The Globe and Mail is reporting that a kidnapped Canadian citizen doing foreign aid work in the Gaza Strip by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was eventually released once his identity as a Canadian was suitably established. The Canadian commentators are going full-tilt on a “thank God a Canadian passport still means something theme”.
I suppose I shouldn’t criticize the commenters as much as the reporter who failed to establish that the PFLP were specifically looking for either American or British citizens to use as leverage in the hopes that it would influence the Israeli government back off the capture of the wanted PFLP terrorists.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wasted no time for suggesting that the American and British authorities were in co-hoots with the IDF’s raid on the Jericho prison which was why the PFLP didn’t let any grass grow under their feet before their hunt to kidnap any foreigners in the Gaza Strip with the hopes of striking pay dirt with an American or British citizen hostage.
Canada has no dog in this fight and therefore no influence. That was the only reason the man was released relatively unharmed and not for a love of all things Canadian. If there was the slightest chance that a Canadian foreign aid worker (working to improve the lot of the average Palestinian) had the slightest chance of influence; Canadians would be seeing the newsreel footage of a Canadian hostage held with a knife held to his throat and pleading for his life. Holding the Canadian aid worker hostage would have been the equivalent of saying, 'stop or the kitten gets it' to a mouse. The PFLP may be delusional but stupid they are not, so instead they released the Canadian.
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