Doron Horowitz has spent 25 years in the security consulting industry, at one point leading the security detail for the captain of the Achille Lauro, the Italian cruise ship hijacked in 1985 by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front.
Today, the counter-terrorism trained husband and father is the national security director at Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
The National Post’s Kathryn Blaze Carlson spoke with Mr. Horowitz about his work.
Q: What prompted the creation of a security director position, first at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and more recently at the centre?
A: There was a firebombing [at a Jewish school] in Montreal in 2004, and I think that was kind of the spark. As time went by, I became a resource to the rest of the country.
Q: What, exactly, do you do?
A: I wear a lot of hats, including analyzing and assessing the political situation in the Middle East to see how it relates to security for the Jewish community in Canada. If I feel there’s a need, I’ll communicate recommendations to Jewish institutions. Q: How does your military service in Israel inform your work here in Canada?
A: I went back to serve in Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 because I felt a sense of duty as a Jew and as an Israeli. I go back every year now and serve in an anti-terror police unit, which is a special unit of the border police.
I come back here and can give the best of my knowledge, for example when it comes to emergency management, incident management and understanding how civilian populations could best prevent, deter and manage crisis incidents. I’m not looking to copy and paste military-style tactics that are good for Israel — a lot of people have a misperception about that. It’s more about an approach or attitude of being proactive.
Q: What’s the key, in your mind, to assessing risk?
A: It’s critical that we understand who the players are. Who wants to create chaos? What is their modus operandi? What’s their ideology? What’s their motivation and what are their capabilities? That’s how you measure an adversary.
Q: By those measures, who or what poses the greatest threat to Canada’s Jewish community?
A: The biggest threat is the individual inspired by radical ideology who flies under the radar and undetected by law enforcement. The Seattle shooting at the Jewish Federation building in 2006 was an example of that. The Jewish community faces some unique threats, but we’re also dealing with regular situations — whether it’s a Connecticut-style massacre or sexual predators or going into lock-downs.
Q: You have said the threat against the Jewish community here fluctuates. When has it been elevated?
A: When we see the political issues flare up, whether it’s a war in Israel — the latest [Israeli Operation] Pillar of Defence, for example. Increased tensions in the Middle East have an impact directly on Jewish communities abroad, including the Jewish community in Canada. Q: Do you think Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staunch support of Israel somehow translates to a heightened threat?
A: The Jewish community is under threat regardless of what government is in place.
Q: How vulnerable do you think Canadian Jews feel?
A: The Toulouse attack [on a Jewish school in France] this past March, attacks in Mumbai, bomb plots broken up in New York — those things certainly increase anxiety. But overall, I would say the Canadian Jewish community feels safe in Canada. I’m confident of that.
Q: What kinds of things do you hear from the Jewish community?
A: I think there’s a desire to understand what the threats are, who stands behind those threats and what their capabilities are. How do we talk to our kids about how to behave during a lockdown? How do I take a proper description of an individual? How do I confront a person that comes onto my property?
Q: What kind of reaction did you see after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre last month? Dozens of calls and emails? Invitations to do threat assessments?
A: Absolutely. It’s still ongoing — training, education, that sort of thing. It was about realizing that you’re vulnerable and then saying, ‘What do we do now?’ Next week, I’m going to do training for front-line staff at a Toronto school. Active shooters is one of the topics, but we also deal with concerns over sexual predators or homeless people coming into a school — things that other Canadian institutions deal with on a daily basis, too.
Q: How successful do you think you’ve been in deterring threats?
A: A lot of terrorism experts or security experts will tell you that you can’t really measure your successes. You measure your security successes based on what doesn’t happen.
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