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Or sign-in if you have an account.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a United Nations General Assembly meeting organized by France and Saudi Arabia in support of a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel as world leaders arrive for the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) on September 22, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)The obvious problem with rewarding terrorists is that they tend to take advantage. So it is with Hamas. Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorAlmost a year ago, Mark Carney signalled his intention to recognize the state of “Palestine” and since then Hamas has: grown stronger; rearmed; carried out daylight executions of Palestinians in Gaza; and, according to a report, is on the verge of restarting its war with Israel. A prime minister with some foreign policy experience might have anticipated his error, but Carney has instead chosen wilful blindness to the terror and militarism in Gaza as well as the not-so-subtle machinations of the Palestinian Authority. The National Post newsletter that doesn’t hold back, giving readers the unvarnished truth on media, politics and culture.By signing up, you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Right? will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againCarney demanded urgent reforms from the Palestinian Authority, and the PA just changed the playbook: the obscene pay-for-slay operation that rewards terrorists is continuing and under PA direction children are still being taught to demonize and hate Jews. All of this appears to be unknown to the prime minister. “Despite acute fiscal and operational constraints, the Palestinian Authority continues to advance elements of a reform agenda focused on social protection, education sector adjustments, and improvements to transparency and service delivery,” said Global Affairs Canada spokesman Jason Kung in an email to National Post last week. “The prime minister welcomed the measures taken by the Palestinian Authority including efforts to reform social welfare, developing new education materials, drafting an interim constitution, and its intent to hold general and presidential elections.” Except the reforms and developments are smoke and mirrors. This year, a report from the U.S. State Department said that despite PA President Mahmoud Abbas promising to end pay-for-slay, the indecent payments were continuing. In fact, the PA paid out US$156 million in 2025 to Palestinian terrorists and their families. According to the report, the only thing that had changed was “the mechanism” with which funds were funnelled to the terrorists. The report even quoted PA Finance Minister Estephen Salameh in February saying the money was still being paid. “With effort and great, almost impossible difficulty, we continue to provide this 60 per cent rate of (PA public employee) salaries. We have not abandoned any Palestinian resident, whether they are prisoners or families of martyrs and wounded. This is a clear fundamental issue,” the report quoted Salameh as saying. Terrorists released by Israel to get hostages, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, freed, are in line for huge payments. The report cited two killers and a bombmaker whose crimes were committed in 2003 as each having accumulated PA payments of US$354,000, with $2,541 a month going forward. It’s the same story with education materials: promised reforms with nothing done. In a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, Abbas pledged “modernization of the education sector, including the development of a curriculum that is free from incitement according to the UNESCO standards.” But the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an independent NGO that monitors education materials throughout the world for hate and incitement of violence, found the latest Palestinian textbooks full of antisemitism. “The review finds that the 2025-2026 Palestinian Authority curriculum continues to systematically violate UNESCO principles and educational standards. Published in September 2025, the curriculum incites antisemitism and violence, promotes jihad and martyrdom, glorifies terrorism, rejects peacemaking and the two-state solution, and erases Israel from maps. It has not been substantively modified since the 2020-21 school year, maintaining the same ideological framework first established in the 2016 reform cycle,” read the review. In classes and textbooks covering history, geography, social studies, science and mathematics, Palestinian children are being taught to hate Israel and its people. In one example in the review, Israelis weren’t even human beings, they were depicted as “demonic monsters” laughing as they committed atrocities and killed children. And these are the reformed textbooks. Meanwhile, getting the guns, explosives and other weapons out of the hands of Hamas, another Carney condition, is going nowhere. Demilitarization was a key part of last September’s U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire plan, but Hamas has repeatedly said it will not give up its weapons and there are reports it is actively rearming. Meir Ben Shabbat, Israel’s former national security advisor who played a key role in negotiating the Abraham Accords, said the Israel Defence Forces and the Shin Bet security agency recently destroyed a weapons production site that had been used by Hamas to manufacture explosive devices and store weapons. Writing in the Israeli Hayom newspaper, he quoted Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim as saying that “resistance” was a Palestinian right and weapons were an inseparable part of that “resistance.” “Earlier, the spokesman for Hamas’ military wing claimed that the demand to disarm was ‘a scandalous attempt by the occupation to achieve through negotiations what it could not achieve on the battlefield’,” wrote Shabbat. Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, wrote in March that Hamas was not only refusing to disarm, since the ceasefire plan it had become emboldened. “It now appears more able to operate above ground than it did before the plan,” he wrote in an analysis for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. Meanwhile, Hamas is preparing to restart its war with Israel, according to the Kan News public broadcasting service. Hamas was reported to be producing hundreds of explosives and anti-tank missiles every month, recruiting young fighters, and rebuilding underground structures demolished by the Israel Defence Forces, said the broadcaster. And a United Nations report cited numerous executions in Gaza by Hamas, including two mass killings both involving 11 men, as well as severe punishment beatings. “These cases involved executions, kneecapping, bone-breaking with metal pipes or cement bricks and beatings and were framed by the perpetrators as punishments for alleged collaboration with Israel, looting humanitarian aid, theft, drug-related offences or affiliations with internal rivals,” the report said. There has been some movement on elections — but whether they will be free, fair, or even go ahead, won’t be known until they happen. In his letter to Macron, Abbas committed to organizing presidential and general elections within a year. That didn’t happen. It was only in June this year that Abbas said legislative elections would be held in November and a presidential election would take place next February. However, Abbas has not always been scrupulous where elections are concerned. He was elected as president in 2005 for a four-year term and two decades later he is still at the helm. In 2021, he also called legislative and presidential elections only to postpone them indefinitely. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Middle East foreign policy was a disaster. It looks like Carney is following in his footsteps. National Post Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.