— Feature, Musings —10.30.2023 04:36 PM
My latest: the Beast is awake
I have never seen it this bad.
And I’ve seen it when it is really, really bad. But never like this.
Anti-Semitism, that is. Hatred and/or prejudice towards Jews.
Some context, here. As a journalist, I have been writing about, and researching, Jew-hatred since 1986. As a lawyer and a citizen, I’ve been opposing it for almost as long. I’m not Jewish, but I’m a Zionist – that is, I favor re-establishing the Jewish homeland that existed long before Christ.
Now, over the years, I’ve seen a lot of anti-Semitism. It’s hard to forget.
An Aryan Nations fanatic – who believes Jews are the literal descendants of the devil – jammed a rifle in my chest at his group’s compound in Caroline, Alberta in 1987. When I worked for Jean Chretien in the early Nineties, the RCMP didn’t wanted me traveling with the Liberal leader, because I posed an added security risk – too many neo-Nazis wanted me dead, they said.
Some neo-Nazi skinheads planned to firebomb my place in Ottawa, resulting in several weeks of on-site police protection in 1994. A Ku Klux Klan leader gained access to my place in Vancouver in 1997, necessitating even more security and a vacating of the premises.
Online threats and attacks from Holocaust deniers Ernst Zundel and David Irving, and their fans, in 2001. Lots of those.
And, in 2018, a Toronto anti-Semite publishing a “newspaper” which talked about me being “bludgeoned to death.” (I successfully pushed for a private criminal prosecution in that case – and Judge Dan Moore let the Nazi go.)
And so on and so on. I’ve written five books about racism and anti-Semitism, hundreds of newspaper columns and stories, and I’ve been on the receiving end of lots of death threats over the years. I’ve spent plenty on security – and, yes, I’ve learned how to be a really good shot.
And in all of that time, after experiencing all of that nonsense and more? I’ve never seen it this bad.
If you’re a Jew, you know exactly what I mean. Anti-Semitism, which never really goes away, is seemingly worse now than it has been in decades. And Jew-hatred – which is now manifesting itself in unlikely places like university campuses, and small businesses, and elementary schools, and restaurants and private residences – is just about everywhere. It’s the new pandemic, and deadly in its own dark way.
In Toronto alone, there’s been a 132 per cent increase in anti-Semitic incidents since October 7, when Hamas murdered 1400 Israeli men women and children – and raped and tortured many more. Think about that: after October 7, the worst day Jews have experienced since the Holocaust, things got worse for them. Not better.
Things got worse everywhere, in fact.
Pollsters and social scientists are at work, computing the data, assembling the grim statistics. Police agencies are tallying the depressing numbers. But all of us – all of us who pay attention, anyway – know the truth: anti-Semitism, always bad, is getting markedly worse at the back end of 2023.
In media newsrooms, we are all talking about it. At this newspaper, one of our writers got roughed up at an “anti-Zionist” protest on Sunday – told he worked for a newspaper run by the Jews. And, for those of us who are in the business of predicting the future, it feels like blood will be spilled – and not in Gaza City or an Israeli kibbutz, either.
Here. Now. It feels like someone is going to get killed. It feels like there will be blood.
Israel will win the war against Hamas, yes. It will be long and it will be bloody, yes. Of that there should be little doubt.
But, elsewhere, it feels like Israel – the Jewish state – is losing. Online, in cities across the West, in public opinion, perhaps: it feels like Israel is losing another kind of war.
It’s not irrelevant when we see more than 100,000 protestors marching past the British House of Parliament on the weekend, demonizing Jews and the Jewish state. It’s not irrelevant when Ph.Ds are joking about Jewish babies being beheaded or cooked in ovens. It’s not irrelevant when Jews are afraid to go outside their homes – in Canada.
Now, more than ever, those who support Israel – those who oppose terror and hate – need to fight back. We need to be seen, too, and we need to confront every barbaric lie and every blood libel. We need defeat anti-Semitism. As we have done before.
The rough Beast, per Yeats, is again awake, and it is slouching towards Bethlehem.
We must defeat it. We must.
I for the life of me don’t understand why there is this hatred of Jews that has gone on for centuries. I truly don’t get it. When the mass murders happened a few weeks ago by the terrorists and then the cheering that went on around the world she told me she always knew there was antisemitism out there but she couldn’t believe how much there really is and how out in the open it is. These creatures have no shame or fear in displaying it. Jew hatred seems to be the only hatred that is acceptable and it’s found in the lowest in society all the way to the so called enlightened elites. Progressives hate Jews so much that they will gleefully support the very people that commit all the atrocities against women, minorities and gays they’re supposedly against happening. Israel in fact is everything they should love. I agree Warren. I fear this is going to get really bad for Jews everywhere and I don’t feel that here in Canada our current govt will do anything to stop it.
One of the most sobering statements I ever heard came from a friend who was the local Orthodox Jewish rabbi. (We have both since moved away.) He was meeting with a group of Christian ministers to educate them on Orthodox Judaism when the topic of the Holocaust and combatting anti-semitism was raised.
I forget the question, but Rabbi answered: “It is hard to believe today, but Germany in the early 1920’s was one of the friendliest places in the world for Jews to live. Then the Nazis came to power.”
I was thinking of that very poem when reading one of your earlier columns. As a species we learn nothing and are determined to keep making the same mistakes.
The beast is unleashed and the centre cannot hold. The people that we have in power are too indecisive and weak to keep things together. And here we are.
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
Has Melanie Joly or Justin Trudeau apologized for claiming Israel bombed the hospital in Gaza?
Justin tweeted a picture of his son Hadrian as a headless something going out for Halloween.
https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1719496601087979960?
Does Justin think this is funny?
Every time this guy and his groupies do something really stupid, I think, ok, they can’t top that. But then you usually only have to wait a little while. In this case, Gudie was only on Sunday. The most charitable explanation is that he is done and he is just trolling everyone.
Peter,
In this tragic context, what automatically comes to mind? Oh yes, thick as a brick…
We, as a civilized society are reaping the grim harvest we have sowed in our public schools. History has been swept aside or reconfigured to make room for dogmatic and revisionist ideas that stunt critical thought and perspective on serious issues.
We have all seen the youtube video, released during the last period of Remembrance in 2022. A young man interviews random college students on a sidewalk near an unidentified campus. (Presumably in Toronto). Male and female students are asked what they know about WW2, the years spanning the conflict and who the main antagonists were. Follow up questions asked about knowledge of the Holocaust, how many people were murdered and who were the targeted victims?
It was disheartening and disturbing to realize the thin to nonexistent core knowledge of WW2 and especially the Holocaust.
This era of young Canadians are so woefully short of knowledge about the persecution of Jews, the establishment of a homeland for them after the Holocaust and the determination of Israel’s enemies to exterminate them from the Middle East that their young minds are ripe for inculcation by far left progressives, especially university professors.
These young people are our future political leaders. God help the Jews, and the rest of us too.
I had a run in with some Nazis, years ago, when I was a university student. My roommate in residence was a Japanese exchange student. I had been hanging out next door, and my neighbor had a couple of unlikely friends – a couple of Nazis. They weren’t bashful about their beliefs, spouting off their racist, anti-semetic bullshit for about an hour – then my roommate shows up. He walked in and they immediately recoiled, offended by the presence of a colored person. One of the guys had a knife, he started twirling it around like he was going to use it, so I stopped him right there. Don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something like (If you try to use that knife I’m going to stick it up your ass. Why don’t you take your knife, and your bullshit, and get the fuck out of here”.
Good for you.
There’s always been a festering undercurrent of anti-Semitism in Canada. I remember correcting my peers for making racist or anti-Semitic comments in elementary school. As an adult, I can say with certainty that, across this country, there’s a hefty amount of racism and anti-Semitism and like the author has pointed out, it’s getting worse and fueled by social media.
Curious V,
Sadly, so true.
I showed two of my Jewish friends this musing.
After reading it both were moved to tears
Pipes,
In my book, Warren long ago crossed over into Earth angel territory. His Dad and Mom who are watching, must be so proud.
Regarding the humanitarian pause; perhaps this will help you decide:
https://twitter.com/nspector4/status/1719754512133681162?
Another time, when I was taking a break from office work and did some time in the construction industry. The guy I’m working with says, you’re a Canadian aren’t you. I said yeah, I’m first generation, my mom is from Scotland, my father is from Holland, and I was born in Canada. He says to me “you’re no better than a Jew”. Nice boss – I should point out this kind of thinking wasn’t widespread – just wanna make sure I don’t single out construction workers – lots of progressive modern people in the construction industry, just that my boss at the time wasn’t one of them
Hamas is honest about its intentions. However, there are extremists on both sides.
Warren,
I worry about a Biden club. FP is slowly drifting in the direction of a “humanitarian” ceasefire with the White House in the lead. I strongly oppose that unless and until Hamas’ ranks have been thoroughly decimated. But just how long can Bibi hold out against the WH and Congressional rising tide?
Most people haven’t got a fucking clue how critical analysis works so I’m going to explain how it works for them: you look at the initial facts as dispassionately as you possibly can. You divorce the facts and end results from the perpetrators. You then base solely on the facts your analysis and reach a moral value judgment. Once you do, it should be set in stone as either unacceptable and inhuman or theoretically, the reverse. Only then do you factor in the nationality of the perpetrators, in this case bona fide terrorists. That’s exactly how I reached my conclusions and sided without reservation with Israel.
As for the ceasefire, OK, if you want it sooner rather than later then you as a Muslim, Arab, Palestinian have a responsibility to help Israel deal with Hamas. Once that’s accomplished, then you get your ceasefire. Otherwise, you don’t ever get it. Clue in please, and check your biases at the door if you want an eventual Palestinian state. Peace will only come permanently WITH a two-state solution. Nothing else is either politically or militarily acceptable, much less possible.
It’s obvious PM Netanyahu has no interest in a two-state solution.
Gilbert,
Like Warren, I will reserve comment. For now.
The senior commanders of Hamas don’t live in Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh is a billionaire and lives in Qatar. I believe he’s in Iran now.
They should hit them no matter where they are.
Gilbert,
If they actually think they’re relatively safe in Iran or elsewhere, they’re likely sadly mistaken. Think Munich Massacre as a template.