Antisemitism in Canada?
A lengthy well researched article by Robert Sarner appeared on June 16th, in the Times of Israel. Here is an excerpt quoting Andria Spindel, Executive Director of CAEF.
“As the head of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), which fights antisemitism through education, interfaith relations, and advocacy, Andria Spindel closely follows developments on the ground.
“The data shows a significant increase in antisemitic acts including attacks, online hatred, distorted and lying media coverage about Israel and the Jewish people, vandalism and harassment, and school and university biases. This is the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime in Canada,” says Spindel, who’s also the co-chair of the End Jew Hatred Canada movement.
Spindel attributes the spike to several factors.
“It’s most often associated with anti-Israelism, and is fueled by various forces — Islamism, Leftism, and supremacism on the right,” Spindel adds. “However, it’s taken a new shape using social media, street protests, and critical race theory, academia, progressivism.’ ”
Read blog post by Vivienne Ziner, in the Times of Israel, June 3, 2021, describing attacks in Toronto.
If this is Apartheid, Bring it On!
Is this the Coalition from Hell?
The New York Times is not known for being soft or sympathetic, nor even fair, honest or decent in its reporting on Israel, but Bret Stephens, one of the only Jewish contributors who has stuck with the editorially biased paper, continues to demonstrate integrity when reporting on Israel, as well as grace and balance. From the June 14th edition we have this Opinion piece, entitled: Israel’s Coalition of Patriotic Traitors
Israel’s new government must be a puzzle for anyone who thinks of the Jewish state as a racist, fascistic, apartheid enterprise.
Issawi Frej is Arab and Muslim and used to work for the Peace Now movement. Now he’s Israel’s minister for regional cooperation. Pnina Tamano-Shata is Black: The Mossad rescued her, along with thousands of other Ethiopian Jews, from hunger and persecution when she was a small child. She’s the minister for immigration and absorption. Nitzan Horowitz is the first openly gay man to lead an Israeli political party. He’s the health minister. At least one deputy minister, as yet unnamed, is expected to be a member of the Raam party, which is an outgrowth of the major Islamist political group in Israel.
As for Benjamin Netanyahu, “King Bibi” has finally left office — churlishly, bitterly, pompously — but in keeping with the normal democratic process. He faces criminal indictments in multiple cases. His immediate predecessor as prime minister, Ehud Olmert, spent 16 months in prison on corruption charges.
It’s some fascist state that subjects its leaders to the rule of law and the verdicts of a court. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, “postponed” elections in April. He’s in the 17th year of his elected four-year term of office.
A new government, even one as fragile and fractious as Israel’s, is always an opportunity for a course correction. But the course correction Israel most needs is not the one its critics generally suppose.
Netanyahu lasted in office as long as he did not because Israelis wanted a strongman or someone who would crush the Palestinians. He lasted because he was, in many ways, good at the job.
What Use is the UN?
The Nations of the world came together in 1945 to form a body that would establish codes of conduct for peace and good will among the nations, monitor conflict and send in peace keepers when conflict arose, identify issues facing poor or depressed areas and develop strategies of assistance, and one assumes, create an international forum for problem resolution. So, how well is it working today?
The UN General Assembly is dominated by Muslim countries and their allies who outnumber the Western democracies, yet funding is primarily coming from the more developed, hence Western, countries. The various bodies of the UN, with rare exception vilified and lie about Israel, pretty much at every meeting and pass arbitrary hate-filled resolutions against the only democratic and free society in the entire Middle East and North Africa—Israel. One of the major impetuses for this once esteemed body was what was revealed after the Holocaust and the overall theme of Never Again was to be the motto for not just the Jewish people, but for the world. So, how is that going now?
Watch this brief video on the hypocrisy of this expensive, multi-layered over-funded and bloated body which sucks the life out of every good cause by denying legitimacy to Israel and blaming Israel for every tragedy and all strife around the world. It is incomprehensible that anything gets done at the UN given its overall misguided and hateful focus on Israel while ignoring tragedy after tragedy, basic breaches of human rights by a majority of countries sitting on the Human Rights Council and many other bodies. It would be funny if it were not so obscenely wrong.
Readers Request
CAEF received a high volume of feedback after our Web Talk which featured Dr. Charles Jacobs on The Failure of Jewish Leadership, What’s to be done About it? View the shortened version of this recording, as posted by Americans for Peace and Tolerance. Forward, post, share.
Read blog by Vivienne Ziner in the Times of Israel, June 17, 2021 calling on Toronto’s Jewish leadership to act.
Mixed Messages on Islam from Canadian Muslims
Tarek Fatah, founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress and columnist in the Toronto Sun, wrote on June 16, 2021, that There is No Islamophobia in Canada. The article was republished in the Middle East Forum and is highly recommended reading here.
On the other hand it has to be pointed out, that there is yet another antisemitic program and student group with anti-Israel harassing activity at the University of Toronto. There is “Hearing Palestine,” a program in the Institute of Islamic Studies, that joined the chorus of anti-Zionists to declare support for the hiring of an antisemite for the Faculty of Law, and as importantly refuses to recognize and accept the hiring process itself was reviewed by an independent judge and found to have met the required standards of objectivity and fairness, and to support the Dean’s claim that no offer had been made to the candidate recommended by the biased, intransigent committee that is very woke.
Here are the lies this “academic” program published on its website:
Palestine is a country which has been denied the state that UN resolution 181 promised, in principle, in 1947; (CAEF-No, Transjordan was created along with Israel as the Arab state.)
Palestinians are a people who for 73 years have faced expulsion, expropriation, incarceration and execution; (CAEF-No, the Arabs fled and were not expelled and those that stayed are Israeli, or under the governance of the PA. The Jews bought the land and executed no one.)
All people have a right to support the non-violent, anti-racist criticism of Israel, such as the BDS movement, without the threat of criminalization or government repudiation; (CAEF-BDS has criminal intent, its sole goal of destroying Israel and its leadership has affirmed this.)
Criticism of Israel is not tantamount to anti-Semitism, and that any attempt to conflate opposition to Zionism with anti-Semitism runs contrary to the freedoms of expression and democratic debate that we hold dear. (CAEF-Criticism of Israeli policy is fine, but the line is well drawn in denying the Jewish people’s national homeland, and IHRA is the Canadian standard against which to judge this.)
A Complementary Story: How One Young Muslim Sought Truth
The letter below published by the Israel Forever Foundation, provides an unusual and exceptionally beautiful example of how one young Egyptian Muslim rid herself of an education in Jew hatred and became an Arab Israeli who loves the freedoms she enjoys in Israel, loves her Jewish friends and neighbors, loves and respects Israel and its people for all that it offers her and all its citizens.
By Eman
I was raised in a conservative Muslim society. My family was more religious than average - they sent me to Quran recitals every week since the age of seven, along with the regular Islam education at home and school. I wore Hijab at the age of 11, and by the time I was 13, I memorized half of the Muslim holy book Quran by heart. I learned the culture to my core and it was a huge part, if not most of my childhood. Who I am today is a direct result of the way I was raised.
From the Arab World: Facts and Opinions about the Palestinians and Hamas
Dogan Akman
Based on the press coverage in the U.S., E.U. and part of Canadian mass media, of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the most recent war launched by Hamas, one would think Israel and Israelis are evil incarnate in their treatment of Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria and those in Gaza. With this kind of incitement, the Jewish citizens of these countries have been and continue to be hounded, attacked, humiliated, injured and killed on the street or in their synagogues, while their communal institutions and synagogues are vandalised by pro-Palestinian and other antisemitic mobs.
This press coverage echoes the press and official declarations originating from, to name a few, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), Hamas in Gaza, Qatar and Pakistan.
By the same token, the mass media generally wilfully ignores the coverage of the same or related subjects by some Arab/Muslim political figures; scholars, political analysts and journalists contradict their narratives of the events. What have these Arabs written about the Palestinians, the P.A., and the recent war triggered by Hamas, and what are some Arab countries doing about providing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)? Let’s have a look.
Worried about Your Kids’ Committing to Social Justice not Israel
You are not alone. Young people are being conned, lied to, deceived, and exploited by leftist organizations that do not support Israel and have supplanted the love of Judaism with love of social justice while often vilifying Israel. Unfortunately here is one example, posted by Peace Now Canada, promoting their alternative to Birthright:
“…. various progressive Jewish organizations started offering travel programs that present a more holistic view of present-day Israel. Our guest panelists will discuss why there’s a need to go “beyond Birthright.” They will introduce educational travel options for youth who wish to learn more about Israel, as well as Palestine. Speakers:
Sam Sussman is the co-founder and director of Extend, an NGO that introduces American Jewish audiences to human rights, civil society and political leaders in Israel and Palestine. He is keen to include Canadians in his programs.
Abby Kirschbaum, Assistant Director of Public Engagement & Educational Resources, JStreet. JStreet is an American “pro-Israel, pro-peace” NGO that works to change the conversation about what it means to be pro-Israel. It runs occasional study tours for youth to Israel and the West Bank.”
CAEF wonders if Peace Now, JStreet, Extend can tell us where the country of Palestine is and what are its borders? When was it established and what form of government does it have? As Jews we know the “West Bank” is the term referring to Judea and Samaria, by the Jordanians when they illegally occupied our land.
Ask yourself where is the incitement to kill Israelis coming from? What were the 1st and 2nd Intifada, the knife and car ramming intifada, and the Ramadan riots of 2021 that were followed by the Hamas led war against Israel? Some assume that it is legitimate resistance, some believe attacks only come from Hamas which is Muslim Brotherhood but ignore the Palestinian Authority’s incitement and call for killing of Jews and its pay-for-slay program. Are the Jewish participants going to meet NGOs that are run by Israeli Arabs who recognize Israel, who are part of the society or with resistance leaders, NGOs that want to destroy Israel and seek to secure support among gullible young Jews, and the politically left who cannot differentiate between righteousness and their devotion to the left.
Are these the people with whom your children will come to understand “civil society” in “Palestine” or will they become just more subjugated to an anti-Jewish narrative that includes the victimhood of the recalcitrant Arabs who want to destroy Israel, send all Jews to some unspecified country and would be willing to incur another Shoah. Is there really another “narrative” to which our younger generation should be exposed? Is history, archaeology, law, anthropology, and other disciplines to be ignored in favour of new “narratives?”
We are asked regularly by readers, for a list of organizations to join, support, or contribute to so with a view to alienating others, here is a short list of advocacy organizations that share values and collaborate when possible to combat antisemitism. This is not intended to be an exclusive list nor does it in any way detract from the need to also support Jewish educational, health and social welfare, cultural and arts, sports and research organizations. This list is focused on groups that do effective advocacy for Israel and fighting Jew hatred, including challenging the Jewish progressivist-left, socialists, and Islamo-fascists that demonize Israel. Justice before Peace.
AIPAC, B’nai Brith Canada, Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), CAMERA, Club Z, American Israel Council, EMET, MEMRI, Middle East Forum, NGO Monitor, Palestinian Media Watch, Shurat Hadin, The Lawfare Project, Hasbara Fellowships, Stand with Us, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), AMCHA Initiative, The Israel Group, Israel Forever Foundation, Students Supporting Israel (SSI), The New Zionist Congress.
To further understand the significance of the harm caused by “progressivism” among Jews, read this most important article from Tablet Magazine, June 16, 2021, by two scions of the Jewish world, Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy, who label these people Un-Jews:
Here is an excerpt from The Un-Jews, The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood.
“The anti-Zionists know exactly what they are doing, and what they are undoing. They are trying to disentangle Judaism from Jewish nationalism, the sense of Jewish peoplehood, while undoing decades of identity-building. In repudiating Israel and Zionism, hundreds of Jewish Google employees rejected what they call “the conflation of Israel with the Jewish people.” The voices of inflamed Jewish opponents of Israel and Zionism are in turn amplified by a militant progressive superstructure that now has an ideological lock on the discourse in American academia, publishing, media, and the professions that formerly respected American Jewry’s Zionism-accented, peoplehood-centered constructions of Jewish identity.
We call these critics “un-Jews” because they believe the only way to fulfill the Jewish mission of saving the world with Jewish values is to undo the ways most actual Jews do Jewishness. They are not ex-Jews or non-Jews, because many of them are and remain deeply involved Jewishly, despite their harsh dissent. Many un-Jews are active in forms of Jewish leadership, running Jewish studies departments, speaking from rabbinic pulpits, hosting Shabbat dinners. For many of these un-Jews, the public and communal staging of their anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist beliefs appears to be the badge of a superior form of Judaism, stripped of its unsavory and unethical “ethnocentric” and “colonialist” baggage.”
Shocking New Cases of Bigotry-Join the Woke to Stamp Out Inequity
Dr. Gad Saad, Evolutionary Psychologist and Professor at Concordia University, has provided an interesting list of the injustices that are infecting our society and must be addressed if we are to achieve equality of outcomes, a truly just society. I have liberally taking these from Dr. Saad’s website.
Dr Saad notes, “I just came across some statistics that shook me to the core. I share these herewith with the hope that you will join me in ensuring that we achieve equality of outcomes across all human endeavors. Because remember, any differences in outcomes could only be due to bigotry.”
73% of elliptical users are white => racism! 84% of bowling attendants are white men => white supremacy! 92% of users of Montreal pools are white => Jim Crow! Only 3% of curlers are indigenous => indigenous-o-phobia! My wife is a cisnormative woman => transphobia! I call myself a man because I have male genitalia => Bigotry! 94% of hikers to the Grand Canyon were non-Asian => Asian hate! Not a single Namibian has won the Nobel Prize => Decolonize science! Darwin, Newton, Einstein were all men => The erasure of women in STEM! No country from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has ever won the World Cup => Islamophobia! 98% of Acapulco cliff divers are Mexican males => transgendered Bolivians are marginalized! 100% of bungee jumpers are non-Imams => Islamophobia! 86% of go cart customers are white => Racial segregation! No Lebanese person has won any tennis grand slam event => Phoenicia-phobia! Not a single non-binary person has ever been crowned the Japanese grand champion of sumo wrestling => Erasure of marginalized communities “I could go on, but this hopefully proves to you that we still have a long way to go before we can achieve the dream of becoming social ants, all equal with the exception of the queen ..”
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