The Wandering Jew No More

"Only in [a] bizarro world and America would Islamism be considered Progressive."

"In reality, Islamism is the most regressive, misogynist, racist, exclusivist, supremacist of ideologies."

"Read Fida and Qutb, or keep on getting your Ivy League education through TikTok."

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, research fellow, Foundation for the Defence of Democracies

 

"In 2022, there was one resolution each to criticize Iran, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar and the United States for its embargo on Cuba."

"There were six resolutions last year on Russia because of its war in Ukraine. The total of all these is 13. Yet on Israel alone, the [General Assembly] passed 15 condemnatory resolutions."

"Not a single [General Assembly] resolution was introduced on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Turkey, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Qatar, Vietnam, Algeria or 175 other countries."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

 

"One doesn't see the instant outpouring of emotions, the pain and anger, when Muslim populations across various conflict zones and under various dictatorial regimes suffer far more atrocities than the Palestinians."

Raheel Raza, Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism

Israel Defense Forces via AP

Accusations against evil-doing Jews are legendary throughout the ages; once held responsible for the Black Plague in the Medieval era, closer to our collective memory the Coronavirus Pandemic for which Jews were once again singled out as the cause of another catalyst of global collective death. Following the Roman Empire's putting down of a rebellion by Jews against centuries of domination/occupation by the Romans, when the Second Temple of Solomon was destroyed in the conflict and Jews were expelled from their ancestral homeland, a great diaspora took place when Jews were scattered all over the world.

Wherever they went on the globe, east, west, south, north, they were viewed with suspicion and frequently outright hostility. Their presence succeeded in benefiting the countries where they were allowed to settle, in technical innovations, scientific enquiry, medical progress and economic enterprise, but eventually they were hounded and expelled as they were in Spain and Portugal by the Inquisition. Expelled in Austria and Britain, eventually to return. In Eastern Europe land ownership was denied them, and pogroms resulted whenever area authorities wanted to divert the public's attention from their own administrative incompetence.

In Germany, where Jews were well established, proud of their assimilation into German culture, social and professional life, the final iteration of a carefully calibrated campaign of oppression, intimidation, threats and pogroms burst into a state-sponsored-and-designed elimination of the right to consider themselves human, as the machinery of annihilation of a people went into full gear. The world heard rumours of death camps but preferred to remain oblivious of state-organized slaughter on a scale never before imagined.

Genocide is a wound that can never heal, its perpetrators can never rehabilitate their nationhood, destroyed along with the uncountable human souls they destroyed. Jews realized throughout their endless mourning that the curse that followed them through an eternity of existence had lifted but it was a temporary reprieve. Now, Islam, a religious devotion sacred to an immense global population has offspring infected with a religious fervour to complete what European fascism aimed for.

A number of fanatical Islamist sources within the greater Islamic population treasure a covenant to destroy Jewish life and with it the reborn geographic heritage that led to the final chapter in the legend of the wandering Jew. Terrorist groups incited, armed, trained and loyal to genocidal regimes dedicated to the obliteration of the State of Israel. Their oil wealth and their interpretation of Islam's sacred scriptures lead them to the belief that it is their version of god that instructs them to commit genocide anew.

 

Palestinians taking Israeli hostage to Gaza ... AP

 

They have become skilled in the social-human art of propaganda and social conditioning inherent in 'public relations' where they portray themselves as avenging saviours of the world's longest-reigning 'victims' whom Jewish cunning and evil-mindedness has deprived of their freedom, their land, their hopes for the future. The ancestral homecoming of the Jewish diaspora enraged the Arab League and the UN's Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Arab armies combined to launch wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973 in the fledgling rebirth of Israel. They were repelled, defeated by the infinitely smaller, poorly equipped defence forces of the Jewish State.

"No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no recognition of Israel", was the guiding light of response from the Arab League following the 1967 war, when Israel's defence won territory in Egypt and Syria which it was willing to surrender for peace. The most recent war now takes place in Gaza, which Israel unilaterally surrendered to the Palestinians hoping the gesture would result in peace. The terrorist group Hamas had other ideas. Its covenant is clear; its goal is Israel's destruction.

There are many ways to destroy a people; one begins with slander that holds them to be less than human, accusing them of planning the wholesale death of others, of perpetrating the worst horrors imaginable upon helpless civilians, when in fact, they have engaged in conflict to inflict a penalty upon a conscienceless group of Islamist terrorists whose savagery mutilated and murdered Israeli civilians setting Israel on a course of destroying those that would destroy it and its people.

 

Elderly hostage from Kfar Azza kibbutz ... AP

"There is NOTHING anyone could do that would lead me to kill a child in cold blood, dismember a woman, slice her genitals, blow up parents in front of their children, laugh, sit and eat at their table." 

Shoshana Keats Jaskoll, Jewish activist and writer

Jews in Canada

"Brym [Robert Brym, sociologist,University of Toronto] believes that the Israel-Hamas war plays a part -- surveys elsewhere in the world show that Muslims' negative sentiments toward Jews rise whenever war breaks out."

"But he also points to local factors; of Canada's religious groups, Jews are the highest earners and are the least impoverished, while Muslims earn the least and are impoverished the most."

"Nearly two-thirds of Muslims, but less than one-third of Jews, are immigrants. And on average, Canadian Muslims are much younger than Canadian Jews."

Jamie Sarkonak, journalist, National Post

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa, April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

Generally, on the other hand, the vast majority of Muslims have a darkly negative view of Jews, ingrained not only in the culture, but emphasized by hadiths and the Koran, addressing relations with Jews; on the one hand, Islam counts Jews and Christians with a modicum of regard since they are part of the Abrahamic triangle; people of 'the book'. On the other they must be subservient to Islam with the understanding that Islam according to its reckoning, represents God's final presentation to humanity. They are 'kuffar', undeserving of respect for not surrendering their souls to Islam and Allah.

 

Resentment and victimization represent another facet of how Muslims regard Jews; believing all Jews to be wealthy and privileged. The Jewish presence in Canada dates back hundreds of years and while Jews mostly maintained their religious devotion in Judaism, they respect the laws of Canada, consider themselves Canadian, and integrate into the political, justice, and social system, content to be another Canadian. Muslim presence in Canada is of a far more recent vintage. Assimilation into the general culture, adapting the prevailing values, is not favoured by most practising Muslims for whom Sharia, not the law of the land is the final arbiter of justice for them.

 

Muslims typically have large numbers of progeny since Islam promotes childbearing as a moral religious duty, as does Catholicism to a lesser degree and Orthodox Judaism as well. In Canada it can be costly raising a large family, certain to be an economic challenge to many for whom large families is part of their religious devotion. The very fact that there are many more Muslims that are recent immigrants than Jews with lower economic standing, relates to the fact that it takes time to establish a presence in the country, including employment with high remunerative qualities.

Sociologist Robert Brym undertook a study recently, and published the results, looking into Canadian attitudes toward Jews and Israel. Surveys undertaken in early2024 list the most negative attitudes toward Jews spring from the Muslim demographic, alongside Quebecers and non-Jewish university students. The most negative sentiments expressed toward Israel, stem from Muslims and non-Jewish university students, and supporters of the New Democratic Party.

A survey sample of over 300 Muslims indicate unmistakable distrust and negativity toward Jews. Merely five percent of Canadian non-Jews reported their belief that "Jewish people are largely to blame for the negative consequences of globalization", but among Muslims the figure became 48 percent; while 83 percent of non-Jewish Canadians disagreed that Jews have too much power in Canada, 34 percent of Muslims held the same belief.

Unsurprising to a degree then, that Toronto and other Canadian cities have seen frequent well-attended protests proceeding through the streets, aggravating and accusing Canadian Jews of 'genocide' against Palestinians for their support of Israel, shouting 'intifada' in unison, and 'from the river to the sea', common shorthand for the destruction of Israel; Arabic speakers and signs, the Qu'ran in proud prominence and university campuses taken over by the 'pro-Palestinian' protests, targeting Jewish students.

The statement on the survey that "There is no justification for Palestinian suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians", brought 30 percent disagreement from Muslims in comparison to 11 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. And while 54 percent of Muslims express the belief that Israel is an apartheid state, 34 percent of the general population appears to concur, thanks to ingrained antisemitism and successful propaganda. 60 percent of Muslims equate Zionism with racism, while 38 percent of non-Jewish Canadians concur.

As far as 81 percent of Muslims are concerned, the current war in Gaza represents genocide, a belief shared by 49 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. Logically, bringing in new immigrants, refugees and migrants whose culture and religious devotion dictates their values and inculcates prejudices born of historical events and antipathies, more or less guarantees that this level of blame from a victimhood-prone group against an already-existing group would result. 

Victimhood, resentment, anger and hatred coalesce and become a threat by one to the other, and with the help of a powerful propaganda device of victimhood and occupation led by student groups of Palestinian and Arab origin, the slander of a democratic state that is anything but racist and apartheid finds a ready audience among the demographic of non-Jewish, non-Arab Canadians from various backgrounds, origins and cultures, happy to take up a cause that happens to coincide with their own prejudices.

Canada now hosts some 1.8 million Muslims, half of which immigrated from 2011 forward with increasing frequency and numbers. It is now clear that government authorities had no interest in ensuring that those comprising great numbers of an ethnic, social, cultural, religious background that tended not to accept the culture, social justice system, values of a society they gravitated to, might very well present as a future danger to social cohesion and the general social compact in a democratic society.

All of which has led to spectacles of violent demonstrations against a much smaller demographic of about 350,000 Jewish Canadians who view with dismay and disappointment the inaction of their fellow Canadians, much less Canadian governments at every level, failing to react and act to uphold the law and to protect the Canadian Jewish population threatened by increasingly volatile and violent 'protesters' who no longer bother shielding their support of Palestinian terrorists from public view.

Canadian universities for the past few decades have succumbed to leftist progressive divisiveness, promoting the ideology of 'anti-oppression, teaching that colonialism of which they claim Israel is a prime example, is morally indefensible, that people of European ancestry are born exceptionalists, superior and dominating others of 'colour', under Critical Race Theory. Privilege and intersectional 'oppressor' beliefs are reflective of university campuses in this age.

Published

2024-04-09

"Most Canadian Jews feel unsafe and victimized. They perceive a rise in negative attitudes toward Jews in recent months and years. Most doubt the situation will improve. The main reason they feel this way is that extreme anti-Israel statements and actions have proliferated in recent months. Because support for the existence of a Jewish state in Israel is a central component of their identity, most Jews regard extreme anti-Israel statements and actions as a threat to their existence as Jews."

"Most non-Jewish Canadians do not have negative toward Jews. However, non-Jewish university students, Quebecois, and especially Muslim Canadians tend to have significantly more negative attitudes towards Jews than does the non-Jewish population as a whole."

Abstract: Jews and Israel 2024: A Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Jewish Perceptions : Robert Brym

 

The Friend of My Enemy is My Enemy

"[Russia is] an adversary for Israel -- it supports the radical axis that is fighting against us."

"[Moscow's role will grow in importance in the face the intensification of Israel's conflict with Iran and its proxy terrorist groups in the region."

Shay Har-Zvi, former acting director general, Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Israel

"Russia and Iran are closer than ever thanks to the war in Ukraine."

"The Russians could now supply them [Islamic Republic of Iran] with some very important technology that would represent a dramatic upgrade of Iranian capabilities."

Major General (Reserve) Amos Gilead, former top Israeli Defense Ministry official

Kremlin/AP

 

Prior to the October 7 atrocities committed in southern Israel by Gaza terrorist groups alongside Hamas and enthusiastically joined by ordinary Palestinian civilians that wreaked destructive havoc in Israeli border farming communities, leaving 1,200 Israelis butchered, women mass raped and mutilated, families burned to death in their homes, Israel and Russia enjoyed fairly amicable relations, if occasionally tension arose over nighttime aerial bombings of weapons depots in Syria.

That was when good personal relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin reigned, and Russia's muted approval of destroying Iranian weapons transferred through Syria to Lebanon for Hezbollah, one of Iran's acolyte death-cult militias allowed Israel to act without intervention by Russia protecting its relations with Syrian Present Bashar al-Assad, much less interfering with the presence of Russian warplanes busily aiding the Syrian regime in bombing Syrian Sunni dissidents.

 

Those close Israeli-Russian ties of convenience and good fellowship came to an abrupt halt with the Israel Defense Forces' invasion of Gaza to rout Hamas in a bid to destroy the Hamas infrastructure, the tunnel system, the weapons depots, the rocket launchers, all of which have been installed adjacent to or under hospitals, schools, mosques and civilian infrastructure. Israel no longer routinely alerts Moscow to its intentions to bomb areas of Syria, reflecting their frozen accord.

 

Iran's axis now includes Russia which of necessity precludes the continuation of relations with Israel. Russia is expanding its "mutually beneficial" military cooperation with Iran, a reality that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated when meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Reza Ashtiano in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana on Friday. 

 

The comfortable weapons exchanges between the two now reflects the distance that Moscow has placed between its interests and its interest in Israel. Where given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and altered allegiances, Israel's continued relations with Moscow were placed under great strain to begin with. Iran now produces a reliable source of deadly drones that Moscow uses in its attacks on Ukraine. The Moscow-Tehran defence accord comes at a time when Israel-Iran tensions have accelerated.

In exchange, Russia is providing sophisticated air defence systems and fighter jets to Iran. Courtesy of Moscow, Tehran is to be supplied with Sukhoi Su-35 fighter planes, set to bring Iran's decades-aged air force to a more technically advanced stage, as well as obtaining the S-400 sophisticated air defence system. Moscow is sharing its cyber warfare expertise and intelligence, as well as helping the Islamic Republic launch spy satellites.

Israel fired supersonic air-to-surface missiles damaging a Russian-made S-300 battery in an airbase near Isfahan, managing to defy Iran's air defences on April 19; a limited response to Tehran's massive missile and drone barrage that was meant to deluge Israeli airspace a week earlier. Following the Iranian April 13 missile strikes on Israel, its foreign ministry describing the attack as "self-defence", when after deadly airstrikes on Iran's Damascus diplomatic compound, Russia backed Tehran. 

The first delivery of Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft was received by Iran in September from Russia. Used to train pilots for the Su-35, the deputy Iranian defence minister revealed that arrangements for delivery of the fighter planes were finalized to replace Iran's outdated current warplanes fleet.

 

Maxim Shemetov/AP/File

Mr. Putin (right) greets Sara Netanyahu (left) as her husband, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looks on in the Kremlin, Jan. 30, 2020

"Relations with Israel have deteriorated, though both sides retain contact."

"[Ideally], Russia wants to maintain ties with Israel, while strengthening its strategic partnership with Tehran. A war between Israel and Iran would not be beneficial to Moscow."

"But Russia’s ability to influence events is quite limited. ... If it were to be drawn into such a conflict, it would divert significant resources from its operations in Ukraine."

Vladimir Sotnikov, IMEMO Center for International Security, Moscow

Enemy Archives -- Rewriting History the Ukrainian Nationalist Method

"It is very disappointing to see that some are willing to use this moment of great public support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression as an opportunity to rewrite Ukrainian history, and specifically to whitewash the involvement of Ukrainian nationals in the commission of genocide against Ukrainian Jewry."

"This book got a platform it never deserved given the outright misinformation it contains, and we are glad to see this problem being rectified as institutions take a closer look at the book and its dangerous and outrageous claims."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director, policy and advocacy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"The excerpt [published on February 9, 2023 from Enemy Archives] included a paragraph disputing the view that the Second World War era Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were Nazi collaborators."

"However, we recognize that this collaboration has been established by prior scholarship."

Rob Roberts, editor-in-chief, National Post 

"[Enemy Archives was rigorously examined before being released]. The path of Ukrainian nationalism and its intersections with Jewish history over the past century is often challenging and difficult to reconcile, with significant impacts on current political events in the region."

"There are inherent yet necessary risks in this area of study, and to participating in the contentious academic and public debates about how to tell these histories to advance understanding of both the past and present."

Lisa Quinn, executive director, McGill Queen's University Press

A monument to Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera, hailed as a national hero of Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine. Credit: Shutterstock.

 

The American Library Association, the largest library association in the world, in late January awarded a book, Enemy Archives, edited by Royal Military College professor Lubomyr Luciuk and Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, honours placing it on its list of the best historical materials for the years 2022 and 2023. It has now rescinded that award following criticism by Holocaust scholars who expressed grave concerns over the book's whitewashing of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during the Second World War.

"We apologize for the harm caused by the work's initial inclusion on the list. The committee will be reviewing the award manual and procedures", stated Jean Hodges, director of communications for the library association. For his part, Professor Luciuk responded to the pulling of the award by the library association as a "perplexing" decision; that the book should be read by those doubting its veracity to avoid "misrepresenting" its contents.

The book in question, Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement -- Selections from the Secret Police Archives, includes and discusses the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, along with addressing issues related to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army which many Ukrainians view with pride, believing those who were part of these organizations were heroes, fighting against the Soviets. 

 

Who were, at that period of history, part of the Allied Forces fighting Nazi Germany.

These are the same 'heroes' whom Holocaust scholars, Jewish groups and the government of Poland label Nazi collaborators, involved in the mass slaughter of up to 100,000 Poles and Jews during the Second World War. The Jewish News Syndicate news agency and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre took notice when an excerpt from Enemy Archives was published in the widely-read national newspaper, the National Post.

The book was published by McGill-Queen's University Press. "I am frankly surprised McGill Queen's Press [would] lend itself to this form of memory activism", commented Per Anders Rudling, professor at Sweden's Lund University in a statement he issued regarding the book. Professor Rudling has extensively studied the issue of Nazi collaborators.

Those who support the contents and assertions contained in the book focus attention and anger on  Lev Golinkin, a writer of Ukrainian Jewish heritage, blaming his intervention and influence for the decision the American Library Association reached to withdraw the award they honoured the book with. An April 10 article published in the U.S. publication, The Nation, saw Mr. Golinkin argue that the book whitewashed Nazi collaborators. 

 

Which led the Council of the Ukrainian Library Association to launch an appeal of the decision made by the American Library Association, claiming that Golinkin is simply backing pro-Russian propaganda. Golinkin, who has invested time and energy in anti-Russian protests.

A social media response to the situation where a Ukrainian commentator pointed out that Golinkin is a Jew and a parasite was re-posted by the book's co-author Volodymyr Viatrovych. Adolf Hitler was given to referring to Jews as parasites, justifying their annihilation by his state-inspired industrialization of genocide. 

 

Coincidentally that same social media account accused another Ukrainian Jew with a history of speaking out about the history of Nazi collaborators, of being a parasite as well. 

Get the picture?

Nazi Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler inspects the Ukrainian volunteer Galicia Division of the SS in May 1944. (Via the Polish National Digital Archives)

Final Show-Down Between Israel and Hezbollah?

"Hezbollah’s continued threats to target all of Israel with missiles show how egregiously the Iranian-backed terrorist group exploits Lebanon as a base for its illegal rocket arsenal."

"Hezbollah has stockpiled masses of rockets, armed drones, anti-tank missiles, and precision-guided munitions in recent years."

"Hezbollah has fired more than 2,000 rockets at Israel since it chose to back Hamas’s brutal attack in October."

"Hezbollah’s continued threats show that it is not deterred and is willing to risk catastrophic escalation in the region."

"The terrorist group must be deterred, and Israel should be supported in operations against Hezbollah."

Seth Franzman, ME Analyst, Journalist, Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies 

Screenshot of Hezbullah military exercise in southern Lebanon  (RT Arabic)

Cross border fire between Israeli forces and the Iranian proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon in almost daily exchanges dating from Israel's campaign against Hamas in October, have reached a pitch and plans are underway that this escalation of conflict will inevitably led to full-scale war between the two forces. Preparations on Israel's side include additional military exercises for ground, naval and aerial forces in the country's north, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

 

The IDF stated that area leaders with the IDF have been briefed "on the processes to accelerate readiness for continued fighting", while storage facilities are installed for the purpose of a quick and broad mobilization of IDF troops to the front lines.  About 40 targets linked to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon were struck by Israel this week, representing an escalation of hostilities following Hezbollah's deepest attack within Israel, the day before.

Active and frequent clashes have led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Lebanese border. Hezbollah is considered to be the most dangerous militia in the Middle East, in possession of 150,000 missiles and rockets, among them those with a long enough range to reach virtually anywhere in Israel. About 17,000 rockets, missiles and artillery shells have targeted Israel since October 7; that fateful day of the terrorist invasion of southern Israel with its savage outcome in the massive death count, mutilation, rape and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians.

 

Photo: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

 

Israel estimates a baseline scenario, should a fully fledged war erupt, of up to 5,000 missiles daily entering Israel from Lebanon, over and above several hundred fired by other Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The very volume of which could potentially test Israel's air defence systems to a breaking point, resulting in increased numbers of casualties. It is anticipated that Hezbollah would attempt to hit infrastructure facilities such as power plants and water pipes; sea ports airports and communication sites.

A situation that during wartime, would fully justify Israel striking deep enough into Lebanon to  hit major cities and their critical civil infrastructure; Beirut included. Israel developed a National Emergency Authority to coordinate its various agencies in government in preparation for a surprise attack; the blueprint known as "the compass", a classified document laying out Hezbollah's capabilities and the maximum harm that could result from an all-out war with Hezbollah.

 

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since 7 October [Getty]

American Universities Under Command of Palestinian Demands

"[Protesters over the weekend were] calling for Hamas to blow away Tel Aviv and Israel [while some protesters shouting out antisemitic slurs were not students]."

"Jews are scared at Columbia. It's as simple as that."

"There's been so much vilification of Zionism, and it has spilled over into the vilification of Judaism."

Nicholas Baum, 19, Jewish freshman, Jewish Theological Seminary

"We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed", reported U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning who had visited Columbia along with three other Congressmen, as she spoke with reporters following her tour of the Morningside Heights campus. At Columbia University an email was forwarded to staff and students that many classes at its Morningside campus would be hybrid for the rest of the semester where possible.

Cal Poly Humboldt closes classes for rest of semester

 

"Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students' learning and all the required academic operations", the email explained. Facing intense scrutiny over whether they are seriously involved in protecting their students, faculty and staff against antisemitism since the deadly October 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel, college leaders also deal with criticism from others claiming students' right to speak is being denied, political protests being censored.

A New York University encampment was cleared by the NYPD as anti-Israel protesters continue their riotous protests and police across the United States are called in to deal with them. Students barricaded themselves within a building at California State Polytechnic University Humboldt, following dozens of arrests at Yale University, reflecting the surge in anti-Israel, 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrations getting out of hand and endangering Jewish students on campus with threats and isolation.

Students have set up encampments on university property, moving into tents as part of their dedication to protesting against Israel and for terrorism as a form of freedom and liberation from oppression. Students demonstrating that they can form opinions and mount protests without the least idea of what it is they are protesting. Called in by university administrators, police were busy clearing out the protesters only to have them return and once again set up their tents and encampments despite students and faculty members' arrests.

In desperation, universities locked down buildings so that "key cards will not work". People are urged to stay away from the "dangerous and volatile situation" at Siemens Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt, explaining they are "deeply concerned about the safety of the protesters", urging them to "listen to directives from law enforcement ... and to peacefully leave the building." Humboldt for Palestine posted that students had "taken" Siemens Hall, listing demands, including the university divesting from any associations with Israel.

"The barriers were breached by protesters, many of whom we believe were not affiliated with NYU [who exhibited] disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing behaviour [refusing to leave when told the protests would be disbanded. Assistance was then requested from the NYPD", explained NYU spokesman John Beckman adding that 'several antisemitic incidents' had been reported.

NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and his officers being chased and surrounded by protesters Monday night while trying to get inside the NYU Catholic Center after arresting one of them. Peter Hambrecht

Disrupting a Workplace Leads to Deserved Termination of Employment

"Google's aims are clear; the corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers and reassert its power over them."

"In its attempts to do so, Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over fifty of its own workers."

Jane Chung, spokeswoman, No Tech For Apartheid

"[We carefully confirmed that] every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings."

Google response 

A sign for Google Cloud offices is seen in Sunnyvale, California, U.S. on April 16, 2024.

Nathan Frandino/Reuters

 

The mystery here is that employees of Google and those purporting to represent their interests feel entitled to job security even while they engage in disruptive, company-harmful, and clearly political activities and although the company does not agree with their contentious demands and has repeatedly asked them to desist in their actions, also feel entitled to continue regardless. Imposing their views on the company despite their views running counter to Google's business interests and perhaps their sympathies. 

 

Private companies have every right to have on their workforce employees who value their jobs enough to respect the company they work for.

Chief executive Sundar Pichae informed Google employees through a company-wide memorandum that they should not use the company as a "personal platform" or "fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." In other words, a reasonable caution. Those who chose to ignore his instructions to employees made the choice between employment and job loss. And job loss is precisely what at least fifty people working for the giant company have experienced, deservedly.

At least twenty additional workers were fired by Google resulting from their protests over the technology being supplied to the Israeli government. That brings the total to date of terminated staff to over fifty. The latest episode of internal turmoil at the tech giant revolving around a $1.2-billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the government of Israel with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services for "Project Nimbus".

These were workers who felt justified by their personal moral compass to hold sit-in protests at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The response of the company when employees chose to ignore their requests to desist, was to call police who thereupon made appropriate arrests. Last week the company fired 30 workers and followed it up a day ago by firing "over 20" more staffers, "including non-participating bystanders during last week's protests", according to a spokesperson for No Tech For Apartheid.

Google's explanation was that additional workers were fired following its investigation that gathered details from co-workers who had been "physically disrupted", identifying employees who wore masks and failed to carry their staff badges, in an effort to shield their identities.

"This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics." "[Google has a] duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally,"

"[Workers should put disruption aside and put the] mission first [at this critically important time]."

"When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that."

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai

A person rides past the Google sign outside the Google offices in Sunnyvale, Calif., on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Google has fired 28 employees who were involved in protests over the tech company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The workers held sit-ins at the company’s offices in California and New York over Google’s $1.2 billion contract to provide custom tools for Israeli’s military. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

Never Put Off Until Today What You Should have Said Yesterday

"There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful intimidation."

"It is unconscionable to glorify the antisemitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th."

"This rhetoric has no place in Canada. This is not who were are."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa on April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

A message of condemnation. From the Prime Minister of Canada. After months of often more muted messages of hate, threats, viral antisemitism. At no time did this man who for too long has been the executive leader of Canada see fit to condemn antisemitism without linking it to his cautions against 'Islamophobia'. Puzzling, given that Muslims in Canada face very few obstacles to living an inclusive, normal life of acceptance and equality. While at the same time Palestinian agitators have sought every opportunity to slander Israel, deny that Hamas is a terrorist entity, and harass Jewish-Canadians.

And nor is he the sole politician in Canada to look the other way and murmur approval of Canada's laws justifying free speech, even though there are other laws that condemn and criminalize the deliberate spread of racism, hate expressed against an identifiable group as an indictable offence. The steady growth of a Muslim demographic in Canada make them an impressive voting bloc, one recognized all too readily by politicians more concerned over their re-election than representing basic security issues.

This past Saturday downtown Ottawa saw swarms of masked anti-Israel protesters marching, waving banners, and flags, chanting directly before Parliament Hill to support the terrorist attacks in southern Israel that took place on October 7, 2023, killing over a thousand innocent civilian Israelis, mass-raping girls and women, mutilating their tortured bodies and slaughtering them, then taking hundreds of children, women and the elderly as hostages back with them to Gaza where it became a celebratory event.

 

Ottawa police’s hate crime unit is investigating allegations of hate speech at a pro-Palestinian rally on Parliament Hill over the weekend, where some participants were heard chanting in support of the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

 

"Our resistance and attacks are proof that we are almost free. October 7 is proof that we're almost free. Long live October 7. Long live the intifada. Long live every form of resistance", shouted one of the speakers. So, after all, this is Canada. The Canada that we never realized existed. But it does. And Jews in Canada are being hounded, harassed, threatened while their places of worship are vandalized, Jewish children entering their parochial school are cursed and shouted at, Jewish university students ostracized.

There was a time, early on, long before that fateful October 7, when a strong leader would have expressed his condemnation of rising antisemitism and acknowledged its source, and taken steps to criminalize the burgeoning racism splitting Canadian society. Having done nothing of the kind, even when Palestinian 'students' in Canada began organizing 'pro-Palestinian' marches celebrating the savagery visited on Israelis by Palestinian terrorist groups starting the very day following the carnage in southern Israel, the haters took it as tacit approval.

The prime minister who cannot condemn the scourge of rising and rampant antisemitism emanating from within the Canadian-Muslim demographic, without also parenthetically mentioning 'Islamophobia' has, in very fact, supported the antisemitism he has done nothing to tame, to adequately censure, to reassure Canadian Jews that their place in Canada is assured, safe and secure because Canadians care and Canadian politicians are determined to ensure that Canada remains a nation where justice and equality are not just words but conditions applicable to all its citizens.

To them a badge of dishonour by their lack of concern, by their lack of remedial action, by their lack of assurances to Canadian Jewry that Canada is their home, a place of origin where they are appreciated, where they are safe and free from threats and violence.

Police are investigating allegations of hate speech used at a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown Ottawa on Saturday. (Radio-Canada/Maxim Saavedra-Ducharmes)

Jews Under Violent Duress

"There is widespread bipartisan support for aid to Israel in the House of Representatives, yet this legislative branch is being held hostage from within, undermining both American and Israeli national security."

"Our members are compelled by their faith to act on this issue, and at we shall."

Sandra Parker, chairwoman, Christians United for Israel

"I chose to speak from my heart and from my experience as an immigrant whose family escaped from the most brutal, radical Islamofascist regime in the world: the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran."

"We came to Canada because we wanted to live a better life."

"We embrace Canadian values."

Ontario MPP Goldie Ghamari

Palestinian supporters hold a rally in downtown Toronto on Oct. 9, 2023. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Canadians in general have seen their society upended in disagreements and they have witnessed the strange phenomenon of their government hesitating in its support for a Democratic state that has always had the support of democracies throughout the world, including Canada, in recognition of the legitimacy and the need for the existence of a Jewish State, to preserve and protect embattled Jews from the Middle East to North Africa, after the near-destruction of the world's Jewish population in Europe.

Worse, a government that no longer appears to feel there is any need to support its own Criminal Code laws against promoting hate and violence against an identifiable group, as week after week Muslim-Canadians who have immigrated to Canada, along with refugees and migrants fleeing Sectarian and tribal violence in their countries of origin march through the streets of Canadian cities celebrating the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group's incursion from Gaza into Israel to commit horrendous acts of savagery on Jews.

The explosion of antisemitism and the growing violence against Canada's Jewish community inexplicably has drawn no level of government to declare the hate-filled marches advocating for the destruction of Israel and a 'final solution' for Jews intolerable, prepared to instruct police to apprehend those involved and outlaw such displays of sheer, unadulterated celebration of vicious atrocities committed against southern Israel's farming communities where 1,200 Israeli civilians were slaughtered.

When Jewish lives were in peril during the Second World War, the Catholic Church among others did nothing to admonish the leaders of the Third Reich that their increasing acrimony, threats and final solution to rid the continent of the presence of Jews represented a wholesale atrocity of genocidal proportions. The Protestant Branch of the Church did no better. Now, it is the evangelical Christians that have committed to supporting the Jewish State, at a time once again when Jews are threatened.

If it is true as many would like to believe that not all Muslims subscribe to the hate manifested by those who mask themselves with keffiyehs, claiming Israel to be committing genocide against Palestinians by responding to the mass rapes, murders, mutilations and hostage taking by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization and ordinary civilian Palestinians on October 7, and that the majority are peace-supporting and hate no one, there is no evidence of it. That there is an absence of Muslim-Canadian voices protesting the violence on the streets, the criminal acts perpetrated against Jewish parochial schools, synagogues, social centres, and businesses is the reality.

We see and hear only those Muslim-Canadians who bear signage accusing Israel and Jews of genocide for fighting back against terrorism, advocating for the destruction of the Jewish homeland, persecuting Jews on the street, at universities and blocking access to areas where Jews tend to live in groups. Nowhere do we see protesting Muslim-Canadians who accept Jewish-Canadians as equals, entitled to live in peace and security among the steadily growing demographic of Muslims in Canada. Why is that?

Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario Goldie Ghamari and other expatriate Iranians who fled the Republic for a life of freedom, finding it in Canada, openly support their Jewish counterparts. Theirs is a rare commitment among the Muslims who have settled in Canada for a better life, yet are adamant in denying that life of security, social comfort and prosperity to their Jewish neighbours. Jews, under duress by fellow Canadians whose antisemitism is audible and terrifying to the Jewish-Canadian population never resort to vilifying Muslims for being Muslims, threaten them, bomb their mosques.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is prepared to invite Palestinian Gazans to find refuge in Canada, adding to the already large contingent of Palestinians living in the country who foment hate and violence against Jews. Justin Trudeau cannot find it in himself to condemn the rampant antisemitism and criminal acts committed against Jewish houses of worship without linking antisemitism as a proscribed and hateful symbol of discord, to 'Islamophobia'. The infinitely larger number of Muslims now living in Canada as opposed to a relatively small Jewish population mitigates against this man of authority's responsibility to protect Jews in the greater need to placate the larger voting bloc.

Holding US and Israeli flags, a crowd of largely Evangelical Christians pray during the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) 'Night to Honor Israel' during the CUFI Summit 2023, in Arlington, Virginia, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, July 17, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Nothing to See Here, Folks

"Neither side is ready to jump over the brink."

"Probably we're going to go back to the proxy war. [But now it's a proxy war with the risk of] that sudden eruption of state-to-state war."

"Which we didn't have to worry about before."

Alex Vatanka, director, Iran program, Middle East Institute Research Centre, Washington

"The explosion this morning in the sky of Isfahan was related to the shooting of air defence systems at a suspicious object that did not cause any damage."

"[Air defence batteries fired over reports of airborne drones, crews targeting several flying objects]."

Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi

 

"[Israel appears to have carried out the attack to] check off a box [by sending a message to Iran without doing anything too provocative that might upset the U.S. urging restraint or to spark any further retaliation from Iran]." 

"It seems very limited, to send a message that 'we can strike you inside of Iran'."

Yoel Guzansky, senior researcher, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv

An anti-Israel parade in Tehran on Friday  The New York Times

 

Neither the sender of the message nor the message target appeared inclined to linger on what appeared to be a restrained Israeli rebuke referencing the 300 drones and Ballistic Missiles that Tehran sprinkled toward Israeli airspace a week earlier. Message delivered. Message received. A signal for Middle East political experts analyzing the interplay as both enemies preparing to prevent the latest violent eruption from ballooning into a full blown regional war.

"It appears we're closer than ever to a broad regional war, despite the fact that the international community will most likely make a great effort to de-escalate tensions", commented Amos Harel, military-affairs commentator at the daily Haaretz in Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has never made any secret of its willingness to one day destroy Israel. Its furtive but obvious nuclear program and focus on ballistic missile upgrades testament to that oft-stated ambition.

 

The speech notes of Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., during a Security Council meeting.  Charly Tribbaleau / AFP via Getty Images

Nor is it unknown that Iran is a major sponsor of proxy terrorist groups in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria all of whom have become involved in attacking Israel from its borders following the Israel Defense Forces' incursion into Gaza with the express and well-expressed purpose of destroying Hamas's operations and extinguishing as many of its operatives as possible, to defang one of the deadly serpents spawned from the Republic's IRGC al-Quds division.

Rising tensions in the wake of the October 7 flood of terrorists representing Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PLO backed by Iran that saw their operatives, along with ordinary Palestinian civilians attack Israeli border farming communities where their sadistic savagery gave vent to the hatred for Jews consuming their venom-patterned minds by committing unspeakable atrocities against Israeli civilians in an organized, well-rehearsed orgy of rape, mutilation and mass murder.

When Israel mounted its offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah saw it as an opportunity to strike Israeli targets opening a second front in the north of Israel, necessitating the evacuation of Israeli villages around the Golan Heights. Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen fired missiles and drones throughout the conflict in lethal, distracting moves obviously meant to exhaust Israel's military reserves.

For its part, Israel has, over time, conducted airborne raids by its fighter jets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to destroy arms shipments from Iran to its proxies, focusing mostly on Syria in an effort to dislodge Iran from a planned permanent presence on Israel's border. On April1st an airstrike killed two Iranian generals in the Syrian capital Damascus at an Iranian diplomatic compound for which Iran named Israel as being responsible -- vowing a response.

On the 13th of April Iran calculated a first-time direct attack and launched a rain of missiles and attack drones toward Israel, virtually all of which were intercepted by an international coalition of preventive partnership that included fighter planes and missile interception by the United States, France, United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, working in tandem with the IDF, resulting in one human casualty in Israel and a minimally affected Israeli airbase.

Israel's response to Iran's attack arrived a week later with Iranian authorities claiming their air defences fired at a major airbase near Isfahan, home to Iran's F-14 Tomcats, an ageing fleet of American jets predating the Islamic Revolution. Sites associated with Iran's nuclear program are also established in the Isfahan area, including the underground Natanz enrichment site, featuring in previous Israeli sabotage attacks. That response by the IDF coincided with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 85th birthday.

Both the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian State television declared all Iranian atomic sites in the areas in question to be "fully safe"; "no damage" resulted. On the other hand, it would seem that satellite imagery later revealed evidence of probable damage at the Iranian air base following the Israeli strike. BBC Verify analyzed two images that showed part of an air-defence system at an airfield in Isfahan had been damaged.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

"It's extremely politically sensitive, obviously, but procedurally I believe I made the right decision in the sense of past rulings of speakers and precedents and traditions."

"In my opinion, having done the research, it appeared to me that the keffiyeh is being worn to make a political statement."

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

"I think [Speaker Arnott's ruling] is the correct decision, in the same way we can't use other kinds of political clothing."

"We can't wear T-shirts that say 'Free the hostages', or wrap ourselves in a flag or whatever."

"We have to follow the rules of the legislature. Otherwise, we politicize the entire debate inside the legislature and that's not what it's about ... we use our words to persuade, not our items of clothing".

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

"It really comes down to uniting Ontarians and communities."

"We see the division right now that's going on. It's not healthy, and this will just divide the community even more."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Keffiyehs remain banned in the Ontario Legislature after a motion to overrule House Speaker Ted Arnott’s prohibition failed to pass at Queen’s Park on Thursday. CBC

One would think and hope that someone of the political stature and influence of the premier of Canada's most populous province would be more aware and sensitive to the implications of permitting an iconic symbol of Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupation' of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel would be recognized as throwing political weight in the Palestinian-occupied wing of slanderous propaganda. Worse, that seeing that symbol worn in the provincial parliament, the impression that the provincial government agrees that Palestinians and their terrorist hordes have the right to raid Israeli territory to threaten, to rape, to torture, and to murder Jews in Israel.

 

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature appears to be courageously standing on principle alongside the legislature's own rules when he defied the popular (unanimous) decision of the Members of Provincial Parliament when they opted to allow keffiyeh-clad individuals to display their obvious rancor against Israel, bringing the conflict that rages in the Middle East into Canada and its levels of government as an entitlement to slander the Jewish State and propagate for its destruction as a 'final solution' to their struggle to destroy the ancestral Jewish presence in the Middle East. 

The keffiyeh is emblematic of Palestinian rejection of sharing the geography that the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 partitioned, offering Jews one portion of their traditional geography upon which to declare a modern state, and the other to the Palestinians who claim the entire territory as uniquely and solely theirs, rejecting the reality of history that reflects a Judaean presence from antiquity to the present; in fact the original 'Palestinians' as named by the Roman occupiers of the Middle East during that era.

There is a long-standing rule in the legislature that members may not make use of props, signage or accessories with the intention of expressing a political statement, and it is that rule that the Speaker of the Legislature relied upon to refuse to permit that resonating political symbol to make its appearance in the Legislature of Ontario. Having established the facts through his own "extensive research", the Speaker was confident in the applicability of his ruling.

 

The unanimous consent of the legislature is sought by members of provincial parliament when they wish to express solidarity with a specific theme or event. Provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles had moved a unanimous consent motion days earlier claiming the keffiyeh to be a culturally significant item of clothing in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and as such should be given permission to be worn in Parliament. Some of those present in the Legislature demurred, the loudest "no" emanating from another Progressive Conservative MPP.

"Speaker Arnott is the longest serving MPP in the legislature and has spent three decades upholding the rules and procedures of the House."

"As the longest serving woman at Queen’s Park I support his ruling because it keeps with tradition and reminds members to keep our debates focused on words rather than on political props."

"Arnott chose parliamentary convention over political weather [vanes]."

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

Queen's Park, Toronto   Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press