Feature, Musings —11.14.2023 04:17 PM
—My latest: the biggest liars
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, some people will eventually believe it.
The author of that one, of course, was Joseph Goebbels, and he would know. Goebbels was the chief propagandist for Germany’s Nazi Party. He helped to devise and then cover up the Shoah – the Holocaust.
Goebbels would likely approve what has happened in the days following the modern Shoah, October 7. Since October 7, words and meanings have been giddily twisted and manipulated like a rag doll in a madhouse.
Every weekend, everywhere, angry voices – pro-Palestinian, but also pro-Hamas – can be heard on city streets, screaming “from the river to the sea.” The people who use that slogan insist, over and over, that those words are benign, and express no ill-will towards Jews.
And, yes, “from the river to the sea” – from the Jordan River in the East to the Mediterranean Sea in the West – doesn’t explicitly say every inch of “Palestine is for Muslims only, Jews are warmongering Zionist Nazis, and every Muslim has an obligation to wage holy war against them until they are all gone.”
But the Hamas 1988 Charter certainly says that, and plenty more. When he was celebrating the anniversary of said Charter, Hamas’ billionaire leader Khaled Mashaal made clear what “from the river to the sea” means. Said Mashaal: “Palestine is ours, from the river to the sea, and from the South to the North. There will be no concession on any inch of the land.”
No concession. Sorry, citizens of the Jewish state: “from the river to the sea” literally means there is no room for you, and no more Israel. Everyone, from Hamas to the Palestine Liberation Organization – who used it as their official slogan, and who asserted that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine” – know precisely what “from the river to the sea” means. It means no Jews, no Israel. Period.
Because they are disciples of Goebbels, the pro-Hamas propagandists are also careful about their use of the word “Jew.” They prefer “Zionists.”
Zionism is a political movement that seeks a Jewish homeland, in the part of the world Jews occupied for centuries before the birth of Christ – and thousands of years before the word “Palestine” was ever uttered. Saying you oppose “Zionists” – and “the Zionist project,” which is what they call Israel – is a lot less controversial than saying you are against the Jews.
No less than Dr. Martin Luther King is the best source on the distinction. As recalled by author Seymour Lipset: “When approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Dr. King responded: ‘When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.’”
This week, this writer was on a Toronto radio panel with a man who proclaimed he was a “human rights lawyer,” but who revealed himself to perhaps regard some humans as having more rights than others.
The host, Greg Brady, did his best to challenge this man’s many whoppers, which included:
• Hamas hasn’t killed any Jews outside “occupied territories.”
• Firebombing a synagogue may not be anti-Semitic.
• A Montreal Imam who called for Jews to be exterminated, didn’t.
How can anyone, least of all a “human rights lawyer,” embrace such things, all of which are false? Who knows. The “human rights lawyer” wanted more “evidence” on the synagogue firebombing. He didn’t answer yes or no to Brady’s request that he agree that Hamas was a terrorist organization. He said the Imam called for “Zionists” to be exterminated, not “Jews” (see above).
And so on. That’s how it’s been pretty much everywhere, since October 7. The mobs – found in the streets, in faculty lounges, university classrooms and NDP caucus meetings – have manipulated and mauled language to justify, or minimize, Hamas’ mass-murder on October 7.
They have done that because they know, deep in their tiny black hearts, that they won’t win over public opinion by saying they favour eliminating every Jew in Israel. So they say they oppose the “Zionist entity” and want to merely liberate Palestine, “from the river to the sea.”
It’s all so dishonest and divisive and dangerous.
Goebbels would approve.
What’s next from the NDP/Greens? Arbeit macht frei?
Warren,
Worst of all is how they disregard, trivialize or make excuses for the killing of 1400 Israeli and other Jewish civilians. That’s nothing other than mental illness. All civilian deaths should be equally condemned whether they happen to be Palestinian, Israeli or anything else. These people desperately need psychiatric treatment.
It’s such an honest and sad commentary about the left’s biggest stain – support for Hamas as though Israel is at highest fault for daring to be successful against enormous odds.
There is a considerable socialist segment of the Israeli population and yet it seems no Jew can be a good Jew to Hamas and all those who are warped in that vocal protest here in Canada and around the world.
Many in Labour unions, academics, politicians and Muslim faith leaders all seem to have an inability to say “good” and “Jew/Hebrew/Israeli” in the same sentence.
Keep calling them out Warren – great job!
By the way, I did not want to comment on Remembrance Day about your dad’s regret for not having been able to fight the nazis in WW2. I’m grateful he did not – for you and your family’s sake. A lot of good men went over there and “saw things no man should have to see” and “did things no man should have to do” (quotes from a family member who was there). Not all, but many came back changed and not in a good way.
I’ve too many accounts of late night drunken gun fire and scarred families as well as the members of that great generation who did what they had to do.
I’m glad your father was able to lead the incredible life he did without that heavy burden added. We can remember the effort of those who were every bit willing to go but circumstances allowed them through the grace sacrificed by their others.
Hamas(and their supporters) narrative……is crumbling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IldITFyJGak
Video still available here…….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrdHC_Dui1U
Nine years ago.
Secret Hamas bunker in hospital revealed.
https://twitter.com/TerryGlavin/status/1724817172109951166?
Justin and Jagmeet, you had nine years to speak up and condemn this.
Now you want a cease fire. Which means Israel ceases and Hamas fires. Just like they’ve been doing for years. And Hamas promises to repeat Oct 7, quote “a million times”.
Disgusting.
Peter,
This is one of your best. Bravo!
I’m an asshole. I’m at ashern1506@gmail.com if you want to tell me.