The Christians are going to save the Jews
There was an anti-Semitic protest at Stephen Harper's riding office in Calgary the other day. Here's a picture:
There was precisely one counter-protester, with a tiny Israeli flag:
At
one point, the police told that counter-protester that if he didn't
leave, he'd be arrested for "inciting civil disorder". I'm not making
that up -- the lone pro-Israeli protester was told that, not the 175
people trespassing on the parking lot of a private mall. Maybe that's
why the cops were too busy to station someone inside.
My point here is that the one counter-protester wasn't Jewish.
This protest was at Glenmore Landing mall, in the heart of what I like to call "Jewtopia" in Calgary. The Jewish Community Centre is literally across the street, on Jerusalem Road. The city's Holocaust memorial is there. A block further is a synagogue. You get the picture.
And the Jewish community didn't muster a single counter-protester. (A week later, the Jews had their own rally -- hidden away inside the JCC, lest anybody see it. Gentile participation: nil. At least they had a pro-Israel rally, though; Calgary's Official Jews have spent the past two years attending Syed Soharwardy's mosque in some masochistic display of "interfaith dialogue" -- this, with a man who still publishes columns by a terrorist leader on his website). Soharwardy himself attended this anti-Semitic rally -- I'm sure that won't stop Calgary's Official Jews from letting themselves be used as his PR cover.
Once upon a time, if a bunch of anti-Semites had come to the Jewish part of town, calling Jews Nazis, trespassing on private property, blocking access to Jewish stores, threatening a pro-Israel protester (and throwing a shoe at him), unfurling a terrorist flag, and cursing at a rabbi, self-respecting Jews would have at least asked the police to intervene, if not taken matters in to their own hands. Jews once actually did that sort of thing. Nowadays we cower.
I wonder if our community has that sense of survival, or pride, or confidence or even identity anymore. I don't see it in the community's leadership.
Izzy Asper had a phrase for Jews who would rather attend an "interfaith diaologue" with an anti-Semitic imam than condemn him. Izzy called them "Jews of silence."
Not all Jews are that way. I think a lot of Israelis here in Canada still have a survival instinct. And, probably because they grew up in Arab lands and had to fight every day, I think Sephardi Jews still have that identity, confidence and fire in them.
When I was a school boy at Calgary's now defunct I.L. Peretz School -- a Yiddish Labour Zionist school, thankfully devoid of the Labour part -- we were taught about the Holocaust, often by Lerer and Lererin Eichler, two Holocaust survivors themselves. I couldn't help but think, as I heard the stories of the 1930s, "didn't they know what was coming?" or "why didn't they do anything?". We know the answer -- the Jews of Germany thought that Germany was the heart of culture, too civilized to allow anything to actually happen. Many of the Jews were so integrated, they hardly even considered themselves Jews -- how could they possibly be in danger? Hitler was a fanatic; his stormtroopers were just young hotheads; everything would be fine. Besides: what could one do? I mean, really: what were you going to do?
That's the same feeling I get now. Everyone knows that the light on the dashboard is blinking. Things have gone nuts in places like France; so French Jews are emigrating en masse to Israel. Venezuela's remaining Jews are in a panic. Amsterdam's Jews are under siege. I'd say we're just a few years behind them on the curve.
But the Jews of silence do nothing.
Thankfully, the Christians will save us. Tonight I received the following letter, which I reprint in its entirety, with only a few identifying words redacted (simply because it's too late at night to ask for permission to print it it full!):
To which I replied, in part:
I think that this is part of the war on terror. Jews are just the canary in the coal mine -- as always, and the State of Israel is just the Jew amongst the nations, and plays the same role. Israel's fight against Muslim fascists is merely first; France's, Holland's and Canada's will come later.
Too many people want to pretend that 9/11 didn't happen; they want to hit the snooze button on the alarm, instead of dealing with the new reality. I call those September 10th people. A surprising number them happen to be Jews. They're the kind of Jews who would rather go after a doddering, lone David Ahenakew than a mob of a thousand in downtown Toronto.
Thank God for September 12th people, especially evangelical Christians. I would place my life in their hands before those of the Official Jews anytime. I just hope that remains a hypothetical decision.
related
You can see the sign for Harper's office in the background. In the foreground are comparisons of Jews to Nazis -- a classic anti-Semitic slur.
There were about 175 people there, including plenty of kids -- impressive, given that it was colder than minus 30, with windchill.
They kept warm by chanting Allahu Akhbar, and compared Israel's prime minister to Hitler. You can see a pretty fair report of it here.
Some of the protesters went into the mall offices, probably to keep warm. Once in there, though, they went right up to the door of Harper's office. The office was closed for the day, but they went right up to it. No police were there, nothing. I could only imagine what would have transpired had the constituency office door not been locked. I find it odd that the police didn't have even a single officer inside, in case of that eventuality.
There were about 175 people there, including plenty of kids -- impressive, given that it was colder than minus 30, with windchill.
They kept warm by chanting Allahu Akhbar, and compared Israel's prime minister to Hitler. You can see a pretty fair report of it here.
Some of the protesters went into the mall offices, probably to keep warm. Once in there, though, they went right up to the door of Harper's office. The office was closed for the day, but they went right up to it. No police were there, nothing. I could only imagine what would have transpired had the constituency office door not been locked. I find it odd that the police didn't have even a single officer inside, in case of that eventuality.
There was precisely one counter-protester, with a tiny Israeli flag:
At
one point, the police told that counter-protester that if he didn't
leave, he'd be arrested for "inciting civil disorder". I'm not making
that up -- the lone pro-Israeli protester was told that, not the 175
people trespassing on the parking lot of a private mall. Maybe that's
why the cops were too busy to station someone inside.My point here is that the one counter-protester wasn't Jewish.
This protest was at Glenmore Landing mall, in the heart of what I like to call "Jewtopia" in Calgary. The Jewish Community Centre is literally across the street, on Jerusalem Road. The city's Holocaust memorial is there. A block further is a synagogue. You get the picture.
And the Jewish community didn't muster a single counter-protester. (A week later, the Jews had their own rally -- hidden away inside the JCC, lest anybody see it. Gentile participation: nil. At least they had a pro-Israel rally, though; Calgary's Official Jews have spent the past two years attending Syed Soharwardy's mosque in some masochistic display of "interfaith dialogue" -- this, with a man who still publishes columns by a terrorist leader on his website). Soharwardy himself attended this anti-Semitic rally -- I'm sure that won't stop Calgary's Official Jews from letting themselves be used as his PR cover.
Once upon a time, if a bunch of anti-Semites had come to the Jewish part of town, calling Jews Nazis, trespassing on private property, blocking access to Jewish stores, threatening a pro-Israel protester (and throwing a shoe at him), unfurling a terrorist flag, and cursing at a rabbi, self-respecting Jews would have at least asked the police to intervene, if not taken matters in to their own hands. Jews once actually did that sort of thing. Nowadays we cower.
I wonder if our community has that sense of survival, or pride, or confidence or even identity anymore. I don't see it in the community's leadership.
Izzy Asper had a phrase for Jews who would rather attend an "interfaith diaologue" with an anti-Semitic imam than condemn him. Izzy called them "Jews of silence."
Not all Jews are that way. I think a lot of Israelis here in Canada still have a survival instinct. And, probably because they grew up in Arab lands and had to fight every day, I think Sephardi Jews still have that identity, confidence and fire in them.
When I was a school boy at Calgary's now defunct I.L. Peretz School -- a Yiddish Labour Zionist school, thankfully devoid of the Labour part -- we were taught about the Holocaust, often by Lerer and Lererin Eichler, two Holocaust survivors themselves. I couldn't help but think, as I heard the stories of the 1930s, "didn't they know what was coming?" or "why didn't they do anything?". We know the answer -- the Jews of Germany thought that Germany was the heart of culture, too civilized to allow anything to actually happen. Many of the Jews were so integrated, they hardly even considered themselves Jews -- how could they possibly be in danger? Hitler was a fanatic; his stormtroopers were just young hotheads; everything would be fine. Besides: what could one do? I mean, really: what were you going to do?
That's the same feeling I get now. Everyone knows that the light on the dashboard is blinking. Things have gone nuts in places like France; so French Jews are emigrating en masse to Israel. Venezuela's remaining Jews are in a panic. Amsterdam's Jews are under siege. I'd say we're just a few years behind them on the curve.
But the Jews of silence do nothing.
Thankfully, the Christians will save us. Tonight I received the following letter, which I reprint in its entirety, with only a few identifying words redacted (simply because it's too late at night to ask for permission to print it it full!):
----- Original Message -----From:To: Ezra LevantSent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 9:11 PMSubject: IsraelHi Ezra,This is just to let you know, by way of encouragement, that we attended XXXX Church this morning. (My husband sings in a mens choir and they regularly participate in various church services around the city)As we entered the church we noticed there were two large flags unfurled at the front of the sanctuary. The first was, naturally, the Canadian flag but, to our surprise, the second was the Israeli flag. Pastor XX prayed for the state of Israel and the Jewish people positively in his prayer as well as mentioning the Gaza situation in his sermon. There was no moral equivalency happening in this church.I know this isn't the only evangelical church where this is happening.Sincerely,XXX
To which I replied, in part:
Canada's churches, especially of the evangelical variety, are more pro-Israel than many synagogues... Too many Jews are so afraid, that they want to "compromise" with evil, just to buy some false respite. And too many Jews are just sick of being demonized, so they choose to join the demonizers, and actually become anti-Israel Jews themselves. And plenty more just can't handle it, so they drop out of the discussion, essentially hiding from things.
I think that this is part of the war on terror. Jews are just the canary in the coal mine -- as always, and the State of Israel is just the Jew amongst the nations, and plays the same role. Israel's fight against Muslim fascists is merely first; France's, Holland's and Canada's will come later.
Too many people want to pretend that 9/11 didn't happen; they want to hit the snooze button on the alarm, instead of dealing with the new reality. I call those September 10th people. A surprising number them happen to be Jews. They're the kind of Jews who would rather go after a doddering, lone David Ahenakew than a mob of a thousand in downtown Toronto.
Thank God for September 12th people, especially evangelical Christians. I would place my life in their hands before those of the Official Jews anytime. I just hope that remains a hypothetical decision.
related
Blogrolls
