Justin Ling: When Netanyahu is gone, will Canada and Israel make up? - Toronto Star

For decades, the Israeli prime minister has been dragging his country away from the prospect of peace.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and lawmaker Gadi Eisenkot pose for a photograph after a swearing-in ceremony at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on Nov. 10, 2026.

Justin Ling is a staff columnist for the Star and an investigative journalist based in Montreal. Reach him by email: jling@thestar.ca

Israel is on the cusp of removing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, perhaps for good.

If his rivals can cobble together a government, they will face a series of difficult choices: More war, or a durable peace? A path toward statehood for Palestine, or another generation of violence? Genuine rights for Israel’s two million Arab citizens, or continued apartheid?

Israel’s consistent violations of international law have pushed Canada and other liberal nations to cut off most weapon sales, sanction two extremist Israeli ministers and chill relations with Israel. In a joint statement in September, Ottawa and its allies warned that Israel must get back on the road to peace “before it is too late.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday said, “we wish well to the new prime minister of Israel,” adding, “anytime you have a new government, there is an opportunity for a new start” (even if, Carney was careful to state, that government ends up with the same prime minister). Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main rival, isn’t prime minister quite yet: he is still trying to assemble a new government to replace the current far-right coalition. Carney said he is approaching the prospect of a new government “positively,”  although he noted that “what matters is the steps that are actually taken.”

Canada can intervene in the case against Israel in support of the principles of international law.