IDF COS Visiting Canada, U.S.

[The Bread Guy]

From the IDF:

IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, will depart Saturday night (Nov. 13) for an official week-long work visit in Canada and the United States.

Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi is scheduled to conduct a series of work meetings with various defense and military officials, regarding mutual defense challenges, cooperation between the militaries and security assessments of the Middle East.

During his visit to Canada, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will be hosted by his counterpart, Chief of the Defense Staff of the Canadian Forces, General (****) Walter Natynczyk, who visited Israel in October of 2009 and invited the IDF Chief of Staff to visit Canada. General and Mrs. Natynczyk will host Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi and his wife at an official dinner in Ottawa.

The Chief of Staff is also scheduled to meet the Canadian Minister of National Defense, Mr. Peter MacKay, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Mrs. Miriam Ziv and leaders of the Jewish community in Toronto. In addition, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi is scheduled to visit a base of Canadian forces who fought in Afghanistan and to meet with officials in the Canadian General Staff. Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will also visit the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, where he will lay a wreath for the fallen soldiers ....

Interesting tidbit from the Jerusalem Post article on the visit:

....
Ashkenazi will fist fly to Canada where he will meet with Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk, who was in Israel last year. During the visit, Ashkenazi will tour some Canadian military bases and meet with soldiers who recently returned from combat in Afghanistan.

Natynczyk is a strong ally of Israel. During his visit here last year, he said he completely understood why Israel attacked civilian infrastructure during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in early 2009.

“I've got to look through the whole report and read it through myself,” he said in reference to the Goldstone Report. “But I fully understand how when someone is attacked from houses, family houses, and so on, that there is a responsibility to protect oneself and protect civilians.” ....

Quite the leap there from "protect oneself and protect civilians" to "understood why Israel attacked civilian infrastructure".

 

[GAP]

civilian infrastructure ceased to be civilian infrastructure the moment Hamas used it to attack the IDF...

 

[Fishbone Jones]

From the IDF:
Quite the leap there from "protect oneself and protect civilians" to "understood why Israel attacked civilian infrastructure".

Makes perfect sense to me. Just like GAP says.