The Jewish Enablers: The Antisemites’ Best Friends, CAEF Bulletin - September 16, 2019
It cannot be said often enough that today’s antisemitism is a three-headed monster, the radical Left, ultra-Right and Islamism. What must be acknowledged is that the radical Left has significant Jewish representation. This is intended to give legitimacy to the organizations’ expressions of anti-Israel sentiment, to denying the legitimacy of the Jewish state, promoting antiZionism through lies and distortions and to promoting Arab interests over Jewish interests. Several organizations on the far Left need be specifically called out and combatted within the Jewish community. Two articles below speak to this from both a political and personal level. The first by Daniel Bordman is specifically Canadian, and the second by Rachel Wahba is more universal.
How Radical Jewish Organizations Exacerbate the Problem of Antisemitism
By: Daniel Bordman, Communications Coordinator CAEF - September 16, 2019
What is antisemitism? Is it calling for a genocide of Jews? Is it promoting the medieval “blood libel”? Is it claiming that the Zionists control American politics? People may disagree on a concrete definition of antisemitism, but interestingly enough Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) does not think that any of the listed examples constitute antisemitism.
To understand why IJV thinks this way we can go back to last week’s controversy surrounding ousted Federal Liberal Candidate Hassan Guillet. Guillet was dropped from the Liberal party when his past comments and associations were made public by B’nai Brith Canada. This included multiple links to sermons from Imams on his mosque’s website calling for the death of Jews. Most of it was related to the Hadith that talks about the end times not coming until Muslims everywhere fight and kill the Jews all over. The same passage can be found in the Hamas charter. Guillet has also supported Hamas-aligned activist, Raed Salah, who once claimed that Jews kidnap your children to use their blood for their holy bread. Guillet wished him good luck at “liberating all of occupied Palestine” i.e. no more Israel. Finally, Guillet himself has stated that, “Zionists control American politics”.
The Slippery Slope of Jew-‘ish’
By Rachel Wahba, an Egyptian-Iraqi Jew, born in India, grew up stateless in Japan, emigrated to US is a member of the Advisory Board of JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), and is a regular blogger for The Times of Israel. Rachel lives in California. All my life, I was informed it was not ok to be a Jew or identify as “Jew”. However, it was the only national identity I had. I was a Stateless Jew, born to a Stateless Iraqi mother and a soon to be Stateless Egyptian father. Stuck in Japan for 20 years, my parents were my “country” and Jew my “nationality”. My nuns in International Catholic missionary schools didn’t mince words. Intransigent Jews (like my 13-year-old self) would not only “never see God,” but we would be victims of persecution until we gave up being Jews. Later in life, as a 20-something new immigrant in my dream-come-true America, my best friend, a Brooklyn born Jew directed me to stop using the word Jew. “Say Jewish” she demanded. I began to see a pattern of giving up the Jew not necessarily to get to Heaven, but to assimilate, to fit in. The “ish” softens the negative projections associated with Jew. I don’t believe it’s in our best interest to land there. Recently an almost-friend whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors came to me with a dilemma. She wanted me in her inner circle, but her people were anti-Zionist. “Can you be less of a Jew?” she pleaded. At least she made the connection between Jew and Zionist. When I shared this with another Jewish friend he responded how she should have said “can you be less of a Zionist, instead of less of a Jew.” He missed the point, she used exactly the right wording. A Jew recognizes we are a People and as a people we are Israel. Continue reading
Why the Canadian Government Must Recognize Israeli Wines from Judea and Samaria are Israeli!
by Mark Vandermaas, Founder of Israel Truth Week, a Christian, former UN Peace Keeper is Official Lecturer for CAEF’s Israel’s Legal Rights Project. Mark prepared the following statement to share with the federal court now undertaking to review an appeal of the earlier decision to restrict sales of wines from Israeli producers who live in Judea or Samaria unless they label them from “occupied territories” instead of simply from “Israel”. In 1922, Canada was a member of the League of Nations when the world recognized the Jewish people as the rightful owners of all land west of the Jordan River, including Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, under international law known as the Mandate For Palestine and Note re Trans-Jordan. One of the promises made to the Jews was that the world, via the Mandatory Power—Great Britain—would help them immigrate to Palestine/Israel and rebuild their ‘national home’ as it is called in the preamble. Unfortunately, the world betrayed the Jews and countless of their number were murdered because they were illegally kept out of their homeland before and during the Holocaust in violation of Article 6 of the Mandate. Canada, to its lasting shame, turned away desperate Jews who were wrongly denied the safety of their recognized homeland. And now, a Canadian court has added to that betrayal. After everything the world has done to the Jewish people, we have an obligation to remember our promises to them, and this is especially so for Canada which claims a moral authority in the area of human rights. We did not give refuge to Jews fleeing Nazis, but we can play a part in setting the record straight: in 1922 Jews were recognized by the world as owners of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in the original two-state solution that saw Jewish land east of the Jordan River given to Arabs under Article 25. As a League of Nations member Canada was part of that solution, and we have a duty to remind the world of the promises within it that were not kept. Surely, Jewish people have the right to expect the world to keep its promises. Why should they trust promises in a new solution when history proves they could not trust the promises in the original? The collective rights of the Jewish people set out in the Mandate For Palestine were supposed to be protected by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. Unfortunately, the world has conveniently forgotten that promise as well, and Jews are now the victims of a new and terrible libel called ‘occupation.’ They are falsely accused of stealing the very land we and the world recognized as Jewish land barely 100 years ago. Today, we ask the federal Court to restore the honour and dignity of the Jewish people by ruling—quite simply—that wine grown on land recognized by the world under international law in 1922 as being part of the Jewish ‘national home’ west of the Jordan River is Jewish wine…Made In Israel.”
A Jewish Young Adult in Support of Our Mission
I am pleased to share a letter received from Gabriella Gadol who served as our PR and Event Coordinator, thanks to a Canada Summer Placement grant. Gabriella worked with the Executive Director of CAEF who is also the volunteer president of Kulanu Canada, an organization assisting dispersed and isolated Jewish communities around the world. We learned from her and she learned from us and it’s been mutually rewarding; and ever more clear that our Jewish youth need information, encouragement and support to stand up to antisemitism and fight against the BDS and other destructive movements. Read Gabriella's Letter here
Meet Mr. A. Dummy: Introducing New Tools for Telling the Truth About Arab Palestinian Myths
CAEF is thrilled to share these brilliant, funny and informative Youtube videos prepared by Yehudit Shier Weisberg. We encourage our readers and supporters to forward to friends and family, to educators, synagogue leaders, youth organizations. Yehudit is an educator and puppeteer from Toronto who made aliyah a few years; she currently lives in Jerusalem. There are 7 videos in this series to help everyone understand, in very simple terms, the issues around a proposed two state solution, the reality of 1967 borders, the truth about an Arab Palestinian people, the lie of occupation and much more. Sit back, enjoy and get a smile on your face. Here is the link to Yehudit's YouTube channel
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