Since the Hamas-led atrocities in Israel, I have been on an emotional and psychological rollercoaster like many others across the world. Here are some of the ups and downs.
Great essay. Unfortunately, most diaspora Jews were, and are still, unprepared for living in a post Oct. 7th world.
I understand and appreciate your thought process when discussing if Israel has gone too far in the war. However, I think it’s unfair for people not in Israel to have an opinion on that. They are fighting truly existential threat and they are for their ability to exist and live. Israel cannot afford to lose even one war in the neighbourhood they’re in.
No other country in the world would be as restrained in their response as Israel has given their capabilities and the severity of the attacks against them. The world seems to be pushing Israel into an impossible situation by not putting international pressure on Hamas on surrender and it turns my stomach daily.
What I have trouble understanding is why so many apparently intelligent people, who believe themselves to be well informed, think an Israeli ceasefire is the answer, rather than a Hamas surrender and return of the hostages. Another conundrum is why so many of these same people think it’s sensible to get their news from Al Jazeera, but would never consider reading an Israeli source, due to bias. Qatar/Iran are trustworthy, unbiased sources of information and Israel is not????
Okay, so, funny enough, my husband and I were talking about Al Jazeera yesterday, and we both only learned that it was funded by Qatar this year. We knew about the site, but had been told by people here that it was a "leftist" news site and very reliable. Neither of us ever read it that often and we just didn't look into it.
This was how I interpreted it. I tried to phrase that part of the essay to withhold an opinion, because I really don't think I can possibly have an informed one. I get why my friend felt the way she did, seeing as she's Muslim, but that's why I didn't respond to her and phrased my internal response as questions.
I agree with you. Of course, people can have their own opinions on Israel and the war. People having opinions in general, including the opinion that people outside Israel shouldn‘t have an opinion about this conflict, and other opinions can‘t be avoided anyway. People will always have opinions. The more important question is how people arrive at their opinions and if they are detrimental to another group of people, whatever group that may be.
This is a very heartfelt post. It is not an easy time right now. Hopefully, on the other side there will be a way forward that will bring understanding and peace.
Just as an aside, your friend got the idea that the IDF raped Palestinian women from a reporter for Al Jazeera. It went viral in the Muslim world. Israel, and the US demanded information so they could find the culprits and prosecute them. The reporter had to backtrack and said she lied about the entire thing. If you notice she claimed Israel had done to Palestinians in the Shifa hospital what hamas had actually done to the people in ISrael when they attacked. She said that she wanted to rile up the populace so they would fight back against the IDF. Meanwhile, the story quietly disappeared from the al Jazeera website and other postings, except I am sure that there is screenshot somewhere saved by an antisemite. https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/al-jazeera-quietly-deletes-story-falsely-alleging-idf-raped-palestinians-in-gaza-hospital/
Israel, like the US , has very strict rules of engagement and brokers no nonsense when it comes to how to treat civilians.
Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I wish I'd had that article on hand to send to him during our argument. But I don't think there was anything I could have said or any evidence I could have given that would have changed his mind.
I think the anti-Zionism stuff has become a sort of community for a lot of people. A way of connecting socially. I've observed that a lot of the people I know who are sucked into it have significant family trauma and/or some sort of neurodivergence and/or a substance addiction (counting refined sugars and processed foods as substances here). It was the same for the Nazis back in the day -- I've previously written about Alice Miller's theory that "poisonous pedagogies" spread in parenting books in and around Germany largely contributed to the rise of Nazism.
I see this with my sisters (we all have family trauma and mental health issues). All 3 of them have left fundamentalist evangelical Christianity(I see lots of hatred of Israel in the “ex vangelical” community)…but they traded one fundamentalism for another. I also left evangelical christianity, but somehow ended up different.
Why do you lie? Al Jazeera reported what the Gazan woman said. Then when the claims of the woman were refuted by Hamas internal investigations, they removed the report. You can’t even represent the articles that support your side honestly! Now if we’re talking about the IDFs sexual crimes, the list is VERY long.
Hi, Maghen. Our paths haven’t crossed yet, but I am also fighting the good fight from Vancouver. Like you, to use Joshua’s phrase, I have ‘updated my beliefs’ since October 7th. A Jew-by-choice for 46 years, I reared Jewish children who married Jews and had their own proudly Jewish children. Luckily for me, we are all on the same page regarding Israel, 100% proud and supportive of the people, if not their government. We are heartbroken at the events of October 7th and at the ongoing situation of the hostages in Gaza, at the displaced, the bereaved and frightened families in Israel. We worry, with good reason, for the safety of Vancouver’s Jews, not to mention Jews all over the world. We appreciate those rare members of city, provincial and federal government who have stood with us. I hope to help get more of them elected. I write letters of thanks and letters of protest. After years of not wearing any necklace, I proudly wear a Magen David now, everywhere I go. I called out my non-Palestinian fellow volunteer for wearing a kefiyeh to our common activity, and, after I pointed out that he was wearing the symbol of people who want me, my family and my community dead, the Board asked him to stop doing so. All this to say, I am further down the path of changing beliefs than you, but I applaud your intelligent personal process, your analysis of the social and social media aspects of anti-Zionism, and your willingness to educate yourself. Brava!
So many points to agree on and commiserate with here, brilliant post. This bears emphasis:
"Historically, when Jews have been persecuted, their persecutors have benefitted from seizing Jewish land and wealth, and from career opportunities, including taking over prestigious positions previously occupied by Jews."
There are many passions and ideologies in the mix, but I'm persuaded that it's the anti-capitalist factions that are driving the bus.
No coincidence that witch hunts like the current persecution of so-called TERFs, along with antisemitism, has also had a long history of being a pretext for seizing wealth.
People often (rightly) ask "where are the feminists" when it comes to the rapes of Oct 7. One might also ask "where are the Jews?" when women's rights advocates are cancelled, attacked and threatened.
Terrorists, homegrown and foreign, are gaining on us in our streets and institutions. Time to find common cause in the rule of law and Enlightenment values that do not give the ancient impulses of tribalism, misogyny, greed and hatred a green light "By any means necessary."
Another excellent essay by a Vancouver-based author. By my count, Future of Jewish has published four essayists from Vancouver to date. Considering how small and diffuse our community is, we are certainly not lacking for thoughtful writers of substance who cogently produce factual and reasoned arguments.
The author at one point makes an appeal to pro-Palestinian activists. Sadly, I doubt her essay or any of the other highly compelling arguments put forth on this Substack will either reach and/or convince the other side. Antisemitism is too attractive to abandon.
Could it be that being part of the virtue signalling Cultural Marxist/Woke elite (rather than anti-semitism) is what is so attractive to Vancouverites? This city is full of people happily viewing the world through the simplistic oppressor/oppressed lens, and feeling morally superior doing it. We attend public functions which unfailingly open with an acknowledgment that the land we are on was stolen from indigenous people who cared for it for generations, and often includes an admonishment to think about our relationship to the land and what we can do to decolonize it. The pro-Palestine/anti- Israel supporters are a product of this Cultural Marxist decolonization worldview, which is attractive in its simplicity and in its apparent basis in kindness and compassion.
What would happen if Vancouver (and other places like it) replaced the motto: “If you can be anything, be kind” with: “If you can be anything, be honest”, instead? This article is an excellent step in the direction of honesty - messy, and unpopular, and un virtuous as it may be.
When I was 11 or 12 I read Anne Frank's Diary. We has seen the film at school. The whole school watched it ina special assembly.that would have been around 1969.
These days neither the children nor their teachers have even ears of Anne Frank or the Nazis.
Atrocities like Ocober 7th are made possible onl through mass ignorance
Even moderate Muslims will not be safe. Tgell be forced to join the gang just like ordinary Germans were, just like so many of the Hollywood victims of HUAC.
As a fellow goy who married a Jewish man, and with two young sons, the image of Shiri Bibas getting taken with Kfir and Ariel is seared into my mind as my children are around the same ages as her boys. October 7th was and is a brutal wake up call for me, and I'm thankful for your articulation in speaking to so much of what I've been navigating and feeling since then. I had no concept, and was deeply naive in many ways about where I thought humanity to be. Thank you for your words and heart and courage in bringing your words to this all.
I think Gad Saad referred to this Catch 22 in his recent interview with Joe Rogan. Gad Saad is a brave truth teller, and also very funny. His podcasts are worth a watch/listen.
The Jews who came from Europe to Israel from 1920-1948 were (mostly, with a handful of conservatives who committed the Deir Yassin massacre which was condemned by the socialists and anarchist majority) the opposite of colonialists, and the arabs who greeted them were the opposite of the Native americans who initially greeted the Europeans who came to the US. The European Jews were mostly socialists and anarchists. They didn't displace anyone, and would have cringed at such. However the Jewish Agency, who bought the land, did not stop the displacement of arab tenant farmers by their landlords, to provide a "clear title". Still, the arabs could have been kinder and more welcoming to these Jews who meant them no harm.
None of this history will register with either the liberal cult, or the cult of death known as Hamas. The problem now is that the liberals who are not playing the rescue game have trouble imagining that there are people who are so not like them, who actually want to kill and be martyred as their main reason and meaning in living. They think that surely Hamasniks must be so oppressed and traumatized by the Israelis as a cause for their murderousness, but they are wrong. The murderousness started before they were oppressed and has more to do with indoctrination from a young age, and the nature of Jihadist Islam. Truly listen to what they say, write and do:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svIa02N6JUo&t=739s.
One can't go too far if the goal is to prevent Hamas from continuing to terrorize and kill Jews. They (Hamas, not Palestinians who have not been brainwashed yet) must be annihilated completely, which will not be easy due to the Hydra problem, but one can converge to annihilation by taking control of the Palestinian education system in order to minimize new Hamsniks forming, and giving Palestinians other reasons to live which are positive. I am willing to change my mind on this if anyone can propose a different solution that would also stop Jews from being killed by Hamas. How else do you propose to stop that? Standard liberal solutions don't work here.
I sympathize with your quandary, but suggest you had better be prepared for more trouble from your Lebanese Canadian friend when Israel invades Lebanon and inflicts significant damage there in order to drive Hizbollah north of the Litani river in accordance with UN resolution 1701 which has never been enforced by the UN forces. The problem is exactly what the Son of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef, has explained: no one but the Palestinians are responsible for the disasters that befall them. All the Palestinians in Gaza are complicit in the Jew hatred and refusal to recognize the Jewish state that has become internalized in every Palestinian from early childhood education onwards. Israeli soldiers found weapons stored in children's cribs: what more evidence do you need? Your friends think the Israelis have gone too far; I think they have not gone far enough. And until people like your friend, good Muslims, stand up and hold Palestinians to account and side with Israel, no good will ever come about; only more war and destruction. The Lebanese have a government and an army, yet they have never taken on Hizbollah and they have allowed Hizbollah to attack Israel, driving over 80,000 Israelis from their homes this time round. Does your friend think Hizbollah has gone too far? You friend lives in blithe Canada, where the Can Lit people indulge themselves in pro-Palestinian propaganda so they can feel virtual while reading the trash they publish and go to eat at Lebanese restaurants. Lucky for her she does not live in Lebanon, a country ruined by Hizbollah and Lebanese complicity in allowing that murderous organization to take over their country. She should be backing Israel to the hilt because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and only by holding the Palestinians and their Muslim allies to account will there be anything like the semblance of a life for her compatriots and, I presume, family who still live there. You should be prepared for more difficult days ahead, and only once you understand who is responsible will your friendship with that woman have a chance to survive what is coming.
My friend is very sweet ... and she doesn't support Hezbollah either. But she also doesn't support Zionism. I guess being Calabrian (which is similar to Sicilian for those who don't know) I can sort of relate to not wanting to be judged by the most violent men of your ethnicity. But yeah, we're definitely in a bubble in Canada, especially where I live. I grew up with friends of different races/ethnicities and immigrants from all over the world. I never thought about religious differences to the point of being thoughtless about them. I'm a genetic mishmash (in addition to the WASP and Roman-Catholic, I'm 1/32 MENA and even have a small amount of Jewish ancestry) and seem to be descended from people who went around marrying and making babies outside of their religion/ethnicity, and had a kind of "we shouldn't care and should all be friends" attitude. Very naive, I admit.
Edit: Forgot to acknowledge the Irish. Sorry, grandma!
We should all be friends. That's one of the benefits of living in a democracy which grows more inclusive of difference every day. But we should not be tolerant of people and ideas that wish to destroy the very society that enables the treasures we have built up and fought for. Of course standing firm is hard when friendships and feelings are involved, as we all come to know at some point in life. On my substack (schecter.substack.com) I am publishing a novel I wrote ten years ago which the Can Lit gatekeepers would never entertain. Set it Israel, it tells the story of gay love across generations and its pitfalls in the face of the daily onslaught Israelis endure. The Hebrew Bible, that template of western literature, is also woven right into the story. It is called Not All Stories Are True and I mention it because I think you might like to read it. I myself am struck by how prescient it was when written in light of the current situation. I serialize a chapter a day and subscriptions are free. As a writer I should like to know what you think of it. Best wishes.
Great essay. Unfortunately, most diaspora Jews were, and are still, unprepared for living in a post Oct. 7th world.
I understand and appreciate your thought process when discussing if Israel has gone too far in the war. However, I think it’s unfair for people not in Israel to have an opinion on that. They are fighting truly existential threat and they are for their ability to exist and live. Israel cannot afford to lose even one war in the neighbourhood they’re in.
No other country in the world would be as restrained in their response as Israel has given their capabilities and the severity of the attacks against them. The world seems to be pushing Israel into an impossible situation by not putting international pressure on Hamas on surrender and it turns my stomach daily.
I completely agree.
What I have trouble understanding is why so many apparently intelligent people, who believe themselves to be well informed, think an Israeli ceasefire is the answer, rather than a Hamas surrender and return of the hostages. Another conundrum is why so many of these same people think it’s sensible to get their news from Al Jazeera, but would never consider reading an Israeli source, due to bias. Qatar/Iran are trustworthy, unbiased sources of information and Israel is not????
Okay, so, funny enough, my husband and I were talking about Al Jazeera yesterday, and we both only learned that it was funded by Qatar this year. We knew about the site, but had been told by people here that it was a "leftist" news site and very reliable. Neither of us ever read it that often and we just didn't look into it.
Hold on. You think it's unfair for people not in Israel to have any opinion on its war?
Does this apply to other wars? No one outside Ukraine should have an opinion about that?
For that matter, how can anyone *support* Israel if not entitled to independent opinions about their actions?
You need a lot of context to have an informed opinion is a better way to phrase what I meant.
This was how I interpreted it. I tried to phrase that part of the essay to withhold an opinion, because I really don't think I can possibly have an informed one. I get why my friend felt the way she did, seeing as she's Muslim, but that's why I didn't respond to her and phrased my internal response as questions.
Yes, context is Everything.
Fair enough. Plenty of people have uninformed opinions about their own countries, after all.
I agree with you. Of course, people can have their own opinions on Israel and the war. People having opinions in general, including the opinion that people outside Israel shouldn‘t have an opinion about this conflict, and other opinions can‘t be avoided anyway. People will always have opinions. The more important question is how people arrive at their opinions and if they are detrimental to another group of people, whatever group that may be.
This is a very heartfelt post. It is not an easy time right now. Hopefully, on the other side there will be a way forward that will bring understanding and peace.
Just as an aside, your friend got the idea that the IDF raped Palestinian women from a reporter for Al Jazeera. It went viral in the Muslim world. Israel, and the US demanded information so they could find the culprits and prosecute them. The reporter had to backtrack and said she lied about the entire thing. If you notice she claimed Israel had done to Palestinians in the Shifa hospital what hamas had actually done to the people in ISrael when they attacked. She said that she wanted to rile up the populace so they would fight back against the IDF. Meanwhile, the story quietly disappeared from the al Jazeera website and other postings, except I am sure that there is screenshot somewhere saved by an antisemite. https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/al-jazeera-quietly-deletes-story-falsely-alleging-idf-raped-palestinians-in-gaza-hospital/
Israel, like the US , has very strict rules of engagement and brokers no nonsense when it comes to how to treat civilians.
Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I wish I'd had that article on hand to send to him during our argument. But I don't think there was anything I could have said or any evidence I could have given that would have changed his mind.
You are welcome. It sounds like he just didn’t want to hear the truth, which is truly sad.
I think the anti-Zionism stuff has become a sort of community for a lot of people. A way of connecting socially. I've observed that a lot of the people I know who are sucked into it have significant family trauma and/or some sort of neurodivergence and/or a substance addiction (counting refined sugars and processed foods as substances here). It was the same for the Nazis back in the day -- I've previously written about Alice Miller's theory that "poisonous pedagogies" spread in parenting books in and around Germany largely contributed to the rise of Nazism.
I see this with my sisters (we all have family trauma and mental health issues). All 3 of them have left fundamentalist evangelical Christianity(I see lots of hatred of Israel in the “ex vangelical” community)…but they traded one fundamentalism for another. I also left evangelical christianity, but somehow ended up different.
Why do you lie? Al Jazeera reported what the Gazan woman said. Then when the claims of the woman were refuted by Hamas internal investigations, they removed the report. You can’t even represent the articles that support your side honestly! Now if we’re talking about the IDFs sexual crimes, the list is VERY long.
Here’s a start: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_and_gender-based_violence_against_Palestinians_during_the_Israel–Hamas_war
Her friend could’ve read any of the countless reports out there.
There will be no peace until this absolutely depraved denial of the IDF’s atrocities is stopped.
Strict rules of engagement?
These guys?
https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-gaza-firing-regulations/
Wikipedia is tainted with bias. It’s not reliable on Israel/Palestine. I’ve never heard of 972mag. You need better sources.
Hi, Maghen. Our paths haven’t crossed yet, but I am also fighting the good fight from Vancouver. Like you, to use Joshua’s phrase, I have ‘updated my beliefs’ since October 7th. A Jew-by-choice for 46 years, I reared Jewish children who married Jews and had their own proudly Jewish children. Luckily for me, we are all on the same page regarding Israel, 100% proud and supportive of the people, if not their government. We are heartbroken at the events of October 7th and at the ongoing situation of the hostages in Gaza, at the displaced, the bereaved and frightened families in Israel. We worry, with good reason, for the safety of Vancouver’s Jews, not to mention Jews all over the world. We appreciate those rare members of city, provincial and federal government who have stood with us. I hope to help get more of them elected. I write letters of thanks and letters of protest. After years of not wearing any necklace, I proudly wear a Magen David now, everywhere I go. I called out my non-Palestinian fellow volunteer for wearing a kefiyeh to our common activity, and, after I pointed out that he was wearing the symbol of people who want me, my family and my community dead, the Board asked him to stop doing so. All this to say, I am further down the path of changing beliefs than you, but I applaud your intelligent personal process, your analysis of the social and social media aspects of anti-Zionism, and your willingness to educate yourself. Brava!
So many points to agree on and commiserate with here, brilliant post. This bears emphasis:
"Historically, when Jews have been persecuted, their persecutors have benefitted from seizing Jewish land and wealth, and from career opportunities, including taking over prestigious positions previously occupied by Jews."
There are many passions and ideologies in the mix, but I'm persuaded that it's the anti-capitalist factions that are driving the bus.
No coincidence that witch hunts like the current persecution of so-called TERFs, along with antisemitism, has also had a long history of being a pretext for seizing wealth.
People often (rightly) ask "where are the feminists" when it comes to the rapes of Oct 7. One might also ask "where are the Jews?" when women's rights advocates are cancelled, attacked and threatened.
Terrorists, homegrown and foreign, are gaining on us in our streets and institutions. Time to find common cause in the rule of law and Enlightenment values that do not give the ancient impulses of tribalism, misogyny, greed and hatred a green light "By any means necessary."
Thank you for your moving words and your courage.
Another excellent essay by a Vancouver-based author. By my count, Future of Jewish has published four essayists from Vancouver to date. Considering how small and diffuse our community is, we are certainly not lacking for thoughtful writers of substance who cogently produce factual and reasoned arguments.
The author at one point makes an appeal to pro-Palestinian activists. Sadly, I doubt her essay or any of the other highly compelling arguments put forth on this Substack will either reach and/or convince the other side. Antisemitism is too attractive to abandon.
Could it be that being part of the virtue signalling Cultural Marxist/Woke elite (rather than anti-semitism) is what is so attractive to Vancouverites? This city is full of people happily viewing the world through the simplistic oppressor/oppressed lens, and feeling morally superior doing it. We attend public functions which unfailingly open with an acknowledgment that the land we are on was stolen from indigenous people who cared for it for generations, and often includes an admonishment to think about our relationship to the land and what we can do to decolonize it. The pro-Palestine/anti- Israel supporters are a product of this Cultural Marxist decolonization worldview, which is attractive in its simplicity and in its apparent basis in kindness and compassion.
What would happen if Vancouver (and other places like it) replaced the motto: “If you can be anything, be kind” with: “If you can be anything, be honest”, instead? This article is an excellent step in the direction of honesty - messy, and unpopular, and un virtuous as it may be.
I no longer recognize the city I was born in, back in 1951.
I wonder if this article by David Samuels also explains Vancouverites’ acceptance of indigenous land acknowledgements (now indigenous supremacist sermons in many venues): https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/rapid-onset-political-enlightenment
Brilliant article .. thank you
"But what if that’s what Hamas wants?"
It is. Not the extermination of Palestinians, but certainly the image of Israel engaged in genocide, or something that looks like genocide to many.
Leaders like Yahya Sinwar and Ghazi Hamad have said openly that they welcome and celebrate the death of Palestinian "martyrs" to this end.
If they cannot destroy Israel physically, they mean to destroy it morally and politically.
When I was 11 or 12 I read Anne Frank's Diary. We has seen the film at school. The whole school watched it ina special assembly.that would have been around 1969.
These days neither the children nor their teachers have even ears of Anne Frank or the Nazis.
Atrocities like Ocober 7th are made possible onl through mass ignorance
Even moderate Muslims will not be safe. Tgell be forced to join the gang just like ordinary Germans were, just like so many of the Hollywood victims of HUAC.
Every single word of this resonates, I’ve had very similar experiences and you’ve expressed so well how I’m feeling too. Brilliant essay. Thank you.
"A friend writes on Facebook that she’d donate directly to Hamas if she could. I almost write something in reply, but close my laptop instead.
I don’t know what to say."
Oh, honey, I could damn sure think of something to say. God Bless you for your restraint.
With friends like that…
Excellent article. Thank you.
As a fellow goy who married a Jewish man, and with two young sons, the image of Shiri Bibas getting taken with Kfir and Ariel is seared into my mind as my children are around the same ages as her boys. October 7th was and is a brutal wake up call for me, and I'm thankful for your articulation in speaking to so much of what I've been navigating and feeling since then. I had no concept, and was deeply naive in many ways about where I thought humanity to be. Thank you for your words and heart and courage in bringing your words to this all.
May there be peace
May there be peace
May there be peace
Excellent except Israeli soldiers do not ever rape Arab women. Actually some Arabs say this is proof of our racism!
Yes, someone else linked to an article about that story being false! A bit of a damned if you do, racist if you don't, going on there :-/
I think Gad Saad referred to this Catch 22 in his recent interview with Joe Rogan. Gad Saad is a brave truth teller, and also very funny. His podcasts are worth a watch/listen.
Liberals can get trapped in a rescuer, victim, oppressor game:https://archdruidmirror.blogspot.com/2017/06/american-narratives-rescue-game.html
The Jews who came from Europe to Israel from 1920-1948 were (mostly, with a handful of conservatives who committed the Deir Yassin massacre which was condemned by the socialists and anarchist majority) the opposite of colonialists, and the arabs who greeted them were the opposite of the Native americans who initially greeted the Europeans who came to the US. The European Jews were mostly socialists and anarchists. They didn't displace anyone, and would have cringed at such. However the Jewish Agency, who bought the land, did not stop the displacement of arab tenant farmers by their landlords, to provide a "clear title". Still, the arabs could have been kinder and more welcoming to these Jews who meant them no harm.
None of this history will register with either the liberal cult, or the cult of death known as Hamas. The problem now is that the liberals who are not playing the rescue game have trouble imagining that there are people who are so not like them, who actually want to kill and be martyred as their main reason and meaning in living. They think that surely Hamasniks must be so oppressed and traumatized by the Israelis as a cause for their murderousness, but they are wrong. The murderousness started before they were oppressed and has more to do with indoctrination from a young age, and the nature of Jihadist Islam. Truly listen to what they say, write and do:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svIa02N6JUo&t=739s.
One can't go too far if the goal is to prevent Hamas from continuing to terrorize and kill Jews. They (Hamas, not Palestinians who have not been brainwashed yet) must be annihilated completely, which will not be easy due to the Hydra problem, but one can converge to annihilation by taking control of the Palestinian education system in order to minimize new Hamsniks forming, and giving Palestinians other reasons to live which are positive. I am willing to change my mind on this if anyone can propose a different solution that would also stop Jews from being killed by Hamas. How else do you propose to stop that? Standard liberal solutions don't work here.
I sympathize with your quandary, but suggest you had better be prepared for more trouble from your Lebanese Canadian friend when Israel invades Lebanon and inflicts significant damage there in order to drive Hizbollah north of the Litani river in accordance with UN resolution 1701 which has never been enforced by the UN forces. The problem is exactly what the Son of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef, has explained: no one but the Palestinians are responsible for the disasters that befall them. All the Palestinians in Gaza are complicit in the Jew hatred and refusal to recognize the Jewish state that has become internalized in every Palestinian from early childhood education onwards. Israeli soldiers found weapons stored in children's cribs: what more evidence do you need? Your friends think the Israelis have gone too far; I think they have not gone far enough. And until people like your friend, good Muslims, stand up and hold Palestinians to account and side with Israel, no good will ever come about; only more war and destruction. The Lebanese have a government and an army, yet they have never taken on Hizbollah and they have allowed Hizbollah to attack Israel, driving over 80,000 Israelis from their homes this time round. Does your friend think Hizbollah has gone too far? You friend lives in blithe Canada, where the Can Lit people indulge themselves in pro-Palestinian propaganda so they can feel virtual while reading the trash they publish and go to eat at Lebanese restaurants. Lucky for her she does not live in Lebanon, a country ruined by Hizbollah and Lebanese complicity in allowing that murderous organization to take over their country. She should be backing Israel to the hilt because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and only by holding the Palestinians and their Muslim allies to account will there be anything like the semblance of a life for her compatriots and, I presume, family who still live there. You should be prepared for more difficult days ahead, and only once you understand who is responsible will your friendship with that woman have a chance to survive what is coming.
My friend is very sweet ... and she doesn't support Hezbollah either. But she also doesn't support Zionism. I guess being Calabrian (which is similar to Sicilian for those who don't know) I can sort of relate to not wanting to be judged by the most violent men of your ethnicity. But yeah, we're definitely in a bubble in Canada, especially where I live. I grew up with friends of different races/ethnicities and immigrants from all over the world. I never thought about religious differences to the point of being thoughtless about them. I'm a genetic mishmash (in addition to the WASP and Roman-Catholic, I'm 1/32 MENA and even have a small amount of Jewish ancestry) and seem to be descended from people who went around marrying and making babies outside of their religion/ethnicity, and had a kind of "we shouldn't care and should all be friends" attitude. Very naive, I admit.
Edit: Forgot to acknowledge the Irish. Sorry, grandma!
We should all be friends. That's one of the benefits of living in a democracy which grows more inclusive of difference every day. But we should not be tolerant of people and ideas that wish to destroy the very society that enables the treasures we have built up and fought for. Of course standing firm is hard when friendships and feelings are involved, as we all come to know at some point in life. On my substack (schecter.substack.com) I am publishing a novel I wrote ten years ago which the Can Lit gatekeepers would never entertain. Set it Israel, it tells the story of gay love across generations and its pitfalls in the face of the daily onslaught Israelis endure. The Hebrew Bible, that template of western literature, is also woven right into the story. It is called Not All Stories Are True and I mention it because I think you might like to read it. I myself am struck by how prescient it was when written in light of the current situation. I serialize a chapter a day and subscriptions are free. As a writer I should like to know what you think of it. Best wishes.
I'll check it out :-)
The part about Canada I don't understand is, not why Trudeau tolerates jew hatred but why the CONSERVATIVE premiers are so silient about this.
Too many Muslim voters in Canada.