob who violently beat her [in 2024]. She lost two of her teeth, and she was beaten to the ground and kicked and called a dirty Jew and spat on. This is taken straight out of events prior to the Second World War, you know?
It’s heartbreaking to see the situation of where we have reached, when we’ve been putting so many efforts in combating racism and antisemitism, learning from the past and the world haven’t learned. Unfortunately, they have imported a lot of the antisemitism from the Middle East, where many children are being taught that in schools, and it’s part of the culture, the demonization of Jews. And when they import that kind of culture and hatred and demonization, they come to a new country and they don’t assimilate properly into the values of the new country. It creates a massive problem. A serious one. And if the government doesn’t deal with it, will end up in an explosion.
Ellin Bessner
Look, we heard from many families in Canada over the last few months, and especially this weekend, that they don’t think there’s a future for them here. And many are making contingency plans, buying apartments in Israel, going to Panama to look for a place. And you once said, “It’s time for the Diaspora Jews to move to Israel”. This is 2024 on our show.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Yeah.
Ellin Bessner
Where are you at now, two years later?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Oh, a major call. “Stand up and come to Israel!”
Come to a place where Jews are able to protect themselves and defend themselves and are not at the mercy of any other ruler or government or leader that doesn’t care about it.
And for too long, Jews have been paying the price of a much deeper disease that has spread through the world. And during this part in our history, we know, as always, and history is repeating itself, that antisemitism is a symptom of a much deeper disease that is spreading around the world, where it starts with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews.
And I call the Jewish community to pack up their stuff and to come to their homeland, the indigenous land of the Jewish people here in Israel, where we are capable of protecting ourselves by ourselves.
And you know what? It is only when the Jews are not in the front line. So if you take France and the Jewish community will leave France and will come to Israel, will come to their homeland, to their indigenous land, who are those Islamists going to attack? It’s going to be the Christian next and then the atheists next.
Ellin Bessner
I also asked Haskel to share an update on Israel’s war and how long she expects it to last and the objectives. As you’ll hear, her answer got interrupted for a while when an air raid alert went off on her phone and she had to run, but she came back.
Can we turn to the war itself? What are Israel’s objectives in this war and how long do they think that it’s going to go on for?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Wow. So look, we don’t put a time limit, and I know that President Trump has spoken about four weeks, but things can change. And look, now Hezbollah decided to join into the war, and we have another front that we need to have a battle in to defend our northern citizens and towns and cities. So things change, you know, and it’s not as easy as many people might think it is. The goal of the war is to remove the long-term existential threat over Israel, over America as well.
And in this existential threat, obviously there’s the tools that are being used, like the nuclear program and the ballistic missile program, which are existential threat over the head of Israel, over the existence of Israel. But we understood after Operation Rising Lion how that actually didn’t deter them, as we thought. And they are trying to rebuild the capability that we’ve destroyed for them. And instead of choosing and understanding the path of war is not going to work out for you, let’s speak in diplomacy. Let’s find a path of diplomacy. They didn’t want that. They used the path of diplomacy to deceive the world in order to buy out time, to buy out time in order to dig the nuclear program and the ballistic missile program so deep underground that even the American bombers will not be able to reach it, which means if they would have succeeded, Iran would have had immunity. like North Korea, like other countries, that it is too late to try and prevent from acquiring a mass destructive weapon, a massive one.
And so we are targeting a lot of the capability, a lot of the mastermind who’ve been pushing this fanatical regime and the fanatical strategy, and people that had the expertise of developing the actual tools in order to fulfill the master plan, which is the elimination of the state of Israel and basically Western civilization. And we are hoping, yes, that this will open a path for the Iranian people to liberate themselves, to be able to get their freedom back.
Ellin Bessner
The regime just announced that it has a new supreme leader, the son of the assassinated Ayatollah Khamenei. Does this signal to Israel that they’re digging in?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Oh, yes.
Ellin Bessner
Instead of giving up.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Absolutely. And you know, he is in certain ways more extreme and more radical even than his father with the same ideas, with the same intentions. And this is a threat. a serious threat to continue and lead this violent and monstrous regime in a fanatical way that is seeking to destroy the West, as they’ve put it. And let me remind you, Israel is only the little Satan in their eyes. The big Satan is America…
[SILENCE]
Ellin Bessner
Uh-oh. You’re gone.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
I’m sorry.
Ellin Bessner
No, it’s fine. It’s okay.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
It’s just alarms. I’m just, there’s alarms, so I have to take the three girls. Yes, I want to take the three girls to the shelter.
Ellin Bessner
Okay, I’m going to stop recording right now.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
So I’m bringing them from upstairs. Be safe.
[10-15 minutes later]
Ellin Bessner
Thank you for coming back.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Yeah, no, it was a little bit stressful. I apologize to cutting it in the middle. My three little babies are sleeping upstairs. I have a five-year-old, and twins who are three years old and the alarms were going off and the alarms cut off everything in your phone and they just start. So you’re in my earpiece and the alarms are starting to go on and I had to run upstairs to grab my babies and to bring them into the shelter to make sure they’re safe. These missiles are very, very dangerous and they obliterate at such a huge radius as well.
So I was running upstairs to get them down and getting into the shelter, closing the door and waiting for the alarms to stop. And now that they are sleeping and now they’re going to sleep in the shelter for the rest of the night so that we don’t need to run back and forth in the middle of the night, I can come back and speak to you.
Ellin Bessner
This is a reality. And we’re worried about the synagogues being shot at in Canada!
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
But it is a worry because this can and will end in blood, in someone being murdered, you know, if the government is not taking any actions.
Ellin Bessner
We ended off talking about the objectives of the war, and I wanted to just quickly bring up, what did Israel think of our Prime Minister, Mark Carney, the first day of the war, this past February 28th, came out in support of the U.S.’ actions and Israel’s actions, and then the government’s kind of backed off a little bit.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Yeah.
Ellin Bessner
How is that being seen by your government?
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
Look. As a politician, if I take it personally, I understand what he’s trying to do, to do the cushioning of the internal politics. But as someone who has moral obligation and I absolutely don’t accept that.
There has to be a moral clarity during times like this. We know what we’re facing. Your prime minister knows who the Iranian regime is. He’s been briefed. The intelligence community can tell him the whole story. He knows what a fanatical monster this regime is. There isn’t gray. It’s only black and white. And during these times, for something like that to succeed, especially if the Iranian people will go out the streets to try and gain back their freedom, there has to be a full backing of the international community, including Canada.
You know, there’s no request for military operations. We didn’t ask. We don’t need. You have two of some of the strongest armies in the world who will do the job.
But the moral backing, the statements to back the Iranian people during a historical moment is so needed, and it has to be very, very clear.
Ellin Bessner
We’ll end it there. And I appreciate the extra, humongous efforts that you’re making to do this interview with us in the middle of air raid sirens. So I wish you only a quieter night. And thank you again for sharing these important words with our audience. Good to see you again.
Sharren Haskel, Israel deputy foreign minister
It’s really good to see you. And thank you so much for inviting me to the podcast.
Ellin Bessner
And that’s what Jewish Canada sounded like for this episode of North Star, made possible thanks to the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
What do you think Canada should do to protect Jews realistically? Write to us at info@ thecjn.ca.
And also check out The CJN’s YouTube channel to watch more breaking news, interviews, opinion, and all our podcasts in video form.
Our show is produced by Zachary Judah Kauffman with Andrea Varsany. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Alicia Richler is our editorial director. And music is by Bret Higgins. Thanks for listening.
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) [email protected]
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
- Music: Bret Higgins
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