I think what most of fail to understand is that when radical Islamists tell us they're going to kill us, we should believe them. Their stated intent is to i) annihilate Israel / Jews, ii) Christians, iii) anyone / everyone living in a democracy.
The people of Israel are the front line and of course deserving of our support on moral grounds alone. On the basis of the survival of all who are not Muslim (and perhaps a number of non-radical Muslims agree), we should be firmly behind Israel as well as Jews around the world.
The current situation is unconscionable. How do we stop the spread of this hatred?
The love affair with the Hyprocritical Lefty Social Activist Woke Do-gooders and the Radical Racist Islamo Nazis is very telling, as both narratives are based on lies. IE, keep repeating and forcing lies and propaganda until they’re accepted. Allowing the normalization of antisemitism to fester into social acceptance (through education, in institutions, by government) is wrong, Without calling out the real occupiers, the real colonizers, the real violent mob, and other academic mumbo jumbo. This does not represent the Values of Canada!
The Fault lies with Weak politicians, appeasing radical groups, and organizations and leaders who buy into these untrue narratives and current trends-du-jour.
My mother told me a story, when she met a young teacher starting out years ago in BC, who was trying to get a full time job in a district. He ended up being hired by a Muslim private school in the Fraser Valley. He told my mother he worked there about a year, but felt so uncomfortable, that clearly anyone with any moral compass knew what they were teaching children at the school was wrong, to hate others, to justify violence, that lying was acceptable, medieval thinking, etc. He quit the job, with a clear conscious.
The Trojan horse is within and the Frog is boiling. It's time for Canadians with Moral Values to Stand up!
Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. I am going to write another article responding to many of the comments here. It is a lot of work to respond with research, facts and evidence to all of the claims being put forward. So I will write something that addresses most of them in a new general article on Israel. It will not be like the piece we are all commenting on (The Hatred of Israel), it will be more academic in nature and have dozens of references, and be less opinionated.
Please add more comments and questions, and observations about Israel and Zionism. I will try to address them all.
However, outlandish claims that come from questionable sources - especially when there exists contradictory claims from reputable sources - should not be the focus of this work. One commenter said that only 2 Israeli children were killed on Oct. 7th, but it takes less than two minutes to Google it and find several reputable sources, including the UN, AP, etc., that place the number between 29 and 39. How does one make such a research error? Are they just really bad at research? Or are they just really focused on diminishing and denying the atrocities of Oct. 7th that they will cite any false source of denial?
Further, people are generally all over the place with their Anti-Israel rhetoric. But one question above all is the most important to get answered, before one marches forward into the details of the Israel/Palestine conflict. That question is simply: Do you think Israel is legitimate? If your answer is no, are we to assume you think Israel should not exist at all? If your answer is yes to the second question, I'm not sure there is anything I can write that will change your anti-Zionist Hamas-aligned views.
If you think that Israel is a legitimate sovereign nation under international law then you are a Zionist, not an anti-Zionist.
I will not let distractions, like exaggerated claims of West Bank Jewish settlement expansion, get in the way of the heart of the matter. Before we argue about details, like West Bank settlements, we must first establish if we agree on the basic legitimacy and sovereignty of Israel.
If we don't agree that Israel is legitimate, everything we discuss concerning the details of Israeli politics and the Israel/Palestine conflict, cannot be discussed from a place of shared understanding. Meaning, we won't be having the same conversation, we will be talking (writing) over and past each other.
So, if you want to argue about Israel's legitimacy and right to exist, then let's argue about that. I will go through the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, article by article, if that is the case (becuase the Mandate for Palestine is Israel's legal land title deed).
But if you do not agree that Israel is legitimate, then I cannot discuss anything other than that with you. I cannot discuss the war in Gaza, the settlements in the West Bank, or embattled Netanyahu, with someone who does not share an understanding of the basics. It would be like speaking about aviation with someone who doesn't believe in gravity.
Our country of good Canadian Citizens must never bend to Islam to hate Jews! If we allow them to become more powerful than you, are you next to be persecuted? Think Critically as your children's future depends on it. Just look at England and France to see how they have been taken over by terrorism time and again! The wake-up call is happening now!
European Jews were *emancipated* in the countries where they were residing during the late 19th century; meaning that they acquired legal equality with all other citizens. Their religious identity was still recorded on official documents, but the same was true for everybody else (Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists &c).
The most basic function of a state is to protect its subjects/citizens from enemies external (war) & internal (crime). In Hungary of the late 1930s, this 'contract' was broken when Parliament passed three sets of so-called "Jew Laws", which legally handicapped to some extent the Jewish citizens of the country, i.e. they were *officially* discriminated against.
Which process culminated in the summer of 1944 in the deportation of some 440,000+ Hungarian Jews from the Hungarian countryside to Auschwitz, where most of them were promptly murdered; only those men were left alive who could provide forced labour in the attached industrial plants (& many of them died in the process).
Admittedly, this deportation happened after the Wehrmacht occupied Hungary in March 1944, & was organized by German personnel (led by Adolf Eichmann), but still, the Hungarian authorities were aware of it (although the Germans did not inform them of the killings, just talked about forced labour).
This is the reason for my unconditional support of Zionism, i.e. the existence of a Jewish state: the defence of Jewish citizens of European states was legally abandoned by the respective governments in power at that time. Only the existence of a *Jewish* state can ensure that Jews as a people don't get to suffer the same fate; in a Jewish state, they might be killed, but not because the state fails to provide them with the defense all citizens are entitled to in their home countries.
I keep telling that to my indoctrinated Woke sister, warning of what will happen in the future to her young daughters. Look at the imported rape gangs that have been going on for many years in England, that never gets reported by MSM.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the woke mobs chanting for the annihilation of the Jews are pod people right out of the invasion of the body snatchers. There is clearly something missing or just not right with them. It’s as if their brains have been eaten away by some kind of parasite.
Being Woke, as are those Radicalized, is a Mind Virus. It’s an excuse for racists to call others racist, for bully’s to bully others, to justify mobs committing violence on the few. The behaviour and thinking of these “useful idiots” is (wrongly) justified and hypocritical. IE, occupying other places, while calling others occupiers, ignoring Jewish history and the endless amounts of ancient artifacts and coins, while claiming a land that was given to them, ignoring one side who is defending itself from a sea of indoctrinated hatred, ignoring the double standards, lies, propaganda, while accepting a skewed made up narrative.
A few months ago, my elderly 87 year old father was attacked on a busy West Coast street by a crazy Hamas protester. The man was large and much younger, and yelling such hateful and non sensical things, that was going unchecked by all the bystanders around. My father disagreed with him saying things like, “gas the Jews, etc” and suggested that those ideas did not represent Canadian civilized values (another example of importing people with medieval thinking is dangerous). The man rushed across the street to my father and head butted him who fell down bleeding and hurt his hip. My father chased the coward who had run away, and the police were called who arrested the crazed man.
I worry about Western Civilization, but hope common sense will return.
I notice more woke comments appearing here which proves to me at least that this site is working very well indeed.
Lets face it if our Liberal government isnt full of Jew haters then it must be idiots who are simply too stupid to know the facts. My father worked with the Long Range Dessert Group during WW 2 he was fluent in Arabic and fought through the middle east mostly behind the lines. The land now occupied by Israel was inhabited by roving groups of tribes people who never had a claim on any land. Called Camel jockies by many they were poor nomads with little or no education and that has not changed a whole lot to the present day. Ignorant, Barbaric and cruel best describes most of them, these people can be seen walking the streets today shitting in the roads as they go.
These woke statements are full of Jewish hate it is dripping from their mouths like sewage from a septic tank they think they can hide behind a mask of innocence white spouting ant semitism under a guise of education.
Put your money where your mouth is you think it is so wonderful in Islamic countries then go live there and leave us in peace.
As I see it, James Pew, you demonstrate that there are some major blind spots in your education on this topic. It seems you are so committed to your incomplete interpretation at this stage that you are ready to shoot defamatory insults first, then wait until later to study alternative facts and interpretations of the matter. Please check out my account of treatment I received in Canada from the Israel Lobby in Canada. So far I believe the Israel Lobby is mute on the issue of mass graves in Canada. Will the mass graves in Gaza be properly investigated? Is it in your view, James Pew, "anti-Semitic" to even ask such a question.
I think you missed the part where I wrote “While I’m the first to admit that no nation, including Israel, is beyond criticism, I feel there is both a time and place, and an appropriate proportionality that should be reflected in a fair critical analysis of any nation.”
Also, my two long-form essays on Israel that I link two at the bottom of todays post combine to over 20,000 words and include over 150 references (many are academic sources, many from media around the world). These essays alone took hundreds of hours of research, but I’ve also been following the Israel/Palestinian conflict since the early 1990s. I used to be an anti-Israel leftist. Studying is what changed my mind.
So the mass murder by several simultaneous means of unarmed civilians, largely children and women, is perfectly fine with you? How much can be based on spectacularized media accounts of 10/7, an event in history that still has not been subjected to any neutral and objective arbitration whatsoever? The record that needs to be explored includes much alleged pre-knowledge of 10/7 including in an around the office of the Israeli PM. His deep and intimate dealings with Hamas, Likud's darlings, are the subject of extensive coverage in Israel. Like I said, the pattern seems to be, shoot first, investigate later.
"So the mass murder by several simultaneous means of unarmed civilians, largely children and women, is perfectly fine with you?" - are you for real? You don't really think that I'm ok with the deaths of civilians? And calling it mass murder of civilians based on what evidence? Who's numbers?
The death of Hamas terrorists are great. I hope every single one of them dies. The death of every single civilian is awful and tragic. That it happens at all is becuase Hamas spent two decades building 500 miles of terror tunnels underneath Gaza. This is the most sophisticated and extensive embedding of combatants amongst civilians. This is the most insane and extensive use of human shields ever in history.
And a huge number of Palestinian civilians are complicit with Hamas, and supportive of Hamas. When civilians are involved, when they are hiding hostages or assisting the terrorists its not surprising they end up dead. However, the blame is entirely on Hamas, Israel has no other choice.
The IDF members are surrounding themselves with human shields when they return home to be with their families on Occupied Palestine. James Pew dehumanizes Palestinian people in a very bigoted and prejudiced manner so that their mass murder is made to seem perfectly OK.
The "terror" tunnels LOL. I listened to a brilliant podcast recently by British journalist Owen Jones. His guest addresses the tunnels. He also discusses the human shield accusations (guerilla warfare).
I found it interesting that Netanyahu was under investigation for his proposed reform of the Israeli Supreme Court and judicial system that would have afforded the PM more power and less accountability.
How convenient that Hamas attacked just in the nick of time. Those alleged suitcases of cash via Qatar to Hamas was money well spent i guess. :-)
its not anti semetic to oppose israel's 70 year illegal harsh military occupation of millions of native people. the zionist lobby draws so many parallels with the gender ideology lobby. both are primarily PR and lobby endevors that disadvantage marginalized groups (women, kids, ppl with psych issues, palestinians) to benefit white males who pretend to be marginalized but who are in reality among the most priledged groups. Gender ideology claims opposing gender ideology is homophobic, thereby conflating gay rights with gender ideology. in reality sterilizing gays via gender affirmation is the most homophobic thing of all time. similarly zionists claim opposing zionism is anti semetic. wrong. what israel is doing is enacting a slow motion genocide against millions of native people and sticking the US tax payer with the bill. israel has never had land rights to any area in west bank or gaza. in order to illegally take land israel has no right to, israel illegally occupied the area for 70 years , starved the natives and robbed natives their land. opposing an illegal occupation is allowed under intl law. enacting an illegal occupation is not. the acts of hamas were the intended result of israels harsh policies of starvation and death. hamas' actions, which were caused by israels harsh conditions, aid israel in their goal of robbing native people of their land. I would support US troops to clear israeli forces out of the west bank, gaza. its only then that we can have peace in the mideast.
i guess pro zionists think if they parrot the same garbage again and again it will convince people. 8 billion people world wide watch each day as israel cynically murders thousands of people for the sole purpose of robbing natives of their land. israels actions place the US at risk.
It is antisemitic to make false statements so casually, as if they were true, as if no one notices that they are not true. I only read your first sentence, there was no point reading any further. This statement is false: " Israel's 70 year illegal harsh military occupation of millions of native people."
You need to state your opinions, as opinions, and not pretend they are established facts. This is not an established fact, it is a propagandistic concoctions found in the antisemitic, anti-Zionist narrative.
do you deny the occupation of the west bank and gaza is illegal under intl law? it is. thats a fact.
yes, this occupation has been occuring since 1967, nearly 70 years. a fact. you may cite various circumstances that israel uses to justify the occupation. but none of that changes the fact the occupation occurs, its illegal and its not racist to state this fact.
Yes, israels illegal occupation is a military style occpuation with endless military checkpoints, frequent indiscrimiant non-judicial murder of incocent civilians, endless harsh conditions which the UN has noted 100s of times. i guess if you dont live in the US your take is that daddy US can supply endless cover. but the US cant sheild israel from their own illegal actions which are more similar to 15th century colonialism than anything else going on in the world today.
It's so unfortunate that James is repeating Hasbarra talking points as though they were facts.
There were two children (not 20, not even 40) that died during the 7/10 attack. No beheaded babies - even Biden, a Jewish sychophant that accepts thousands of dollars from AIPAC - had to roll that one back. As did the NYT and WP.
There were no babies burned alive in somebody's oven. There were no Israelis bound together to be murdered. The woman named as having her baby cut from her womb (like Hollywood actress Sharron Tait) was not even pregnant according to her sister.
There was no family quietly having dinner when Hamas fighters burst in and slaughtered the children as the parents were forced to watch before the parents were killed themselves - l mean how would we know this happened when there is no one alive to describe the event?
Oh wait, we in the West "know" because Netanyahu's propaganda department told us so. And then the Israeli volunteer group Zaka (of 10) held a press conference but, so far have failed to produce the photos they said they had on their phones.
Where were the IDF soldiers that were supposed to be guarding the wall that Saturday morning? Why did the Iron Dome fail so dramitically? How could the 4th strongest military force and, supposedly the best Intelligence Agency in the world let this happen?
First there were 1400 then 1200 Israelis killed by Hamas. No mention of how many Hamas fighters were killed or, more importantly how many Israelis were killed by "friendly fire" courtesy of the unskilled Israeli Reservists called up at the last minute.
How is it that residential homes were hit with Apache helicopter missiles and mortars from tanks when Hamas barely had hangliders and motorbikes for the attack?
Israel has denied that the Hannibal Directive was ordered on 7/10 right up until the Israeli Newspaper Haaretz published the truth last week?
So for those of you that thinks this conflict begat on 7/10 or anybody still believes the Israeli propaganda and Anti-Islamic rhetoric, please give your heads a shake.
I was talking about babies. There were three babies age 0-5 that died on 7/10. Children are under 18's.
In comparison, current estimates indicate 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since 7/10. These are the children that have been recovered and identified. There could be many more under the rubble where entire familes were killed leaving no adults alive to report missing children.
History has shown repeatedly that religion is the most lethal enemy of mankind and has killed more people in its name than any war in history. The genocide in Gaza is the most contemporary example of this. In 1075 it was the Christian crusaders killing Muslims. As long as ignorance rules reason, this will never end.
"Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience." ~ Christopher Hitchens
I have the utmost regard for Prof. Gad Sadd but, l think we need to understand why there are so many Jews in surrounding Islamic countries, like Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Jordan and Egypt. Could it possibly be they have lived throughout those lands for thousands of years?. Just like the Palestinians have lived in a territory called Palestine for millenia?
Regardless of what Douglas Murray argues it is important that Anti-Zionism (the ideology) be distinguished from Anti-Semetism (the racism). We all recognize that the pogroms inflicted on Eastern Jews for many centuries. No serious person denies the holocaust where 600,000 Jews, as well as disabled and blacks were being ethnically cleansed then genocided by Hitler who desired a pure aryan race in Germany.
The Zionist ideology was first proposed by Theodor Hertzl in the late 1800's as a solution to the European Jewish problem. The Christians, of whom many were Anti-Semites, latched on to the idea of expelling the Jews from their countries but, soon after WWII the debate began in the as to where to physically put them. Argentina, Morocco and l believe Ethiopia were all considered.
After the Ottoman War, the Arab fighters (who had actually fought with the British) assumed Palestine would be returned to their joint control as it had been before.
Towards the end of WWI the British were quite tired of war and, after a less than robust debate on the ending of the Palestinian mandate, the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour wrote a brief memo in 1917 saying that Britain would not object to a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Unfortunately, it's the ambeguity of the rest of the declaration regarding the existing non-Jewish communities that many ME historians (Prof. Ilan Peppe for example) pin-point as creating the Anti-Zionist movement.
Regardless of Douglas Murray's opinion, Anti-Zionism should not be confused with Anti-Semetism and anyone who criticizes the Israeli government, their system of apartheid or objects to the IOF's genocidal treatment of Palestinians should not and must not be accused of hating Jews.
Anti-Zionism is not about criticizing Israel. Criticizing Israel is fine. Anti-Zionism is saying that Israel should not exist, that Israel is not a legitimate state. It is not just Douglas Murray who equates Anti-Zionism - saying Israel should not at all exist - with antisemitism.
How people interpret the Balfour Declaration is not relevant. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine is a far more important document concerning the founding of Israel.
The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine is Israel's land title deed - it is a legally binding document, according to international law.
The principal powers of the globe (the winners of WWI) created 14 countries, in a way similar to Israel, through the mandate system. The Mandate documents, or land title deeds, represent promises made by the world (the principal powers) to the citizens of the 14 newly created countries. No questions concerning legitimacy are ever raised concerning any of the 14 countries except for Israel.
If the world were to renege on Israel by saying we made a mistake, Zionism was a mistake, it will mean the promise made to the Jewish people, spelled out in the 20 plus articles of the Mandate for Palestine, will be broken. If promises can be broken with the Jewish people concerning Israel, then next, promises will be permitted to be broken with any people of any nation.
Standards of international law matter. Promises matter. Israel is 100% legitimate. Zionism may have many critics, but it's a mute point. Israel is a promise (formalized in legally binding documents) made to the Jewish people that must be kept.
One more question. Can you please name the newly formed 14 countries of which you speak? Would you mind also telling me which of those countries are, or have been, actively involved in genocide?
Thank you for your response. I stand by my statement that Anti-Zionism is not equivalent to Anti-Semetism.
My understanding was that Palestine/Israel was to be a multicultural land with Arabs and Jews (and Christians) living side-by-side with equal rights and the ability to trade goods and services as had historically been the case. A ONE state solution if you like.
Setting aside the promises made by the British, wasn't it the UN that was charged with partitioning of the land into TWO states? Wasn't it initially based on existing Arab population vs the potential future Jewish population?
I can't remember the percentages but, l believe they initially came up with a 45/55 split but, neither was happy. Borders were eventually set then Israel flagrantly ignored them and ramped up their settlement programs on Palestinian land.
When l look at the shaded maps since 1947 to today (Google Palestinian Maps since 1947) it has me wondering... was this what the British promised the Jews 76 years ago or was it simply a failure of the UN to do their job properly?
Finally, in pointing this out am l an Anti-Zionist or an Anti-Semite? According to some, l'm both.
PS It's only a MOOT point if there is no benefit from discussing or debating the subject.
Well said, Shelley. Anyone following the news can't help but see the opposition in Israel against Netanyahu's war. Strange to see that he seems to have more support here than in Israel where Israeli's continue to protest against his right wing government. One protest sign which I recently saw seems to sum it up quite nicely when it calls him, "Crime Minister Netanyahu."
I enjoy reading your posts, Shelley, they are not only insightful but articulate. In a strange way we are fortunate to have front row seats to the greatest sh*t show on earth and as spectators must take comfort from the philosophy of, "that which cannot be cured must be endured". As for conversations with the wall, that does not become problematic until the wall starts talking back. As Red Green always said, "keep your stick on the ice".
The antidote is free speech where all opinions are allowed but allegations and smears of 'phobia', 'racism' etc. cause some to fear expressing their inner thoughts.
I'm a 65 yo Canadian and, until recently, l have never been called an Anti-Semite. Why? Because l object to genocide?
l do not hate Jews or want them wiped off the map. Nor am l an Anti-Islamist (Islamaphobe). Or a hater of Christians. Shalom, Salem and Peace Be With You are synonymous.
I agree that much of the worlds conflicts are blamed on religious differences because that IMO is the most obvious and easiest distinction to make.
Pick up a book, find a chapter and verse and, depending on your interpretation, you can find any excuse to justify your particular cause.
I honestly believe religion is being used as a front for political, imperialistic and financial gains.
As an aside, if you're interested in the truth about 9-1-1, you might check out James Corbett's work on the topic. Like the topic you've discussed here, it's not as straightforward as it appears. Below is one episode but he's done extensive research and many others.
Thank you for this, James.
I think what most of fail to understand is that when radical Islamists tell us they're going to kill us, we should believe them. Their stated intent is to i) annihilate Israel / Jews, ii) Christians, iii) anyone / everyone living in a democracy.
The people of Israel are the front line and of course deserving of our support on moral grounds alone. On the basis of the survival of all who are not Muslim (and perhaps a number of non-radical Muslims agree), we should be firmly behind Israel as well as Jews around the world.
The current situation is unconscionable. How do we stop the spread of this hatred?
The love affair with the Hyprocritical Lefty Social Activist Woke Do-gooders and the Radical Racist Islamo Nazis is very telling, as both narratives are based on lies. IE, keep repeating and forcing lies and propaganda until they’re accepted. Allowing the normalization of antisemitism to fester into social acceptance (through education, in institutions, by government) is wrong, Without calling out the real occupiers, the real colonizers, the real violent mob, and other academic mumbo jumbo. This does not represent the Values of Canada!
The Fault lies with Weak politicians, appeasing radical groups, and organizations and leaders who buy into these untrue narratives and current trends-du-jour.
My mother told me a story, when she met a young teacher starting out years ago in BC, who was trying to get a full time job in a district. He ended up being hired by a Muslim private school in the Fraser Valley. He told my mother he worked there about a year, but felt so uncomfortable, that clearly anyone with any moral compass knew what they were teaching children at the school was wrong, to hate others, to justify violence, that lying was acceptable, medieval thinking, etc. He quit the job, with a clear conscious.
The Trojan horse is within and the Frog is boiling. It's time for Canadians with Moral Values to Stand up!
Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. I am going to write another article responding to many of the comments here. It is a lot of work to respond with research, facts and evidence to all of the claims being put forward. So I will write something that addresses most of them in a new general article on Israel. It will not be like the piece we are all commenting on (The Hatred of Israel), it will be more academic in nature and have dozens of references, and be less opinionated.
Please add more comments and questions, and observations about Israel and Zionism. I will try to address them all.
However, outlandish claims that come from questionable sources - especially when there exists contradictory claims from reputable sources - should not be the focus of this work. One commenter said that only 2 Israeli children were killed on Oct. 7th, but it takes less than two minutes to Google it and find several reputable sources, including the UN, AP, etc., that place the number between 29 and 39. How does one make such a research error? Are they just really bad at research? Or are they just really focused on diminishing and denying the atrocities of Oct. 7th that they will cite any false source of denial?
Further, people are generally all over the place with their Anti-Israel rhetoric. But one question above all is the most important to get answered, before one marches forward into the details of the Israel/Palestine conflict. That question is simply: Do you think Israel is legitimate? If your answer is no, are we to assume you think Israel should not exist at all? If your answer is yes to the second question, I'm not sure there is anything I can write that will change your anti-Zionist Hamas-aligned views.
If you think that Israel is a legitimate sovereign nation under international law then you are a Zionist, not an anti-Zionist.
I will not let distractions, like exaggerated claims of West Bank Jewish settlement expansion, get in the way of the heart of the matter. Before we argue about details, like West Bank settlements, we must first establish if we agree on the basic legitimacy and sovereignty of Israel.
If we don't agree that Israel is legitimate, everything we discuss concerning the details of Israeli politics and the Israel/Palestine conflict, cannot be discussed from a place of shared understanding. Meaning, we won't be having the same conversation, we will be talking (writing) over and past each other.
So, if you want to argue about Israel's legitimacy and right to exist, then let's argue about that. I will go through the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, article by article, if that is the case (becuase the Mandate for Palestine is Israel's legal land title deed).
But if you do not agree that Israel is legitimate, then I cannot discuss anything other than that with you. I cannot discuss the war in Gaza, the settlements in the West Bank, or embattled Netanyahu, with someone who does not share an understanding of the basics. It would be like speaking about aviation with someone who doesn't believe in gravity.
In the meantime, please checkout my two long-form essays on Israel. Both of them are full of solid references including academic sources and media from around the globe. The first is, The Case for Israel - https://jamespew.substack.com/p/the-case-for-israel and the second is, Israel, A Promised Land - https://jamespew.substack.com/p/israel-a-promised-land
Our country of good Canadian Citizens must never bend to Islam to hate Jews! If we allow them to become more powerful than you, are you next to be persecuted? Think Critically as your children's future depends on it. Just look at England and France to see how they have been taken over by terrorism time and again! The wake-up call is happening now!
European Jews were *emancipated* in the countries where they were residing during the late 19th century; meaning that they acquired legal equality with all other citizens. Their religious identity was still recorded on official documents, but the same was true for everybody else (Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists &c).
The most basic function of a state is to protect its subjects/citizens from enemies external (war) & internal (crime). In Hungary of the late 1930s, this 'contract' was broken when Parliament passed three sets of so-called "Jew Laws", which legally handicapped to some extent the Jewish citizens of the country, i.e. they were *officially* discriminated against.
Which process culminated in the summer of 1944 in the deportation of some 440,000+ Hungarian Jews from the Hungarian countryside to Auschwitz, where most of them were promptly murdered; only those men were left alive who could provide forced labour in the attached industrial plants (& many of them died in the process).
Admittedly, this deportation happened after the Wehrmacht occupied Hungary in March 1944, & was organized by German personnel (led by Adolf Eichmann), but still, the Hungarian authorities were aware of it (although the Germans did not inform them of the killings, just talked about forced labour).
This is the reason for my unconditional support of Zionism, i.e. the existence of a Jewish state: the defence of Jewish citizens of European states was legally abandoned by the respective governments in power at that time. Only the existence of a *Jewish* state can ensure that Jews as a people don't get to suffer the same fate; in a Jewish state, they might be killed, but not because the state fails to provide them with the defense all citizens are entitled to in their home countries.
Great response, anti-Semites are rotten to the core! But virtue-signaling is the flavour of this dreaded times in Canada and the USA, unfortunately!
You think it’s a war on jews but just wait and watch. It’s a war on women
I keep telling that to my indoctrinated Woke sister, warning of what will happen in the future to her young daughters. Look at the imported rape gangs that have been going on for many years in England, that never gets reported by MSM.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the woke mobs chanting for the annihilation of the Jews are pod people right out of the invasion of the body snatchers. There is clearly something missing or just not right with them. It’s as if their brains have been eaten away by some kind of parasite.
Being Woke, as are those Radicalized, is a Mind Virus. It’s an excuse for racists to call others racist, for bully’s to bully others, to justify mobs committing violence on the few. The behaviour and thinking of these “useful idiots” is (wrongly) justified and hypocritical. IE, occupying other places, while calling others occupiers, ignoring Jewish history and the endless amounts of ancient artifacts and coins, while claiming a land that was given to them, ignoring one side who is defending itself from a sea of indoctrinated hatred, ignoring the double standards, lies, propaganda, while accepting a skewed made up narrative.
A few months ago, my elderly 87 year old father was attacked on a busy West Coast street by a crazy Hamas protester. The man was large and much younger, and yelling such hateful and non sensical things, that was going unchecked by all the bystanders around. My father disagreed with him saying things like, “gas the Jews, etc” and suggested that those ideas did not represent Canadian civilized values (another example of importing people with medieval thinking is dangerous). The man rushed across the street to my father and head butted him who fell down bleeding and hurt his hip. My father chased the coward who had run away, and the police were called who arrested the crazed man.
I worry about Western Civilization, but hope common sense will return.
I notice more woke comments appearing here which proves to me at least that this site is working very well indeed.
Lets face it if our Liberal government isnt full of Jew haters then it must be idiots who are simply too stupid to know the facts. My father worked with the Long Range Dessert Group during WW 2 he was fluent in Arabic and fought through the middle east mostly behind the lines. The land now occupied by Israel was inhabited by roving groups of tribes people who never had a claim on any land. Called Camel jockies by many they were poor nomads with little or no education and that has not changed a whole lot to the present day. Ignorant, Barbaric and cruel best describes most of them, these people can be seen walking the streets today shitting in the roads as they go.
These woke statements are full of Jewish hate it is dripping from their mouths like sewage from a septic tank they think they can hide behind a mask of innocence white spouting ant semitism under a guise of education.
Put your money where your mouth is you think it is so wonderful in Islamic countries then go live there and leave us in peace.
As I see it, James Pew, you demonstrate that there are some major blind spots in your education on this topic. It seems you are so committed to your incomplete interpretation at this stage that you are ready to shoot defamatory insults first, then wait until later to study alternative facts and interpretations of the matter. Please check out my account of treatment I received in Canada from the Israel Lobby in Canada. So far I believe the Israel Lobby is mute on the issue of mass graves in Canada. Will the mass graves in Gaza be properly investigated? Is it in your view, James Pew, "anti-Semitic" to even ask such a question.
Please see
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/what-further-genocides-and-holocausts
We share some common ground on the mass graves issue.
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/grave-error-on-alleged-mass-graves
I think you missed the part where I wrote “While I’m the first to admit that no nation, including Israel, is beyond criticism, I feel there is both a time and place, and an appropriate proportionality that should be reflected in a fair critical analysis of any nation.”
Also, my two long-form essays on Israel that I link two at the bottom of todays post combine to over 20,000 words and include over 150 references (many are academic sources, many from media around the world). These essays alone took hundreds of hours of research, but I’ve also been following the Israel/Palestinian conflict since the early 1990s. I used to be an anti-Israel leftist. Studying is what changed my mind.
So the mass murder by several simultaneous means of unarmed civilians, largely children and women, is perfectly fine with you? How much can be based on spectacularized media accounts of 10/7, an event in history that still has not been subjected to any neutral and objective arbitration whatsoever? The record that needs to be explored includes much alleged pre-knowledge of 10/7 including in an around the office of the Israeli PM. His deep and intimate dealings with Hamas, Likud's darlings, are the subject of extensive coverage in Israel. Like I said, the pattern seems to be, shoot first, investigate later.
"So the mass murder by several simultaneous means of unarmed civilians, largely children and women, is perfectly fine with you?" - are you for real? You don't really think that I'm ok with the deaths of civilians? And calling it mass murder of civilians based on what evidence? Who's numbers?
The death of Hamas terrorists are great. I hope every single one of them dies. The death of every single civilian is awful and tragic. That it happens at all is becuase Hamas spent two decades building 500 miles of terror tunnels underneath Gaza. This is the most sophisticated and extensive embedding of combatants amongst civilians. This is the most insane and extensive use of human shields ever in history.
And a huge number of Palestinian civilians are complicit with Hamas, and supportive of Hamas. When civilians are involved, when they are hiding hostages or assisting the terrorists its not surprising they end up dead. However, the blame is entirely on Hamas, Israel has no other choice.
The IDF members are surrounding themselves with human shields when they return home to be with their families on Occupied Palestine. James Pew dehumanizes Palestinian people in a very bigoted and prejudiced manner so that their mass murder is made to seem perfectly OK.
The "terror" tunnels LOL. I listened to a brilliant podcast recently by British journalist Owen Jones. His guest addresses the tunnels. He also discusses the human shield accusations (guerilla warfare).
https://youtu.be/GjKRSdzU_6I?si=gFQeVjdNHgWHmzg0
I found it interesting that Netanyahu was under investigation for his proposed reform of the Israeli Supreme Court and judicial system that would have afforded the PM more power and less accountability.
How convenient that Hamas attacked just in the nick of time. Those alleged suitcases of cash via Qatar to Hamas was money well spent i guess. :-)
Funny, I have that same impression. Great comment. I concur completely.
its not anti semetic to oppose israel's 70 year illegal harsh military occupation of millions of native people. the zionist lobby draws so many parallels with the gender ideology lobby. both are primarily PR and lobby endevors that disadvantage marginalized groups (women, kids, ppl with psych issues, palestinians) to benefit white males who pretend to be marginalized but who are in reality among the most priledged groups. Gender ideology claims opposing gender ideology is homophobic, thereby conflating gay rights with gender ideology. in reality sterilizing gays via gender affirmation is the most homophobic thing of all time. similarly zionists claim opposing zionism is anti semetic. wrong. what israel is doing is enacting a slow motion genocide against millions of native people and sticking the US tax payer with the bill. israel has never had land rights to any area in west bank or gaza. in order to illegally take land israel has no right to, israel illegally occupied the area for 70 years , starved the natives and robbed natives their land. opposing an illegal occupation is allowed under intl law. enacting an illegal occupation is not. the acts of hamas were the intended result of israels harsh policies of starvation and death. hamas' actions, which were caused by israels harsh conditions, aid israel in their goal of robbing native people of their land. I would support US troops to clear israeli forces out of the west bank, gaza. its only then that we can have peace in the mideast.
i guess pro zionists think if they parrot the same garbage again and again it will convince people. 8 billion people world wide watch each day as israel cynically murders thousands of people for the sole purpose of robbing natives of their land. israels actions place the US at risk.
It is antisemitic to make false statements so casually, as if they were true, as if no one notices that they are not true. I only read your first sentence, there was no point reading any further. This statement is false: " Israel's 70 year illegal harsh military occupation of millions of native people."
You need to state your opinions, as opinions, and not pretend they are established facts. This is not an established fact, it is a propagandistic concoctions found in the antisemitic, anti-Zionist narrative.
do you deny the occupation of the west bank and gaza is illegal under intl law? it is. thats a fact.
yes, this occupation has been occuring since 1967, nearly 70 years. a fact. you may cite various circumstances that israel uses to justify the occupation. but none of that changes the fact the occupation occurs, its illegal and its not racist to state this fact.
Yes, israels illegal occupation is a military style occpuation with endless military checkpoints, frequent indiscrimiant non-judicial murder of incocent civilians, endless harsh conditions which the UN has noted 100s of times. i guess if you dont live in the US your take is that daddy US can supply endless cover. but the US cant sheild israel from their own illegal actions which are more similar to 15th century colonialism than anything else going on in the world today.
Brilliant post.
It's so unfortunate that James is repeating Hasbarra talking points as though they were facts.
There were two children (not 20, not even 40) that died during the 7/10 attack. No beheaded babies - even Biden, a Jewish sychophant that accepts thousands of dollars from AIPAC - had to roll that one back. As did the NYT and WP.
There were no babies burned alive in somebody's oven. There were no Israelis bound together to be murdered. The woman named as having her baby cut from her womb (like Hollywood actress Sharron Tait) was not even pregnant according to her sister.
There was no family quietly having dinner when Hamas fighters burst in and slaughtered the children as the parents were forced to watch before the parents were killed themselves - l mean how would we know this happened when there is no one alive to describe the event?
Oh wait, we in the West "know" because Netanyahu's propaganda department told us so. And then the Israeli volunteer group Zaka (of 10) held a press conference but, so far have failed to produce the photos they said they had on their phones.
Where were the IDF soldiers that were supposed to be guarding the wall that Saturday morning? Why did the Iron Dome fail so dramitically? How could the 4th strongest military force and, supposedly the best Intelligence Agency in the world let this happen?
First there were 1400 then 1200 Israelis killed by Hamas. No mention of how many Hamas fighters were killed or, more importantly how many Israelis were killed by "friendly fire" courtesy of the unskilled Israeli Reservists called up at the last minute.
How is it that residential homes were hit with Apache helicopter missiles and mortars from tanks when Hamas barely had hangliders and motorbikes for the attack?
Israel has denied that the Hannibal Directive was ordered on 7/10 right up until the Israeli Newspaper Haaretz published the truth last week?
So for those of you that thinks this conflict begat on 7/10 or anybody still believes the Israeli propaganda and Anti-Islamic rhetoric, please give your heads a shake.
“
At least 29 children were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In addition, about 30 children were taken hostage by Hamas, the Associated Press reported.” - https://www.factcheck.org/2023/11/dozens-of-children-died-in-hamas-oct-7-attack-on-israel-contrary-to-online-claim/
I was talking about babies. There were three babies age 0-5 that died on 7/10. Children are under 18's.
In comparison, current estimates indicate 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since 7/10. These are the children that have been recovered and identified. There could be many more under the rubble where entire familes were killed leaving no adults alive to report missing children.
History has shown repeatedly that religion is the most lethal enemy of mankind and has killed more people in its name than any war in history. The genocide in Gaza is the most contemporary example of this. In 1075 it was the Christian crusaders killing Muslims. As long as ignorance rules reason, this will never end.
"Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience." ~ Christopher Hitchens
I have the utmost regard for Prof. Gad Sadd but, l think we need to understand why there are so many Jews in surrounding Islamic countries, like Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Jordan and Egypt. Could it possibly be they have lived throughout those lands for thousands of years?. Just like the Palestinians have lived in a territory called Palestine for millenia?
Regardless of what Douglas Murray argues it is important that Anti-Zionism (the ideology) be distinguished from Anti-Semetism (the racism). We all recognize that the pogroms inflicted on Eastern Jews for many centuries. No serious person denies the holocaust where 600,000 Jews, as well as disabled and blacks were being ethnically cleansed then genocided by Hitler who desired a pure aryan race in Germany.
The Zionist ideology was first proposed by Theodor Hertzl in the late 1800's as a solution to the European Jewish problem. The Christians, of whom many were Anti-Semites, latched on to the idea of expelling the Jews from their countries but, soon after WWII the debate began in the as to where to physically put them. Argentina, Morocco and l believe Ethiopia were all considered.
After the Ottoman War, the Arab fighters (who had actually fought with the British) assumed Palestine would be returned to their joint control as it had been before.
Towards the end of WWI the British were quite tired of war and, after a less than robust debate on the ending of the Palestinian mandate, the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour wrote a brief memo in 1917 saying that Britain would not object to a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Unfortunately, it's the ambeguity of the rest of the declaration regarding the existing non-Jewish communities that many ME historians (Prof. Ilan Peppe for example) pin-point as creating the Anti-Zionist movement.
Regardless of Douglas Murray's opinion, Anti-Zionism should not be confused with Anti-Semetism and anyone who criticizes the Israeli government, their system of apartheid or objects to the IOF's genocidal treatment of Palestinians should not and must not be accused of hating Jews.
Anti-Zionism is not about criticizing Israel. Criticizing Israel is fine. Anti-Zionism is saying that Israel should not exist, that Israel is not a legitimate state. It is not just Douglas Murray who equates Anti-Zionism - saying Israel should not at all exist - with antisemitism.
How people interpret the Balfour Declaration is not relevant. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine is a far more important document concerning the founding of Israel.
The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine is Israel's land title deed - it is a legally binding document, according to international law.
The principal powers of the globe (the winners of WWI) created 14 countries, in a way similar to Israel, through the mandate system. The Mandate documents, or land title deeds, represent promises made by the world (the principal powers) to the citizens of the 14 newly created countries. No questions concerning legitimacy are ever raised concerning any of the 14 countries except for Israel.
If the world were to renege on Israel by saying we made a mistake, Zionism was a mistake, it will mean the promise made to the Jewish people, spelled out in the 20 plus articles of the Mandate for Palestine, will be broken. If promises can be broken with the Jewish people concerning Israel, then next, promises will be permitted to be broken with any people of any nation.
Standards of international law matter. Promises matter. Israel is 100% legitimate. Zionism may have many critics, but it's a mute point. Israel is a promise (formalized in legally binding documents) made to the Jewish people that must be kept.
One more question. Can you please name the newly formed 14 countries of which you speak? Would you mind also telling me which of those countries are, or have been, actively involved in genocide?
Thank you.
Thank you for your response. I stand by my statement that Anti-Zionism is not equivalent to Anti-Semetism.
My understanding was that Palestine/Israel was to be a multicultural land with Arabs and Jews (and Christians) living side-by-side with equal rights and the ability to trade goods and services as had historically been the case. A ONE state solution if you like.
Setting aside the promises made by the British, wasn't it the UN that was charged with partitioning of the land into TWO states? Wasn't it initially based on existing Arab population vs the potential future Jewish population?
I can't remember the percentages but, l believe they initially came up with a 45/55 split but, neither was happy. Borders were eventually set then Israel flagrantly ignored them and ramped up their settlement programs on Palestinian land.
When l look at the shaded maps since 1947 to today (Google Palestinian Maps since 1947) it has me wondering... was this what the British promised the Jews 76 years ago or was it simply a failure of the UN to do their job properly?
Finally, in pointing this out am l an Anti-Zionist or an Anti-Semite? According to some, l'm both.
PS It's only a MOOT point if there is no benefit from discussing or debating the subject.
Well said, Shelley. Anyone following the news can't help but see the opposition in Israel against Netanyahu's war. Strange to see that he seems to have more support here than in Israel where Israeli's continue to protest against his right wing government. One protest sign which I recently saw seems to sum it up quite nicely when it calls him, "Crime Minister Netanyahu."
Thank you my friend. Without a few friends like you l might as well talk to a wall.
I enjoy reading your posts, Shelley, they are not only insightful but articulate. In a strange way we are fortunate to have front row seats to the greatest sh*t show on earth and as spectators must take comfort from the philosophy of, "that which cannot be cured must be endured". As for conversations with the wall, that does not become problematic until the wall starts talking back. As Red Green always said, "keep your stick on the ice".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VB5aBkRI7w
The antidote is free speech where all opinions are allowed but allegations and smears of 'phobia', 'racism' etc. cause some to fear expressing their inner thoughts.
I'm a 65 yo Canadian and, until recently, l have never been called an Anti-Semite. Why? Because l object to genocide?
l do not hate Jews or want them wiped off the map. Nor am l an Anti-Islamist (Islamaphobe). Or a hater of Christians. Shalom, Salem and Peace Be With You are synonymous.
I agree that much of the worlds conflicts are blamed on religious differences because that IMO is the most obvious and easiest distinction to make.
Pick up a book, find a chapter and verse and, depending on your interpretation, you can find any excuse to justify your particular cause.
I honestly believe religion is being used as a front for political, imperialistic and financial gains.
As an aside, if you're interested in the truth about 9-1-1, you might check out James Corbett's work on the topic. Like the topic you've discussed here, it's not as straightforward as it appears. Below is one episode but he's done extensive research and many others.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt11343216/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
These posts, on this substack, are comical. They always have been.