Let’s Talk About Antisemitisim

Although the term “antisemitism” originated in the nineteenth century to describe hatred of Jews, that hatred predated it by millennia. At least in the Christian West, it is rooted in the myth of deicide, that is, the belief that Jews killed Christ. Although the historical record contradicts that belief, and there is little, if any, biblical support for it, it has been used to justify the persecution and murder of Jews for centuries, culminating in the Holocaust where most of European Jewry were slaughtered. The Holocaust led to a collective commitment, at aleast in the West: “Never Again”.

Although it seems unlikely today, the Muslim world has traditionally been more accepting of Jews than has the Christian. In fact, when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 many fled to the Ottoman Empire where they lived and prospered for generations. That changed in 1948 when the United Nations brought an end to the British Mandate in Palestine and created the two states of Israel and Palestine. More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the land that was now the new state of Israel. This event is called the Nakba. What is less well known is that in excess of 900,000 Jews were also expelled from their homes in Muslim countries in the Middle East and the Maghreb, with most of them settling in Israel. There was plenty of suffering to go around.

The drive by Zionists to create the modern state of Israel began in Europe in the nineteenth century in response to centuries of persecution and worse. Although settlements were established prior to the Second World War, the Holocaust put that effort into overdrive and allowed the Zionists to garner sufficient international support to gain its sanction by the United Nations. Although there were some efforts to establish a homeland elsewhere, including in parts of devastated Europe, the emotional pull of the Middle East, where Jews had lived for over three thousand years, was irresistible. Immediately upon the creation of modern Israel, the surrounding Arab states invaded seeking to exterminate it before it could get started. They were defeated, as they were in 1967 and 1973. Even when not faced with a full scale invasion, Israel has always been surrounded by hostile nations and groups committed to its destruction and in response has built the strongest military in the region.

Which brings us to today. Israel and the United States are now engaged in a war with Iran whose stated objectives change by the day and runs the risk of bogging down into a long and bloody struggle with an uncertain outcome. At the same time, and in response to Hezbollah’s attacks in support of its Iranian patron, Israel has begun to depopulate southern Lebanon and destroy the southern suburbs of Beirut. This follows the campaign in Gaza that was provoked by Hamas’ brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That response resulted in the virtual destruction of Gaza, leaving millions of Palestinians homeless. While over 1200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack, tens of thousands of Palestinians died in the resulting Israeli response. Most of them were civilians, many of them children.

In the seventy eight years since its creation, Israel has become the undisputed super power in the Middle East, while its settler movement, with the active support of the current Israeli government, continues to expand the country’s territory through the illegal occupation and confiscation of Palestinian lands on the West Bank, effectively forclosing the possibility of a two state solution. There is much to criticize about Israel and its current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, and including representatives of parties openly advocating for the genocide of the Palestinians. And that criticism is not only permissible but necessary, particularly from those of us who have supported the idea of an Israeli state that offers a safe haven from persecution for Jews around the world. But when that criticism crosses the line into antisemitism, and when it results in attacks on Jews everywhere regardless of their relationship to Israel, it is intolerable.

This is not a problem of the left or the right. Both harbour antisemtic beliefs in their more extreme reaches and, in both cases, those beliefs are seeping into their mainstreams, accelerated by the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. And while it is politically difficult to acknowledge, antisemtism is also being revived by first and second generation Muslim Canadians who, seeing the destruction in their former homelands, strike out against the closest thing to Israel they can find, Jewish Canadians and their institutions.

When my parents’ generation fought and won a war, and cemented the idea of “Never Again” into at least Western consciousness, it never occurred to them or to their children that “never” might end at seventy eight years. But here we are. The, at times I believe, deliberate, crossing of the line between legitimate criticism of Israel and its current government, and the ancient hatred of antisemitism; and the casual use of hateful Jewish stereotypes in online postings or on signs and posters ostensibly responding just to the current wars in the Middle East but clearely tapping into something older and darker, opens the door to a very dark future where a monster, once thought permanently entombed, is waiting to emerge.

Jews make up less than two percent of the Canadian population but they have contributed to the success of this country far out of proportion to their small number. Whether it’s in healthcare, the arts, education, politics, or civil society, they have always been there to push Canada forward. That they are now the object of open hatred, violence and vandalism is unconsionable, and every Canadian of good will should say so.

My Jewish friends ask me what can be done to counter this hatred. I don’t have a satisfactory answer. Clearly the Holocaust story should be incorporated into all levels of Canadian education, and the laws banning discrimination that are already on the books should be vigorously enforced. And politicians of all stripes should speak out strongly condemning those who traffic in the ancient, poisonous tropes. There is also something all of us can do: when we see it, name it. Call it out. Challenge those who, perhaps thoughtlessly or not, participate in the casual antisemitism emerging across Canada and the world, whether online, in casual conversation or in mainstream media. It might cost you a friendship but it’s the right thing to do.

Just sayin

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Gaza. Is It Genocide?

On October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel from Gaza and murdered approximately 1200 Israelis. They also committed other atrocities, including rape and dismemberment, while taking approximately 250 hostages back into Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere celebrated this attack and vowed it was just the first of many until Israelis were driven into the sea and the state of Israel ceased to exist.

There was no doubt, expecially amongst Palestinians, Israel would retaliate and, as expected, on October 27, Israel launched a ground offensive that was preceded by weeks of airstrikes on Gaza. But for two short ceasefires, the fighting has continued since and tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed. Today, despite some being released, 58 hostages remain unaccounted for although likely less than half of those are still alive.

Gaza has been reduced to rubble and approximately two million Palestinian Gazans are homeless and under almost constant attack from the air and on the ground. The stated goal of Israel is to free the remaining hostages and defeat and eliminate Hamas, something that is extraordinarily difficult given it is almost impossible to separate Palestinians in Gaza from Hamas, they often being one and the same.

I have always supported the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself against hostile acts by its neighbours. I still do. After the October 7 attack I strongly supported Israel’s right and need to retaliate and agreed with its goal of eliminating Hamas as a constant threat on its southern border. As we’ve seen in the subsequent six hundred days, that is easier said than done and may be impossible. Presumably, this is what is driving the Israeli government to seek to eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza. Although it has not cearly articulated this as its policy, some of the more right wing members of the current coalition government have, with one member now advocating for the killing of all Palestinian men in Gaza with, presumably, the relocation of surviving women and children to some other location, perhaps in Libya. Also, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, now frequently refers to Donald Trump’s plans for Gaza as some kind of an American protectorate with few, if any, of its current inhabitants present in what has been described as “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Israel is also aggressively expanding settlements on the occupied West Bank while settlers continue to harrass Palestinians living there. It’s increasingly difficult to watch what’s happening without feeling the ultimate goal of the Israeli government is the establishment of a greater Israel that includes not only the ancient territories of Judah and Israel but also the Gaza Strip. While some Israelis have always been open about this goal, it has never been the explicit goal of their government.

Palestinians have contributed to their current dire circumstances through a series of catastrophic decisions since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947. Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity was Yasser Arafat walking away from the agreement with Yitzhak Rabin that would have cemented Palestinian control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and provided a pathway to Palestinian statehood as was envisaged in the original United Nations resolution that created the state of Israel and contemplated a similar Palestinian state. But all of that is water under the bridge and the possibility of a two state solution looks increasingly dim as both Israelis and Palestinians continue their dance of death, repeating, escalating and reinforcing the tragedies of the past eighty years.

During the past couple of decades the term “genocide” has been invoked increasingly to describe behaviour and events that, while appalling and tragic, don’t meet the standard originally set for this most heinous of crimes. We now hear about “cultural genocide” or “genocides” that take place over centuries as one population is slowly replaced by a stronger group, as well as other, less precise, usages. Using the language of “genocide” is apparently irresistible for many wanting to describe others’ behaviour as appalling or outside civilized norms and, as a result, the term has been watered down and has less of a sting than it did even twenty years ago. It needs to be reclaimed.

The term “genocide” was coined in 1944 as a direct result of the Nazi policies of extermination of certain ethnic and religious groups, most significantly, Jews. It described acts intended to destroy a national, religious, ethnic or racial group. There was no nuance such as “cultural” and, with the passage of time, it was generally accepted to include the Ottoman attacks on Armenians during the First World War, the slaughter of Tutsi’s by Hutu militia in Rwanda, the actions of Serb nationalists killing Muslims following the breakup of Yugoslavia and, of course, the Holocaust where approximately six million Jews were slaughtered in Europe by the Nazis and their allies up to and during the Second World War. In all cases, intention is important, which is why some of the later claims of genocide simply do not meet the bar despite their advocates wanting to include them in this most appalling of human actions. Genocide is an international crime and is often linked with the phrase “crimes against humanity”.

The State of Israel was created largely as a reaction to the Holocaust in Europe. It’s main goal was to create a place of sanctuary for Jews fleeing discrimination elsewhere and many of it’s founders were survivors of the European genocide. That’s why the discussion of genocide in the context of the conflict with Palestinians is so fraught. But we cannot look away. The relentless bombing and other military attacks by the IDF against Gaza, along with what seems to be a deliberate strategy of using starvation as a weapon of war, all with the likely intention of removing the Palestinians from Gaza, fits almost any definition of genocide. And just because the perpetrators were themselves victims earlier, doesn’t absolve them from that charge. What’s more, the campaign in Gaza may just be a dress rehearsal for similar campaigns in the West Bank.

It troubles me greatly to accuse Israel of committing genocide but, if moral standards are to mean anything, they cannot be double. I fully support the recent actions of the Canadian, French and British governments demanding Israel stop the relentless attacks on Gaza with the clear sense that, if it does not, sanctions must follow.

Just sayin

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“From the River to the Sea”

At the height of the Vietnam War many young people, myself included, protested against it. We were certain history was on our side and that America’s actions would be rightly condemned by posterity as those of a brutal invader seeking to impose its will on a much weaker indigenous people. Even in a pre-internet world, the images of dead and dying Vietnamese galvanized us as they appeared on the nightly news and in the newspapers. And no amount of patronizing explaining to us by “adults” could weaken our resolve.

I think it is probably correct to say that history has proved us right, and I have few if any regrets about my actions opposing that war. So it is with mixed feelings that I witness the student protests on campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza. On the one hand, the distant sixties rebel in me wants to cheer them on if only because of the engagement and passion they are showing. On the other, I am appalled by their ignorant embrace of slogans and ideologies that offend the very essence of the West, and that are blind to history. And that is where there is a dramatic and stark difference between us then and them now.

The most prominent slogan of the current protests is “from the river to the sea” that demands an independent Palestine occupying all of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ignoring or, more accurately, completely devaluing the country that occupies a significant part of that land now: the State of Israel. I like to believe that most of the student protesters don’t really believe Israel should be erased from the map, with its Jewish population scattered or worse. And yet, how can they not? Even if they haven’t delved into the history behind today’s conflict, there is ample information everywhere to inform them.

A few days ago one of the “leaders” of the protests at Columbia University in New York stated that Zionists didn’t deserve to live and then, in a bizarre example of Orwellian newspeak, offered this statement as proof of his moderation because he wasn’t actually advocating killing Zionists. This is a distinction without a difference and, what’s more, advocating killing Zionists is only a tiny step away from advocating killing Jews. Some of these words are so shocking, given the history of the twentieth century, I can’t quite believe I’m hearing them. And yet here we are. They certainly wouldn’t have been tolerated in the Canada I grew up in, and I’m sorry to realize this reflects changes in Canada that veer away terribly from the country I was raised to admire and love.

Even though I have always supported robust immigration to Canada, I believe some of the shifting Canadian values are a result of mass immigration from countries with very different values than Canada’s, and where historical hatreds pass from generation to generation. And that includes hatred of Jews, although it would be foolish to think it stops there. I, as a gay man, understand the deeply ingrained homophobia that is also being imported.

Mine is the last generation with any real connection to the Holocaust and for later generations it is increasingly ancient history. But I would have thought it was such an appalling and epochal event it would still have a deafening resonance. Apparently that isn’t so and we now have university students, presumably some of the brightest of this current generation, casually chanting phrases that, in their plain meaning, would, if implemented, result in another Holocaust, this one in the ancient home of the Jewish people.

Of course all decent people abhor killing civilians, particularly when it’s women, children and the elderly most affected, but just once, it would nice to hear the protesters blaming Hamas as the instigator of all this. It knew Israel would respond forcefully after the October 7 attacks, that, in fact, it would have no other choice. That is why Hamas embedded itself under hospitals, near schools, near civilian centers, guaranteeing the maximum number of casualties amongst Palestinian civilians. In other words, it set out to deliberately use women, children, babies and the elderly as fodder, not human shields, hoping Israel would attack and deliver Hamas a propaganda victory. It obviously didn’t care at all for the lives of those victims who, by the way, are victims of Hamas’ strategy and war, not Israel’s. Why isn’t that being protested? Why isn’t Hamas as the instigator of all the violence being held to account?

These past seven months have taught me how little I know about younger generations’ political views and the role the academy plays in forming them. In fact, I seem to have missed an entire shift from what was viewed as a good and full university education in my time as a student to something completely different, where identity politics are the cornerstone of learning or, worse, a prerequisite to even access an advanced education. Each day I read articles where professors of things like “gender studies” or “anti colonial studies” or similar such titles are being quoted railing against Israel and demanding that their institutions ally themselves with misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic, anti liberal and anti democratic organizations and countries. I really have no idea what it is these professors are expert in although I’m sure it’s far removed from the traditional academic disciplines, or what was considered a well rounded education, when I was young. I ended my university time for the last time in 1972 and clearly much has changed since then although maybe not for the better. It does make me wonder how my tax dollars are being spent, and for that matter, whether I should be leaving money to universities in my estate.

I understand there is a world of difference between my lived experience and that of the young protesters and their professors today but I still can’t make any sense of their complete unwillingness to at least acknowledge the plight of Jews, perhaps the most persecuted people in the history of mankind. Maybe it’s as simple as skin colour but that doesn’t seem sufficient and, even though many of the protesters would object vigorously, I can’t help but feel the ancient, poisonous hatred, anti-antisemitism, is at play.

I look back on my sixties activism, particularly my opposition to the war in Vietnam, with pride. Today’s generation of rebels and protesters may have a very different legacy, one filled with shame for, at a minimum, being complicit fanning the flames of hate and prejudice.

Just sayin,

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