Well said. What’s frightening is how widespread anti semitism is becoming in our post secondary institutions and indoctrinating our young people. Thanks for publishing this piece.
I disagree. I don't believe antisemitism is widespread in our uni's nor are the uni's indoctrinating the students in anti-Zionist rhetoric. Sure, antisemitism exists, but as a whole new surge. No. I do not believe so.
Jews have every right to be vigilant given the hatred that has been focused on them as a people since the time of Christ.
The Holocaust is a recent and constant reminder to them that those who scapegoat them are capable of.
Were I a Jew, I too would be concerned that Marouf had so easily gained access to endorsement and support from the Liberal government in spite of history of antisemitic activism.
As a non-Jew, I am concerned about the systemic malfunction of the Trudeau government - a government that is constantly accusing Canadians of being systemically racist, genocidal, Islamophobic, etc yet admits a bigot to its own ranks so casually.
Marouf’s access to public funding was the result of wilful neglect and incredible negligence - hallmarks of the current virtue pedlars in Ottawa.
Absolutely true. This is a direct consequence of the Oppressor/Oppressed critical theories embraced by illiberal Woke "progressives", here and abroad. In this narrative, it is impossible for the oppressed to be racist towards the oppressor, against whom they are simply defending themselves. Whites are the font of racist oppression, and Jews are cast as either White or White-adjacent, and therefore it's respectably open season on both.
In the States, a version of this narrative has been going on at least since Eldridge Cleaver and the Panthers in the 1960/70s, through Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and spreading through his adherents such as the founders of the Women's March to entertainers like Dave Chappelle. (It's echoed, too, in Eddy Murphy's old SNL send up of Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood: "Kill de landlord! Kill de landlord.) And, of course, we've seen how antisemitism was embedded in the intersectionalism that flooded through the Labour Party in the UK under Corbyn.
Here, more recently, we've seen the adoption of White Settler rhetoric by anti-Israel voices who talk about Zionist Settlers. Within the last year, Toronto has had protest marches that featured the genocidal chant: "From the river to the sea", and marches that deliberately went through predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods: Protestors argued that if Palestinians couldn't relax in their homes in the West Bank and Gaza, then Jews shouldn't be able to relax in their homes here. The conflation of Israeli policy with Jews as a whole couldn't have been clearer, yet politicians and the media were very much, "Move along, nothing to see here" -- just as they've been largely silent about antisemitic positions taken by student governments and others at universities such as York.
This problem can't begin to be addressed as long as our government continues to buy into the Oppressor/Oppressed narratives of critical theory. But since the government continues to use DARVO tactics against all criticism, there is no reason to assume the situation will end any time soon.
Canada seems determined to go down the same road as France.
Large numbers of French Jews have seen the writing on the wall and left the country.
Many have had to move from their traditional neighborhoods, driven out by incessant antisemitism.
In many schools Jewish parents have had to remove their children with the authorities conceding that they are incapable of protecting their children from violence.
"This rallying cry has long been used by the anti-Israel terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the PFLP, which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means."
Anti-racist narrative is always selective, only when the it serves certain purpose. Canadian politicians are either unbelievable naïve, or unbelievable stupid, or what else could it be?
Slow response by Trudeau et. al to Marouf affair (credit to them that they did eventually cut the funding). When it's politically expedient, Trudeau is quick to denounce and is on a knee at the BLM protests.
And no tweets from Gerald Butts decrying Marouf, anti-semitism and the government's sloppy oversight on this matter. But I suppose all this is understandable from his POV as we have to accept different perspectives. But lots of time to fawn over/tweet about Serena Williams.
I am supprised at the anti Semitism that is still out there. The fact that the radical left is spouting this evil does not surprise me. All their language is based on evil stereotypes that don't exist.
More Jews around the world need to stand up against the apartheid government of Israel. It's against the Jewish faith to be treating another group of people the way that Israel treats the Palestinians, and they're doing it in your name, as an explicitly Jewish government. Articles like this one from The Line do a great job of excusing Jews from taking action with complicated arguments that obfuscate the entire issue.
My last comment, or they'll probably kick me off the board lol...
The real "wow," is that more people can't admit that Israel is an apartheid government (as per Amnesty International), and if Canadians saw that the majority of Canadian Jewish organizations and voices actively condemned the actions of Israel, this would take away some fuel for anti-semitism. They invaded and are occupying another country (as per the UN).
Jews around the world should be disappointed that successive Israeli governments have squandered a great opportunity after WWII. Most of the entire world was sympathetic to what happened to them in the Holocaust. So sympathetic, they gave them a country to live in.
The multi-decade apartheid occupation and slow annexation of Palestinians, the assassination of a leader who dared to make peace.... this while making forever excuses as to why they can't sign a peace agreement...
I see you trotting out a commonplace apartheid defence: 'you don't understand the situation.' The UN and Amnesty International don't understand either?
People say this to EVERY minority group that suffers discrimination: Muslims, Blacks, Gays, Trans, Catholics, etc. We're all told, "Why don't you speak up against x, y, z?" We do, but since when are individuals accountable for their demographic?
How would you like, "More whites need to take a stand against white supremacists. They're doing it in your name"? Or, "More Catholics needs to take a stand against pedophile priests"?
Israel has a responsibility to other nations of the world to stop being an apartheid government, and stop ignoring the UN which says they invaded another country and should leave. Israel (a Jewish state) persecutes another group of people and occupies their land, and gradually completes the annexation with more and more with settlers.
From the article:
"To that end, what if “anti-racist” circles tolerate and even sometimes encourage rhetoric like Marouf’s, as part of the greater goal of opposing human rights abuses in Israel and expressing solidarity with Palestinians?"
This is exactly where we are headed unfortunately, and the The Line helped it along with this article by continuing to ignore the elephant in the room.
DARVO. The examples in this article include a mayor supporting a road name for a Nazi, Holocaust denial, and focus on support for a guy who called people who believe in a Jewish state "human bags of feces". It is about antisemitism on the left in Canada; not about the policies of the Netanyahu government, or its replacement which, incidentally, saw Arabs included in a coalition government, strange for a truly apartheid state. Nor will I spend time noting that LGBT Palestinians are a good deal safer and happier in Israel than they are in the two dictatorships that claim, absent elections, to speak for them in the West Bank and Gaza.
What you are arguing is collective guilt, in this case the collective guilt of Jews for the sins of the Israeli government. The essay argues that Israel is a fig leaf that antisemites use to excuse Jew hate. Given what we have saw in Corbyn's Labour, or in comments for the Democrats' Squad ("It's all about the Bengamins"), or marches through Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto and the harassment of Jews on our university campuses, Lieblein has a more than clear case.
Lieblein can choose to help reduce anti-semitism in Canada by raising his voice against an apartheid government as political affairs correspondent for the Canadian Jewish News. Take away some of the fuel for anti-semitism.
Instead he writes an article focused on concern that the left is tolerating pro-Palestinian extremists, suggesting that it might be because the extremist voices are "more like the quiet part being shouted out loud."
Well, he may be onto something in sensing that many Canadians have run out of patience for decades of Israeli human rights abuse, and like it or not, what an avowedly Jewish nation does is going to reflect on Jews around the world. Highlighting some of the good deeds of a government while ignoring human rights abuse on a massive scale, shows that you and Lieblein are somewhat dogmatic.
His suggestion? "...anti-racists do more to expose the anti-Semites who hide behind anti-racist language" ...hmmm... ok, let's do that, as best we can.
How about we also implement my suggestion to reduce anti-semitism, as it is more practical and likely to show better results.
I am far from dogmatic. Like most people, I oppose the appalling expansion and support for illegal settlements by the Netanyahu government. Like most people, I am also more than sympathetic to the Palestinians, not only because of Israel, but because of the two corrupt dictatorships that run their lives and station rocket attacks on Israel in housing complexes, schools and hospitals, where they are certain to provoke defensive retaliation and anti-Israel propaganda rewards. I was sympathetic to the PLO under Arafat until the 2nd intifada which is the greatest own goal in Palestinian history. Subsequent events have shown that Israel has no negotiating partner capable of following through on any peace treaty, and only a dogmatist would demand that a nation commit suicide.
Your suggestion that Jews and others can defuse antisemitism by attacking Israel is a convenient dodge that gives cover to antisemites within the progressive movement. It is exactly like people who argue: "Gays and trans people could defuse homophobia if they would only speak up against groomers." "Muslims could defuse Islamophobia if they would only speak up against FGM and honour killings." "Blacks could defuse racism if they would only speak up about Black street gangs." This is transparently disingenuous.
We can repeat Israel's excuse that they have no negotiating partner. We can repeat Israel's claim that Palestinians are not capable of governing themselves. But the truth is, there have been many reasonable international efforts to help solve things.
I believe that sustained international pressure, like from Lieblein of Canadian Jewish News, would hopefully help elect a less-apartheid regime, rather than result in a nation committing suicide. It strikes me that South Africa still exists, and it's common knowledge that the USA covertly made Israel a nuclear power.
Your attempt to compare this situation to victim blaming in cases of homophobia, Islamophobia etc., just shows the pretzel victim logic that is increasingly required to try and defend this regime that is helping fuel anti-semitism with a decades-long occupation of its neighbours.
I believe both of your examples are realities that do happen in the real world. I am an atheist, I am concerned about the politics and human rights for all, not any specific religion. My question still stands and is unanswered.
Yes, they are. And my guess is you don't like being held to account for white supremacists any more than I do. Because we do speak out against it. Just as Catholics have spoken out against clergy abuses, and Muslims have spoken out about Islamic terrorists, and LGBs have spoken out about the trans lobby (we have two international organizations doing that, in fact: "The LGB Alliance" and "Get the 'L' Out". And I hope you'll agree that atheists shouldn't be called on to do more to denounce the genocides that have taken place under officially atheist Communist countries like Russia, China and North Korea.
The point is that collective guilt is wrong. And neither being a Jew nor believing in a Jewish state are predicated on support of the policies of particular governments. (The idea of a state should be perfectly understandable to anyone who talks about Turtle Island given the millennia of land-based Israelite history and the history of global persecution against their Israelites descendants).
People aren't responsible for the actions of others in their demographic, which is why "isms" are bad anbd not to be excused.
Not an answer for today. If you are speaking of education I don’t disagree but every government on the planet is open to criticism, has nothing to do with individual citizens of that country or their religion.
Of course but other governments are beside the point to this specific Canadian problem. I mean, we can find fault with Pakistan and New Zealand as well, but how much time do we have?
As taxpayers and more importantly citizens, our basic duty is to uphold the democratic nation our forefathers created. And more importantly, we need to try and make it better. Which is why it needs to start here and now…first and foremost. I guess what I’m saying is…lead by example and demand our leaders do the same, because, after all, *we* are the government, right?
I absolutely agree, our Canadian governance is and has been less than perfect. I tend to send them the odd critical missive when I feel it’s needed.
Incidentally I try never to use the word taxpayer, particularly as regards communication with our government. Just a personal quirk of mine, not a criticism of your usage. I feel politicians use it as a weapon and too many are othered by it. As I said a personal quirk😊 Have a great Labour Day weekend Tara
I tend to agree with you. I am very critical of the actions of many governments, our own, the Americans, Chinese, Russian, the list goes on. I really want to know how I can criticize the actions of the Israeli government at any level without being deemed to be anti-Semitic. Genuine question, because I believe there are many of us who feel the same, does anyone have the answer?
To be clear: You are asking Jews to attack Israel while you absolve antisemites within the progressive movement, specifically Laith Maroof, who wrote: “You know all the loud-mouthed bags of human excrement, aka Jewish white supremacists; When we liberate Palestine and have to go back to where they came from, they will come back as low-voiced bitches. [their] Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”
You attack Israel as an "apartheid state", one which provides its Arab citizens with the vote, something Palestinians don't get in the West Bank and Gaza, and which has had Arab parties in a governing coalition -- and yet you're cool with "progressives" who explicitly call for the ethnic cleaning of Jews.
To be clear: I keep having to correct you from putting words in my mouth. Nowhere did I absolve Laith Maroof or any antisemite. I'm glad he was found out and fired. Neither did I remotely suggest I am cool with progressives who explicitly call for the ethnic cleaning of Jews.
Perhaps you should stop trying to lump me into a group of individuals in order to justify continuing to ignore my valid suggestion about one way to significantly reduce anti-Semitism.
Western democracies essentially agree that Israel should negotiate a two-state solution, while you continue to try and put Israeli governance over Palestinians in a positive light. Yours is a recipe for increasing anti-Semitism, because like it or not, what the self-described Jewish state of Israel does, impacts people's opinions of Jews around the world, and fewer and fewer people are buying the story that Israel needs to invade and forever subjugate millions of Palestinians in order to protect themselves.
While you quote Maroof's horrible statements, and try and associate me with him, you ignore racist diatribes right in the comments on this story: "There cannot be any compromise as long as the Palestinian side is dominated by Islamists, your basic religious fascists."
It is time that Jewish organizations around the world make it abundantly clear that they disassociate themselves from an apartheid government, and demand that they go back to the negotiating table. This would help reduce anti-semitism much more than Joshua's article focused on the government's failure to properly vet Maroof and only suggesting we do more "to expose the anti-Semites who hide behind anti-racist language." It might also convince Israeli politicians to start sincerely negotiating a solution instead of forever making excuses.
I agree with you that there needs to be a two-state solution. I also agree that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is reprehensible and, here is where we differ, I think it should draw attacks on *Israel*. It may be that Israel's behaviour is stirring antisemitism against Jews generally, in the same way that trans extremists are stirring anti-LGBT sentiment generally -- but Jews have no way to control that, nor do LGBT(ranssexuals) in the other instance, as you should know since Jews ARE speaking out and HAVE BEEN speaking out, and it has made No Difference. (Similarly, I am not responsible for the words of any other person on this thread.)
Finally, I am also *not* saying you are pro Maroof or his statements. I'm saying that you are providing him with cover by deflecting from the content of this column and putting the onus on Jews for progressive antisemitism. In doing so, you are making Joshua's point.
I'm glad we had this discussion. It's such a great example of how people can have the same goals but disagree on the exact formula for getting there. Take care.
Why do you think the Jews of the Diaspora should/could stand up against the Israeli government, which is not persecuting Palestinians in anyone's name but their own?
Not all Jews have "faith" you know. It's not a monolithic religious conglomeration. About 70% of Jews do not live in Israel.
No one is excusing Jews from taking action against a supremely complicated issue but when it comes to obfuscation all the antisemites come out of the woodwork with their disappointment, anger, and blame.
Maybe we should talk about the assorted Arab states, the 6-day war, and the continuing fallout ever since
We should all live in such a black-and-white world.
Which Jews? As many as possible. Which everyone else? As many as possible, like I am bothering to still comment here. But in particular leading Jewish Canadian voices like the writer of this article: Lieblein. That could help reduce anti-semitism.
When I say Jews should stand up, I say that they should stand up as Canadians, and join with the general view of our government and the United Nations.
You may not like it, but the actions of the Israeli government affect worldwide opinion of Jews. Either we can care about reducing anti-semitism or hide our heads in the sand and say it's too complicated and point fingers at other nations and peoples, excusing the Israeli government and prolonging the conflict and deepening the grievances.
If every single breathing Jew in the entire world stood up together today to condemn the Israeli government it would not reduce antisemitism one iota.
It has nothing to do with what I like or do not like. Israel could be the country of daisies and cherry popsicles and it would still not reduce antisemitism.
I am appalled at what successive governments of Israel have done. What I think is stupid is your "let the Jews stand together" message as if it would make any difference whatsoever.
I am deeply sympathetic to the Palestinians but they too must take some responsibility. It's not black and white and as simple to fix as you make out.
Here she is in 2018 giving a community award to the public relations chief of Palestine House, an antisemitic organization ("Israel and Hitler are the same"), and then having to apologize.
I believe you can be strongly against the government of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Incompetence by this government is almost an expected occurrence now, and that they would give a contract to someone with this history is a complete failure of the vetting process. That we still have this level of hatred over how people choose to pray...or why, is just another example of how Darwin may have been wrong.
It seems to me that the methodology of the creation of Israel is one more example of the post-war failures of map redrawing that have created violence and civil wars throughout the region ever since. But it is what is is now.....an apparently irreparable disaster area that will remain so until some form of compromise that isn't at the barrel of a gun can be worked out. I don't anticipate that happening in my lifetime. The hatred and toxicity runs too deep.
I would respectfully suggest that the Trudeau Government has sufficient vetting skills when it suits them. Want a grant to hire a summer student? Don’t ask if you are a Christian organization that supports pro-life counselling.
The biggest collapse of scrutiny and oversight is the WE scandal, which makes the Marouf monies look like chump change. Unfortunately, Canadians will never learn the truth as to how a multi $million sole source contract was awarded to a group with no credentials other than close ties to the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister.
You mean they're not transparent?? :) We learned that with SNC, and yet Andrew still found a way to "Hudak" that election. It goes back to leadership and credibility. In Canada, politically it's in a critically short supply.
Organised religion is humanities greatest failure. 100% of this stupidity because of not praying right to a god that may or may not exist. As Time magazine said a few years back, the Arab world is graduating more scientists each year than Israel has population. It's time for hem to come to the table. Thee is massive stupidity on both sides...hence the carnage will continue.
I think the UN created is out a guilt trip from the discovery of the camps.
Gee! An known pro Palestinian from the most overtly antisemitic province in Canada, being vetted by a politicized red-coated force preoccupied with finding new ways to help their political masters vet and disarm law abiding Canadians, slips through the cracks. Who knew?
Answer: pretty much anyone who paid attention to the performance of the current government knew that this sort of thing was a) inevitable; and b) probably reflected the underlying "thoughts" of the people in charge.
Glad to see some discussion on this topic here. Sometimes it seems few discuss the ongoing "conflict" in Middle East except those obsessed with it.
Let me stipulate that Anti-Semitism is a very bad thing, and must be exposed and confronted at all times. The two thousand year history of European Anti-Semitism is a stain on Western civilization which will likely never be cleansed.
From another perspective, however, it always seems to be discussions of "Anti-Semitism" or "Hamas" which get the notice. Meanwhile, the ongoing dispossession, impoverishment, and murder of Palestinian civilians goes on apace, as if this were a normal state of affairs.
Often, the statements of Palestinians are the trigger for comment , as is the case here. I have no doubt there is a vast store of ANGER built up in that demographic, caused directly by over a hundred years of a project which has successfully attempted to insinuate itself into an area already populated by people with a thriving, vibrant civilization, present for centuries in the region. Undoubtedly, and understandably, one could readily find similarly angry people among those whose family members were persecuted and murdered by Hitler's thughs.
The intruders, initially from Europe, and practicing a fully developed European civilization, have, like Europeans intruding in other regions of the world over the past 500 years, considered themselves better qualified than the indigenous inhabitants to control those areas they have entered, and to enforce measures exclusively for the benefit of the intruders.
The outcome for the indigenous peoples, as we all know, has been disastrous, at the cost of millions of lives, and the utter destruction of hundreds of cultures, traditions and languages.
In the case of Palestine, the intruders have seized control of the homes, land, and portable property of the Palestinian people, through a well-co-ordinated program of lobbying, legal measures, threats, intimidation and murder, in this case actively assisted by the governments of two world powers, the UK initially and subsequently by the USA. It is worth noting that both of these powers were rife with Anti-Semitism, and had no wish to house the people fleeing Nazi murder after WW2, or, prior to that, those fleeing pogroms and other violence in decades before WW2.
Anyone wishing to understand why this "conflict" is so intractable should read two texts: Isareli historian Ilan Pappe's "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" and Orthodox Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's " The Empty Wagon."
Anti-Semitism is the label that is applied by many Zionists to those who criticize Israel. Indeed, response to such criticism, rather than presenting countering arguments, goes right to the "nuclear option" and attempts to discredit critics by branding them as Anti-Semites. On occasion, the response attempts to destroy the lives of the critics by getting them fired from their jobs, or immersing them in SLAP litigation. The use of such tactics, if one thinks about it, simply demonstrates the absence of valid arguments in support of the Zionist position.
From these texts, one hears that much of what we have been told is self-serving myth. The Shapiro book details the process whereby a European right-wing Ethnic Nationalist movement, nurtured in the same 19th century philosophic swamp as Nazi right-wing Ethnic Nationalism, managed to hijack the identity of a peaceful, idealistic people and replace it with its diametric opposite. Herzl despised the religious Jew of Eastern Europe, describing him in terms indistinguishable from those used decades later by Hitler.
So let's talk about creating an environment where everyone living in the region controlled by Israel can live a full and productive life. Let's see an end to the Army-escorted Settler raids on their Palestinian neighbours. Let's see an end to attempts to push Palestinians from their farms and homes. Let's see an end to targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders, and the application of high-tech military violence in populated areas.
The present course of Israeli politics, moving farther and farther to the right, and absolute refusal to recognize the Human Rights of the Palestinians they have dispossessed and impoverished, is not a course that will be good for anyone in the region.
What was really shocking about this story is that everyone originally working to draw public attention to it, from Mark Goldberg, to Kaye and on through to Geist, is Jewish. Not a peep from Gentile media. And weeks before anyone in the PPG asked the PM about it. Not an effing peep. Something really wrong about that.
How about an article from The Line on how Israel has helped fuel anti-semitism around the world though its invasion and decades-long apartheid rule over Palestinians?
If we care about anti-semitism we should look at all the causes, and when a country takes over another country, it tends to fuel negative opinion about an invader's culture and religion as well, and especially so with Israel, the least secular government I know of.
Well said. What’s frightening is how widespread anti semitism is becoming in our post secondary institutions and indoctrinating our young people. Thanks for publishing this piece.
I disagree. I don't believe antisemitism is widespread in our uni's nor are the uni's indoctrinating the students in anti-Zionist rhetoric. Sure, antisemitism exists, but as a whole new surge. No. I do not believe so.
Jews have every right to be vigilant given the hatred that has been focused on them as a people since the time of Christ.
The Holocaust is a recent and constant reminder to them that those who scapegoat them are capable of.
Were I a Jew, I too would be concerned that Marouf had so easily gained access to endorsement and support from the Liberal government in spite of history of antisemitic activism.
As a non-Jew, I am concerned about the systemic malfunction of the Trudeau government - a government that is constantly accusing Canadians of being systemically racist, genocidal, Islamophobic, etc yet admits a bigot to its own ranks so casually.
Marouf’s access to public funding was the result of wilful neglect and incredible negligence - hallmarks of the current virtue pedlars in Ottawa.
Your succinct grasp of history is fulsome. I'm impressed.
That wasn't a drive-by Pat. You never fail to impress me :)
Absolutely true. This is a direct consequence of the Oppressor/Oppressed critical theories embraced by illiberal Woke "progressives", here and abroad. In this narrative, it is impossible for the oppressed to be racist towards the oppressor, against whom they are simply defending themselves. Whites are the font of racist oppression, and Jews are cast as either White or White-adjacent, and therefore it's respectably open season on both.
In the States, a version of this narrative has been going on at least since Eldridge Cleaver and the Panthers in the 1960/70s, through Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and spreading through his adherents such as the founders of the Women's March to entertainers like Dave Chappelle. (It's echoed, too, in Eddy Murphy's old SNL send up of Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood: "Kill de landlord! Kill de landlord.) And, of course, we've seen how antisemitism was embedded in the intersectionalism that flooded through the Labour Party in the UK under Corbyn.
Here, more recently, we've seen the adoption of White Settler rhetoric by anti-Israel voices who talk about Zionist Settlers. Within the last year, Toronto has had protest marches that featured the genocidal chant: "From the river to the sea", and marches that deliberately went through predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods: Protestors argued that if Palestinians couldn't relax in their homes in the West Bank and Gaza, then Jews shouldn't be able to relax in their homes here. The conflation of Israeli policy with Jews as a whole couldn't have been clearer, yet politicians and the media were very much, "Move along, nothing to see here" -- just as they've been largely silent about antisemitic positions taken by student governments and others at universities such as York.
This problem can't begin to be addressed as long as our government continues to buy into the Oppressor/Oppressed narratives of critical theory. But since the government continues to use DARVO tactics against all criticism, there is no reason to assume the situation will end any time soon.
Canada seems determined to go down the same road as France.
Large numbers of French Jews have seen the writing on the wall and left the country.
Many have had to move from their traditional neighborhoods, driven out by incessant antisemitism.
In many schools Jewish parents have had to remove their children with the authorities conceding that they are incapable of protecting their children from violence.
"From the river to the sea" Is not a genocidal chant.
So many cliches. So much DARVO.
"This rallying cry has long been used by the anti-Israel terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the PFLP, which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means."
https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/from-the-river-to-the-sea-palestine-will-be-free
Anti-racist narrative is always selective, only when the it serves certain purpose. Canadian politicians are either unbelievable naïve, or unbelievable stupid, or what else could it be?
Or deliberately strategic. I used to think these people were stupid but I've started to change my thought patterns.
Are we surprised.
Slow response by Trudeau et. al to Marouf affair (credit to them that they did eventually cut the funding). When it's politically expedient, Trudeau is quick to denounce and is on a knee at the BLM protests.
And no tweets from Gerald Butts decrying Marouf, anti-semitism and the government's sloppy oversight on this matter. But I suppose all this is understandable from his POV as we have to accept different perspectives. But lots of time to fawn over/tweet about Serena Williams.
Why would you expect to see a tweet from Gerald Butts?
I am supprised at the anti Semitism that is still out there. The fact that the radical left is spouting this evil does not surprise me. All their language is based on evil stereotypes that don't exist.
More Jews around the world need to stand up against the apartheid government of Israel. It's against the Jewish faith to be treating another group of people the way that Israel treats the Palestinians, and they're doing it in your name, as an explicitly Jewish government. Articles like this one from The Line do a great job of excusing Jews from taking action with complicated arguments that obfuscate the entire issue.
“More Jews around the world need to stand up against the apartheid government of Israel.”
Wow.
I can’t think of a more divisive comment. Canada has an anti semitic problem and it’s insidious. Let’s focus on that, shall we?
My last comment, or they'll probably kick me off the board lol...
The real "wow," is that more people can't admit that Israel is an apartheid government (as per Amnesty International), and if Canadians saw that the majority of Canadian Jewish organizations and voices actively condemned the actions of Israel, this would take away some fuel for anti-semitism. They invaded and are occupying another country (as per the UN).
Jews around the world should be disappointed that successive Israeli governments have squandered a great opportunity after WWII. Most of the entire world was sympathetic to what happened to them in the Holocaust. So sympathetic, they gave them a country to live in.
The multi-decade apartheid occupation and slow annexation of Palestinians, the assassination of a leader who dared to make peace.... this while making forever excuses as to why they can't sign a peace agreement...
Yup, big wow. Your understanding of Israel/Palestine since WW2 couldn't be more shallow. Next, you'll accuse me of being a zionist.
I see you trotting out a commonplace apartheid defence: 'you don't understand the situation.' The UN and Amnesty International don't understand either?
No, you don't understand. I am not defending apartheid.
Absolutely. I'd say that's an example of the problem.
People say this to EVERY minority group that suffers discrimination: Muslims, Blacks, Gays, Trans, Catholics, etc. We're all told, "Why don't you speak up against x, y, z?" We do, but since when are individuals accountable for their demographic?
How would you like, "More whites need to take a stand against white supremacists. They're doing it in your name"? Or, "More Catholics needs to take a stand against pedophile priests"?
For moralists, a handy dictum:
When in doubt, just blame the victim.
Israel has a responsibility to other nations of the world to stop being an apartheid government, and stop ignoring the UN which says they invaded another country and should leave. Israel (a Jewish state) persecutes another group of people and occupies their land, and gradually completes the annexation with more and more with settlers.
From the article:
"To that end, what if “anti-racist” circles tolerate and even sometimes encourage rhetoric like Marouf’s, as part of the greater goal of opposing human rights abuses in Israel and expressing solidarity with Palestinians?"
This is exactly where we are headed unfortunately, and the The Line helped it along with this article by continuing to ignore the elephant in the room.
DARVO. The examples in this article include a mayor supporting a road name for a Nazi, Holocaust denial, and focus on support for a guy who called people who believe in a Jewish state "human bags of feces". It is about antisemitism on the left in Canada; not about the policies of the Netanyahu government, or its replacement which, incidentally, saw Arabs included in a coalition government, strange for a truly apartheid state. Nor will I spend time noting that LGBT Palestinians are a good deal safer and happier in Israel than they are in the two dictatorships that claim, absent elections, to speak for them in the West Bank and Gaza.
What you are arguing is collective guilt, in this case the collective guilt of Jews for the sins of the Israeli government. The essay argues that Israel is a fig leaf that antisemites use to excuse Jew hate. Given what we have saw in Corbyn's Labour, or in comments for the Democrats' Squad ("It's all about the Bengamins"), or marches through Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto and the harassment of Jews on our university campuses, Lieblein has a more than clear case.
Lieblein can choose to help reduce anti-semitism in Canada by raising his voice against an apartheid government as political affairs correspondent for the Canadian Jewish News. Take away some of the fuel for anti-semitism.
Instead he writes an article focused on concern that the left is tolerating pro-Palestinian extremists, suggesting that it might be because the extremist voices are "more like the quiet part being shouted out loud."
Well, he may be onto something in sensing that many Canadians have run out of patience for decades of Israeli human rights abuse, and like it or not, what an avowedly Jewish nation does is going to reflect on Jews around the world. Highlighting some of the good deeds of a government while ignoring human rights abuse on a massive scale, shows that you and Lieblein are somewhat dogmatic.
His suggestion? "...anti-racists do more to expose the anti-Semites who hide behind anti-racist language" ...hmmm... ok, let's do that, as best we can.
How about we also implement my suggestion to reduce anti-semitism, as it is more practical and likely to show better results.
I am far from dogmatic. Like most people, I oppose the appalling expansion and support for illegal settlements by the Netanyahu government. Like most people, I am also more than sympathetic to the Palestinians, not only because of Israel, but because of the two corrupt dictatorships that run their lives and station rocket attacks on Israel in housing complexes, schools and hospitals, where they are certain to provoke defensive retaliation and anti-Israel propaganda rewards. I was sympathetic to the PLO under Arafat until the 2nd intifada which is the greatest own goal in Palestinian history. Subsequent events have shown that Israel has no negotiating partner capable of following through on any peace treaty, and only a dogmatist would demand that a nation commit suicide.
Your suggestion that Jews and others can defuse antisemitism by attacking Israel is a convenient dodge that gives cover to antisemites within the progressive movement. It is exactly like people who argue: "Gays and trans people could defuse homophobia if they would only speak up against groomers." "Muslims could defuse Islamophobia if they would only speak up against FGM and honour killings." "Blacks could defuse racism if they would only speak up about Black street gangs." This is transparently disingenuous.
We can repeat Israel's excuse that they have no negotiating partner. We can repeat Israel's claim that Palestinians are not capable of governing themselves. But the truth is, there have been many reasonable international efforts to help solve things.
I believe that sustained international pressure, like from Lieblein of Canadian Jewish News, would hopefully help elect a less-apartheid regime, rather than result in a nation committing suicide. It strikes me that South Africa still exists, and it's common knowledge that the USA covertly made Israel a nuclear power.
Your attempt to compare this situation to victim blaming in cases of homophobia, Islamophobia etc., just shows the pretzel victim logic that is increasingly required to try and defend this regime that is helping fuel anti-semitism with a decades-long occupation of its neighbours.
When did the UN say the Jews must leave Israel?
You are conflating at least two different issues.
I did not say that.
I believe both of your examples are realities that do happen in the real world. I am an atheist, I am concerned about the politics and human rights for all, not any specific religion. My question still stands and is unanswered.
Yes, they are. And my guess is you don't like being held to account for white supremacists any more than I do. Because we do speak out against it. Just as Catholics have spoken out against clergy abuses, and Muslims have spoken out about Islamic terrorists, and LGBs have spoken out about the trans lobby (we have two international organizations doing that, in fact: "The LGB Alliance" and "Get the 'L' Out". And I hope you'll agree that atheists shouldn't be called on to do more to denounce the genocides that have taken place under officially atheist Communist countries like Russia, China and North Korea.
The point is that collective guilt is wrong. And neither being a Jew nor believing in a Jewish state are predicated on support of the policies of particular governments. (The idea of a state should be perfectly understandable to anyone who talks about Turtle Island given the millennia of land-based Israelite history and the history of global persecution against their Israelites descendants).
People aren't responsible for the actions of others in their demographic, which is why "isms" are bad anbd not to be excused.
Maybe start in the home and go from there.
Not an answer for today. If you are speaking of education I don’t disagree but every government on the planet is open to criticism, has nothing to do with individual citizens of that country or their religion.
Of course but other governments are beside the point to this specific Canadian problem. I mean, we can find fault with Pakistan and New Zealand as well, but how much time do we have?
As taxpayers and more importantly citizens, our basic duty is to uphold the democratic nation our forefathers created. And more importantly, we need to try and make it better. Which is why it needs to start here and now…first and foremost. I guess what I’m saying is…lead by example and demand our leaders do the same, because, after all, *we* are the government, right?
I absolutely agree, our Canadian governance is and has been less than perfect. I tend to send them the odd critical missive when I feel it’s needed.
Incidentally I try never to use the word taxpayer, particularly as regards communication with our government. Just a personal quirk of mine, not a criticism of your usage. I feel politicians use it as a weapon and too many are othered by it. As I said a personal quirk😊 Have a great Labour Day weekend Tara
I tend to agree with you. I am very critical of the actions of many governments, our own, the Americans, Chinese, Russian, the list goes on. I really want to know how I can criticize the actions of the Israeli government at any level without being deemed to be anti-Semitic. Genuine question, because I believe there are many of us who feel the same, does anyone have the answer?
To be clear: You are asking Jews to attack Israel while you absolve antisemites within the progressive movement, specifically Laith Maroof, who wrote: “You know all the loud-mouthed bags of human excrement, aka Jewish white supremacists; When we liberate Palestine and have to go back to where they came from, they will come back as low-voiced bitches. [their] Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”
You attack Israel as an "apartheid state", one which provides its Arab citizens with the vote, something Palestinians don't get in the West Bank and Gaza, and which has had Arab parties in a governing coalition -- and yet you're cool with "progressives" who explicitly call for the ethnic cleaning of Jews.
Thank you for making Joshua's point.
To be clear: I keep having to correct you from putting words in my mouth. Nowhere did I absolve Laith Maroof or any antisemite. I'm glad he was found out and fired. Neither did I remotely suggest I am cool with progressives who explicitly call for the ethnic cleaning of Jews.
Perhaps you should stop trying to lump me into a group of individuals in order to justify continuing to ignore my valid suggestion about one way to significantly reduce anti-Semitism.
Western democracies essentially agree that Israel should negotiate a two-state solution, while you continue to try and put Israeli governance over Palestinians in a positive light. Yours is a recipe for increasing anti-Semitism, because like it or not, what the self-described Jewish state of Israel does, impacts people's opinions of Jews around the world, and fewer and fewer people are buying the story that Israel needs to invade and forever subjugate millions of Palestinians in order to protect themselves.
While you quote Maroof's horrible statements, and try and associate me with him, you ignore racist diatribes right in the comments on this story: "There cannot be any compromise as long as the Palestinian side is dominated by Islamists, your basic religious fascists."
It is time that Jewish organizations around the world make it abundantly clear that they disassociate themselves from an apartheid government, and demand that they go back to the negotiating table. This would help reduce anti-semitism much more than Joshua's article focused on the government's failure to properly vet Maroof and only suggesting we do more "to expose the anti-Semites who hide behind anti-racist language." It might also convince Israeli politicians to start sincerely negotiating a solution instead of forever making excuses.
I agree with you that there needs to be a two-state solution. I also agree that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is reprehensible and, here is where we differ, I think it should draw attacks on *Israel*. It may be that Israel's behaviour is stirring antisemitism against Jews generally, in the same way that trans extremists are stirring anti-LGBT sentiment generally -- but Jews have no way to control that, nor do LGBT(ranssexuals) in the other instance, as you should know since Jews ARE speaking out and HAVE BEEN speaking out, and it has made No Difference. (Similarly, I am not responsible for the words of any other person on this thread.)
Finally, I am also *not* saying you are pro Maroof or his statements. I'm saying that you are providing him with cover by deflecting from the content of this column and putting the onus on Jews for progressive antisemitism. In doing so, you are making Joshua's point.
I'm glad we had this discussion. It's such a great example of how people can have the same goals but disagree on the exact formula for getting there. Take care.
Which Jews should stand up?
Why do you think the Jews of the Diaspora should/could stand up against the Israeli government, which is not persecuting Palestinians in anyone's name but their own?
Not all Jews have "faith" you know. It's not a monolithic religious conglomeration. About 70% of Jews do not live in Israel.
No one is excusing Jews from taking action against a supremely complicated issue but when it comes to obfuscation all the antisemites come out of the woodwork with their disappointment, anger, and blame.
Maybe we should talk about the assorted Arab states, the 6-day war, and the continuing fallout ever since
We should all live in such a black-and-white world.
Which Jews? As many as possible. Which everyone else? As many as possible, like I am bothering to still comment here. But in particular leading Jewish Canadian voices like the writer of this article: Lieblein. That could help reduce anti-semitism.
When I say Jews should stand up, I say that they should stand up as Canadians, and join with the general view of our government and the United Nations.
You may not like it, but the actions of the Israeli government affect worldwide opinion of Jews. Either we can care about reducing anti-semitism or hide our heads in the sand and say it's too complicated and point fingers at other nations and peoples, excusing the Israeli government and prolonging the conflict and deepening the grievances.
If every single breathing Jew in the entire world stood up together today to condemn the Israeli government it would not reduce antisemitism one iota.
It has nothing to do with what I like or do not like. Israel could be the country of daisies and cherry popsicles and it would still not reduce antisemitism.
I am appalled at what successive governments of Israel have done. What I think is stupid is your "let the Jews stand together" message as if it would make any difference whatsoever.
I am deeply sympathetic to the Palestinians but they too must take some responsibility. It's not black and white and as simple to fix as you make out.
Iqra Khalid, eh?
Here she is in 2018 giving a community award to the public relations chief of Palestine House, an antisemitic organization ("Israel and Hitler are the same"), and then having to apologize.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/iqra-khalid-anti-semitism-1.4787956
But a year later, MP Khalid was still posing with the gentleman in his house, for photographs
https://www.bnaibrith.ca/khalid_reappears_with_radical_despite_past_apology/
I believe you can be strongly against the government of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Incompetence by this government is almost an expected occurrence now, and that they would give a contract to someone with this history is a complete failure of the vetting process. That we still have this level of hatred over how people choose to pray...or why, is just another example of how Darwin may have been wrong.
It seems to me that the methodology of the creation of Israel is one more example of the post-war failures of map redrawing that have created violence and civil wars throughout the region ever since. But it is what is is now.....an apparently irreparable disaster area that will remain so until some form of compromise that isn't at the barrel of a gun can be worked out. I don't anticipate that happening in my lifetime. The hatred and toxicity runs too deep.
I would respectfully suggest that the Trudeau Government has sufficient vetting skills when it suits them. Want a grant to hire a summer student? Don’t ask if you are a Christian organization that supports pro-life counselling.
The biggest collapse of scrutiny and oversight is the WE scandal, which makes the Marouf monies look like chump change. Unfortunately, Canadians will never learn the truth as to how a multi $million sole source contract was awarded to a group with no credentials other than close ties to the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister.
You mean they're not transparent?? :) We learned that with SNC, and yet Andrew still found a way to "Hudak" that election. It goes back to leadership and credibility. In Canada, politically it's in a critically short supply.
Organised religion is humanities greatest failure. 100% of this stupidity because of not praying right to a god that may or may not exist. As Time magazine said a few years back, the Arab world is graduating more scientists each year than Israel has population. It's time for hem to come to the table. Thee is massive stupidity on both sides...hence the carnage will continue.
I think the UN created is out a guilt trip from the discovery of the camps.
Faith is a wonderful thing. A soon as you impose it on others, it's abuse.
Gee! An known pro Palestinian from the most overtly antisemitic province in Canada, being vetted by a politicized red-coated force preoccupied with finding new ways to help their political masters vet and disarm law abiding Canadians, slips through the cracks. Who knew?
John, you ask, "Who knew?"
Answer: pretty much anyone who paid attention to the performance of the current government knew that this sort of thing was a) inevitable; and b) probably reflected the underlying "thoughts" of the people in charge.
Agree 100%. My who knew was intended as sarcasm.
Surprised, I am not... these types of bigoted behaviors and people seem to get away with it time and again, without consequence.
Glad to see some discussion on this topic here. Sometimes it seems few discuss the ongoing "conflict" in Middle East except those obsessed with it.
Let me stipulate that Anti-Semitism is a very bad thing, and must be exposed and confronted at all times. The two thousand year history of European Anti-Semitism is a stain on Western civilization which will likely never be cleansed.
From another perspective, however, it always seems to be discussions of "Anti-Semitism" or "Hamas" which get the notice. Meanwhile, the ongoing dispossession, impoverishment, and murder of Palestinian civilians goes on apace, as if this were a normal state of affairs.
Often, the statements of Palestinians are the trigger for comment , as is the case here. I have no doubt there is a vast store of ANGER built up in that demographic, caused directly by over a hundred years of a project which has successfully attempted to insinuate itself into an area already populated by people with a thriving, vibrant civilization, present for centuries in the region. Undoubtedly, and understandably, one could readily find similarly angry people among those whose family members were persecuted and murdered by Hitler's thughs.
The intruders, initially from Europe, and practicing a fully developed European civilization, have, like Europeans intruding in other regions of the world over the past 500 years, considered themselves better qualified than the indigenous inhabitants to control those areas they have entered, and to enforce measures exclusively for the benefit of the intruders.
The outcome for the indigenous peoples, as we all know, has been disastrous, at the cost of millions of lives, and the utter destruction of hundreds of cultures, traditions and languages.
In the case of Palestine, the intruders have seized control of the homes, land, and portable property of the Palestinian people, through a well-co-ordinated program of lobbying, legal measures, threats, intimidation and murder, in this case actively assisted by the governments of two world powers, the UK initially and subsequently by the USA. It is worth noting that both of these powers were rife with Anti-Semitism, and had no wish to house the people fleeing Nazi murder after WW2, or, prior to that, those fleeing pogroms and other violence in decades before WW2.
Anyone wishing to understand why this "conflict" is so intractable should read two texts: Isareli historian Ilan Pappe's "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" and Orthodox Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's " The Empty Wagon."
Anti-Semitism is the label that is applied by many Zionists to those who criticize Israel. Indeed, response to such criticism, rather than presenting countering arguments, goes right to the "nuclear option" and attempts to discredit critics by branding them as Anti-Semites. On occasion, the response attempts to destroy the lives of the critics by getting them fired from their jobs, or immersing them in SLAP litigation. The use of such tactics, if one thinks about it, simply demonstrates the absence of valid arguments in support of the Zionist position.
From these texts, one hears that much of what we have been told is self-serving myth. The Shapiro book details the process whereby a European right-wing Ethnic Nationalist movement, nurtured in the same 19th century philosophic swamp as Nazi right-wing Ethnic Nationalism, managed to hijack the identity of a peaceful, idealistic people and replace it with its diametric opposite. Herzl despised the religious Jew of Eastern Europe, describing him in terms indistinguishable from those used decades later by Hitler.
So let's talk about creating an environment where everyone living in the region controlled by Israel can live a full and productive life. Let's see an end to the Army-escorted Settler raids on their Palestinian neighbours. Let's see an end to attempts to push Palestinians from their farms and homes. Let's see an end to targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders, and the application of high-tech military violence in populated areas.
The present course of Israeli politics, moving farther and farther to the right, and absolute refusal to recognize the Human Rights of the Palestinians they have dispossessed and impoverished, is not a course that will be good for anyone in the region.
What was really shocking about this story is that everyone originally working to draw public attention to it, from Mark Goldberg, to Kaye and on through to Geist, is Jewish. Not a peep from Gentile media. And weeks before anyone in the PPG asked the PM about it. Not an effing peep. Something really wrong about that.
The writer seems to make the mistake of equating anti-zionism and anti-israel with anti-Semitism a few times, including in some of his examples.
Weekend his argument a bit, but the core of it is true. That people making anti-Semitic comments need to be called out, no matter the political view.
How about an article from The Line on how Israel has helped fuel anti-semitism around the world though its invasion and decades-long apartheid rule over Palestinians?
If we care about anti-semitism we should look at all the causes, and when a country takes over another country, it tends to fuel negative opinion about an invader's culture and religion as well, and especially so with Israel, the least secular government I know of.
Things had been going great for the Jews up until Israel came along.
Oooo.
Did you really mean to say that, Line Editor?
In the decade before 1948, things didn’t go very well for European Jews at all.
I’ll look into that.
Lol. I’m guessing that my sarcasm detector is turned off.
I said nothing about pre 1948. Good examples of deflection instead of addressing what I said.
Is zionism a race?